Chapter Text
Magnus left the Institute feeling strange.
He stumbled a bit as he walked home, feeling too unsteady to make a portal, his magic running nervously under his skin like it was trying to seek out a leak somewhere. Magnus had told Alec to stay behind because he wanted to evaluate himself first before worrying his boyfriend, but now he was almost wishing he’d asked him to come along.
But no. Alec had tons of work to do processing Valentine’s arrest. He didn’t need to be indulging Magnus’s paranoia.
Magnus could still feel the ricochet of Azazel’s power into his body as he’d broken the pentagram.
He managed to make it home without walking into a wall and went immediately to his apothecary, pulling the jar of gold dust down from its shelf. It was expensive stuff, not to be wasted, but great for enhancing magical scanning, and Magnus needed all the help he could get.
He undid the top few buttons of his shirt to bare his throat, then dipped his fingers in the dust, smearing it over his forehead, lips, neck, sternum in loose, approximate sigils. Then he was pressing his golden fingertips to his temples and pushing his own magic back into his body.
It felt… unsettled. Shaken from its frame. Magnus poured more magic in, razing himself from the inside out, purging his system of any possible corrosive influence.
He found nothing. He was clean. Frustrated and relieved, he slumped into his apothecary chair, realizing belatedly that he’d just used up a significant portion of what power he’d had remaining after the summoning. Not the best decision considering they’d just released a Greater Demon into the city.
Still, he summoned himself a drink so he wouldn’t have to get up.
Magnus sat there, nursing his drink, twining magic around his fingers as if that alone could get it to behave normally again. Time seemed to pass slowly. Still, when he looked up, it was already light outside, the sun starting to rise over the horizon.
And his front door was clicking open.
Magnus stood, making his way towards the foyer. That must be Alec, finally released from the mess at the Institute. Hopefully, his presence would help banish the discomfort running under Magnus’s skin.
“You,” said a voice that was not Alec’s, “are far too difficult, Bane.”
Magnus had thrown up a shield and was halfway across the room before Azazel had even stepped from the foyer to the living room.
“Just couldn’t stay away, hmm?” he couldn’t help but taunt, but it sounded weak even to his own ears.
The demon stepped closer, slick and still in his movements, eyes flickering to black. “What did you do to my spell?”
Somehow, Magnus felt like he should know what Azazel was talking about. Somehow, he felt it was related to how he still wanted to tear off his own skin. “Oh, you know. Foiled it. I do like to do that.”
Azazel snarled. “You have no idea what I’m talking about. Typical.”
Magnus made his way along the wall towards the door, the demon following him at a distance. “Well, if you’re looking for an apology, I’m afraid—”
“It’s no matter,” Azazel interrupted, pushing up his sleeves, power circling his wrists, “late is better than never.”
Normally, Magnus might have stood a chance in a fight with him, but Christ, he was almost out of magic—
Behind him, the door swung open again. “Hey, Magnus, I hope it’s not too early, I just wanted to—”
No, no, this couldn’t be happening. Magnus wanted to turn around, wanted to shout at Alec to get out, run, but he didn’t want to draw Azazel’s attention to him—
—and before he could decide what to do, Alec was upon him. “Magnus, are you—”
Magnus didn’t catch the exact moment Alec spotted Azazel. All he knew was he was suddenly being shoved violently to the side and landing heavily on his hands and knees, the breath knocked out of him. He sat up, magic at his fingertips—but it was too late.
Or maybe unnecessary was the better word.
Alec summoned his bow, nocked an arrow, drew, and fired faster than Magnus could blink. Azazel threw a wall of magic at him, flung him off his feet, but it was no use. Alec’s aim was true, as it always was.
Magnus was so stunned afterwards that he could only sit and stare at where Azazel had been, couldn’t even bring himself to crawl down the hall to where Alec had been thrown to check if he was okay. He just— he couldn’t seem to move at all.
“Magnus?”
Alec found him first, skidding to his knees by Magnus’s side. Magnus noted gratefully that he seemed uninjured.
“Magnus? Are you okay?”
Alec’s hand was on his jaw now. Magnus met his gaze.
“You—” he swallowed— “You banished him.”
“I— yeah—”
“You pushed me out of the way.”
Alec just kept holding his gaze. He seemed concerned. “Yeah? I didn’t want him to hurt you.”
“You didn’t want him to—” Magnus shook his head, disbelieving. “And what about you, darling?”
“What about me?”
He was very earnest about it, and it made Magnus’s heart hurt in several different ways at once. He sighed. “Nothing, my dear. You’re perfect. I’m just rather stunned by you, is all.”
Alec wrapped his arms around him, and Magnus tucked his face into his shoulder, realizing belatedly that he was smearing gold dust all over his shirt.
“Apologies for the gold.”
“Yeah, I was gonna say. You look pretty sparkly, what’s up with that?”
Magnus huffed out a laugh. “It’s a magical enhancement. Helps with spell tracking.”
“Spell tracking…” Alec mused. Then he was pushing Magnus away from him and holding him at arms’ length, looking him over. “Wait, did Azazel do something to you?”
Clever boyfriend. “Tried to. But I’ve already examined my magic. There’s no demonic influence, I assure you.” Well. Other than that which was always a part of him.
“You’re okay?” Alec asked.
“I’m okay,” Magnus confirmed.
Alec surged forward to kiss him with a strength that nearly knocked Magnus over. Magnus kissed him back with what strength he could muster in his still-shaking frame.
When Alec pulled away, his lips were tinged with gold dust. Magnus reached out to rub at them absently, and Alec ran a hand up and down the back of Magnus’s neck, holding him close.
“What was he trying to do?” he asked.
“He tried to cast some kind of spell on me at the summoning,” Magnus explained. “I— my magic must have repelled it automatically. So he came to remedy that.”
Alec’s expression tightened. “What kind of spell?”
“I’m not sure.” Magnus let his magic weave around his fingers again, examining it. It felt a little more settled with Azazel off this plane, with Alec’s arms around him, but that unease was still there, that disconcerting sense of almost. “But I will find out.”