Alec
I go to give up my seat but Isabelle beats me to it. Maryse mutters "thank you" while opening one of her briefcases on her lap. Isabelle - now standing at the foot of the bed - asks "So can you help him?" Our mother stays silent and takes out a file. Bold red writing stating 'CONFIDENTIAL' flashes before me. She opens the file; it is gone as quickly as I saw it. Maryse leans in towards me and in a hushed voice says "If anyone asks, you didn't see anything," I give an understanding nod.
Maryse scans through the information hurriedly, eyes sometimes darting towards the boy. The silence is unbearable. After what seemed like forever she places her folder in the briefcase, shut it, and reached for another one. Jace's leg is twitching up and down erratically as if to some music unheard by anyone else; Clary is fixated on the wall in front of her; Isabelle is biting her lip, and I feel like I'm about to explode. My mum opens the bigger briefcase and I'm preparing myself to restrain from screaming "If it is one more lengthy file I will batter you over the head with it!" but see that she is in fact taking out a small bottle. It contains a golden liquid.
"Alec, hold him towards me please, mouth open," she asks briskly. I jump up, eager that something is actually happening for the poor boy. Sitting on the bedside, I gently slip my hand underneath his head, move my torso closer so I can get a firm grip with my other arm around him and shift him towards Maryse. He is tucked up against me and I can feel his heart thrumming. I look up at the bottle, unsure.
"What is it?" I ask.
Maryse, popping cork out of the bottle, sighs irritatingly.
"Not now, Alec, I'm tired,"
"Will it help him?"
"Yes,"
"Are you sure?" her eyes grow firm and forehead creases. From experience I knew this was her 'first and last warning' look. She reaches over and yanks open his jaw. My arm tightens around him.
"Was that necessary?" I half-shout.
She starts tipping the unknown contents into his gaping mouth but I move him out of the way.
"Alec…" starts Maryse, voice rising.
I'm going to have it coming.
"Sorry, but if you are not telling me what it is I can't let you give it to him,"
"By the angel Alec!" she bursts, face red. "I was going to explain all this in the morning, but I guess I'll have to start now," she sighs. "It is ambrosia and it will heal him,"
"…Ambrosia? How will that help?" I sit there baffled. "And it doesn't look like ambrosia…"
She pours the ambrosia into the boy's mouth- he swallows.
"Wait," says Jace "You don't mean the ambrosia from the Greek myths? The beverages the gods used to have?"
Maryse nods while I lower the boy back into lying position.
"How…how does that exist?" Jace continues.
"All the stories are true…" Clary mutters.
"Yeah, I get what I said, but surely we would have known if it existed before now,"
Maryse now stands next to Isabelle.
"It is top classified information, only members of the Clave know of it," she states.
"Why?" I ask, remembering the file.
"Because knowing that there are Greek, Roman, maybe even Eqyptian gods in the world completely defies our belief system. It would break the order of the Shadowhunters. It is better just to let things be and public information limited,"
There is utter silence. We are all gaping at Maryse.
"There are gods?" I ask, half hysterical.
"Yes, among everything else in the legends. Ambrosia- it heals gods, including him, because he's half one- a demigod,"
We all turn our stunned faces towards the boy, now gaping at him.
Jace slowly nods.
"So which god is his parent?" he asks.
I'm still trying to take in that there are frickin Greek gods roaming about.
"A calculated guess? Most likely Hades,"
I'm still trying to take in that I'm looking at the son of frickin Hades.
"Are you alright, Alec?" Clary asks, amused.
"This…is insane. I mean, where does The Angel come into this? Is he just serving one of these gods then? Are we in reality just serving the gods through Raziel? But…no, that can't be right. Raziel- if he serves anyone- serves God- so there can't be more than one…Are we doing this all wrong?" my forehead creases and I let out a frustrated groan.
How on earth does this work?
"This," Maryse points to Alec while speaking to the others "is why we kept it secret. There will be questions that have no answers- or ones we know of any way," she sits back down in her chair "and you all know how many wars there have been over religion,"
"Do they know about us?" Jace asks.
I am properly looking at the boy. He seemed so innocent and fragile...granted he did have something that was off-putting. Now I knew what it was.
Son of Hades.
Hades is the god of the underworld...Satan? No, they couldn't be the same people…could they? The demigod is now sleeping soundly thanks to the ambrosia.
No, he couldn't be the devil's spawn. No way.
I blush.
Alec, you don't even know him. What, you watch him sleep in your arms and suddenly you like him?
Oops.
What did I say?
Ignore what you just thought.
