Hola, buenos dias! Uh, over 100 reviews! Thank you so so so so much to everybody! Half this chapter was written in a notebook, but there was that everlasting issue of 'Which notebook? Where did I put it?' so I scrabbled around for AGES, only to find it on the FIRST PAGE of a book I'd checked four times. Nice going, genius.
I don't own the Mortal Instruments or Lord of the Rings.
Clary linked her arm through Simon's as they strolled amicably toward the subway. It was something they had done often over their years of friendship, and made Clary feel comfortable, safe, even if the physical feeling had changed. When Simon was a mundane, his arm had been slender but soft and warm, and the sharp nub of his elbow had poked her ribs gently as it jangled with his steps; whereas now it was cold, hard, steady with his newly fluid movements.
It didn't matter to her one bit. He was still Simon.
Simon had saved her so many times, Clary thought as they walked in companiable silence, just by being himself, what with all the changes her life had taken recently, keeping her sane. He was all she had from her old life.
"Simon?"
"That would be me."
"I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Well, Fray, you'd probably wind up living in a cave, or something."
"What? Why?" Clary prepared herself for one of his tangents. They were increasingly frequent.
"Well, we're like the Frodo and Sam of Brooklyn, without the sexual tension of course. You're Frodo, who without his lovably awkward gardener, would inevitably succumb to the lure of the ring, as proved on the many occasions where said gardener snaps him out of his Sauron-fueled daydreams, and also when they are discussing the stories that would be told about them after the completion of their quest and Frodo says 'What about Samwise the Brave? Frodo wouldn't have gotten far without him.' So Clary-Frodo's succumbing to the ring would probably cause him to follow in the footsteps of Gollum, consequently leading him to retreat into a dark cave to eat fish and go crazy, and be unable to leave due to the ring abandoning him for Sauron, so he's stuck living in the cave eating the fish."
"But what's the ring in this case?"
"Isabelle. Definitely. You'd be desperately in need of a new BFF, despite the fact that my shoes are just too large to fill. And you know what they say about big shoes…"
"Big ego?" Simon elbowed her, chuckling.
"That's not it."
"So Izzy would leave me in a cave?"
"Inevitably, yes."
"Why?"
The Seelie Queen glared at Clary and Simon as they bickered fondly, waiting until they were suitably submerged in their conversation before weaving her little spell around them. She had originally just planned to do the one favour for Camille, that cunning vampire, but the Queen had found- to her secret astonishment- that she rather enjoyed her part in Camille's little plot. Which was why she was continuing to send Jace Herondale the nightmares about his parabatai, and was about to use Valentine's daughter to aid Camille's plans.
Izzy rapped on Alec's door, oblivious to the impassable sound-proofing spells Magnus had placed upon the room long ago.
"Alec! ALEC! Alexander Lightwood, if you don't open this door, I'm going to come in, regardless of whatever depraved things you and Magnus are doing!" She wasn't bluffing. Isabelle didn't bluff. "Fine, I'm opening the door!"
She flung it open with an almighty crash, black hair swirling out behind her as she forcibly woke a sleeping Alec, Magnus, and- Jace?
"ALEC!" Izzy shrieked.
"JACE!" Magnus shrieked.
"IZZY!" Alec shrieked.
"MAGNUS!" Jace shrieked.
"What is he doing in our bed?" Magnus choked, looking slightly hysterical with dilated pupils and hair wild as if the whole of Manhattan had run their fingers through it.
Alec was speechless.
"Magnus…it was dark when I came in, I didn't know you were here as well-" Jace protested.
"So you just decided to hop into bed next to my boyfriend?" Magnus jumped to his feet and would have looked quite terrifying if he hadn't been naked save a pair of white boxers with 'ALEC WAS HERE' scrawled across them in black marker pen, distinctly Alec's handwriting. "Does this happen often?"
"NO! I just, er…" Alec decided to come to Jace's rescue.
"Mags, I'll explain everything later, maybe when you have some more clothes on?"
"Hmph." Magnus strolled into Alec's bathroom, flicking on the shower. "Fine!" his voice rang out, muffled from behind the door. "But it better be a good explanation!" he seemed to think better of the statement, however, as amusement overtook the surprise in his brain. "Alexander, if you're interested in getting another man involved then that's fine, just not Wayland, please darling. There simply isn't room for both our egos in one bed!"
"I think I'm going to leave you guys to it," Izzy muttered, flitting back down the hall leaving a wide-eyed open-mouthed Alec and a sheepish Jace, chuckling under her breath. "Idiots."
Later that day, Izzy perched worriedly on a sofa that Alec and Jace had lugged down to the Sanctuary, generally struggling and getting all sweaty before remembering that Magnus could summon furniture at will.
"You let us go through all of that?" Jace had challenged, ruffling his damp tawny hair. Magnus leant back on an ornate golden throne he'd summoned, stretching out like a cat.
"How could I stop you when Alec was looking so delectable? That, you know, would have been a crime against humanity."
Jace opened his mouth, but Izzy shushed him impatiently. It was impossible to argue with Magnus.
