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Alec loved the thrill of a fight. The rush of adrenaline pumping through his veins, the sense of achievement when he took a successful shot with his bow, the hum of Magnus’s magic being used behind him and the occasional snarky comments from Jace slightly further away that Magnus always had a sassy reply for. He loved being the one to protect his parabatai whilst knowing that his boyfriend had his back too. That they had each other’s. Loved the trust between them all.
Admittedly, he did not love the stain of ichor on his clothes (an outfit Magnus had picked out for him for their date) or that his date with Magnus had to be postponed because Jace hadn’t correctly estimated how many demons he would be facing on his “solo patrol” which was definitely not safe for any shadowhunter.
Magnus and Alec were back to back, Alec shooting arrows to pick off the demons that tried to creep up on Jace whilst Magnus used his magic to keep them away from the pair. Jace was showing off as much as possible while counting how many demons he dispatched much to Alec’s exasperation. There were a lot of demons and the blond shadowhunter had been neck deep in them before Alec and Magnus had arrived. Since then the total count was down to about five.
Alec notched another arrow, focused and released it. Four.
“How many are left, Alec? I’m getting really hungry without dinner.” Magnus asked from behind Alec.
“Four. We’ll get dinner when we’re done, I promise.” Alec reassured him as he watched Jace dispatch another. Three.
“Thank god. Not long to wait then.”
Alec laughed. A mistake. One of the demons was approaching too fast and Magnus and Jace were both battling their own respective demons. Alec left his bow in one hand and unsheathed his seraph blade, the runes on it glowing the blue as it reacted to his angel blood. It was killed with two slashes, easy. Messy. Alec scowled at the ichor splatters all over him. He heard more than saw Magnus finish his battle, he looked over his shoulder to check he was okay before looking back over at Jace. Who was trapped against the wall, his blade too far away for him to reach and his daggers somewhere Alec couldn’t see.
“Magnus! Take this!” Alec didn’t look as he shoved his blade behind him for Magnus to hold rather than drop it (impact like that often caused damage to the blade) and lifted his bow to take the shot.
“Wait-shit…” Alec only vaguely heard Magnus swear, too focused on keeping his aim true so Jace wouldn’t be accidentally hit. He took a deep breath and on the exhale released the arrow. His shoulders slumped when the demon exploded into dust and Jace looked over with a grateful smile and thumbs up; Alec frowned as Jace’s smile vanished slowly and a look of confusion and apprehension spread over his face.
“What?” He called, looking down at himself first. He wasn’t injured, Magnus had made sure of that. Magnus.
Alec spun around, fearing the worst, but was met with something he had never even thought possible. Magnus was standing stock still, the blade hilt in both of his hands, he was free of any dirt or ichor or blood. But his eyes were closed, his lips drawn into a hard, straight line and his forehead creased and his eyebrows drawn together as if in pain; there was tension written in every line of his body. Alec only saw all of this at a glance though. What he was looking at completely was the reason for Magnus’s shift in behaviour.
The seraph blade was still glowing. Not the consistent light blue that was normal when a Shadowhunter held a seraph weapon. The runes etched into the edge of the blade were shining a deep red that was constantly shifting, lighter then darker then lighter again. It shouldn’t have been possible. Alec didn’t know how it was possible. Nothing like it had ever been talked about, mentioned in any books or even hinted at as a tiny chance of happening. It was new and it didn’t make sense. Not to Alec at least. Jace on the other hand came over as if Magnus wasn’t somehow holding a working seraph blade that was glowing bloody red .
Alec flinched as Jace clasped both Magnus’s and his shoulders, standing between them. A strained smile on his face.
“So I know this is a bit weird but I am positive there is a perfectly normal reason behind this. Right?” Jace’s voice was optimistic and upbeat, Alec didn’t really know how to answer that.
He tore his gaze away from the sword to look up at Magnus who in turn was watching intently at his reaction but he immediately looked away to avoid Alec’s eyes and it was like someone had poured something bitter and dry into his mouth. He struggled to breath and he desperately needed a drink, something that would ease the weight in his lungs and stomach.
“Right.” Magnus croaked out. Alec felt himself frown at the utter devastation in his boyfriend’s voice.
“Okay then. Well. I’m sure you guys are going to work this out. I will probably find out at some point too but right now I think you two need to go back home, have a good long chat and then let me know when you’re all sorted so I don’t have to set Izzy on you both. We good?” Jace looked between them both, still holding their shoulders as if they were three friends having a normal conversation like any other night.