Even as I try to console myself I realize I had grown an attachment to this demigod very fast.
But it doesn't mean I like him. I just appreciate his looks. That's all. I just appreciate his very adorable looks.
Agitated, I try to focus on what my mother is saying other than the boy in front of me.
"-so yes, to answer your question Jace, their higher ups know about us too. Their public don't, however. It is the same situation for them as it is for us. We both made a treaty to stay out of each other's way, as even if both our people are fine with the new knowledge we would still want to run things differently. The gods would want us to worship them, we would want to worship Raziel; The gods would want us to go on big quests for them like pawns; we would rather protect humanity from demons. Do you see where I am coming from?"
"Uh-huh…There's one thing I don't understand, though. How come we don't see any hints? If all this mythology stuff is true then shouldn't minotaur's and hydras be running around?"
"You know our glamour runes?" Maryse asks. "Well we use them to hide our world from not just mundanes, but also from them. They have their own hiding system. Their Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft, Hecate, created millennia ago this spell called 'The Mist'. I don't know all the details but it has the same principal as our glamour,"
Isabelle, who had been silent this whole time, beckons me over to her.
"Alec," she says, voice low so others can't hear.
"Yes?" I reply.
"Suddenly this son of Hades seems cute and hot. That is a combination I can work with,"
"What?" I reply in horror.
"What if he wakes up and he's all dark and brooding…" Isabelle continues "sexy demigod mojo."
I can barely splutter my next words.
"You have a boyfriend!"
"Do I?" she startles.
"Simon- the bloodsucker!"
"Don't call him that," she snaps, face darkening.
Jace has caught my eye, eyebrow raised, mouth formed into an amused smile.
"People can hear us," I whisper and lead the way out into the corridor. When the infirmary door is shut behind us I continue the conversation.
"For your information, Isabelle, you can't have a go at me for disrespecting Simon when you just forgot that he existed!"
"I-I didn't forget…" Isabelle begins, voice thick, eyes on floor. They dart up towards me and then down again. They were glistening with tears.
Oh…
"Iz, I'm sorry-," I begin but she cuts me off.
"No, Alec, this is not your fault," Isabelle firmly states, wiping her eyes bone dry before even any tears began to fall.
"Simon and I broke up a few days ago….I didn't want to make a fuss about it because it's not like we had even 'defined the relationship' yet,"
I put my arms out for a hug and Isabelle complies. She squeezes me tight- strong and reassuring. She wanted to remind me that she's okay- she's Isabelle Lightwood- and she can walk over anyone and anything.
When she lets go, I smile at her and she smiles back.
"Don't worry, I'm happy." I'm uncertain whether that's true. "I mean, yes I am going to be a bit upset for a while, but I think we will both benefit from it. Simon needs a girl who actually finds all his computer games interesting."
"Okay, that's good… but why did you hide it?"
"You had your own problems to deal with,"
My stomach sinks.
Stupid, stupid. Too busy wallowing in my own self-pity to notice that your own sister is sad, too.
I open my mouth to say that her problems come before any of mine, but she speaks first.
"Nope- I don't want to continue this conversation any longer. Simon and I are just friends, I will find someone eventually, and he will find a little cute geeky mundane girl with big round glasses."
"Why big round glasses?" I ask, happy that she is so positive.
"I don't know," she shrugs. "Now, let's go back and see 'could-be-Nico-boy'."
Isabelle opens the door of the infirmary and I follow her in. I notice the corners of her mouth tug upwards when she sees the demigod. I push aside the uneasiness of my new awareness that Isabelle likes him and focus on the fact that at least she's over Simon already.
"When should he wake up?" I ask Maryse.
"Well, he is able to wake up, as the ambrosia should have healed any injury that would disable him otherwise. I think he's just tired. It is the middle of the night you know." As if on cue, she yawns.
"So we could try to wake him up now?"
"While everyone is here it would be easier to restrain and calm him," she muses. I guess he would be scared and confused to find himself in this place.
"And if all of us can't persuade him he's trapped then we will just have to put him in a restraining room."
What.
"What do you mean, 'persuade him he's trapped'? I thought we were just going to wake him up, explain what happened, and let him go off and do whatever demigods do." The others have crowded around us now- this must be new information to them, too.
"Calm down- we just need to create an appointment with the mortal sword so we can be sure he will not tell anyone else of his current whereabouts. We will then let him leave. It is all for the sake of the treaty."
"How long will that take?" asks Isabelle.
"I do not know, as we will have to arrange for all members of The Clave to appear at the citadel without any public witnesses. Till then, we keep him with us."
