Chapter Text
Camille was nothing if not patient.
She'd learned, over the years, that everything - love, fear, hate, crimes, all of it could be forgotten with enough time, if you were patient enough to wait.
This was a wait much longer than anticipated. But Alec Lightwood-Bane had been thorough and he had made sure that his successors had known she was not to be freed, no matter how many imprisonment appeals she filed. A low snarl left her lips at the reminder of the latest. She hadn't even been granted a visit, and the letter had simply cited that unless she provided new or additional information regarding her case, there was no need to meet.
But now? Now she'd found her chance.
War was coming to the Nephilim, more than a century in the making, and if the rumors were true, it was the vestiges of Edom coming for them. Fitting, considering who had torn down the realm in the first place. Alec Lightwood-Bane would see his entire world destroyed for what he had helped do.
Though that didn't matter. What mattered was getting this ridiculous sentence overturned and her release. In the wake of the imminent war, she'd promised to bring the European vampire factions to the table, and the new Inquisitor had been naive enough to believe her, and she was granted a meeting. She was young, and, if rumors were true, malleable. Perfect for her to take advantage of.
Camille studied her nails again and settled into the chair across from the desk. The guards had delivered her first and were standing outside the door and she frowned. There was no need for that. The sound of heels in the hallway had her looking up, a pleased smile curling her lips.
The last person she expected to walk through the door slipped in.
"Hello Camille," Magnus said, slipping into the chair across from her, raising his eyebrows with a smile. "How have the last few centuries in prison been?"
"Magnus," Camille grit out. "What are you doing here?"
Magnus raised both of his eyebrows. "I was told that a vampire in the Gard had promised to be able to bring the European factions on board for the upcoming war. Imagine my surprise when I found it was you making that promise, despite the centuries since you had any leverage with those clans."
"They are still-"
Magnus held up his hand and shook his head. "The Inquisitor may not know you, but I do. Which is why I am sitting here, and not her."
The opening was perfect. Camille smiled, saccharine and vicious. "And how is the woman measuring up to the standard of your late husband, hm?"
Magnus raised his eyebrows at her. "Quite well. She has some years to settle into the role yet, but she has been doing well. A fitting successor to Alexander's legacy, as they have all been."
"How many years has he been gone now?" Camille asked, her eyes drifting down to his hand. He was twisting the Lightwood ring on his finger and she scoffed. "You still wear his ring? You're more pathetic than I thought."
"There's nothing pathetic about it, Camille," Magnus said, keeping his voice pointed. "And your request will be denied. I'll inform the Inquisitor that your offer was a lie and schedule a meeting with them myself."
Camille laughed. "You think they'll meet with you?"
Magnus stood up and looked down at her. "The world has changed while you have been locked away Camille. I think you'll find it no longer has room for the likes of you."
"There is always a place for those willing to do what must be done," Camille growled. "I'll be able to wait them out, Magnus. You know how patient I can be. There will come a time when I am free, and we can be together-"
Magnus laughed and looked at her, raising both of his eyebrows. "Do you think I would be foolish to fall for those lines again? It may have been centuries, Camille, but your tricks are old."
"Speaking of old," Camille said, her eyes narrowing. "How old was dear Alexander when he passed? Did you enjoy watching him fade away?"
Magnus stared at her, his face blank and calm. "Do you think talking about this will bring me to your side?"
"I'll never leave you, Magnus. No matter how we draw apart. No matter what separates us, I will always be here," Camille promised, her eyes dark. "You'll come back to me. You always did."
"I would think," Magnus drawled. "That after three centuries, you would know that I am no longer interested in returning to your side."
Camille laughed, tossing her hair. "Maybe not yet. But all it will take is one day, where the loneliness is eating you alive. Will I have to save you from another bridge, you think?"
"No," Another voice cut in. "Because that's my job now. Forever and always."
Camille's eyes snapped to the other corner of the room when a glamour was abruptly dropped. Her eyes widened at the sight of Alec Lightwood-Bane standing there, relaxed and leaning against the wall in the corner, looking as though he'd been there for hours, unchanged though he should have been dead more than a century and a half now.
Magnus burst out laughing at the look of shock on Camille's face and held out a hand for Alec, glad when his husband joined him. "You see, Camille. You've lost. You'll be trapped here, forever. As long as we both live, and we've even left instructions in the event of our death."
Alec hummed and wrapped an arm around Magnus' waist, waiting for Camille's shocked eyes to shift to his. Her eyes were heavy as they scanned him, her nostrils flaring as she inhaled the scents in the room.
"What are you?" Camille snarled. "What did you become?"
Alec tilted his head and looked at her. "I'm a shadowhunter. The same as I ever was, and always will be. I just have a little bit extra, now, that wasn't there before."
Camille shouted and made to leap forward when the automatic chains in the chair snagged her and yanked her backwards. "I'll make you pay for this!"
Alec stepped around the table and stopped in front of the chair, watching as the chains bound Camille, leaving her glaring furiously at the both of them. "I'm never going to leave Magnus. Never," he whispered, his voice certain. "I've watched my entire family pass away and die. My parabatai, my sister, my brother, their children, even. All of them. And still I stay."
Magnus swallowed, his heart pounding as Alec leaned in closer to Camille. He never liked hearing the reminder of what Alec had given up for him, but he knew that there was no regret in Alec. Sad moments, times of nostalgia and missing them, of course. But no true regret.
"I stay, because of a concept you will never and have never understood, Camille," Alec continued, smiling. "I love him and I am loyal to him. We could, and have, spent years apart, but I do not love him any less, and never will."
Camille growled against the gag that had wrapped itself around her mouth and glowered at him.
"If I needed another reason?" Alec said, his smile shifting into a grin as he winked at her. "I stay to spite you. So. you know, no matter how long you try to wait, no matter how much you wait for the world to turn? You will die here, as a result of your own choices. Because of me. A mortal whose relationship with Magnus you expected to buckle under the first signs of pressure."
"Alexander," Magnus called.
Alec stood up, straightening, as he stepped away from Camille, reaching out for Magnus. "Shall we? We do have a date with some demons, after all."
Magnus laughed. "You just want to see if you can catch up. I'm up seventy-four to your sixty-seven as I seem to recall!"
"Because you were in the initial charge, of course you got more than I did!" Alec huffed, opening the door to the hearing room for Magnus, not bothering to look back at where Camille was bound and gagged in the chair still.
"It's not my fault you chose to stay in the back and help the support lines!" Magnus said. He waved his hand, locking the door behind him, giving a nod to the guards.
Camille seethed, snarling against the gag until the magical restraint faded and she was able to stand and destroy the chair she was sitting in, rapidly destroying every remaining piece of furniture in the room. She'd show them, she would!
~!~
Alec hummed and swung Magnus' hand happily between both of theirs. "I think that went great, don't you?"
Magnus snorted, rolling his eyes. "Sure, if you want to think of it that way."
"I chose to be optimistic, Magnus!" Alec said, lifting his hand to press a kiss to it as they stepped outside the Gard. "Now, shall we see if they need help on the Eastern front? That's where my last communication is from."
Magnus summoned a portal and gave a bow, gesturing for Alec to walk through. "After you, Mr. Lightwood-Bane."
Alec gave a blinding smile. "Why thank you, Mr. Lightwood-Bane."