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Various other shadowhunters are scattered in the city that aren’t from New York, he knows. Magnus Bane has been sighted in the city once again, and this time, Alec is going to make sure he never leaves—unless it’s with Alec.
There had been plenty of close calls. Different sightings of Magnus Bane have turned up dead ends or dead shadowhunters. The former High Warlock of Brooklyn is proving to be as illusive as he is hedonistic. It’s been a little over a year since the hunt for Magnus has begun, and all Alec can think is that his goal hasn’t changed. If Magnus isn’t going to come willingly (and he knows Magnus won’t), then Alec will hunt him down.
He’ll be a living trophy.
Alec can just see it now, clear as day.
Magnus on those golden sheets he’s taught Alec to love, bound by rope and runes, and never to leave. He’ll take care of the warlock, make sure he’s never harmed, just as he’s always done when they were together.
They might not have left things on the best of terms the last time they’d seen each other, but Alec believes in them. Though if Alec were being honest, he still isn’t sure why they had fallen out in the first place. Magnus didn’t seem to understand that at the time, he had been leagues away from the trophies that lined Alec’s favorite room. If only he’d remained that way, then they wouldn’t have to reach such an annoying point. All this could have been avoided.
He double checks his arrows, soaked in sedative and runed to prevent warlocks from using magic once hit.
An infinitesimal splinter at the tip of the shaft for vampires.
Silver to stop a wolf.
Sedative to take anyone down.
Poison to withhold magic.
Pulling his bow over his head, he tests the elasticity of the string and runs his thumb over the runes carved into the grip.
This is it. He can feel it.
He’s going to bring Magnus home.
Twenty minutes later, there’s an explosion of activity as the Institute is thrown into a red alert for an extreme amount of demonic activity they normally associate with the summoning or arrival of a greater demon. He frowns at the coincidence. Or was it? Was this Magnus’ doing? Was he hoping to distract the shadowhunterns from something else entirely? Alec knows Magnus is smart and powerful enough to pull it off, too.
He commands his people and sends out teams all over New York, with explicit instructions to kill demons and incapacitate anyone thought to be working with them. Incapacitate. It’s a broad enough order that he knows would lead to some shadowhunters bringing home new trophies without leaving the Institute bereft of any possible suspect to question.
Isabelle stops him just as he’s about to leave, a question in her eyes that reminds him far too much of Magnus and his sister’s attachment to Downworlders that he can never quite comprehend. No one had questioned him deploying himself to Brooklyn, but then again, Izzy wasn’t just anyone.
Alec shakes his head and shrugs her off.
She would never understand. For all of Isabelle’s greatness with the skills she possessed, she didn’t take pride in the same things Alec did.
He doesn’t bat an eye as he pushes open the loft’s door, looking around the place that hadn’t changed at all since the last time he and Magnus had been there. Rustling in the bedroom reaches his rune-enhanced hearing and he’s immediately on guard. He nocks an arrow into place and silently makes his way to the room he had once shared with the man he thought he was going to spend the rest of his life with.
No, not thought .
They’re still definitely spending their lives together.
He’ll make sure of it.
Peeking into the room, he sees movement and aims for the moving figure. He slowly opens the door, only to find that it was a little girl instead.
Madzie.
“Hey little shark,” Alec calls out, angling his weapon down but not disarming himself.
The little girl startles and turns to him. Her eyes are wide and the gills on her neck expand as if she’s trying to get more air. Scared. Madzie’s afraid of him. The realization makes his stomach churn.
“What are you doing here, little shark?” He squats down. “Did Magnus ask you to get him something?”
Her vehement disagreement as she shook her head leads Alec to believe that Magnus has indeed sent her there. He moves closer, and debates putting his bow down but ultimately decides against it. Just in case.
“Madzie,” someone calls out from the direction of Magnus’ apothecary. Alec’s immediately on edge, looking sharply in the direction of the bedroom door.
“Madzie, it’s time to go,” Alec hears again, and he positions himself to stand with both Madzie and the door in his view as he waits for whoever enters the room. “Seems Magnus really isn’t here.”
Raphael Santiago comes into view, and Alec’s body trembles with the unspent adrenaline. The vampire raises a brow at him, looking unphased and unsurprised. With vampiric hearing on Raphael’s side, Alec isn’t surprised.
“Come on, Madzie,” Raphael offers a hand out to the little girl, and Alec doesn’t stop her from walking towards the Vampire Leader and taking his hand.
She steps right into Raphael’s hold and the man takes her into his arms and hoists her onto his hip with ease. The sight unsettles Alec. It used to be him that Madzie ran and clung to.
“We’ll be going now, shadowhunter.” Raphael says slowly, as if daring Alec to stop them.
“Where is he?”
For a second, Alec thinks Raphael’s going to speed away or Madzie’s going to conjure a portal. He’s pleasantly surprised when neither happens and Raphael just tilts his head to the side and says, “No one knows.”
And then just calmly walks away.
When the front door closes behind the pair, a voice Alec hasn’t heard in over a year filters into his ears.
“I think I recall saying that if I ever find you near my loft again, I’ll cut off your pretty runes and I’ll hang them on my wall.” Magnus enters the living room from the open balcony doors, looking as handsome as always in a blue shirt that Alec thinks he’s never seen on the warlock. His hair is styled to perfection, a few red streaks in them, and his cat’s eyes glow as he drops his glamour.
“I’m here to take you in, Magnus.” Alec’s voice is steady as he braces himself for a fight. “No one has to get hurt.”
