Smoke and Mirrors ▹ Alec Lightwood [1]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN
ALEXANDER

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     "Are you going to come home anytime soon?"

Adrian glanced up from the bird he had been staring at, looking at Jace with an annoyed expression. Jace didn't show any sign that he was aware of Adrian's ugly look. He was too busy glaring at a few nixies enjoying the nearby pond. They were throwing pebbles at mundanes as they walked by, but since most mundanes didn't have the Sight, the nixies were invisible. They laughed and splashed in the water each time a mundane looked wildly in their direction. Jace looked like he was tempted to dropkick one of them across the street, but as they watched, a child neared the pond. Jace shifted as if to get up and move the child away from the nixies himself, but Adrian held him back. Adrian knew nixies, and while they were mischievous most of the time, they were probably the most harmless creature inside the Seelie Court.

Sure enough, as the child got closer, the nixies stopped throwing pebbles and swam toward the edge where the child was. After a moment, the child started giggling, and Adrian could hear the nixies shouting in glee. The child could see them, which wasn't a surprise. Most mundane children could. Adrian didn't know why some of them grew up unable to see anything anymore. Jace had always thought it was because they lacked imagination, but Adrian held the belief that mundanes couldn't see the Shadow World because they didn't want to, not because they couldn't.

Jace, realizing the child wasn't in any danger, scowled and turned away when the child's parents came into view. He glared hard at Adrian when he noticed him smiling.

"Well?" he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the park bench. His jaw kept clenching. He truly had wanted an excuse to dropkick a nixie. "Are you going to come home anytime soon?" Adrian sighed, his smile dropping when Jace repeated the question.

"Are you going to stop asking that question every single time you see me?" Adrian grumbled, annoyed as he brought his coffee cup to his lips. He and Jace had met up at Taki's for breakfast, and afterward Jace demanded they go to the park under the guise that he wanted to spend more time with Adrian. While that may have been true, Jace always had an ulterior motive, and it was showing itself now.

"I wouldn't have to ask," Jace said, sounding even more irritated than before, "if you would just come home." He leaned forward when Adrian tried to turn his gaze away, narrowing his eyes. "It's been two weeks, Dri. Where are you even staying?" At that, Adrian threw him a smile that wasn't very genuine.

"That's a secret," he drawled. They both knew that Jace already knew where Adrian was staying. Jace's eyes narrowed again.

"Are you hooking up with that werewolf of yours again?" he demanded. Adrian felt a flash of irritation, glaring at the nixies. They had resumed their game of throwing small pebbles at unsuspecting humans.

"First of all," he drawled, his irritation diminishing somewhat when the nixies accidentally hit a passing werewolf in the face with pebbles and promptly dived back under the water when she turned and glared at them. "Oliver isn't mine. Second of all, no, we're not hooking up. He's just letting me stay with him for a while." Jace made a sound of frustration.

"What I don't understand is why you're staying there at all!" he exclaimed, standing and throwing his hands in the air. Adrian, now finished with his coffee, paid no mind to Jace's dramatics. He just calmly stood and started walking, throwing his empty coffee cup in a trashcan as he went. Jace followed, determined to get an answer out of him . "Alec won't tell me anything, but I know that he knows. He's been miserable ever since you left."