Chapter Text
Prologue
“Oof,” Alec felt all his breath whoosh out of him all at once as a fist connected with his solar plexus. A burst of green magic surrounded him and threw him back across the glade. There were too many of them and he was alone. He tried to fight back but nothing was working. The grip of magic was too strong.
Why had he followed that demon? It had separated him from Isabelle, Jace and Clary and led him straight into a Warlock camp.
How could he have been so overconfident and so stupid?
He was going to die because of it.
The war was finally going to rip him away from this world. To be honest, he was lucky he had lasted until he was twenty. Some were much less lucky.
The magic assaulting his body granted him a brief reprieve, and he shakily pulled himself up onto his knees, silently saying goodbye to his family and reciting a quick prayer to the Angels.
“Any last words, shadowhunter?” The warlocks were surrounding him. The one directly in front of him was powering up his magic in his hands. Alec knew this would be the magic that ended his life.
He remained silent. A shadowhunter did not beg for their life. Last words weren’t needed. He’d said what he’d needed to in his mind.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and relaxed his body. He was ready. At least he had taken the demon down with him, if not any of the warlocks.
Perhaps his siblings would follow Alec’s trail and find the warlocks. They could get rid of them together. That last thought gave him all the strength he needed to face his impending doom.
A searing heat enveloped him, worse than anything he’d ever felt before. He wouldn’t scream.
“Stop! Wait, stop!” A voice? Was he imagining it?
“He’s a Lightwood, stop!” Everything faded to black. Alec didn’t hear or feel anything anymore.
Chapter 1
Pain. Darkness. Movement. Pain. Light. Voices. Whispers. Pain. Stillness. Darkness.
The feelings and awareness came in stages as Alec drifted in and out of consciousness.
Was he dead? Was this what being dead felt like? Why could he still feel pain?
Who was talking? Angels?
What was happening?
An unknown amount of time later, Alec felt a groan pass through his lips and his eyes fluttered open, unseeing at first, but slowly taking in his surroundings.
It was dark, but he wasn’t inside. He was on the ground and could feel the earth underneath his hands. Looking above him, he could see the moon.
Where was he? With another moan of pain, Alec pushed himself into a sitting position, with what appeared to be a tree behind him, which he leant against to support himself.
He lifted his arms so he could see them more clearly. He was covered in burns. No wonder his body hurt so much.
What had happened to him?
Taking a closer look at his surroundings he realized that he was in a cell of some kind. The branches of the tree behind him and had been twisted and brought to the earth, effectively locking him inside.
Magic. He’d been taken by the warlocks. That was the only possible explanation.
For some reason they had decided not to kill him.
Fuck, that made Alec angry. Any decent shadowhunter would rather die than be taken prisoner. He thought he was going to die. Why didn’t they kill him? The burn marks on his body were proof enough that they had intended to kill him.
Then he remembered the voice. Someone had told the warlocks to stop, just because he was a Lightwood. They probably thought they could use him for something. He would have laughed if he body wasn’t in so much pain. There was no way he would give up any information to them. And he knew a ransom would be ignored. It was his own fault he’d gotten captured, no one would come for him.
He became aware of the sounds of something moving. Something or someone was getting closer to his cell. His body tensed through the pain, he would always be prepared for anything, no matter what.
“So I see you’re finally awake.” A man said. No, not a man. A warlock. This warlock had dark skin and horns protruding from the top of his forehead. No one could mistake this creature for a man. Not without some powerful glamours. Alec stayed silent.
“My name is Elias, I’m your guard.” Alec just stared, he wasn’t going to lower himself even further by talking.
“Don’t you want to know where you are?” Alec tilted his head, giving the warlock a look.
“Suit yourself.” There was a flair of orange, and a chair appeared near to the cell, which Elias slumped down into. He was only quiet for about thirty seconds.
“This is our main camp. Like our home. This is our Idris,” Alec groaned, hitting his head back against the tree feeling his headache intensify. Did this guy never shut up?
“You should feel honoured that you’ve been granted entry here. Many of us think you shouldn’t have been, but it’s not like you could find your way back if we ever let you go. I’m not sure the likelihood of that though, since so many of us think we should have killed you.”
God he was a rambler. Alec hated ramblers, ignoring the fact that he could turn into one himself in certain situations. Maybe that’s why he hated it so much, because it was a bad quality that he could recognize in himself.
Or maybe it was just because this was a warlock and he hated them. All of them.
The war between shadowhunters and warlocks had begun around two hundred years ago. Shadowhunters were taught as young children how the warlocks had challenged the Clave and tried to take power for themselves, attempting to destroy all nephilim in the process.
As if that would ever happen. Two hundred years and they still hadn’t come close to achieving their goal. Well, the shadowhunters hadn’t won the war yet either, but they would.
Alec realized that while his mind had been away thinking about the war, the warlock was still talking.
