"Blue," Alec stated shocked. "That baby is bright blue!"
"He's a warlock," Magnus explained. "Though I have never encountered one cursed at such a young age before." Magnus could tell Alec didn't know what to say. After all Alec had only ever met one warlock in his life, the one standing before him.
He was sure somehow that Alec had never quite pictured a warlock being so small and vulnerable.
"What age are warlocks usually cursed?" Alec asked, stunned, but clearly curiosity.
"Between 6-12 is what I've seen most often," Magnus replied. "But really anytime before puberty and the curse will take. I just can't imagine what this little one's parents must have done." Magnus started rocking the child in his arms back and forth absently as he spoke. This was not the first child to be left on his doorstep and, unfortunately, it wouldn't be the last. The parents didn't have the heart to kill their own children or abandon them alone in the middle of nowhere, so they brought the cursed here, in a small attempt to do the right thing.
"What do you mean?" Alec asked.
"Usually demon's curse children," Magnus explained. "To punish their parents."
"That's- it's just so unfair," Alec gasped. "So cruel." The expression on his face was as if the whole world had been split down the middle to reveal that he knew nothing, nothing at all. Magnus wanted to somehow comfort Alec, but he knew not how.
"He seems to be no more than seven months old to judge by his size," Magnus continued. "It's a wonder he survived the curse."
"Children can die from the demon's curse?" Alec asked.
"If they are too young or too weak, yes," Magnus replied. "If they are too old they just get sick. The curse can't turn you into a warlock after puberty."
Alec again seemed lost for words and Magnus took the opportunity to get back to business. Lifting his hand not cradling the infant he summoned pen and paper from his desk and instructed the pen to write a note before the whole thing went up in flames.
"What did you just do?" Alec asked, clearly impressed.
"I sent a message to Catarina," Magnus explained. "She is my go to person for stuff like this."
"You mean this has happened before?" Alec asked.
"No recently," Magnus replied. "But yes."
"Did this happen to you?" Alec whispered.
"Of course," Magnus replied. "If I hadn't been cursed I wouldn't be a warlock."
"No, I mean were you abandoned?" Alec asked.
"Oh, that," Magnus said. He walked away from the door, summoned some wood from the forest near his house and shaped it into a makeshift crib with his blue magic. Magnus placed the infant in the crib before turning to Alec and answering the question. "Yes and no. My mother was scared of me and my father tried to kill me, so I left."
The expression on Alexander's face quite took Magnus's breath away. Alec was always an open book, and the empathy and sadness for Magnus showed there perfectly as if it had been spoken in words. Alec moved forward and wrapped his arms around Magnus, holding him close in a hug that was somehow free of judgement or guilt. Magnus wrapped his arms around Alec in return, and felt safe enough to cry, though he didn't. Just the fact he felt he could was extraordinary.
"No child should have to experience something like that," Alec whispered. "I'm sorry that happened to you, Magnus."
"It's not all bad," Magnus said pulled out of the hug before he started crying for real. "The magic and immortality is rather nice." Alec smiled at him and for a moment everything else fell away.
Then the baby started crying. Very loudly. Without seeming to think on it for a second Alec picked up the baby, rocking him as Alec asked Magnus for something to feed to the screaming infant. Magnus summoned some milk from the local farm, though Alec didn't ask where he got it, and a moment later the baby was eating contentedly in Alec's strong arms.
Magnus was once again in awe of the man before him. Alec's instincts never lead him astray. Whether it was love making, child care or hunting Alec took to everything like a fish to water.
When Catarina arrived a few hours later, she was quite surprised to see a shadowhunter caring for a warlock child in Magnus's home. She wasn't like Tessa, though. Catarina knew Magnus far better than that.
"Are you in love?" Catarina whispered to Magnus who jumped. He turned frantically to see if Alec had heard, but Alexander was all the way across the room gently rocking the baby.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Magnus replied. He'd seen Alec all of three times before this week. It was a silly question.
"I've seen the way you look at him," Catarina continued. Magnus froze. His breathing quickening. No this wasn't- he couldn't be-
"Catarina," Alec's voice called as he approached. "What will happen to Max?"
"Max?" Catarina inquired.
"Oh," Alec said sheepishly. "Sorry, that's what I've been calling him in my head. Blue baby didn't sit well with me." Magnus's beautiful, but definitely confused, friend beamed at Alec.
