Chapter Text
Alec wearily blinked his eyes open. Everything around him was blurry and spinning. He flinched when he felt icy cold hands touch his bare chest and he looked down to see fingertips, digging into his skin.
“How’s he doing?” Some body asked. A female somebody. Alec was too tired to figure out who the voice belonged to. He turned his head slowly, but his vision was too blurry to be able to tell who the person was.
“I gave him sedatives to stop him from screaming when we injected him with the syringe. So he is feeling very tired and drowsy.” A male voice replied. The female hummed and walked closer, but not close enough. Alec blinked his eyes rapidly, until his vision cleared a tiny a bit, enough for him to recognise who the woman was.
“Mother.” He whimpered out and saw how the woman flinched and straightened up. She glared at Alec and lifted her hand up. The hand came at phenomenal speed and made contact with Alec’s cheek.
“Do not call me that. I am not your mother. Never was. Never will be.” She spat out before turning around and walking out of the room.
The burning sting on his cheek made tears pool into his eyes, but it was her words that deeply struck, Alec, inside. Alec turned his gaze on the man, and as his mind cleared up he recognised him as his doctor. Or rather the man who injected him with different things every other week. Alec saw the pure disgust on his doctor’s face, before he stepped out of the room, and locked Alec inside.
Alec felt sleep calling him, and he let himself be pulled into the dreamless void. It was better than his reality.
***
Magnus was reading one of his favourite novels; pride and prejudice, when his phone began to ring. He groaned in frustration and gently pushed Chairman Meow off of his lap to grab his phone off the coffee table. He read the caller ID and saw it was Cat. His longest and dearest friend. Magnus placed his bookmark into his book and accepted the call.
“My dearest Cat. To what do I owe this pleasure?” He said into the phone.
He could hear movement coming from Cat’s side and guessed she was probably at work. Cat worked at the nearest mundane hospital.
“Magnus. Have you heard from Ragnor recently?” Cat asked and Magnus rolled his eyes at the mention of his cabbage.
“No. Not since that party I threw last week in his honour.” Magnus replied.
Last week was Ragnor’s birthday, and even though he was a centuries old warlock, Magnus wanted to do something fun for his dear friend.
“Me too.” Cat replied. “But he always checks in on me everyday and I haven’t received a call from him today.” She sounded worried, Magnus noted, which made Magnus worry.
“You want me to check on him?” He asked, and he could practically hear Cat sigh with relief.
“Yes. Thank you.” She replied. Magnus murmured out a goodbye before hanging up.
He got up and walked into his office, to get his spell book. He was the High Warlock of Brooklyn and in order to protect all his people he had a spell that when cast, told him the whereabouts of every warlock in the city. He murmured out the spell, and after a few seconds he saw a map appear in front of his eyes. On the map, to show where each warlock was, the aura of the warlock appeared. Every warlock had a different colour for their aura to represent them on the map. He could see Cat’s, maroon, aura moving about as she moved about inside the hospital. He could see his friend Malcolm’s, who had a grey aura walking around in Central Park.
He passed along a lot of different auras until he found the green familiar aura of his best friend. Magnus could see his location and as he saw it was a bar that his dear friend was at, Magnus rolled his eyes at his friend’s bad habits of day drinking and grabbed his phone to call Cat.
“Hey Cat. I found him.” Magnus said into the phone as soon as she picked up.
“You did?” She exclaimed. “Where?”
“He is at Jade Wolf.” Magnus replied.
“Okay, I am on my break so I will go and get him.” She ended the call after replying.
Magnus looked back at the map and was about to close it down, when he saw a blue aura that he was sure he had never seen before. Albeit, it had been decades since he last did this spell, and there was bound to be more warlocks being born. But the colour of the aura wasn't what intrigued him. Although it was an extraordinary shade of blue. It was the location.
The New York institute.
Now, there was nothing strange for a warlock to go to the institute to do a job for the Lightwoods, who ran the place. But… what was strange was the fact that the blue aura, coming from the institute, seemed to be calling out for help.
When a warlock was in trouble or hurt, their aura started to pulse, almost like a beacon, drawing attention to itself in order to be noticed. Magnus saw how the aura pulsed almost like a heartbeat, and he noticed how weak the aura looked. Like the warlock was on the brink of death.
Magnus quickly moved into action and reached for his phone. He decided to call Tessa, since Cat was busy finding Ragnor. To help him find a way to recuse the poor warlock. Just as he was about to dial Tessa’s number, as if fate was helping him out, he saw his phone light up as the number from the New York institute rang him. He answered the phone, placing it to his ear.
“Magnus!” Said the voice and Magnus recognised the voice to be Isabelle Lightwood’s. The head of the institute. Daughter of Maryse and Robert Lightwood.
Unlike her parents, Magnus actually liked her. Her fashion sense was amazing for a Shadowhunter who was always wearing black.