“...a good idea, right?” Alec just rolled his eyes. They must have used magic to find out what would make him want to kill himself the most. This had to be a warlock form of torture. He cracked.
“Will you just shut up!?” The warlock jumped a little, surprised by Alec’s outburst. He had the nerve to look offended.
“Hey come on, I was just trying to be friendly here...”
“Well don’t.” Alec spoke with a tone of finality. The warlock huffed and slumped down in his seat some more.
Finally, Alec had some quiet.
~~~
~~~
~~~
Isabelle grimaced as the last demon in front of her turned to goo, covering her in a foul smelling greenish liquid.
“Yuck. Why are demons so gross?” She questioned to no one in particular. There wasn’t anyone around to hear her anyway.
That was until Clary came jogging into the clearing Isabelle had just cleaned out.
“Iz, are you okay? I’m sorry we got separated from you...” Isabelle grinned.
“Of course I’m fine. Where are Jace and Alec?” On cue, Jace appeared out of the trees. His eyes swept over Isabelle, checking for injuries. He nodded his satisfaction when he saw she wore nothing more than a few scratches and demon blood.
He did notice one of her earrings was missing, damn Izzy would be pissed when she realized that later!
“Everything clear your side of things?” Isabelle asked them.
“Yes,” Clary answered.
“So now do you guys want to tell me where my big brother is?” Isabelle had moved in their direction, trying to look for a sign of Alec through the trees.
Clary turned to look at Jace and they frowned at each other. Izzy caught them.
“What’s that look for? What happened?”
“Alec got separated from us too.” Jace told her, finally. He had prepared himself for the full weight of her glare, but it still almost made him flinch away. Izzy could be terrifying when she wanted to be.
“What direction did he go? How could you lose him? We have to search now.” Storming away through the trees, Clary and Jace had little option but to follow her.
~~~
An hour later and Isabelle was almost in hysterics. They had tracked signs of demon movement and found themselves in an abandoned warlock camp. There had been no signs of Alec, but shadowhunters were taught how to always conceal their presence.
This must have been where Alec had ended up.
Clary rested her hand comfortingly on Isabelle’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to find him okay? He’s fine, he probably just got lost somewhere,”
“Got lost in a warlock camp?” Izzy returned, bitterly.
“Don’t think like that,” Jace almost shouted at her, forgetting that they were in enemy territory and should probably be keeping quiet.
“How does your bond feel?” Clary asked. Jace brought his hand to rest on his rune. Alec and Jace were parabatai, warriors and brothers bound together. In battle their hearts beat as one. If one were to die, the other would feel like he had lost half of himself.
“Alec isn’t dead, but...” He trailed off. Isabelle fixed him with another deadly glare.
“But what Jace?”
“A while ago I felt pain through the bond. But we were all dealing with the demons, I assumed it was just pain from the fight. Maybe it was the warlocks.”
Izzy held in a scream and settled for smacking Jace on the shoulder.
“How can you not tell the difference between a battle injury and being in serious trouble?! You know what, never mind. I just need to find Alec. How does the bond feel now?”
Jace looked thoroughly chastised, even though Izzy had barely yelled at him. He closed his eyes and focused on the bond that tied him to his parabatai.
Concern racked through him when he realized he couldn’t feel anything.
“He must be unconscious. I can’t sense him at all.”
Isabelle seemed close to tears again, but she wouldn’t let them spill over. A shadowhunter didn’t cry. In times of war, death and loss was inevitable. They’d been raised with it, and they knew how to deal with it.
“Come on,” Clary said gently, “We should get back to the Institute and report this to Maryse. We’ll need backup if we’re going to find Alec.”
Reluctantly Isabelle agreed and the three of them trudged back out of the Forest Park where they had been fighting and found their way back to the New York Institute.
~~~
Maryse Lightwood was an impressive and terrifying woman to behold. She held herself tall and had a formidable no nonsense attitude which was clear from the first moment anyone saw her. As the Head of the New York Institute she had certain reputations to uphold after all.
Currently, she had only looks of disdain for the three young shadowhunters standing in the entry hall of her Institute. She eyed their disheveled appearances and nervous dispositions. She knew that they weren’t going to deliver a report of a successfully completed mission.
“Where is Alexander?” She asked at last, unimpressed when all she received were looks of hesitation.
“Do not make me repeat myself,” Came the harsh order. As his parabatai, Jace stepped forward to deliver the news.
“What do you mean gone?”
“There’s no sign of him. There was an abandoned warlock camp where their had clearly been a fight. We couldn’t see Alec’s body so we can only assume he’s been taken prisoner.”
Maryse’s silence was more unnerving than anything she could have been yelling at them.
“How could you let this happen? Never mind, I don’t want to hear your excuses.” She cut Jace off as soon as he’d opened his mouth.