"You named a stranger's child," she began softly. "A warlock orphan after your little brother?" Alec blushed a deep pink before mumbling something about how everyone deserves a name.
"He might have had one before," Alec said. "From his mother, but she never said."
"I think the name suits him," Catarina confirmed with a tender smile before turning to her friend. "Doesn't it, Magnus?"
"Max it is then," Magnus said, if only to see the smile on Alec's face at his words.
"I am sure his new parents will want to call him something else," Alec mumbled a moment later.
"I will look for a home for him," Catarina said gently. "But it's more likely that I will only find foster accommodations rather than real parents. They may keep his name the same."
"What kind of accommodations?" Alec asked.
"Maybe a warlock caretaker or open-minded mundane," Catarina explained. "I doubt he will have an easy life, though. Abandoned warlock's rarely do."
"Were you abandoned like Max and Magnus?" Alec asked with genuine interest and concern.
"No," Catarina smiled, with something that was almost shyness. "My mother raised me, curse and all."
"I'm glad," Alec replied genuinely.
Max started to cry and Catarina quickly summoned a bottle of milk, handing it to Alec who fed the baby as if it was second nature to him.
"Your magic is almost the same colour as Magnus's," Alec observed once Max was happily eating. "Are your portals orange too?"
"Yes," Catarina answered, amused. "Just a slightly different shade."
"Shadowhunter should really know more about warlocks," Alec observed. "I don't understand why there is so little information available in the Palace. I mean, Tessa lived there most of her life after all, and I had never heard of her."
"Ah yes, but Tessa lived there passing as a mundane," Catarina explained. "She didn't do magic. She was lucky that her warlock's curse is so small and easy to hide. I have to wear a glamour when I hide among the humans."
"So a warlock has never lived freely in the Palace before?" Alec asked and Catarina shook her head. Magnus saw disappointment in Alexander at this news that Magnus couldn't understand. As Catarina and Alec carried on in this way, Alec asking questions and Catarina answering them, Magnus forgot about the strange look in Alexander's eyes. Partly because Magnus couldn't quite believe what was happening right in front of him.
Alec was immersing himself so totally into Magnus's world, learning all he could and getting to know Magnus's friends.
"I did everything I could to save your brother, Alec," Catarina confessed glassy-eyed. "I promise I did."
"I believe you," Alec said easily. "I don't think my mother ever will, though."
"As I suspected," Catarina replied. "Your trust means a great deal to me, Alec." Alexander smiled at her, before placing the sleeping baby back in his crib.
Catarina stayed with them for most of the day, making sure the baby was safe before leaving to look for foster parents, saying it might be harder with a infant rather than a child. Magnus was surprised that Catarina was happy to leave the child in Alec's care in the meantime.
"And I am surprised you have confided so much in Alec," Catarina said when Magnus commented on her actions before she left. "He knows you, Magnus," she continued. "So few people do."
Magnus didn't know what to say. Catarina didn't seem to expect a reply. She smiled knowingly at him and then disappeared through a portal of her own making.
"He's so blue," Alec was saying a few minutes later as the baby in question smiled at him from Alexander's arms.
"Indeed," Magnus smiled. "Blue baby for sure."
"Blueberry," Alec corrected laughing. "He's the exact same shade as the berries from the bushes behind the Palace." Alec lifted the smiling child in his arms high over his head then brought Max down again, kissing his tummy until the baby giggled happily.
Alec brought Max to sleep in their bed with them that night. Magnus couldn't describe the emotions the two of them being here invoked in him. He didn't dare let himself fantasies or think of the possibilities behind those emotions. After all the by the end of the day tomorrow, Magnus's week in Alexander's company would be over.
Their last day together was the epitome of domestic bliss, apart from the screaming child waking them before the sunrise. Alec was up and rocking Max before Magnus had barely opened his eyes.
"He's hungry, I think," Alec said so Magnus summoned some more milk. Rather than go back to sleep, Magnus sat up and watched Alec. This happened twice more during the night.
The sun was high in the sky when they left their bedroom the next day. Alec wanted to take Max outside which is how Magnus came to find himself sitting in his backyard in a reclining deck chair.
"Now you see me," Alec said his hands held away from his head. "Now you don't," he added once his hands were covering his face. Alec was kneeling on the grass trying to entertaining the toddler on Magnus's lap.
