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The four of them—Jace, Isabelle, the mundane turned Shadowhunter Clary, otherwise known as Valentine’s daughter, and Alec—had been sent on a mission into a forest in upstate New York to poach a rogue nest of vampires, who were kidnapping mundanes from campfires and sucking their veins dry of blood. Alec did not understand why the mundanes were camping in the first place: winter had long fallen over New York state. The chill permeated the state with the haunting omen that the weather could always plunge past any temperature remotely tolerable. The mundanes ought to stay home and away from the obvious danger of the unforgiving snow that was always just one gust of wind away from killing them.
So far, Alec and the others had been there only for the afternoon and evening portion of their twenty-four-hour watch period. Once the blue skies darkened to the moon and stars, Isabelle ventured into the woods to keep watch over the group and Alec remained behind at their campsite to keep watch over Clary, who was practically bait, and Jace, who never actually did his job whenever Clary was around.
But ever since Isabelle had left, Jace sat beside Clary on a log by the fire, cupping her cheek. Clary shyly looked away. Jace’s smile softened as he looked down at her lips. Alec crept around the perimeter, fighting to keep his attention on the mission and not on the burn in his chest at the sight of them. Once he would have burned to be in Clary’s position, but he did not want Jace anymore. He wanted someone else—someone so frighteningly attainable. Magnus Bane.
Clary giggled softly as Jace leaned in closer, and that was it. Alec hitched his bow and arrows over his shoulder and left the campsite. He stalked into the woods, passing by Isabelle.
Leaning against a tree, Isabelle flexed out her hands to examine her nails in the moonlight. She did not look up at Alec as he passed her. “Be careful out there, big brother,” she said, smiling. “There’s vampires.”
Alec smirked. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
The wind whispered through the branches, leaves clattering. He closed his eyes and walked blindly through the forest, flexing his hands in his leather gloves, inhaling the sharp bite of the night air. Sometimes he hated New York City, its smoke and steam and constant noise of millions of people sharing one tiny sliver of land. Alec could do without the cold of the forest, but the quiet reminded him of the woods that surrounded Alicante. He paused to silence quiet the crunch of the snow, soil, ice, and sticks beneath his boots. He kept his eyes closed and just listened, savored the quiet, the sensation of being alone with only himself and the world beyond everyone else who shared it with him.
But then a stick snapped.
Alec stiffened, cracked open his eyes. Listened, readied himself to grab an arrow and prep his bow to battle.
Another stick snapped. Then another. A woman chuckled, and a man joined. He recognized neither of them.
Six vampires stepped out from behind the trees and shadows.
A woman crept toward him, face have cast in darkness, but the light glinted off her teeth as she smirked, fangs baring. “I love angel blood,” she said, “and boy, do you smell delicious.”
He reached for an arrow, settling it into position. “This can end in a few ways,” he said and tipped his head to her. “It’s up to you.”
She regarded the other vampires over her shoulder. “Give us your best shot, Shadowhunter.”
In a split second, she bolted at him. Alec shot the arrow. It pierced clean through her ribcage. She collapsed, dead before she hit the snow. At the first snarl from the still undead vampires, Alec booked it.
He ran through the forest, leaping over logs and dodging wayward branches and bushes. He had to alert the others for back up, but he needed to secure a semblance of safety first. He could not fetch his stele and send a fire message while playing cat and mouse with vampires through the forest.
The trees started to clear up ahead.
He jumped over a log and landed in the clearing, boots skidding over the snow covered, flat expanse of a massive frozen lake. Heart thudding, Alec ran to the center of it.
At the shoreline, the vampires leaped onto the clearing, yelling as soon as they slammed down on the ice. Excited from the adrenaline of the chase, Alec wrote the fire message and sent it off to the others. Then he prepped his bow and arrow. “Like I said!” he shouted. “It’s up to you!”
A man rolled back his shoulders and charged.
Alec shot the arrow.
It dove into the man’s heart. He fell hard on his knees, crashing face first onto the ice.
A fissure in the ice echoed with an ominous crackle. Alec disregarded it, locking another arrow into position and readying to aim. The vampires and Alec stood on their sides of the lake, neither moving, just watching and waiting.
Two vampires charged into the lake. Alec shot at one—their corpse crashed onto the lake, splitting the ice with another crack. The next arrow was snatched and set into position in a matter of seconds. The vampire came close enough for Alec to glimpse solid facial features. As his fingers slipped away from the fletching and the arrow pierced the air and the vampire’s chest, Alec witnessed the shock and resonance overtake the vampire as they died.
The vampire fell.
Their fall tore the ice in two, the crack severing the ice between Alec’s legs. The ice broke. He plunged into the lake.
He jolted at the shock of the freezing water, kicking out instinctively and grasping at the ice sheets to hoist himself back up, but his muscles stiffened and locked up, his nails scrapped at the long layer of ice—he had drifted away from the hole without noticing. His eyes burned from the water and its freezing cold temperature, but frantically he kept searching for the hole he had fallen through. The pitch-black water hid the surface, only his fingertips detecting it until he floated and knocked his face against the ice. Through the hazy gray of the ice, a burst of orange and red light illuminated the sheet in a sunset glow. A long blue stream of light ignited, then disappeared in an instant. A seraph blade plunged into a vampire, Alec bet.
His lungs burned. Instinctively, he sucked in a breath for air, only to inhale the frigid water. He coughed, choking, and swallowed water. Alec frantically scratched his nails over the ice, but his numbed fingers could not reach it anymore.
The midnight water stretched on infinitely around him. Above, black ovals obscured the moonlit ice. He focused on the heels of Isabelle’s boots, reached out to alert her that she stood right above him. She stepped in frantic circles just over his fingertips.