“I’m disappointed in all of you. Tomorrow, you will return to the camp sight and look for anything you might have missed. You will find Alexander and bring him back. Understood?”
Despite fearing that there would be nothing else to find, the three assented their agreement and were finally allowed away from the glare of their commander.
Clary fell into Jace’s arms for support the moment they were far enough away.
“God, your mother scares me sometimes,” She admitted, hiding her face in her boyfriend’s neck. Izzy chuckled,
“Yeah you’re not alone. When I was a child warlocks weren’t the subjects of my nightmares, my mother was.”
“Come on, she’s not that bad,” Jace defended.
“Hey, you didn’t know her until you were ten. If you’d have met her earlier you’d have been scared shitless of her too.” Jace shrugged but didn’t argue. Izzy was probably right anyway.
He understood enough from Alec what it had been like to grow up with Maryse Lightwood as your mother. She was tough and unrelenting. There was so much expectation on her children to be perfect that she accepted nothing less.
Jace started pulling Clary along again to their shared room.
“Come on, let’s clean up and sleep. We’ll need to be well rested for tomorrow,” Izzy agreed and said goodnight, before heading off to her own bedroom.
~~~
~~~
~~~
Alec’s ears perked up when he heard the sound of someone approaching his cell. He’d had blissful silence for the last few hours, his guard finally having given up on trying to talk with him.
He’d passed the time by playing with his magic and skimming it across his hands. Alec had kept his gaze down with disgust. He hated the use of magic.
“What are you doing here?” His guard asked the newcomer, whom Alec still couldn’t see.
“I’m here to take over and explain things. You’re free to go, Elias.” It was a male, Alec could tell from the voice.
“Thank god. This is the most boring shadowhunter I’ve ever met,” The new man laughed.
“Well I’m sure I’ll find out.” Elias happily scampered away leaving Alec and the newcomer alone together.
It was dawn now, small bright rays of light were beginning to seep into the glade. The newcomer moved to sit down on the chair that Elias had left behind and...oh. He was beautiful.
Alec had never seen a more beautiful man. Warlock. Oh gods, what was wrong with him? How could he be finding a warlock attractive?
True, he didn’t have any obvious warlock marks that Alec could see, but that didn’t change what this man obviously was.
Alec was lost in his eyes, a deep dark brown lined with golden glitter which complemented his skin tone perfectly. He was clearly of Asian descent and was tall, perhaps not as tall as Alec but not many people were, with strong muscles clearly hidden beneath his clothes.
And oh, his clothes. The warlock was wearing a sheer red shirt with an open neck, revealing a large portion of his chest where Alec found himself staring after managing to tear himself away from the warlock’s eyes.
His leather pants were tight and Alec was willing to bet they molded to his ass perfectly. Alec had a brief moment where he wished the warlock would stand and turn around for him.
Stop, he told himself internally, he shouldn’t be thinking this way. This was a warlock. Someone who he had been trained to hate and kill since birth.
A small cough brought Alec’s attention back to the warlock’s face. The warlock was smirking at him. Annoyingly, Alec felt a blush staining his cheeks. Of course the warlock had caught him staring.
“So, it’s nice to finally meet you Alexander Lightwood.”
“You have me at a disadvantage,” Why was Alec talking to him? “You know me but I don’t know you,”
The warlock looked mildly amused.
“Well than, allow me to enlighten you. Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn at your service.” Magnus made a small bow from his seat in a mocking gesture.
Recognition flooded Alec. He knew about Magnus Bane. This was one of the most powerful warlocks in existence. They had files on him at the Institute, Alec had been taught all about this warlock. He’d seen a picture once, a long time ago, but it hadn’t done justice to the man sitting before him. But one word kept flashing in his mind...dangerous. Alec was in trouble.
“I know your voice,” Alec told him, “You were the one who stopped them from killing me. Why?”
“Why do you think I did it?” Alec shrugged, determinedly ignoring the spike of pain it sent through his body to do so.
“How should I know? I don’t know how you warlocks think. But you know I won’t give you anything. Since you want all of us shadowhunters dead anyway, surely it would have been better to kill me?”
Magnus stood and approached the cell, leaning in closer to get a better look at Alec.
“You think we want all of you dead? You really don’t know anything about this war, do you?” Alec frowned, what was that supposed to mean? “
Well, I can’t have someone like you thinking like that,” Magnus’ hands began to glow blue and the tree branches began returning to their normal state, “Come on, pretty boy. Let me show you around.”
Pretty boy? Did Magnus think he was pretty? Was he just toying with him? Alec held in his confusion as he used the tree to help himself stand and slowly limped his way over to the warlock.
He was led through a fairly large area with lots of trees which were also clearly used as cells when needed and then abruptly into a whole bustling village within the forest.
Magnus stepped out and spread his arms dramatically wide, a grin on his face.
“Welcome to our world, Alexander,”