Chapter 14

When Alec woke, he found that his whole body was warm and toasty. His mouth was dry, his tongue a barren desert that laid numb inside, and his muscles ached right down to the bone, the subtlety of the sensation too faint to be real pain. Alec had felt real pain, and this was nothing compared to that, but it was still an irritating reminder that played on his consciousness.

He was in the Infirmary, wrapped in sweaty sheets and strong arms that held him with a familiar chest rising and falling against his back. Jace; his warming scent was one that couldn't be mistaken, and it calmed any of Alec's nerves the moment he breathed it in. The blonde was still asleep, but he always slept so lightly that Alec was sure that any slight movement would wake the other boy up. He wanted so badly to stay locked in this embrace for the rest of eternity, and his lingering exhaustion demanded so, but the sound which had woke him still echoed through the air: the old fashioned chime of the Institute's doorbell.

The doors to the Infirmary swung open with a creek, a sound which had Jace suddenly spring into a seated position, yanked from his sleep and instinctively pulling his arms away from Alec. Luckily, Isabelle was the first to walk through the doors and so was to only one to catch a glimpse of how her two brothers had been sleeping, but a few steps behind them was Maryse, and following her - a grand surprise to all of them - was Robert Lightwood. Alec and Izzy's father had been in Idris for the past few weeks, apparently kept there by his new position as Inquisitor, but the whole family knew that it was also the tension between Robert and his wife which had kept him from returning home too eagerly. Even now, Maryse seemed on edge due to the presence of her husband, but at that moment, her main concern was her son.

"Alec -" she began, but cut herself off as she noted Jace sitting up beside Alec on the Infirmary bed. "Jace, what are you doing here?"

"Keeping Alec company," Jace replied.

"By sleeping with him?" Robert said, suspicious and showing it blatantly by the crease of his brow, having noticed the messiness of his adopted son's golden blonde hair, as if the boy had just awoken. He didn't seem pleased by this fact, but neither did Maryse. Izzy only seemed anxious.

"He was cold," Jace explained innocently. "Shivering, in fact - I think it could be a side effect of whatever spell he was under."

Maryse's head snapped towards her daughter the moment she heard this from Jace's lips. "Call the warlock immediately," she told Izzy, not bothering with manners or a more gentle tone, and Izzy turned and left the Infirmary immediately to call Magnus. Maryse was still tense, and just as worried as she had been the night before, when Alec had been dragged from the bottom of the Hudson river and brought home - it had only been the large list of messages from Idris and Jace's persistence that her son was fine that had forced her to leave him. But, despite her worry, Alec stared now not at her but at his father, whom he had not at all expected to wake up to.

"Dad," he breathed, shocked by his father's presence. "I thought you were still in Idris."

Then his father did something he hadn't done in a while, or at not since he'd been told of his son's sexuality: he rushed over to Alec's side, sat on the edge of the Infirmary bed and pulled him into a tight hug, cradling his son like he had done when Alec was just a tiny baby. He'd always been aware that bringing up his children as Shadowhunters was risky, and would have them face danger at every corner, and although he wished nothing more than to see his children be just as brilliant as any Nephilim before them, he also sometimes wished they didn't have to fight through quite so many close calls - every Shadowhunter had one or two close greetings with death, but his children seemed to have encountered a fair few in just the last year or so.

"I was," he told Alec, still holding his son close to him, "but when I heard what happened, I came straight home."

Alec couldn't have been gladder that his father had taken the time out of his day to see him - if asked, he wouldn't have expected him to do so. Alec knew that his dad cared for him and Izzy as much as any other father, and since what happened to Max, Robert and Maryse had both been more on edge about their children's safety. But Robert had been awfully distant as of late, and Alec was surprised to find that he had come back from Idris on such short notice just to make sure he was alright. But as much as he was delighted by his father's embrace, his ribs ached as much as any other bone in his body, and he couldn't remain in the hug for long without hissing in pain.

