Shadows | Alec Lightwood | Discontinued

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Walking through the streets of New York with Clary and Alec was probably one of the most tension filled activities Adrian had ever endured. A heavy silence filled the air despite the bustle of activity around them.

Both Clary and himself were somewhat annoyed with Alec for taking the necklace whilst in return Alec was probably annoyed with them as they would have kept it and put everyone else in danger. Adrian knew that his sister was also annoyed with him for not telling her about Idris.

In fact, Adrian not having any reason to be angry with his sister was the only thing that kept the three of them from being a perfect triangle of mutual annoyance.

Adrian shook his head, realising that he should probably stop thinking about it. He was beginning to confuse himself.

"So you won't tell us where we're going and you don't know why we're going there?" Clary asked, her shorter legs having to take much faster steps in order to keep up but Adrian didn't really notice. He didn't know what was wrong and he was worried.

"We're going there because people that I care about rang me saying that there was an emergency." He calmly replied as he lead the pair down a series of side streets.

"And you won't tell us where we are going because..?"

"I never learnt the address. I just know where it is." Adrian reluctantly replied.

"That's reassuring. I wish I'd never asked."

"Your lack of faith hurts Clary." His joking tone sounding far more forced than he'd intended as he stopped in front of the familiar house.

Adrian's eyes scanned the building but after a few seconds he realised that there wasn't anything out of place. Everything was how it had been the few times Adrian had been here.

He didn't know what to think.

"Wait here." Adrian told both his sister and Alec. "In the very unlikely event that I'm not back here in two minutes find Magnus Bane."

"I'm capable of protecting myself you know." Clary protested assuming that he didn't want her to follow in case there was a trap inside.

"I know." Adrian faintly smiled. "There is a magical barrier on the door which means that you can't enter unless you have something that has passed through the doorway before. I'm going to go and get you something."

This time Clary didn't try to stop him as he walked up the three that lead to the front door and walked inside. Adrian closed the door behind him.

He ignored the narrow corridor to his right and instead headed up the staircase. All three of the doors at the top of the stairs were open which wasn't surprising. The first two rooms seemed perfectly normal, however, in the third room papers were scattered across the floor as if someone had knocked them off. Adrian knew that Stefan would never have knocked the papers off. He was always far too concerned about things being neat and organised.

Carefully, he stepped over the papers and reached across the large wooden desk to grab two pens. It was strange that the only things out of place were the papers, something that could have easily happened by accident.

He frowned before heading back downstairs. This time he walked down the small corridor that he had previously ignored. There was only a single closed door at the end of it. Opening the door, he stepped into the small kitchen where once again nothing appeared to be out of place.

Adrian paused for a second checking to make sure that nothing had escaped his notice before heading back outside where Clary and Alec were stood as far apart they could be without it seeming overly weird.

"You two do realise you're on the same team, right?" He asked, not expecting an answer, as he passed the pens that he'd taken from upstairs to Clary and Alec.

As soon as Clary had the pen in her hand, she determinedly headed into the house with a seraph blade in her hand. She didn't have to know that he had already checked all of the accessible parts of the house.

"Theoretically," Alec started, "if a person had already passed through the doorway then another person could use that person to get inside."

Adrian had hoped that Alec wouldn't realise that he'd purposely ignored the loophole, but realistically had known that it wouldn't take long.

"Theoretically yes," he admitted, "but theoretically, Clary doesn't need to know that."

"Why would I tell her?"

He wouldn't. Alec wouldn't talk to Clary about things unless he absolutely had to and this wasn't one of those circumstances.

"Why do you hate my sister?" Adrian questioned out of curiosity.

"I don't hate her," Alec slowly spoke, "she's just careless about the emotions and wellbeing of everyone around her. She doesn't stop and think about her actions. That, I think, will end badly for us all."

Adrian hesitated before replying. "She'll learn. At the moment she sees herself as the only person capable of stopping Valentine and saving our mother. Until a week ago she didn't even know that she was a Shadowhunter. She's not used to having to work with others."

"She'll learn," he agreed, "but after how many bad things have already happened?"

It was at that point that Clary reappeared in the doorway with a look of confusion on her face.

"There's nobody inside," she said. Adrian allowed a mysterious smile to spread across his face.

"Of course there is. You just didn't know where to look."