Smoke and Mirrors ▹ Alec Lightwood [1]

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
SLAYING DEMONS

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     There were a total of three small boats at the waterfront. Adrian followed the Lightwoods onto one and only half-listened when they described the plan. Adrian thought the plan was rather obvious. The first group of Shadowhunters—the boat Adrian was on—would sneak onto Valentine's ship. The other two groups would follow soon after. If anyone saw Valentine, they wouldn't hesitate. Adrian had an awful feeling that Valentine wasn't planning on getting involved with the fighting. He'd stay out of the way, safe, and let his followers and demons do the fighting for him. He could see creatures prowling along the top of the ship as they neared. Valentine's ship was farther away than he had thought, the ship growing larger and larger as they drew closer. Adrian was beginning to understand why Imogen thought this fight was over before it even started. He had never been in a battle this large—nor had any of the teenagers currently on their way to fight—so he nervously fiddled with his stele and leaned against the railing along the side of the boat.

"Alec?" he said at last, turning his head toward where Alec was sitting down, looking as calm as ever, doing something with his bow that Adrian had seen him do a thousand times before, yet still didn't know the name of. He had been horrible with a bow, or any long-range weapon. Alec looked up, frowning when he noticed Adrian twisting his stele around his fingers. "You don't happen to know the Fearless rune, do you?" Still frowning, Alec stood and put his bow on his back, coming forward and gently taking Adrian's stele away from him.

"I only saw it once," he said, sounding apologetic, "and I was kind of anxious considering I was letting her test it out on me. Trust me, if I remembered it, I'd be drawing it on myself right now." Alec didn't look particularly nervous. His hands were still; he wasn't fidgeting. Then again, Adrian's hands weren't shaking either. They were trained to ignore their nerves. Adrian just found that harder to do now that Valentine's ship was in sight. Seeing Adrian glance nervously at the ship, Alec sighed and twirled the stele to get his attention. "Don't play with this when you're so close to the railing. The last thing you need is to drop it in the water." Adrian scowled at him.

"I'd like to think I'm a little more skilled than that." Alec rolled his eyes while Adrian leaned his hip against the railing. "Besides, when have I ever accidentally dropped a weapon? You're the clumsy one, not me." Alec's nose wrinkled at that, and then he was reaching forward, grabbing Adrian's right arm and stretching it out. It was empty of any runes, aside from the permanent ones. He had never quite mastered drawing runes with his less dominant hand, so he let Alec do it now. He watched him for a moment before his eyes went to the parabatai rune on Alec's right forearm. "How are you doing? Do you feel anything?" He reached out to touch the rune to show Alec what he was referring to. Alec paused in his drawing, frown deepening, before he let out a small sigh.

"Well, he's alive," Alec said, voice quiet. Adrian figured as much. If Jace had died, Alec wouldn't even be able to function, much less talk. Adrian had never witnessed a parabatai lose their other half, but he had read up on it, had heard the stories. Just breaking the parabatai bond, without either dying, was extraordinarily painful and traumatizing. He didn't want to think of what would happen if Jace were to die. "I think he's hurt, but not severely. Hopefully we'll get there soon. It's taking forever."

"Really? Feels like it's going too fast to me," Adrian mumbled as Alec finished drawing the last rune and gave his stele back. Adrian put it back into the small holster on his belt. "You know, it's times like these I wish I had my own parabatai."