Smoke and Mirrors ▹ Alec Lightwood [1]

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
KNOW THY ENEMY

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     It felt like they had been waiting for hours.

When Adrian had first seen Max limp in Isabelle's arms, had first seen the look on her face, the first thing that came to his mind was that Max was dead. He had nearly collapsed when the thought flashed through his mind. He would have collapsed, if Maia and Oliver hadn't been there to catch him when he had stumbled. When he had finally reached Isabelle's side, Maryse had still been screaming at the top of her lungs, and Robert had gone numb, staring blankly at his youngest son's face. Jace and Alec had arrived around the same time, and both of them seemed to go into the same head space Robert was in when they saw Max. Isabelle kept apologizing under her breath, kept repeating that she was sorry over and over again, and Adrian would have started mourning with her, because Max wasn't breathing—his chest wasn't moving, his lips were blue, he was limp and completely still. He would have collapsed right there if Maia and Oliver hadn't cried out at the same time, saying that his heart was slow and weak but they could still hear it beating.

That was when everyone burst into motion. Maryse's shouts of anger had turned into screams for the Silent Brothers, and Isabelle's silent crying and repetitive apologies turned into desperate, hysterical sobs. Robert had blinked and then dashed forward to take Max away from her. He was a big man, so he had no trouble moving through the crowd that had surrounded them. It had been a blur after that, a mix of confusion and hysteria, of relief and fear. By the time Adrian had come to his senses, the Silent Brothers had taken Max into a separate room, and now here his entire family was, waiting for news while the Silent Brothers tried desperately to make Max stable.

The hallway outside of the room they had locked Max away in had been cleared. No one was allowed in the hall save for the Lightwoods, which—thankfully—included Adrian and Jace. Logically, Adrian knew that it had only been about twenty minutes, but it still felt like hours. All the members of the family were stretched out down the hall. Maryse and Robert were closest to the door of the room Max was in, hovering anxiously as they waited for news. Jace was alone at the other end, twisting a dagger around his fingers as he stared into space, face hard as stone. Isabelle, Adrian, and Alec were all clustered together between them. Adrian was sitting on the floor with his knees up to his chest, while Alec was curled up on his side on the floor beside him with his jacket folded under his head. He had fought Sebastian—their entire group had, and all of them came away exhausted—so Adrian was grateful that he was getting some rest. Meanwhile, Isabelle couldn't stop pacing back and forth. Her hair was in disarray around her face, her cheeks mottled red.

"Izzy," Adrian said softly when he noticed her stumble over her feet. She hadn't taken off her boots, and she hadn't put on an iratze to heal the wound on her temple. Sebastian had hit both her and Max with a hammer, sneaking up on them in the dark. "Izzy, you have to sit down. Put on an iratze, at least. Please. For me." Isabelle turned and blinked at him slowly, as if coming out of her own little world. A moment later, her lips trembled, and Adrian wordlessly held out his arm. She dove into his free side and curled up there. With one arm wrapped around her, and the other resting on top of Alec protectively, Adrian felt overwhelmed for a moment. He suddenly missed Oliver, missed Maia. Both of them had been comforting him until he had been dragged into the abandoned hall.

He didn't mind comforting Isabelle, didn't mind looking over Alec as he rested, but it would have been nice to have someone there to comfort him.

Dimly, he heard some sort of commotion happening in the main hall. A meeting had probably started. Adrian didn't care. That was the least of his concerns.