“Ah, Isabelle. What can I do for you?” Magnus asked.
“My parents are going back to Idris tomorrow and we need a warlock to create a portal.” She spoke with a strong headed voice. Magnus smiled at her words, because even though he didn’t really like the Shadowhunters, Izzy was actually polite.
“Sure, what time do you want me to come?” He asked and after arranging the time, Magnus ended the call.
He knew he had to something about the warlock trapped in the institute, and it looked like Izzy had given him the perfect opportunity. He didn’t know if Izzy knew about the warlock trapped inside the institute, but then again she did run the place so of course she knew! He thought bitterly. He sighed and walked into his room, deciding to get some rest. But before he did so, he rang Tess to form a plan for the next day.
***
“Goodbye Isabelle, Jace.” Maryse was hugging her children, just as Magnus walked into the institute. Isabelle smiled at Magnus and Jace nodded at the warlock. Meanwhile Maryse scowled at him.
“You’re late.” She sneered and Magnus resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“This may seem surprising to you, but you’re not the only one who has work to do. I can’t just drop everything when you call, now can I?” Magnus smiled sweetly at Maryse, so sweet that it would have caused cavities to form. Maryse huffed and walked to her suitcases, picking them up.
“Enough chit chat Warlock and get to work.” She ordered and Magnus had to bite his tongue in order to stop himself from answering back. He needed her out as soon as possible for his plan to work. Magnus nodded and walked to the nearest wall and opened up a portal to which Maryse and Robert stepped through.
After the older Lightwood parents stepped through, Magnus closed the portal and turned around to face Isabelle and Jace. He didn’t fully know the story of how Jace came to live with the Lightwoods, but all he knew was that he was adopted.
Isabelle smiled at Magnus and walked closer to the warlock.
“I love that jacket!” She looked at the jacket, excitement running through her eyes. Magnus chuckled and thanked her. She opened her mouth to continue their conversation when the alarms went off in the institute. That alarms that screamed demons. Magnus hid his smile behind his hand, at Tessa's perfect timing.
Both Jace and Isabelle immediately were on alert and made their way to the Ops centre. But before Izzy could go far she turned, facing Magnus.
“You okay to find your way out?” She asked and Magnus nodded and shooed her away.
As soon as she turned the corner and out of Magnus’s sight, Magnus turned to look for the blue aura he had found yesterday. He opened up the map again, and he could see he was getting closer to the aura. After walking through the many corridors of the institute, he came across a bedroom door. One that looked differently than the others.
The door was separated from the others, and Magnus knew he had found the right one. He turned the door knob but sighed in frustration as he found it locked. He quickly looked around before using his magic to unlock the door.
He stepped inside cautiously, not knowing what he would find. The room was dark, and his eyes took a while to adjust to the difference in the lighting. But when his eyes finally adjusted enough to know where everything was, he stepped further into the room. He looked around and saw a small room with a bed and a table in the far corner. The window was boarded up, not letting any light in. He looked around the room again and felt confused as to why his magic led him here. He looked around again stilled when he saw something move under the bed covers.
Magnus slowly moved closer, until he was standing next to the bed. He slowly moved away the blanket, and he felt the exact moment he stopped breathing. His eyes widened as he saw a young man, in his early to mid 20s? tied up with thick ropes around his wrists and ankles. He had nothing except a pair of boxers on and from the way he was shivering Magnus could see he was cold.
Now that he noticed it, the temperature in the room was very chilly compared to rest of the institute. The boy had his eyes closed, he had black raven hair and white, pale, skin. There were a few runes etched into his skin, which made Magnus's confusion grow. Why was his magic drawn to a Shadowhunter? He asked himself.
Magnus could see the wound marks on his wrist made by the ropes tying him up, and Magnus felt a rush of anger towards the Shadowhunters. He may not like the Shadowhunters but tying up their own kind this way? Seemed very harsh. He could see scars across the boy’s body and he guessed that this boy had been through a lot. The scars were everywhere, new and old. Some looked very recent, as they were dripping blood onto the bed. He slowly opened the ropes on his wrist, before moving towards his legs to untie his feet. As soon as he was done, the young man immediately curled up into himself and Magnus felt a sudden urge of empathy towards the boy and anger towards the people responsible for this. Even though this man was a Shadowhunter, Magnus knew he had to save him.
He leaned forward, to gently shake the boy awake, when his eyes shot open and it felt like a puzzle piece fitting into place. He now saw the whole picture the puzzle pieces showed.
His eyes weren’t an ordinary colour.
His eyes were red.
Dark red.
And Magnus felt himself take a step back. He had never seen that shade of colour associated with eyes before. Associated with Shadowhunters. Not even Vampires had that shade of red as their eyes.
Then something clicked inside Magnus's head.
That was the boy's Warlock Mark.
The boy was a Shadowhunter.
But.
He was also a Warlock.
“Help me.” The boy rasped out, before falling into unconsciousness again.