Once Upon A Time

Chapter 7

Sorry it's been forever, but I'm back for good now, hopefully. I hope this chapter makes you hate me less!

Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Instruments, and this chapter is all Bibee, I just do a spell check.

Clary P.O.V

"Oliver?!"

The cat-eyed man looks around him, then point back at himself. "Me?"

I can't speak, I can't move, I can't think. This man is Oliver, my only friend for a majority part of my life, and he is standing right in front of me. And for some reason I thought he'd be shorter. "Y-you, how did you-?"

"Oh, the basket thing? Simple really. I basic charm on the old thing allowed me to sen-"

"How are you here?"

He looks at me blankly, his bottom lip sticking out slightly. "I expected a little more enthusiasm."

"Clary," Isabelle appears at my side, brandishing a broken off leather reign like a whip. Simon stands beside her, a little wary. "Do you know this man?"

"Uh," I notice that when Isabelle arrived, 'Oliver' ducked his head away, hiding his eerily feline in nature eyes. A war wages in my mind, try to decide out whether I should tell Isabelle about 'Oliver' and the basket, or simply say I don't know him and be done with it. But no, I've trusted Oliver for the last 13 years of my life, if he wanted to harm me he would've sent a poison apple or something long ago. "Yes." I say. "Yes, this is-"

"Bane, Magnus Bane." Oliver- or Magnus really -interjects, taking Isabelle's whip free hand and kissing it. He keeps his head ducked. "I was just wondering whether my good friend Clary here," He sends me a meaningful look. "Would be so gracious as to let me speak to her. It is of great importance, of course."

Isabelle looks like she is sizing up Oli- I mean -Magnus, narrowing her already dark eyes with distrust. "I'm not leaving Clary alone with you, if that's what you're asking."

Magnus sighs a heavy sigh. A sigh that, to me, says I really expected nothing less. It seems to have said the same to Isabelle, because she lowers her makeshift weapon and gestures to Simon's cart behind her.

"Perhaps you would like a more comfortable place to talk?"

"The cart?" I ask. "But Isa-""Clary my dear," Magnus says, placing a light brown hand on my shoulder. "I believe your friend is implying I go back to their home to speak."

"Oh, right."

We pile into the back of the cart, our shopping seemingly forgotten, and head back home. I sit down beside a pumpkin and Isabelle climbs up in the front with Simon, who looks as shocked as I am smug.

Magnus takes a seat next to me. "Clary, huh?"

"Magnus, huh?"

He holds a finger up and furrows his brows. "Excuse me madam, but I never once said my name was Oliver. Such a boring name anyway, whatever possessed you to choose that name?"

I shrug and drum my fingers on the rough skin of the pumpkin. "I don't know, it sounded nice."

"Is that what you thought when you named yourself Clary?"

"No," I say softly. "Someone else named me."

Magnus doesn't speak for a little while, but I can feel his slitted eyes focused on me with a strange intensity. "Let me guess." He says softly, almost sympathetically. "It was a boy."

I don't need to answer, because Magnus stands up and walks to stand near Isabelle and Simon, ending the conversation.

"So, how long?" Magnus asks Simon, still looking at me. I'm beginning to think that maybe Magnus is avoiding showing the other two his eyes.

"Well, the trip from the market to Isabelle's usually takes about 10 minutes on foot, so with cart it's-"

"No, not till we reach Isabelle's house, I mean how long have you two been together?"

At this both Isabelle and Simon began objecting, Isabelle furiously, but I notice that Simon's argument is a little half-hearted. Poor guy...

"Excuse me." I say, but none of them hear me, Isabelle is too busy denying any relationship between her and Simon.

"Excuse me." I say again, a little louder this time. Magnus is shrugging and telling Isabelle it's going to happen sooner or later, which only sets her off further. Simon's objections seem to have faded to nothing.

"EXCUSE ME!"

All three turn to look at me, they're argument fluttering down to nothing.

"You might not have noticed, but we passed the house. 3 minutes ago."

O~o~O

"Now, first off. How did you get out?" Magnus says after he closes the door of Isabelle's room. Jace wasn't very happy at Isabelle and me bringing a stranger home with us. Honestly, Jace was angrier at me. But that anger quickly dissolved once he got a good look at Magnus, cat eyes and all. It took a fair while for me to convince Jace to let Magnus in the house, but eventually he gave in.

