Chapter Text
It was nearly dawn when the fever broke.
Alec hadn’t moved from Magnus’s side all night. The healer had come twice, muttering protective runes and chanting in a language older than the Pack itself, but nothing worked. Magnus’s breathing stayed shallow, his skin too cold. It was only when Rafe cried out—soft, sharp, like a call through the bond—that Magnus stirred.
Alec didn’t breathe until he saw Magnus’s fingers twitch.
“You came back to me,” Alec whispered, gripping his hand. “You came back.”
Magnus tried to smile, but it was weak. “Didn’t want to leave you alone with all this testosterone.”
Alec huffed a soft laugh, tears running freely now. “You’re a pain in the ass.”
“You married me,” Magnus murmured, eyes fluttering closed again. “That’s on you, boss.”
But the humor was short-lived.
By morning, Magnus could no longer stand. The healer’s diagnosis was quiet, but firm: the bleeding hadn’t stopped inside. The birth had torn something deeper than they’d realized—something magical. Being an omega, a spellcaster, and a first-time parent all at once had overloaded Magnus’s system.
He was dying.
Slowly. Painfully.
And magic alone wouldn’t save him.
Alec sent the others away. He couldn’t bear the way Izzy looked at him—like he’d failed. Like she'd handed him the most beautiful soul the moon had ever touched, and he’d shattered it.
He sat at Magnus’s side again, unable to speak for a long time.
Magnus didn’t ask for pity. He just asked for quiet. And to hold Rafe.
With shaking arms, Alec lifted their son and laid him gently against Magnus’s chest. The baby let out a tiny sigh, curling into the warmth instinctively.
“I won’t survive without you,” Alec whispered. “I won’t be strong enough.”
Magnus stroked the back of Rafe’s head, lips barely moving. “You’ve been strong your whole life, Alexander.”
“Not like this.”
“Then choose a different strength.”
Alec looked at him.
And then something ancient flickered behind Alec’s eyes—like a memory passed down in bone and blood. He stood abruptly, storming from the room.
Magnus didn’t ask where he was going. He could feel it in the bond. A decision had been made.
---
By the time the sun set, the ritual was ready.
In the clearing behind the Lightwood estate—an old place used only in legend now—Alec stood in a circle of salt and silver, bare-chested, teeth gritted. Jace and Izzy watched from the shadows, tension in every line of their bodies.
“This is reckless,” Jace said under his breath. “It’ll kill him.”
“No,” Izzy replied. “It’ll bind him.”
The Rite of Sanguis Umbra. Blood of the Shadow. A ritual so rare it had been banned by the Pack High Council. A binding of two souls so deep, so permanent, it could not be undone. Life for life. Heart for heart.
Alec had read it once, buried in an old book Hodge used to keep locked away. And now, he would do it to save the man who’d once tried to kill him—because he knew now that Magnus had never wanted to. He had only wanted to survive.
The moon overhead turned red as Alec opened his palm and let blood drip into the earth. The ground hissed. The runes on his skin began to glow.
“Magnus Bane,” he whispered, voice raw, “I give you all that I am. My strength. My bond. My soul. If death calls for you, let it come for me instead.”
He gasped as something deep inside his chest snapped. A rush of warmth and agony poured into the circle like wildfire.
And inside the manor, Magnus bolted upright with a scream.
---
Later, when Magnus woke, the fever was gone.
The pain had dulled.
The healer couldn’t explain it—only that Alec’s alpha magic had somehow fused with Magnus’s, knitting torn places in his soul that no spell could reach.
But Magnus didn’t care about the explanation.
He cared that Alec was now lying next to him, unconscious, pale, and shaking with the effort of what he’d done.
“You idiot,” Magnus whispered, tears dripping from his chin onto Alec’s hand. “You beautiful, impossible idiot.”
Rafe made a soft noise beside them.
And Alec stirred.
“You’re here,” Alec breathed, voice like gravel. “Still here.”
“Always,” Magnus said. “And this time, I’m never running again.”
Alec opened his eyes, weak but clear. He smiled for the first time in weeks. “Good. Because I just traded half my soul for you.”
Magnus kissed his knuckles.
“And I’ll spend the rest of our lives earning it.”
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