Robert moved swiftly away from his son upon hearing this cry, and suddenly three pairs of worried, tentative eyes were fixed on Alec all at once, wide with grave concern. His parents and even Jace were all staring at him as though he'd just vomited blood, and it was then that he realised it would be a while before everyone stopped treating him with so much caution. He was always to worried about other people that Alec wasn't used to them worrying about him, and he hated the feeling of everyone treating him as though he would shatter into a million pieces any moment. For a moment he wondered which was worse: being trapped underwater for hours, or the aftermath of being cared for, before he noticed how ungrateful he sounded - even just in his head - and reminded himself that they just cared about him as he did for them.

"I'm fine," he assured them, but his mother in particular looked down suspiciously at him, knowing how her son would hide his pain as to be less of an inconvenience. "My ribs hurt, that's all. It's probably just a bruise."

"All the more reason to have Magnus look you over again, in that case," she said, and Alec's face fell from sad to worse. He dreaded the idea of seeing Magnus again; as much as he would usually love to look upon the warlock's handsome features, hoping he wouldn't notice him staring, Alec was unable to forget the forlorn look he'd seen on Magnus' face just moments after he'd been out of the water, and he dreaded seeing that ever again. Jace seemed to feel Alec's tension, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder from where he still sat beside him on the bed. It was an innocent gesture, more friendly rather than suggesting anything more, with that same half smile Jace always offered to show his parabatai that he cared. Alec tried to smile back, but was sure he showed more of a grimace, and a moment later the doors of the Infirmary opened once again and Izzy strode through.

"Magnus says he's on his way," she reported, and whilst Maryse relaxed a little at the news, both Alec and his father tensed. For all the High Warlock had done for his children, Robert had never truly been fond of Magnus and couldn't help but wonder whether he was likely to see his son snogging the living daylights out of the warlock again - he couldn't say he was happy about that memory.

"Jace," Izzy called, and the blonde turned his head in her direction. "I need to talk to you." Jace sighed, not wanting to leave Alec's side, but it was clear from Izzy's stern yet slightly pleading look that she had something important to disclose to him. So despite his reluctance, he squeezed Alec's shoulder as a little goodbye and climbed out of the bed - bare footed and still slightly groggy due to lack of sleep - to follow Izzy out of the Infirmary.

"I know I should have told you this earlier, but you seemed pretty preoccupied, so don't be annoyed," she began, and Jace could tell she was anxious just by the speed of her words. She seemed to be blurting them out as though she couldn't keep them in any longer, and her feet tapped on the ground impatiently as she walked. She was so worked up Jace was tempted to pull her into a hug to calm her, but he had a strong feeling she wouldn't take kindly to his concern. "It was Sebastian."

Jace frowned. "What was Sebastian?" he asked, but Izzy was already on her way towards explaining, fishing a crumpled and dampened piece of paper from her pocket and handing it over to him.

"Magnus found this on the rope Alec was tied to," she explained as Jace unfolded the paper. "It's addressed to you." She was right; scrawled onto one side of the folded scrap of paper was Jace's name, underlined with two thick scribbles. He opened the letter, apprehensive as to what it might detail, but he knows who it's from before he spots the handwriting, not only from what Izzy has already told him, but also due to a feeling of immense dread that encapsulates

his deepest senses.

Dearest Brother, it reads, scrawled in a hand which is almost illegible. Do inform me as to what your parabatai's funeral will be held, I am dying to attend - and so is he, it seems.

Then, signed at the bottom are two letters - JC. Valentine's infamous son would usually have referred to himself as Sebastian, as everyone in the Clave tended to, but now Jace knew that the evil maniac was using the initials to annoy him - the initials Jace used to believe were his. It was a crafty method to get under Jace's skin, and in a terrible way, it worked.

