Once again - thank you so much for your lovely support and reviews, it means a lot 3 Here's the next chapter - enjoy!
"Good morning darling" Maryse smiled as she sat down at the breakfast table.
Isabelle just nodded and grunted - she hadn't been able to get much sleep after her talk with Jace about Alec and Robert. She sat down beside the empty chair where Alec normally would sit and glanced at Jace "Can you pass me the bread?"
In the same second their father walked in, looking a bit tired himself as he sat down to read the newspaper. She noticed how Jace tensed, so did she and suddenly everything became clear to her - the last couple of days she had noticed that Alec had acted different around their father, somehow tense and on guard - she swallowed hard when she realised that he had been sitting there, pretending that everything was normal when it really wasn't. Their dad had hit him.
"You all are awfully quiet." Maryse mumbled and took a sip of her coffee " Is Alec still asleep?"
"Sorry love" Robert said and looked up with a half-smile
"You're sorry?" Isabelle replied with anger in her voice
Robert looked at her "What?" he was confused
"Izzy-" Jace mumbled and looked at her as well
"Is something wrong?" Maryse wondered and put down her cup "Isabelle?"
Isabelle set her jaw and stared from her mom to her dad "Maybe you should ask Alec?"
"Well,what about him?" Robert asked and put down the newspaper, still his eyes on his daughter. Did she knew? He suddenly hitched his jaws "Didn't you say he was with Magnus?"
"You-" Isabelle began but got interrupted by Jace who stood up
"Alright, calm down - can we leave the table?" he said and looked at Maryse
"Uh, sure but you haven't eaten anything-" she looked confused and sad but he didn't care, he needed to get Isabelle to calm down and to not get herself into trouble.
"I'm not hungry" he continued and walked over to Isabelle to grab her by the arm "Izzy, do you mind helping me with some stuff back in my room?"
Isabelle looked at him, her eyes burning, just like Alec's could sometimes even though it wasn't very often. Only when they very truly hurt or angry or felt like killing something… or someone.
"Y-You know what-" she stammered but managed to control herself, she didn't want to cause more problems for her brother. She finally nodded and turned around but before she walked out of the door she turned around to look at Robert "I hate you"
He hadn't been able to go back to sleep since everything was being played up inside his head again; The punches, Jace finding out, his escape to Magnus and now he knew too - soon Isabelle would be the only one who didn't know. And their mum. He sighed for himself and turned around for the 10th time or so that night to look at the clock. 4 a.m
He reached for his phone, somewhat blinded by the light of the screen but he did see that he had one missed call from Jace and a text.
I tried to call. I'm sorry brother, Izzy knows.
He immediately sat up and read it again and again and again before he swallowed hard - she would kill him. Fuck!
He looked to his side, not sure whether Magnus was asleep or just pretending, before he felt the half-cold floor beneath his feet to sneak out of the bedroom. He closed the door carefully and went out to the kitchen to sit down at the table, his head in his hands. What was he going to do?
He didn't want to stop seeing Magnus, no matter what his father might do to him and the angst and fear he had felt before now slowly started to transform into anger - how dared he? How dared he hit his own son because he was in love with another man, when he had fought so hard all those years to 'cure' himself, convincing himself that it was just a phase until it had felt like it was nothing left of him. He raised to his feet again with a grunt and moved to the cupboard to find something to eat, not that he was hungry but…
His hand stopped at a package of cookies. Max's favourite ones. He smiled sadly to himself - oh how he missed his little brother.
He wondered what he would have thought of Magnus, of their relationship and everything. Suddenly nausea washed over him and he sat down again at the table, resting his head upon it with the cookies still in his hand before his eyes closed.
As he finally fell asleep, his dreams weren't about his dad this time, but about Sebastian and Max. How he had mocked him, making Alec speechless and then filled with fear and hatred when he had talked to him about that he was going to kill another Lightwood…
He woke up and felt an arm around his chest, holding him tight and since he still wasn't wide awake, shadowhunter as he was with his reflexes, Alec quickly stood up and pushed the other to the nearest wall, holding a kitchen knife against the man's throat and breathed heavily.
"Alec, it's me!" Magnus shouted at him as he tried to search the blue-eyed boy's burning eyes.
Alec stared at him for no more than a second before he dropped the knife and covered his mouth by his hand. "Oh my god…" he sank down to the floor
Magnus knelt down beside him and stroke his back "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you-"
"I could have killed you" Alec whispered as he rocked back and forth, his hands shaking "I-I could have-"
"Ssh" Magnus replied and wrapped his arms around Alec's shaking body. Lilith, his Shadowhunter truly was damaged.