Then it hit him.
He might die right there, watching her search for him over the ice, maybe screaming out his name. There was so much he still had to live for. Tracking down Valentine. Fixing the mess his parents made for their family. He had never kissed a man. He had never taken Magnus Bane seriously on what existed between them.
There was another burst of light.
The water glowed bright blue like a clear ocean. The spindly, skeletal sunken tree branches reached out for Alec’s ankles from the bottom of the lake. Plants floated and swayed in the currents. He jerked around in the water, eyes burning as he found the source of the light: a portal had formed in the middle of the lake water.
A man swam out.
He wore a black vest and burgundy button up shirt, the earrings in his ears flashing from the portal’s light. In his mouth, he carried a stick of light.
Not thinking, Alec screamed to capture the man’s attention.
Lungs bloated with the lake water, he sank and started to lose consciousness. His arms stopped clawing at the ice and drifted beside him, bobbing with the currents. As he slipped to unconsciousness, he felt strong arms wrap around his chest and drag him away toward the light.
*
Alec woke up, coughing out a lungful of water. His skin ached from the warmth that surrounded him. The surface beneath him was firm, comfortable, warm to the touch against his dry clothes. His back burned from the heat, yet his fingers and toes remained cramped. He shifted beneath it, groaning—but as soon as he moved, he shook with tremors. His teeth clattered.
“Oh, thank—” said a familiar voice. A wave of heat brushed over him, drying out the water he had coughed out.
Alec’s eyebrows crinkled as he tried to place it. He turned his head, cheek rubbing against soft silk. Bewildered, he cracked open his eyes and saw a thick black duvet with intricate silver mandala details covering him. Thinner, but no less as warm, blankets were tucked around him beneath the blanket. His hair pressed against his forehead from a knitted beanie. He struggled to sit up. The blankets kept him snug in place.
Hands pressed down on his shoulders. He looked up.
Magnus Bane gazed down at him, his dark eyes softening.
His heart bloomed. “Ma-Mag-nus?” he stuttered.
A smile flitted over Magnus Bane’s handsome face. “The one and only. Take it easy, Alexander.”
He smiled, not thinking, just liking the sound of Magnus’s voice. He wished Magnus would not sit beside him but slip under the blankets with Alec and hold him tight. He could have died under than ice and let all this fear over loving Magnus guide his every thought and action. The Clave, his parents who had once supported Valentine, his career—none of that had saved him from the frozen lake.
“I—” His teeth clattered too much to speak. “I’m—so—cold.”
Magnus waved his hands and directed an orange light at Alec that blanketed him in warmth. He drew a little closer and hovered his hands over Alec’s chest, pouring the orange light into him. Alec shifted closer, stopping once his forehead touched Magnus’s knee, the dark jean rough against his forehead.
Magnus held his shoulder, rooting him in place. “Try to relax. You’ve been through an ordeal. Let me get the potion, it’ll help.”
The mattress lifted as he stood up and left the bedroom. Alec watched him disappear out the open bedroom door, mind too fuzzy to focus on much else. The room felt incredibly less warm now that Magnus had left him. Alec closed his eyes, tired all of a sudden.
“Here,” said Magnus, the bed dipping as he sat down.
Alec stirred awake, having drifting into a light slumber. “Magnus?”
Magnus held a mug with painted paw prints and cat whiskers. Steam drifted out. “It’ll help stave off the rest of the cold.”
Alec took it, feeling a little hesitant at drinking an unknown potion, but he had never had any reason to doubt Magnus. Propping himself onto his elbow, Alec took the mug and closed his eyes as he started to drink. The potion had the perfect temperature, like a hot tea pleasantly cooled with milk.
Alec settled back down onto the pillows, watching as Magnus set the mug on the bedside table and started examining his nails and rings. A longing so deep overtook Alec at the sight. He felt the potion begin to work—his fingers and toes warmed up, his skin no longer irritated by the warmth that surrounded him. He swore even his bones warmed up. All thanks to Magnus Bane.
“I want to give us a try,” Alec said.
Magnus stilled. “Come again?”
“Magnus,” said Alec. “I mean it. I want you, this, us. I had some time to think in the lake and realize what’s important.”
“You need to rest,” said Magnus, swallowing. “I should let you…”
Before he could rise up, Alec touched his knee. “Magnus, I mean it. I would never lie to you about this. Would do you say?” Feeling confident, Alec shifted away from him and patted the space beside him on the bed. “I could use some help getting warm.” His heart thudded.
Magnus hesitated, and just when Alec thought he might leave, Magnus sighed and waved a hand over himself, disappearing into a haze of purple magic only to reappear in pajamas. “Well, all right,” he said. “You raise a compelling argument.”
Alec scooted away a little to give Magnus more room. Cold air breezed under the blanket as Magnus lifted a corner and slipped under the covers. They laid on their sides, facing each other, only now and then they looked away shyly or their gaze lowered to their lips before whisking away again. Then Magnus burst out in a sharp laugh so infectious that Alec bit his lip to stop his smile.
“Well, ah—” Magnus cleared his throat. “If we’re going to do this, we should do it right. You need to be the little spoon.”
“Really?” said Alec, smile growing.
Magnus laughed, pushing at his shoulder. “Yeah.”
Alec turned around—in not too long, Magnus shifted closer to him, wrapping his arm around his waist and drawing him closer, hip to hip, his chest pressed against Alec’s shoulder, his breath pleasantly hot against Alec’s neck.
Closing his eyes, Alec enjoyed the warmth and silence of being with Magnus.