Adopted by Magnus Bane

Chapter 31

I race home and quickly unlock the door. I step into the apartment, out of the cold and into the warm. I sneak back into my room and quickly take off my boots and thick jacket. I throw my purse onto my bed, then run out and quickly start to make myself a cup of hot cocoa. When I finish making it, I quickly dump out a small portion of it to make it seem like I have been here for a while. I turn on the tv, pick out a Disney movie, then fast forward until I am halfway through. The lights dim in the apartment as I am quickly drawn in the movie, despite starting halfway through the movie. No less than five minutes later, Dad barges into the apartment.

"Oh thank goodness." He lets out a large sigh of relief, "have you been here the whole time?"

"Oh yeah sorry about that." I lie, pretending it just drifted my mind. "Sorry, you guys sent me  to the library, Izzy and Clary wouldn't let me train with them so I just came home." I shrug casually, as if its no big deal. "Sorry I meant to text you and tell you, but it slipped my mind."

"Oh." He seems taken back, as if he had expected me to run off and do something stupid. Which is true, I did, I've just gotten really good at lying my way out of situations. "Okay then. I'm just glad you are okay and didn't run off to do something stupid like Jace had thought."

"So you didn't trust me off of something Jace said?" I can barely hold back a fake laugh, "Dad I'm shocked you don't trust me more."

"You know why I don't." Dad crosses his arms. "It takes all the common sense I have in the world to not trap you in here until the day you die."

"Wow." I scoff, crossing my arms to mirror his, "overprotective much?"

"You'll understand when you have kids of your own, trust me Ceci." Dad reassures me, uncrossing his arms. "Oh. Did I tell you about the door system I installed. Its to tell me if anyone breaks into the house. Another feature is that it keeps track of every time someone opens the front door. Or windows."

"You know?" I ask, cringing at myself. Rookie mistake, but i guess I can't blame myself for not knowing about it. Guess I'll have to figure out how to hack it, for next time.

"Yeah, Ceci, I know." He laughs, "good effort though."

"Thanks."

"You want to tell me where you went after you left?"

"Not really." I pause, then I quickly spill out the whole story. "Are you mad?"

"No, I'm just a little disappointed." Dad says with a sigh, sitting down next to me. "You don't need to lie to me Cecily. You should trust me more Ceci."

"I try to." I explain.

"I know you do." Dad tells me, "but you sneaking off like this isn't safe for you, you understand that right?"

"Yeah." I solemnly nod, "but I feel like all of you guys think I'm some kind of little kid."

"We all only want to keep you safe Ceci." Dad tells me, "Look, I promise I will stop treating you like some little kid if you promise to stop lying to me and sneaking off."

"Deal." The smile returns to my face, "so what'd you guys decide for dealing with them?"

"First, we need to get rid of their ability to walk in the sun." Dad tells me, "Then we need to get that contract and get rid of it."

"How are we going to do that?" I ask my dad, "I mean becoming a Daylighter is rare enough. How do you get rid of the powers?"

"I-we aren't sure yet." He begins, "I'm going to contact some of my friends from the Spiral Labyrinth. Hopefully they'll get back to me soon." 

"Who do you know in the Spiral Labyrinth?"

"A couple warlocks and witches." He vaguely explains, "Taking away their powers should leave them weak for a short amount of time. Immediately after this happens, we are going to tear up the contract. Then we can capture all three of them and turn them in to the Clave with you as our witness against their case."

"And that'll work?" I ask him.

"With the contract torn up, yes it will." Dad reassures me, "There will be no evidence the contract ever even existed, you'll be protected by the Clave. They are going to spend the rest of their lives locked up if this all goes well." He glances at the clock behind him, which reads 11:55. "I better head to bed, I'd suggest you do the same. We're going to have to get up pretty early tomorrow. I'll send a fire message to my friends in the Spiral Labyrinth and hopefully we'll get a response by tomorrow morning.

A/N: Hey guys! I hope your holidays are all going well! I'm on break for another week so the daily updates will continue until next Tuesday, (when I go back to school). I've started typing on a laptop now instead of my tiny phone keyboard which is pretty nice. Hopefully this means I'll update more even after school starts. See you guys tomorrow! <3