"Word says he's fled to Europe," Izzy goes on as Jace reads over the note time and time again, his jaw tightening every time his eyes skim over those two letters signed at the bottom, "but I wouldn't trust anybody's word right now."
"He left Alec to die?" Jace questioned, confused. Perhaps he was wrong, but Jace was sure that kidnapping his parabatai and leaving him for dead didn't exactly fit Sebastian's usual style. "Why? What's the point?" he wondered aloud.

"To annoy you? To entertain himself? Because he's a murderous psychopath and gets a thrill out of causing pain, maybe?" Izzy was clearly in outrage, but held her anger behind the fire that burned bright blue in her irises.

"Excuse my own opinion, but I do not believe he was trying to kill Alec." Both Shadowhunters heard the voice from behind them at this break in their conversation and, as they were on edge already, the two of them spun around to see an expected warlock strolling towards them. Magnus was dressed in all black, as though he was about to attend a mundane funeral, with black jeans, black boots with almost comically pointed toes, and a long, rather regal black coat, the tail of which fell past his knees. He seemed to be dressed rather plain considering his usual attire, and the only bright colour on his whole body was the blue of his hair, like sparks from a firework amongst the natural black of his locks. But he didn't look quite as bad as when Izzy and Jace had first seen him the day before - despite the lack of colour variation, he was still very much dressed handsomely, with the usual sparkle of make up on his features, but even this was dark. His cat eyes glided over both Shadowhunters, but Jace noticed that they darted quicker over him and eventually rested on Izzy.

"You got here fast," Izzy commented, slightly unnerved. There was something about the way Magnus walked that made her cautious of him, like he was hiding something - perhaps he was just drunk. He nodded back as he approached them, but Jace's mind was fixed on the previous conversation.

"What do you mean he wasn't trying to kill Alec?" he demanded. His temper was struck, stretched to the tightest limit - he was worried about Alec, and as much as Sebastian trying to kill him wasn't a good thing, at least it was a simple agenda. If he had wanted to kill Alec, it meant he'd failed, but if there was another objective they didn't know about he could easily still get whatever he wanted - Sebastian could still win. The idea that this was possible put Jace into an immediate bad mood.

"Well," Magnus sighed, "if he'd wanted to kill Alec, he would have done. Don't underestimate him, killing is one thing I'm sure he's not hesitant to do. Not to mention the fact that Alexander was laced in magic to stop him from drowning. If Sebastian wanted him to die, why would he ensure that he couldn't?"

Jace pondered this, realised that Magnus was right, and swore under his breath. He hadn't realised that his fists were curled up into balls of frustration until this moment, as his fingernails began to dig into the skin of his palms, and he tried to relieve the pressure. He knew that there was no point getting so annoyed, but the frustration was getting to him in a way that was unexpected to even Jace himself. Sebastian had tied his parabatai to the bottom of a river - cold and alone and convinced he was dying - and for what? For entertainment, as Izzy had suggested? Or was he truly just trying to get to Jace, to anger him? It was this conflict that had Jace so riled up, and he wasn't sure he would ever be able to stand close to that monster again without leaping onto him and tearing his throat - even if it was the last thing he did.

"Not to mention the fact that Sebastian wasn't exactly discreet about Alec's capture, and he didn't use any sort of concealment to stop us from finding him quickly," Magnus continued. "It was almost as though he wanted you to find him."

"But why?" Izzy asked, voicing the one question that thunders through Jace's mind. "Why go to the trouble?"

Magnus only shrugged. "To convey that message," he suggested, nodding the note in Jace's hand, now just a tight ball of crumpled paper. "Perhaps the whole thing is a threat. Anyway, why am I here?" Magnus seemed eager to move on from the subject, and in truth the warlock dreaded what he knew was to come, and wanted to get it out of the way so that he could leave as soon as possible. He had somewhere to be, and it wasn't somewhere at all close to New York.

"It's Alec -" Izzy began, but the blue-haired warlock had nodded away the rest of her answer and was already pushing the door to the Infirmary open.

Let's get this over with, he thought to himself, with a ball of apprehension at the back of his throat.