Neither of them answered. Jace didn’t seem to take it personally though, he took a step back and nodded as if they had. In that moment Alec had never been more thankful that his parabatai knew how he was feeling without needing to be told outright.
“Great. Magnus, at some point Alec is likely to want his sword back. Alec, don’t go too hard on him. There’s probably a good reason why Magnus didn’t tell you he could turn seraph blades red. Keep that in mind. I’m going to wait until you guys actually portal back to the loft before I leave just in case.” Jace gave a long serious look to Alec which was ignored as Alec was far too focused on trying to catch his boyfriend’s gaze.
Magnus flipped the blade in his hand and offered Alec the hilt all without looking at him. Alec felt a cold wave of worry and panic wash over him as he took it and sheathed it. The red glow disappearing completely. He watched as Magnus turned away with a flick of his wrist to make the portal then went through. Alec followed, leaving a nervous Jace behind.
As soon as they stepped into the loft Alec expected Magnus to pour himself (and maybe Alec, he didn’t always knowing that the shadowhunter wasn’t much of a drinker) a drink. However, Magnus stood next to the portal until Alec was through, closed it then then finally, finally looked Alec in the eye, his glamour gone.
“I’m so sorry, Alexander. I-I can still call you that right?” Magnus’s eyes were watery and he was standing a fair distance away from Alec and it hurt. A lot. To know that Magnus was so scared about this that he thought Alec would leave him or hate him or-or he didn’t know what else but it was a horrible feeling.
“Magnus, of course you can I’m not- I’m just...I don’t…” Alec ran a hand through his hair and settled on taking a step closer to try and reach out for Magnus’s hand but the other man stepped backwards at the same time.
“Understand? I know, I...I know. I’m so sorry, I should have told you just in case something like this happened. I shouldn’t have kept it a secret or tried to hide it. I’m sorry. So sorry, Alec.” Magnus was searching Alec’s face for his reaction.
“I’m not angry Magnus. Like Jace said, you probably have a good reason for keeping it a secret. I’m not angry at you, please don’t-don’t think that.” Alec took another step forward, hesitating to see if Magnus would back away again. Thankfully he didn’t and Alec was able to intertwine their hands.
“Oh...I guess I ought to explain then.”
“If you’re okay with that, I won’t press you Magnus. I trust you.” Alec squeezed their hands lightly to emphasise his point, he was still there, he still cared.
“You deserve an explanation. But we ought to sit down, you must be exhausted on top of all this.” Magnus looked Alec over for any injuries and upon finding none lead them over to sit on the couch facing each other.
“You know that warlocks are half demon and half human. Mothers are always human and the ‘fathers’ are always the demon and most of the time it’s just lowly shapeshifters but...my father isn’t. I don’t know how much they teach you about the greater demons, do you know of the Prince’s of Hell?”
Alec nodded. “They rule the different realms right?”
“Yes. It is also rather noticeable that they are themselves fallen angels and retain the angelic blood in part.” Magnus waited for a response from Alec to check he was on the same page, Alec’s eyes were wide open but not out of fear. Shock mostly.
“Your father is a Prince of Hell. That’s why the blade lit up but it was red. You have angel blood.” Alec knew he was right as soon as Magnus looked away again as if ashamed to be reminded of the demon blood also running in his veins.
“No where near the quantity you have as a Shadowhunter but yes. My father is Asmodeus to be precise. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you-”
Alec shook his head and used his free hand to lift Magnus’s chin up so he could look into his eyes as he spoke.
“Stop apologising. There is nothing to apologise for. I’m not going to stop caring for you just because of who your father is. So stop.” Alec smiled genuinely as he spoke but Magnus still seemed uncertain which was not very common and Alec wasn’t overly fond of it, even less so when he was partly the cause.
“Close your eyes and hold out your hands.” Alec said when the look on Magnus’s face didn’t change, he pulled his own hand away. His boyfriend looked questioningly at him for a minute but did as asked.
Alec dug in his pocket and pulled out the witchstone he carried when going on missions or patrols or in this case rescue missions for idiotic blonds. He placed it gently in Magnus’s hands and watched as it lit up in the same shifting shades of red as before.
“Okay, open your eyes.” He watched as Magnus flinched looking at the stone in his palm, Alec reached a gentle hand out and ran his thumb over Magnus’s cheekbone carefully drawing his attention away from the light. “I do not care that this stone turns a different colour when you hold it Mags. I really, truly don’t. I am not going to leave you after everything just because a rock or a sword turns red when I ask you to hold it. Please, trust me.”
Magnus looked into Alec’s eyes for a second before replying. “I trust you, Alexander. Thank you.”