Shadows | Alec Lightwood | Discontinued

Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Adrian blinked, shaking away the memory in time to see Jace appear in the misty body of Valak. He felt Alec's grip tighten and assumed that it must be his memory.

"No, it's not true! The demon deceived me!" Alec suddenly shouted. Adrian broke his gaze away from the demon, turning it to Alec. The other Shadowhunters face twisted in a combination of pain, denial and embarrassment.

Adrian slowly blinked in realisation. Alec Lightwood was in love with Jace in much more than a Parabatai way.

He could only imagine how painful that would be.

Not only was Jace currently fawning over Clary but even if Jace magically woke up as straight as a circle, nothing could ever happen. Relationships between Parabatai were banned amongst Shadowhunters. If the Clave even suspected anything then both Shadowhunters would be stripped of their runes. Also, Shadowhunters in general aren't exactly the biggest gay relationship supporters.

Shadowhunters stand by duty and believe that it's their duty to keep mundanes safe which involves having children so that there are future generations of Shadowhunters and well, anyone whose ever taken biology will probably know that two guys (or two women) can't produce children together.

Adrian saw the whole thing as a load of nonsense.

He snapped out of his thoughts as Magnus shouted for them to not break the bond closely followed by someone shouting that it was okay to Alec. Adrian couldn't help but think that everything was going to hell very quickly. Although he'd have been more surprised if things had actually ran smoothly.

"No!" Alec shouted. Adrian could hear the slight crack in his voice as he did.

Then, in a sudden motion, Alec pulled himself out of the circle backing towards the wall behind. There was a shout from the other side of the circle.

In a moment of panic the rest of the circle disbanded, not that it mattered, the circle was useless now. Adrian didn't let go of Magnus' hand; instead he felt a tugging feeling in his gut as the warlock drew from his strength in an attempt to hold Valak back.

"I cannot contain the demon much longer!" Magnus' strained voice rang out.

The warlocks right hand glowed blue as it was pointed at the demon. Adrian struggled to focus on much else as he fought for his own consciousness from his energy being drawn from him.

Mundanes had things so easy.

Hearing a yelp followed by an almost ground shaking growl from Valak, Adrian lifted his head to see Jace in the grasp of the demon with Alec and Izzy trying to pull him back. In his hazy state he couldn't help but think it looked like they were all playing tug of war with Jace.

"The demon is growing stronger!" Magnus shouted as he fought to keep the demon contained in the circle.

"He's slipping." Alec called.

"Clary, help us."

From the other side of the swirling grey mass that was Valak, Adrian could hardly see what was going on. He could hear more shouting and more chaos followed by a brief flash of her sisters red hair accompanied by the glow of what he could only assume was a seraph blade.

The next thing Adrian heard was a wailing inhuman screech as the greater demon died.

He struggled to follow what happened next. Everything was a blur as he fought to stay awake.