War of Hearts

Chapter 3: I want you safe

Alec left the emergency reunion with his head buzzing. They had just found out about Valentine's latest move. It seems like he's going after warlocks since he'd managed to kill three of them in only one week. And his army was getting bigger each day. Not to mention Jace being on his side. Alec thought that his wedding had caused enough problems and drama to deal with, but clearly he was wrong. That was nothing compared to what was going on now. He wanted Jace back and he wanted Magnus to be safe from Valentine. With every new development of this insane war Valentine had declared, Alec felt more and more worried about the ones he cared about. He wasn't sure how much more he could take before completely losing it.

He walked into the room of weapons and separated his arch and arrow for tonight's investigation. He was going to lead a group of shadowhunters to the three murdered warlocks' homes to figure out how Valentine got to them. They needed to know what resources he had in order to find warlocks and break powerful protection spells. This was important for the entire Shadow World.

As Alec touched his arch he remembered when Magnus refused it as payment for defending Izzy on trial. He still couldn't believe he did that for him. Alec was going to be in debt to him forever.

He left the weapons roomand he saw Magnus staring at him from the bottom of the stairs.

Speaking of the devil... he thought, his heart beat faster and a knot formed in his stomach as if tiny kittens were jumping all over it. Magnus looked absolutely fabulous with the dark purple blazer and the golden tie he was wearing on top of the white button-up shirt and the matching purple pants. How does he do it? Alec wondered as he approached him. He admired Magnus's closet, but he knew his clothes would look ridiculous on him. Only Magnus could pull that stuff off.

"What are you doing here? We didn't call you," he said when he reached him.

"Is that the only reason why you would talk to me now, Alec? Only if there was another emergency in the Shadow World?" Magnus seemed hurt by that assumption.

"Well, there aren't any emergencies for now." Alec didn't want him to find out about the dead warlocks. Making Magnus worry about it too wasn't going to help anyone.

"And I'm kinda busy right now," he added as he walked up the stairs, heading to his bedroom. Magnus followed him.

"I understand that. But that doesn't mean you can't answer your phone, Alec," he said bitterly to Alec's back. Alec was going so fast he had trouble keeping up with him.

"There's nothing for us to talk about," Alec said coldly.

"Really? What about that date you suggested?"

"That was before Jace went missing."

"He didn't go missing, Alec. He chose to go with Valentine out of his free will."

Alec stopped and turned back to face Magnus. They were at the corner of the corridor that led to his bedroom and they found themselves alone in it. Alec looked dead serious at Magnus who didn't look very different.

"He went with Valentine, because he threatened to hurt the people he loves. That's not free will to me. That's just a different form of kidnapping." He was so angry just thinking about this, he knew his anger was plain on his face.

"But he won't leave Valentine until he feels he's ready. You know that, I'm sure."

Alec tried hard not to think about that, even though he knew Magnus was probably right.

"So this is reason you won't talk to me? Because of Jace?" Magnus changed the subject.

"I'm not in the mood for dating until we get him back." That wasn't even a lie. His priority now was definitely Jace.