"Jace and Alec found my tower and helped me out." I say.

"Ah, Alec." Magnus says, a wistful smile playing at his lips. "Mr. Blue-eyes." Magnus was briefly introduced to Alec as we'd made our way through the house to Isabelle's room, and it was intriguing to say the least.

They'd stared at each other for a good 2 minutes while I stood there, waiting for Magnus or Alec to say something. Eventually, Alec was the one to break the ice, shaking Magnus's hand while never once breaking eye contact. It was almost painful trying to get Magnus to follow me.

"Yeah," I say. "That's him." We stand in an uncomfortable silence and Magnus begins to stare out the window over my shoulder. I use his distraction as a chance to study him. His eyes are a pretty almond shape and his skin is the colour of honey. His hair is black and slightly spiked up, I swear it evens sparkles as he moves. I wonder how he keeps people from noticing his eyes-

"Humans are a bit behind with the times."

Baffled, I ask, "What?"

"Humans. You. The human race has yet to discover that magic is not limited to females." Magnus explains, moving to take a seat near the window. "You're strange like that."

Apprehension dawns on me and suddenly, I understand. "You're a witch."

"Warlock, actually." Magnus points out. He gestures vaguely to his eyes and sends me a wicked grin. "We all have our little secrets."

"So that's how you were able to send me thing from the basket!" I exclaim, running down to take a seat on the floor beside his chair. "My goodness, that's amazing! Can you do other things, like make someone disappear? Or maybe-"

A stray thought hits me like a sucker punch to the chest and suddenly my excitement disappears, and I'm instead filled with chilling sadness. "Do you know who my parents are?" I barely whisper.

Magnus ducks his head again and the atmosphere of the small room quickly darkens. "No. I don't"

"But you must-"

"I know nothing about where you come from Clary." Magnus snaps back, his gold-green eyes bright

I flinch away from him, only slightly, but it's enough for him to notice. He sighs and rubs his hands over his face and into his hair. His hair comes away covered in thousands of tiny specs of glitter. "Clary," He says, this time his voice soft enough and barely loud enough for me to hear. He leans down and knits his hands together in front of him. "I'm sorry. But I don't know about your parents, I was only given orders: Keep her alive, keep her safe. That's all."

The backs of my eyes are burning and I know in mere moments the tears will begin to run. I try to hide my face from him by turning away and using my hair as a shield, but he gently grabs my chin and turns my face to his. The first tears spill over.

"Clary, you may not know who you really are or where you truly belong, but you do know something. Something I can verify."

I use my palms to brush away my tears and ask, "And what's that?"

"That your parents loved you." His voice is still soft, but it suddenly contains a strange bitterness. "And that's a lot more than some people can say." He leans back into his chair, looking exhausted.

We sit in silence, me on the floor with silent tears running down my cheeks and Magnus, staring down at his hands, his mouth set into a grim line.

"I don't know what good it'll do," Magnus says after a while. "But I may as well tell you that I'm not the first person hired to keep you alive."

This stops the tears almost immediately. "W-what?"

"Luke Garroway, known officially as Lucian Graymark. He was the first man they hired to protect you, but he died. The plague." He adds at my questioning look. "After Luke died, I received a letter informing me that I was to send food and other services to a little girl faraway. Of course I was paid, handsomely I might add, but I never heard more from the sender of the letter."

At that moment a knock came from the door and a voice saying, "Dinners ready." I recognize it as Jace's voice but before I can even stand up to open the door, I hear retreating footsteps.

Magnus chuckles beside me. "I dare say, I don't think he likes me very much."

"But why? You very nice."

He shrugs and stands up, then raises an eyebrow at me. When I answer with nothing but a blank stare he says, "Oh, I don't know. Just a feeling."

Okay guys, I now have all chapters through 15 uploaded and ready to go. It's your guys choice how soon you want me to put them up. I can do them all now, one a day, one a week, whatever. After these are up, it will be a while before more will come because that is when I officially start writing this story.

Let me know what you want.

Love you guys,

ByTheAngel99