Magnus bristles, “Oh? You think it wouldn’t hurt when you finally gouge my eyes out? Ah, but of course, I’d probably be dead by then, wouldn’t I? And I suppose it doesn’t matter that I’ve done nothing wrong, does it? So long as the Clave has decreed it, then I shall be a fugitive; one you have to hunt down, no less.”
“Magnus—”
“I’m surprised you didn’t parabatai track me with that bow and quiver,” Magnus raises a brow. “Though I suppose you still would not have found me then.”
Alec doesn’t bother correcting him; doesn’t bother telling him that he has tried to track Magnus down with Jace. Only, it seemed to fizzle out to nothing no matter what he does. He takes a step closer to Magnus, who only holds a finger up to signal him to stop.
“One last hunt, Alexander.” Magnus says, as he steps back and conjures a portal. His smirk reminds Alec of the first time he’d seen a photo of the warlock, sitting among scantily-clad men and women, looking down at the camera as if he owned the very person looking down the lens. “Find me.”
The distinct sound of an arrow released in the air registers in Alec’s mind as soon as the portal closes.
He looks down at his hands as they tremble. There’s no arrow nocked nor an arrow on the floor. His bow falls as his grip loosens, and another portal opens behind him.
Alec rounds on the new arrival, eyes wide and filling with tears.
“Congratulations,” Isabelle says snidely, even as she offers him a hand. Her eyes are as glassy as his, but he flinches at the disdain he sees there, clear as day. He takes her hand anyway, and he isn’t too surprised when she cuffs him, but is caught off-guard that it is neither Clave regulation nor any of the Lightwood ones. A crude MB is engraved on each cuff, and he recognizes the font before he even registers that Isabelle’s pulling him.
She leads him through the portal and on to an unfamiliar meadow.
The stars shine brightly above them, and a group of about twenty surround them. Among them stands a green-skinned man standing by Raphael, who looks ready to kill Alec if not for the squirming blue skinned toddler in his arms.
“Has anyone ever told you,” Catarina says from behind him, voice even but higher than normal. “What happens when someone steps through a portal unconscious?”
No one waits for Alec to reply, and he refuses to turn around, already having a feeling of what he’s going to see.
“They get lost in limbo,” Madzie whispers, sniffling. “Uncle Magnus used it to get rid of…” She hiccups. “He used it to give us a place to stay.” More sniffling. “To run to.”
“He was conscious enough to direct himself here.” The green-skinned man says, using magic to force Alec to turn around.
Isabelle didn’t have to put much force behind her knee to the back of his own to get him to fall. His eyes find where Magnus lays unmoving, head pillowed on Catarina’s lap.
Raphael’s voice is loud and clear despite the low murmur going through the crowd as he says, “Long enough to see his sons one last time.”
“Long enough to tell us you get to keep the body.”
A portal opens behind the group, and they all step back into it, weary of turning their backs to the pair of nephilim among them. When it’s only Raphael, the blue kid, the green man, Madzie, and Catarina left, Alec doesn’t care how it looks as he crawls over to Magnus. The bright red fletching of his arrow is a stark contrast to everything and everyone around it, and in his head he goes through the list of poisons and enhancements he infuses all his arrows in.
An infinitesimal splinter at the tip of the shaft for vampires.
Catarina’s hands spark an eerie orange before she gently places Magnus’ head down and steps away from him. She pulls Madzie away from Magnus, and though the little girl puts up a fight, Catarina is quick to remind Madzie they can’t stay there because the shadowhunters are about to arrive.
“Papa,” a young boy’s voice calls out, and Alec supposes it must be the boy in Raphael’s arms. He barely registers it as he maneuvers Magnus into his arms. It’s a bit pathetic, with the way his hands are cuffed and Isabelle stands sentry behind him. He doesn’t know how to make it easier unless Isabelle undoes the bindings, but he doubts the likelihood of it for as long as the others are there.
Raphael shushes the boy, murmuring too softly for Alec to understand, though his heart pounds loud in his ears when the boy starts crying.
“Papa!” He hears. “I want papa!”
The cries stop abruptly as the others leave the scene.
Silver to stop a wolf.
He doesn’t even realize he’s repeatedly saying Magnus’ name until he’s startled to a stop by Isabelle placing something sharp in his hands. A dagger? A knife? A scalpel? At that point, it could have been the soul sword and Alec wouldn’t have been able to tell.
“Magnus,” he calls out, voice hoarse and tears flowing freely.
Sedative to take anyone down.
Magnus looked beautiful even as he laid limp in Alec’s arms. He manages to caress Magnus’ face with the hand not holding whatever it was Isabelle had given him.
“Hey, hey,” Alec whispers softly, just as he had every moment he’s wanted Magnus’ attention without startling him. “It’s me. It’s just me. Open your eyes, Magnus.”
Of course, there’s no response.
“They’ve left,” Isabelle tells him. “I suggest you do it now before I burn the body.”
Alec freezes. What?
Poison to withhold magic.
“Magnus’ eyes,” she looks down at him, expression cold. “Your trophy,” Isabelle spits, turning away. “That was his last few words. Take care of my boy and give my eyes to Alexander. ”
Alec doesn’t bother hiding his sob as Isabelle undoes his handcuffs now that they’re properly alone with no chance of the warlocks returning. The wards that had kept the meadow hidden are beginning to lift, and he knows they’ll be easier to find if anyone so wishes.
He looks down at the angelic rune on his arm and thinks back to the trophy room in his manor.
“...I’ll cut off your pretty runes and I’ll hang them on my wall.”
Steeling himself, Alec sets Magnus down so he’s lying flat on the bed of grass and lifts the scalpel.