War of Hearts

Chapter 10: The Devil's Plan

As soon as they landed and the portal vanished behind them, Magnus extended his arm and snapped his fingers to perform a locator spell. Nothing happened. Magnus waved his hand and still nothing. He felt panic take over him.

"That's not going to work here." Magnus heard Valentine's sly voice. Magnus let his arm drop and turned to Valentine.

"Why did you bring me to this...." He looked around the tall, dark rocky hall to define the place better "...this godforsaken hell hole, if I can't use my magic?" he asked infuriated

"You can use your magic. Just not here," Valentine replied coldly. "We've made a great deal of effort to prepare this place for you."

Magnus understood what he was saying. They had used demon energy to block his magic. Some demons had the ability to isolate an area from magic. Only a handful of demons could do such a thing, a handful of very powerful demons and the fact that Valentine had gone through such extreme measures to get him there told Magnus that he was dead serious about whatever he wanted him to do for him.

Magnus took a better look at the place. The rocky walls were irregular and quite tall and the air was dense. There were no windows, so Magnus had no idea whether it was day or night. The hall was lit by some torches hanging on the walls. The whole place was just depressing and the fire light gave it a gloomy effect. No one else was around. Magnus felt like he was in a crypt. He pointed up at the ceiling.

"Are we underground?" he grimaced in frustration. They could be anywhere in the world, but he figured they must be in some sort of cave. Magnus hated caves. They made him feel like a prisoner.

Oh, the irony of that... Don't you just love being an actual prisoner in a cave, Magnus?

"It doesn't matter where we are. Now follow me," Valentine said as he turned into a corridor that, up until now, had gone unnoticed by Magnus.

They walked into a larger hall, just as gloomy as the one they arrived in, only this one was filled with Shadowhunters. This hall seemed to be the headquarters to Valentine's army. As they passed through, unfriendly looks were directed at Magnus. He avoided eye contact as much as he could, but there were too many of them so he tried giving out a shy smile every now and then. But that wasn't helping. Most Shadowhunters just looked cold and unapproachable, but more than a few looked at him either with repugnance or pure hatred.

Boy, this is going to be fun, Magnus thought bitterly as he followed Valentine through the crowd.

"That's an awful lot of Shadowhunters," Magnus allowed himself to comment once they reached their destination – a private, but dark corner that led to another corridor.

"And there is more," Valentine replied and faced Magnus cockily.

"So what is it that you want from me exactly?" Magnus opened the game. He wanted to show strength. He noticed, with relief, that it was much easier to think now that Alec wasn't near him anymore. He had to keep his head together if he hoped to escape one day.

"I want you to create a portal big enough to contain every single member of the Downworld." Valentine was straight to the point.

"You want to send the Downworlders through a portal? That's your big plan?" Magnus wasn't sure this made any sense. "You know, there has to be something behind a portal. Can't just send people into nothing." Magnus shook his hand to showcase his last phrase and raised an eyebrow.

"They are not people." He paused for a moment. "I'm sorry, I meant you are not people," Valentine said with a smirk. "And I'm aware of that. Which is why I also need you to create a place for them to stay in. Something... agonizing for all of eternity."