Chapter Sixteen

Alec's face was the colour of freshly fallen snow, his dimmed blue eyes were staring into blank space, his nails dug into his skin and Magnus had never felt him become so cold. In fact, Magnus had never seen him like this at all. He wasn't certain on what to do as his mind was a storm of anger, anxiety and anguish also and his eyes were burning with held back tears. While everyone was discussing their plans of action, Magnus imagined everything that Max would be doing- attempting to plait Izzy's hair, having a thumb war with Rafael and playing with his Papa's rings as he giggled. He didn't blame Alec for Max being taken, but he could feel the immense guilt that manifested within him. When he looked at him, he could see Alec's brave facade beginning to crumble and before it could completely collapse, Magnus put the whole room on pause apart from them.

"You did all you could," Magnus spoke softly as he placed his hand over his,

"I obviously didn't do enough," Alec's voice trembled as tears crept down his cheeks.

Though Magnus caught each and every one of his tears, Alec refused to lay his eyes on him.

"Look at me, Alexander," he said,

"How can I? I promise you that the one thing I'd put above my duty is our family and it turns out that I can't even protect that. As I helplessly watched them tear our son away, my heart broke and all I could think of was how I not only failed as a Shadowhunter, I failed as a father. I failed."

It was as if their hearts were entwined together; Magnus caught Alec as he fell into his arms, they cried to the same beat and he could feel the weight of guilt being lifted from Alec. As his tears decreased, he caught a glimpse of the frozen Rafael who looked like he was about to tie Jace's laces together.

"You haven't completely failed," he smiled as he pointed to Rafe,

A grin graced Alec's face, "Max has rubbed off on him."

Magnus wiped the last of Alec's tears away, before kissing him gently and running his hand through his hair. Their eyes stayed locked as Alec brushed his fingers along Magnus's arm veins, across his shoulders and up his neck, sending goosebumps all over his body.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," Alec whispered,

"That's why I'm always going to be by your side," Magnus kissed him, "now, let's get our son back."

It took a couple of minutes for Magnus to gather himself before he snapped his fingers and everything started to move again. As they debated, Magnus watched Rafael tie Jace's shoes together and then sit on his lap as if he was a little angel. It was still evidently hard for Alec to stop beating himself up, but once his and Magnus's hands weaved together, he started to join in with the conversation and ended up creating the whole mission in one breathless sentence.

"So we just stroll up to the Eiffel Tower, face a psychopathic warlock, her fishy friend and not to mention her armada of demons, oh and close a portal leading to the depths of hell," Clary clarified.

There was a brief silence as everyone nodded and looked at each other as if the mission didn't sound mad or ridiculous in any way, but then again, this was the shadow world so the whole thing sounded more than ordinary.

"And save Max," Alec added,

"Of course we'll save him," Theo rolled his eyes in a way that was quite sexy despite the rude tone in his voice.

Alec fired shorts right through Theo via his eyes which Theo returned in kind but with a much more intense glare. Before it could escalate, Esme cleared her throat in her arrogant brother's ear.

"If we go through with this, there will definitely be a great number of mundane casualties," Esme considered,

"Couldn't Magnus just create wards around the area?" Clary suggested,

"I don't know biscuit, give me a reason why he couldn't," Magnus replied with the upmost sarcasm dripping from his voice and face.

Luckily, Clary seemed to not be taking any word he said seriously as she laughed and didn't even bother to answer him. Magnus wasn't used to going on missions; he was more the fabulous Florence Nightingale than a soldier and he would much prefer to give orders than take them. His job was usually to heal the Shadowhunters he could tolerate (with a fee of course) and then give Alec a relaxing yet sensual massage to loosen his knots and hopefully his belt. Soon Magnus's mind began to digress and envision all the massages that had led to a trail of clothing on the floor, the bedside lamp accidentally falling, giggles, moans and the banging of the headboard against the wall. As a smirk grew on his face, a spine tingling cold came over him and before he could contemplate the reason for it, the room went dark and a frost blue sphere of magic flew into the middle of the room. Rafael bolted across the room to sit on Alec's lap who wrapped his arms around him as he studied the sphere. The sphere pulsed for a while and then turned into the scene of a basement different to the one where they captured Ember. There was a cage which was guarded by Fraco and inside it was a sleeping Max who had handcuffs around his wrists. Magnus had to control his sadness which was quickly joined by rage as Ember moved to lean on the cage.

"I'm going to make this simple. You want your special son, I want my portal. So, Magnus Bane, you come to the Eiffel Tower at 10pm and create my portal or this little blue boy will be falling from the top of the great structure," Ember smiled,

"And if that doesn't work, we'll throw him into a portal to another dimension and you'll never see him again," Fraco added with an overdramatic voice which Ember rolled her eyes at,

"Oh and I can promise you, I'm not bluffing," and with that, the scene disappeared.

The room was completely silent as light returned. It pained Magnus to even imagine Max alive but lost in a dangerous place where he could barely reach him or even worse, dead. He knew that Max could heal others, but healing himself was something he would either do really slowly or not at all. He was prepared to burst in rage, yet he remained calm and put his hand on Alec's shoulder, hoping that would help him do the same.

"I don't like her," Rafael said,

"I think the only one that likes her is that fishy minion," Clary put a smile on Rafael's face.

There were so many thoughts racing through Magnus's mind that he could barely concentrate, but soon, one thought stood out and sat on the tip of his tongue, "She could've taken Rafael or any one of us, but why Max?"

Magnus looked around the room at everyone's faces and noticed that Clary's face had gone pale and she looked slightly nervous. Their eyes connected and Clary gave a sigh, "It's because he can read minds. He showed me while we were in his room, his eyes and hand glow blue and he can do it without feeling weak or anything. Imagine what it would be like to have someone on your side who can hear your enemy's every thought."

Why Ember had such an interest in Max now officially made sense, but if only he had known sooner. The image of Max being held prisoner in a cage like an animal kept replaying in his head like a horror movie stuck on repeat and all he could do was put his head in his hands and sigh. He couldn't let his emotions get the best of him or he would mostly likely breakdown into a pile of tears.

After a couple of seconds of thought, he sat up, "I will approach Ember alone after creating the wards. You will surround the area and there will be some of you on the Eiffel Tower. We get Max and bring him back here where he's safe. Then we get rid of the witch,"

"How?" Theo asked,

"I'll find a way," Magnus replied before standing up and leaving the room in silence.