The brief smile the memory conjured up was rapidly swallowed by her anxiety. Alec and Magnus had gone to Brooklyn, Jace was in the training room, alone, and she had just received a text message.
Once again, she had grinned at Simon's name on the text, a grin that froze like a banana plunged into liquid nitrogen as the contents of the message registered.
Izzy- Clary's hurt, and it's my fault. She needs help, and quickly. Could you come to this address? Sorry to ask.
The address was a house in Brooklyn, one Izzy had never heard of before. She sighed, before leaping up and taking the stairs two at a time, yelling out for Jace.
Brooklyn, Magnus' apartment
Alec nestled into Magnus' warm, strong arms, breathing in his dark, spicy scent. They lay together on the couch, Alec draped between Magnus' knees with his back pressed against the warlock's chest, their limbs tangled together in a jumble of denim and leather. If it weren't for demon-killing, hunger and the need to pee, Alec was sure he could happily stay like that forever.
Forever. There was that word again.
Magnus had promised to think about the immortality situation, but how much time did he need? He didn't want to push him, but had Magnus intended to think about it immediately, as Alec had assumed, or ten years in the future? He hadn't specified.
CRASH. The sudden disturbance tingled Alec's Shadowhunter senses even before he heard it.
It was the sound of Magnus' front door splintering, forced off of its hinges. The crash echoed from the walls; ricocheting through Alec's sleepy head like a fire alarm. Warning. Warning.
He leapt up, snatching a seraph blade from under the couch (earning a questioning look from Magnus) and followed him to the door, his boyfriend's fingers already glowing with eerie blue, ready to dispatch a bolt of turquoise lightning before the intruder could say Quidditch.
It was Jocelyn; a jet black shadow with wisps of flaming hair lit by the dim hallway glow, with blazing eyes and a face full of desperate anger: she looked every bit the demonic-axemurdering-burglar-psycho Alec had been expecting.
"Magnus Bane." She boomed. "My daughter needs immediate medical attention, and if you don't give it to her by the Angel I will slaughter you so brutally you'll still be screaming a month after death!"
Don't talk to my boyfriend like that, Alec thought, and when Jocelyn turned onto him a gaze that could surely reduce a heap of books to cinders, he realised he'd said it aloud. Magnus purred delightedly as Alec apologized profusely. He knew how it felt to have someone you cared about in danger, it wasn't the time for unnecessary protective statements.
"I'll have Clary fixed up in no time, don't you worry," Magnus chirped, and with a sizzle of blue flame all three of them were outside the Institute, the two Shadowhunters blinking in astoundment. It wasn't that Magnus wasn't worried about Clary, of course he was, but he was both confident in his saving her and happily shocked that Alec had defended him out of the blue, seemingly without even thinking about it. Serendipitous indeed, he mused, as Isabelle ushered them inside, into the Infirmary.
Except for the beautiful yet somewhat pretentiously painted ceiling, everything in the spacious sickroom was white, ice blue or pale grey; throwing Clary into shocking contrast with her fiery hair and angry phone-box red skin, blistered and sore.
Magnus hurried over, cloaking her body in a shimmering veil of magic, murmuring words of fond reassurance to soothe her whimpers of pain.
"What happened?" Alec asked his sister. Simon was slumped in a sickbed himself, not injured but ashen faced, his eyes staring blankly out of the window- Alec didn't know whether he was looking at something in particular or just avoiding Jace, whose acid glare could have burned a hole in the sun.
"Clary and Simon were coming over here, when some sort of magic hit them, they don't know what it was or where it came from- we were hoping Magnus might know- but they started to see things…all sorts of awful things, they thought they were under attack. Clary had a vial of demon ichor, which she threw, but it hit-" Izzy lowered her voice. "It hit Simon."
Alec glanced at Simon, who still hadn't met anyone's eye.
"But he's fine…oh, the Mark of Cain?"
"Yes. Clary's been badly burned, none of our runes would work, but thanks to Magnus she'll be fine."
"Good," Alec said. "So why is everyone looking like they want to knife each other? It's not Simon's fault."
Simon glanced briefly over, a weak, surprised smile hovering about his lips, tinged with guilt. Alec supposed he had heard, what with the vampire hearing they so often forgot.
"No, it isn't." Izzy replied, looking hopefully at Simon out the corner of her eye, but he was back to staring out the window. "But he feels guilty nonetheless. Jace, well, Jace isn't helping. And Jocelyn's just worried. You know how she likes to protect Clary."
Tessa squinted up at the building through harsh sunlight. It was pretty-ish, but old, not what she imagined Magnus living in at all. Last time they'd met he'd been living in a gorgeous German castle, drowning in splendour. Maybe he'd wanted something a little more modest.
Inside wasn't much of an improvement, Tessa noticed as she pressed the 'BANE' buzzer.
No reply.
She buzzed again, and again, and again, before realising that he either wasn't in or didn't wish to see her, hoping it wasn't the latter. They had parted friends, after all.
Never mind. Sure, it was inconvenient, but she could come back.
There you go. Please do let me know what you think- is the storyline working for you? Because if it's confusing or you hate it or whatever, I'd like to know.
Love as always, China. xxxxxx