"But he can teleport," says Clary.
"Shadow travel," Maryse corrects "If he's a Son of Hades then he used the shadows to be able to travel place to place."
"He can still just shadow travel away, then," I say.
"Not if we put a spell on him. I've asked a warlock to come to weaken the demigod just enough so he is unable to use it. He should be here very soon,"
"You don't have to worry, he's not Magnus," Maryse says a few seconds after, noticing the alarm on my face. I nod a quick thanks, not quite meeting her eye.
"So is this really necessary?" asks Jace, arms folded. "It's not like we need to tell him who we are when he wakes up. It's just it is going to be a pain to have to babysit him."
Annoyance stabs at me. But why should I care if Jace thinks of him as a baby?
Come on, Alec. If you are going to figure out your feelings then at least do so after you meet him.
"Even if he doesn't know where he is, he may give away clues to others who do. They will take that as us breaking the treaty. Just listen to and accept the rules for once-" she's cut off by a buzzing sound from the elevator.
"I'll let him in," she sighs.
A few minutes later she returns with a pale warlock whose hair flows down his back in waves, blazing red. His eyes had the same fiery pigment.
"This is Arson," Maryse introduces.
Jace scoffs.
"What can you say, my mother liked suitable names," Arson says, smiling, but it seemed cold. Ironically.
"Is this the demigod?" he asks, nodding at the sleeping boy. We look at Maryse.
"Do you think I would have brought him here if The Clave did not trust him?"
"I am guessing I was correct," he says, walking smoothly to the bedside.
"Excuse me." As instructed, I move out of the way.
He places his hand upon the boy. He closes his eyes and stands there, focusing on the steady rise and fall of the chest underneath him. When he takes his hand away, the breaths are shallower.
"There- done. Just make sure he does not do anything too strenuous and he will be fine." Arson's smile seems too big, too forced. His ember eyes rest on Maryse.
"Our end of the bargain?"
"Go ahead,"
Arson turns and places his hand on the boy's head, pushing downwards. The warlock softly hums to himself in pleasure.
"Oh wow, I was not expecting this,". He laughs deeply.
"What are you doing?" I ask, my voice suddenly an octave higher.
"Don't worry yourself, boy," my hands clench at the word 'boy'. "I am merely tasting his memories and emotions. It is going to be hard to leave them, but remain they will."
I turn on Maryse. Before I can burst out of anger she starts talking.
"It's his payment. His mother was a warlock and his father a demon. He is more demon than human, so needs to be paid appropriately. It will not harm the demigod, so stop acting like a protective mother and let him be," she snaps. My face flushes a scarlet red. I fumble with my hands, not knowing where to put them. My eyes dart around, not knowing where to put them, either. I end up just continuing to watch Arson, palms sweaty and eager to pretend that Maryse had not said that.
Just stop embarrassing yourself, Alec, it's not that hard. You have never acted like this before. What has gotten into you? Just follow the rules and be a good example like you always have. You are acting reckless and rebellious like…like Jace.
I shudder at the thought.
I may look up to my stepbrother but I am proud of my self-control. It is the one virtue that I know Jace can't outshine me with. I cannot lose that.
"Oh, these parts are boring," moans Arson "I much preferred all the emotional turmoil….oh well, theirs always a small amount of pain lingering, so I guess it is not all that bad."
Sadistic demon.
"Thank you, Maryse" Arson says, eyes still closed and continuing his process.
"I never thought I would encounter anything as exotic as this. Yes, mundanes have a roller-coaster of emotions, but their memories are so boring. They freak out over every little thing. It is handy for me, but it gets tedious when every single life is the same. Now, a demigods life has very new circumstances with very new emotions," Arson laughs again, erratic and cruel. "Actually, I'm quite surprised they haven't all killed themselves; others put their lives at risk like they are worthless. Well, I'm surprised with this particular demigod, anyway. His mind is very messed up."
Isabelle and I exchange a look. Does he not at least have the decency to not violate the boy's privacy even more so than he already is by sharing it with everyone?
Arson hums deeper and more eager.
Suddenly the demigod's screaming.
It's pain and panic ridden yet crystal clear. Before I have a chance to turn around Maryse demands "Stop. That's enough."
Arson takes his hands off his forehead and the scream is cut off.
"I must apologize, mundanes can't usually detect my presence in their minds and I had forgotten who I was dealing with. Thank you for the payment. I'll be off," he walks out the door.
"Alec-" Maryse begins, probably trying to apologize for bringing Arson here, but I'm not listening.
I'm not listening because the demigod had woken up.