With a wave of his hand Magnus captured this moment on paper. It then appeared in his hand, but Alec was too distracted with Max to notice. Magnus quickly vanished the image to his desk so Alec wouldn't see it.
Their perfect day ticked by. Magnus watched the sun set bitterly, as if the bright ball should have known better than to abandon them like this. Their time was up. Alec had to go home, but all Magnus wanted was to hold Alexander close and never let him go. Magnus wanted to lock his doors and say that Alec couldn't leave, that Alexander was his forever.
And in that moment he knew Catarina was right. Magnus was in love.
It had been so very long since Magnus had felt this way, so long in fact that he couldn't even remember when or who with. All he did know was that his love was doomed. Their borrowed time was over; Alec had a country to run and nothing Magnus could do would change that. Besides even if the world wasn't against them, even if they found a way to be together, Alec would one day grow old and die before the immortal's eyes. Yes, Magnus thought, doomed was a good word for it.
Magnus offered to make a portal to take Alec home, but Alec surprised Magnus by asking the warlock to walk with him up to the front door.
"Please," Alec begged. Magnus couldn't refuse, though he did caution Alec that his parents would see. "I don't care," Alec said in response.
Magnus did a quick enchantment to watch over Max before they left, something to alert him if the sleeping warlock woke. Together Alec and Magnus walked out the door. Still in view of the house Magnus opened a portal and they stepped through. His emotions overwhelming him Magnus approached the Palace gates. He was holding Alec's hand as if it were a lifeline. Magnus tried to let go when they were about to come into view of the Palace windows, but Alec wouldn't let go. The prince held his hand in an iron grip, until the front doors opened. Then, as Alec was welcomed in his parent's arms, Magnus managed to get away, quickly portaling home before tears spilled from his eyes.
When Magnus walked in the front door of his once spacious home he found it suddenly big and empty rather than grand and fabulous. Without Alec's warmth the place was dark and cold, the only point of light being Max's sleeping form in his cradle. Max. It was the name Alec had given him, and though it had been meant as a temporary name, Magnus found he had grown rather fond of it, and of him.
For a moment, Magnus let the fantasies he hadn't dared to dream of before play in his mind. Alec living here with him, waking every morning in Alexander's arms before Max ran in, jumping on the bed demanding breakfast. It was such a domestic fantasy. He and Alec raising Max together, being together freely without the world's prestigious and responsibilities getting in their way.
Magnus looked down at the peaceful child sleeping in the crib, rocked gently by his magic. During his long life Magnus had taken in orphans before, housing them when no one else would and he'd come to care for every single one of them. But this was different. Those children had called him Magnus, but he wanted Max to call him papa. It was a strange feeling and Magnus knew it was entirely Alexander's fault. Adopting this child felt like a way to hold Alec in his heart longer. He couldn't and never would be able to call Alexander his, but Magnus could make Max his child. That he could do.
"Come here, little one," Magnus whispered as he picked Max up gently. "You are going to stay here with me, if that works for you, of course." Max's soft breathing didn't change, but he stretched slightly adjusting to Magnus's embrace. "I didn't think you'd mind. I'm not so bad, really. Maybe Daddy will visit after he's king of all the land." Magnus smiled wondering if he was lying or not. He knew Catarina would be thrilled by his decision and he planned to tell her just as soon as he could speak without crying.
Two days two chapter! *shocked emoji* What is this non-sense. lol.
My beta had time to edit today or rather she made time by using editing to procrastinate doing her math homework. ^_^ I'm such a good influence... not.
I have been binge writing this story lately. The next chapter is finished and will go up in the next few days. The chapter after that just needs another round of editing before being sent to my beta and the chapter after that is half a first draft. Look at me go! Woot!
I hope you are enjoying this story, the few people who are reading it that is. :) Thanks! And please review guys! I want to know what you think!
Sneak Peek Chapter 9
Alec tried to do what they wanted. He agree to attend his parents party, agreed to meet all his prospective brides, but his heart wasn't in it. He met with them all individually during the events of the evening. Alec spoke with women that were funny, beautiful, intelligent, yet he felt nothing for them. He wasn't attracted to their beauty. He was too heartbroken to appreciate their humour and he thought the smarter ones would have made better adviser than wives. Lydia in particular had leadership qualities that made Alec think she would be better off running a country by herself. Glenda was all smiles with no personality while Betty seemed determined to make Alec interested in her cleavage. Alec had to resist the urge to explain to her that they'd both die of old age before that happened.