Chapter Text
Electric blue filled Alec’s vision before the air around him throbbed. The pressure made him stumble, but his training allowed him to turn a would-be trip into a seamless roll behind a tree. His seraph blade glowed white-hot at his side.
“MAGNUS!” A shot of fire burst through the trunk, raining splinters onto Alec’s head. “Magnus, stop, it’s me! It’s Alexander!”
Not even the fullness of Alec’s name triggered a response from Magnus. Grass sizzled and blackened beneath his boots. The air was thick with mundanes screaming and the smell of ozone.
Alec swallowed and readjusted his sweaty grip around the handle of his blade. He’d come to Central Park for a date, which meant his bow was back in the Institute. Even if he wanted to strike back against Magnus, Alec would be forced to do so in close quarters. The smell of burning foliage reminded him how suicidal that would be. He risked a glance over his shoulder.
Gone was the warm gold of Magnus’s real eyes, replaced with harsh and poisonous green. Despite lacking pupils or even, it seemed, the ability to blink, they were still the most expressive things about him. It was as if someone had scraped out every piece of the man Magnus was, leaving behind only demonic blood. The sight of that…void wearing Magnus’s skin made Alec’s stomach lurch.
When the air began to shimmer with heat, Alec threw himself into a run, deliberately causing more noise than he normally would. He’d been trying to keep Magnus limited to their small battleground for the past twenty minutes, ever since Magnus snapped his fingers and nearly impaled Alec with a spike erupting from the ground. Since then, Alec figured out that Magnus was only focused on him; if Alec kept away from the humans, so would Magnus.
Except now Alec was left with no bow, no space, and no backup. He glared at the decapitated body several feet to his left. The Circle brand was still visible on the man’s stump of a neck.
A Circle member too fanatic for even Valentine. Alec didn’t think such a thing was possible. Whatever the man had done to lose Valentine’s favor, he’d thought he could get it back by presenting Valentine with an army of brainwashed Downworlders to act as kamikaze soldiers. Alec only half-listened to the man’s monologuing, too focused on trying to break through to Magnus. When it became clear that nothing was working, Alec switched tactics, launching himself at the ex-Circle member. His seraph blade had cut through the man’s neck like warm butter.
Except Magnus didn’t wake up.
And the only options left available to Alec were…unthinkable. At best.
“Magnus, please.” Alec kept moving, hoping the invisibility rune he’d hastily drawn on himself would buy him some time. “You know me! You love me! And I love you! I love you, Magnus!”
There were a dozen scenarios in Alec’s mind about how he’d first tell Magnus that he loved him. This was not one of them. Yet, silver lining, Alec was so focused on getting through to Magnus that he barely registered what he was saying. He didn’t stutter. He didn’t hesitate. His nerves were too frayed at the thought that Magnus would remain like this to twist his tongue into knots. Yet even that declaration fell on deaf ears. Magnus prowled through the trees, hunting down Alec’s voice.
“Did you hear me?” Alec didn’t recognize his own voice. This thin, desperate thing, like tracing paper pulled tight. “Do you remember when you said it to me? It was on the balcony at home three months ago, after I first moved in—Magnus, please, you have to remember!”
Magnus twisted abruptly and threw out his hand. Alec tried to dodge, but was a second too slow. He screamed in pain as blue fire slammed into his right side. His leg crumpled under him like wet tissue, the ground rising up to punch him as Alec fell face-first. He felt his nose crunch, and blood immediately wet his upper lip. Panting, Alec raised himself onto dirty elbows, and looked over his shoulder. Magnus advanced steadily. There was no compassion, sympathy or mercy in his blank eyes. His outfit and makeup gleamed under the summer sun, reminding Alec of creatures who wrapped their poison in the brightest colors possible.
There was no way Alec could evade Magnus now, not with his leg shriveling under magical flame. Magnus would catch him, and Magnus would kill him. Maybe that was the only thing to bring him back to himself. Maybe, with his mission complete, Magnus would wake up.
Alec’s stomach plummeted. If the spell was broken upon his death, then Magnus would wake up to find his lover’s corpse sprawled at his feet. He’d wake up to blood on his hands and the scent of burning flesh. He’d wake up to the realization that he’d killed the first person in centuries to open his heart. Alec knew Magnus well enough by now to know how that would destroy him.
That couldn’t happen. That must not happen.
There was no more time to defend or dodge. No more words that Alec could think of to break through the fog in Magnus’s mind. Alec’s only options were to die or…or…
Alec still had his blade. To use it would shatter something inside him, break him irreparably. He knew that. Yet as Magnus drew closer, Alec’s thoughts, disorganized from desperation and pain, whispered another truth.
He could take it.
The guilt, the self-loathing, the agony of loss…Alec could shoulder it all. It wasn’t that Alec thought himself emotionally stronger than Magnus. On the contrary, Alec was convinced that the strength of Magnus’s character was even greater than the power of his magic. But everyone had their limits, and Magnus shouldn’t be forced to confront his. Not if it was within Alec’s power to stop it. Even if it meant he was sentenced to live on after doing the unforgiveable.
Given the choice, Alec would choose his own suffering over Magnus’s every time.
Alec held on to that thought as Magnus raised his hand to land the final blow. Screwing his eyes shut, Alec poured all of his resolve into swinging his arm in a wide, steady arch as soon as Magnus was close enough to reach. The seraph blade cleaved across Magnus’s stomach, unleashing a torrent of hot blood. Magnus’s mouth dropped open in surprise and pain, and he looked down at himself. Alec heaved into the dirt at the first sign of an organ.
Like a broken lightbulb, the green flickered back to gold. Magnus dropped to his knees, and stared at Alec in confusion.
“Alexan…”
Alec sobbed as Magnus tipped over. He gathered Magnus’s body into his arms, trying to stop the bleeding, and blinking harshly when spots began coalescing before his eyes.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I love you, I’m so sorry!”
But neither Magnus nor the approaching darkness heard him.