A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while! Hope you like this chapter! Hey, if any of you have a twitter you can follow me at cityofmalecs. Tell me what you think!
XOXO Nina
Alec's Point of View
The harsh light from the streetlamps outside filtered in through my window and made a pattern in the dust motes that danced above the grey bedspread. I hadn't fallen asleep after the party. Rather, I had tossed and turned in my bed, unable to doze off. This was mostly thanks to that warlock, Magnus Bane, and his invitation to call him. I was useless under the power of that smooth, seductive voice. But…I didn't want to call him and sound like an awkward idiot, as usual. All the same, if I didn't call, Magnus would think I wasn't into him. I didn't quite know what to name what I felt for the warlock, but it most certainly was not dislike or disinterest. I was in a predicament. I sighed, nervous, and picked up the blue paper. I looked at the number, even though I had already memorized it from staring at it all night long. I'm pathetic, I realized. But, still. I really, really want to call Magnus. I noticed the offhand way I was using the warlock's first name. Stupid, Alec, stupid, I chastised myself. He probably doesn't even know MY name.I sighed once again, took a deep breath, puffed out my cheeks anxiously, and dialed the number. It rang once, twice, then a sleepy voice answered.
"Hello? Who is this? I was sleeping!" Damn it, Alec! I cursed internally. I had forgotten normal people were not up at 4:00 in the morning. "Um, hi-its-its-uh, Alec. Lightwood…" I trailed off, flustered. Stupid, stupid, supid! "Oh, you, with the blue eyes," said Magnus, his voice suddenly changing from sleepy to seductive. "Took you long enough to call. Thought you weren't going to," he purred lightly. I blushed. "Um-I'm sorry?" I ventured. "Don't be. I don't really need beauty sleep anyway. I'm beautiful enough without it. Don't you think?" I could hear the smirk in the warlock's voice, but I silently agreed with Magnus. "And besides, I'd rather be talking to you, baby blue." Magnus paused. "Anyway, Alec, what did you want to talk to me about?" I froze. "Uh-I-well, you told me to call you, so-" Magnus laughed, an elegant, carefree sound. "I was joking, darling boy. What do you say to dinner tomorrow night?" I froze. A date? "Um," I stuttered out. "See you at seven, dear. Goodbye!"Magnus ended the conversation, and I heard a click as the call was stopped.
I was in shock. I had not slept for long after the call, being that it was four-thirty when I went to bed and training started at seven. Still, I wasn't tired. On the contrary, I felt wide awake, my mind whirling round and round as I parried thrusts and blows with Izzy. This distraction didn't help with his training, though, and more than once I missed an easy block and felt Izzy's blade poke up under my outstretched arm and lightly tap the spot where my heart would lie under bone and blood. After the fourth time this happened, however, Izzy got a little frustrated. "Alec!" she stamped her foot. "Stop letting me win!" I blinked. "I'm not.""Well, you're just really bad today, then!" "No, I've just got something on my mind..." She immediately became attentive. Isabelle couldn't keep herself out of the loop. "Ooh, Alec, what is it?" I groaned. I knew I could trust Isabelle, but she would be all over me asking more and more questions if I did tell her. "Come on, Alec!" she complained. "Please!" "Fine..." I huffed. "Well...I kind of have...a date, I guess, with Magnus tomorrow night." Izzy's eyes went wide. "Don't tell anyone!" I said hurriedly. "It's like, not even a date really, Izzy, I'm just going over to his house for dinner and..." I broke off, blushing. Isabelle was grinning like the Cheshire cat, and it kind of worried me, to be honest.
"I am so glad I set you two up!" she squealed. "You'll be sooo cute together!" "Set us up?" I said. "What do you mean?" She rolled her eyes. "Alec. Obviously you don't like parties. I wouldn't have told you to come along to Magnus' if I didn't have a plan for you." She wiggled her eyebrows. "And it went well, obviously. He likes you!" I blushed. "Come on Izzy, really? A warlock liking a shadowhunter?" She gave me a look. "Hello. Look who you're talking to here, Alec. I've dated fey and werewolves and even a few mundanes. You think Mom and Dad can say anything about you dating a warlock? Who's helped them out multiple times before." "Yeah, but Izzy-I'm gay." I stopped, surprised at how easily I set it. "And if they really love you, Alec, they'll see that what gender you like doesn't matter. You're Alec. My brother, their son. Nothing could ever change that. I'm not saying you have to tell them now, but it's not as if they'll, like, murder you for being gay." "You don't know that," I said, but i was smiling a little. Yeah, maybe I wasn't ready to come out to my parents, but at least I was slightly more ready to meet Magnus tomorrow night.
The day passed in a blurrying wave of fighting and then exhaustion, when my two and a half hours of sleep kicked in. By the time dusk had fallen, I was more than ready to fall heavily into my bed, and when I did, sleep came easily. Pleasant dreams, however, did not.
*I was in a huge room that I easily recognized as the room in the Silent City. I was floating high above the heads of the hooded Brothers, and looking down at the scene. There was a young man lying still on the ground. Strangely, he had silvery hair that caught the light, and his skin seemed to have a light sheen of silver on it as well. He was dressed in shadowhunter gear, but he seemed to be of another, earlier era. The Brothers murmured around him. They suddenly began to move in a circle, surrounding a stone dais that had suddenly appeared on the floor underneath me. A Brother took a metal chain attached to the dais, and wound it hand over hand. I felt a tugging on my ankles, and looked back to see that they were chained together. I flew downwards sharply, landing on the dais. I looked up at the faces of the Silent Brothers, and I saw that they were the faces of people I knew...Mom, Dad, Jace...all looking down at me with scorn. "He doesn't deserve to be in the Clave," a dark voice said. There was pressure around my neck, tightening like a spots began to whirl in front of my eyes, and I struggled uselessly against the chains. "Goodbye, Alexander."*
I woke up, sweating and shaking, wrapped in a tight bundle of sheets. It looked like I wasn't going to be sleeping much tonight either.