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Magnus’s face was stone as he watched the line of prisoners approaching, heads low as the sound of their chains rang out like a death toll. He didn’t want to, but he forced himself to look at each face as the men came into view. After all, it was his fault they were in this position—his fault that his father had turned his cruelty toward them when their only crime had been showing a pair of strangers kindness.
As the judge read out each man’s name and supposed crimes, Magnus knew not a single man was deserving of the fate he was about to receive.
The prisoners approached and formed their line before the deathly silent crowd. Only a few met Magnus’s gaze, and knot formed in the back of his throat. Most of the men kept their heads down, shoulders hunched in a way that made them look frail. Magnus wanted to stop it, wanted to rage against his father until his cruelty was wiped from their land.
But there was nothing he could do to stop it alone. He’d already tried once and failed, his father stripping him of the magic that belonged to Magnus by birthright. He’d run then, and taken his Alexander with him. And when his father found them, Magnus lost so much more than his magic.
They’d been dragged back to his father’s estate, Magnus locked in his rooms and Alec taken god knows where. Magnus had spent hours banging on his door until his hands bled. Every moment that passed, his dread only grew. When his father finally came to his rooms, it took only a glance at the grin he wore to know what he had come to say.
But he heard the words anyway. Alec deserved that much.
The boy is dead. A shame that your carelessness led to such waste.
Magnus closed his eyes against the memory, only a year old though it felt like a century had passed since that day. Now, his father stood next to him as he surveyed the spectacle before them. His hand was tight on Magnus’s shoulder, an iron grip to remind Magnus this show of power was entirely his fault.
He and Alec had run, accepting the kindness of these men and their families in a small village on the outskirts of his father’s empire. He should have known that wasn’t far enough, that his father would find them. Now Alexander was dead, and so too would these men be soon.
Magnus felt he was going to be sick.
“Chin up, boy,” his father said. “We must show strength in front of our people.”
Magnus said nothing, but he straightened his shoulders.
He could see the end of the line now, the last man standing tall despite the clear beatings he’d taken. The man looked thin, much thinner than the other prisoners, as if he alone had been starved during his time in the cells. Oddly, this man alone was gagged.
Magnus wondered what he had done to earn his father’s special attention.
Must’ve fought,
Magnus thought, the taste of blood in his throat.
Magnus’s eyes stayed caught on the man as he approached. His chin was raised, defiant, as he scanned the crowd on the dais. The man’s eyes landed on Magnus, and Magnus frowned as the man’s stare locked onto him.
His father finally released his shoulder as he moved to address the crowd, but Magnus hardly noticed.
The prisoner’s face was heavily bruised, with cuts on his cheek and across one eyebrow. Magnus imagined the rest of him was one massive bruise as well, if not worse. But it was his eyes that Magnus couldn’t look away from. The man stared at Magnus like he was trying to tell him something. And then the clouds above shifted, and with them, Magnus’s entire world.
A patch of sunlight iit the gathered men, seeming to focus perfectly on the man’s bruised and bloody face, and for the first time, Magnus saw his eyes.
Tired, and weary, and resigned, and a touch relieved. Blue as the ocean they’d tried to hide beside, the blue Magnus had thought he’d never again see. The blue Magnus thought his father had taken from him months ago when he’d been captured.
All of the breath left Magnus’s body. Alec was alive. His father had lied to him. His love, his Alexander was
alive.
He was still here.
“Alexander,” Magnus whispered, his voice carried away by the wind. But Alec saw, the corner of his mouth lifting even against the gag. From his place amongst the other prisoners, Alec nodded.
The judge called the first man in line forward to read his sentence, and Magnus’s attention was torn away from his love.
“Death by hanging,” the judge read, his voice cold and detached, and a new horror filled Magnus.
He’d expected this. Of course he had. He’d known all along what this show of power was from his father. He’d known all along this punishment was more for himself than it was for anything these men had done.
He’d had no way to stop any of it, and he still didn’t, but now he knew Alec was one of the prisoners. His father was going to make him watch Alec die, whether he’d intended Magnus to know Alec still lived or not.
Magnus watched, frozen, as the sentenced man was pulled forward and a noose placed around his throat. He closed his eyes, unsure if he could watch as bile rose in his throat.
He heard a
thunk,
and gasp sounded from the crowd. Magnus opened his eyes to see an arrow had sliced through the rope. The man had dropped to the ground, grabbing at the rope still around his neck to loosen it.
“Guards!” his father yelled. “Find the archer!” Another arrow shot from the treeline, narrowly missing his father and landing in a post just to the side of his father’s neck. His father moved to retreat, ducking behind that same post. “Magnus!”
Magnus didn’t move, watching instead as chaos broke out and a small army surged from the treeline. He recognized at the front of the charge the blond hair of Alec’s brother, Jace, and the whip he knew belonged to their sister, Isabelle.
Somehow, they had known Alec lived, Magnus realized. Or maybe they’d come simply to take their revenge. Either way, Magnus had never been so happy to see the Lightwood siblings.
A guard grabbed Magnus’s arm, likely intending to pull him to safety with his father, but Magnus spun and punched out at him. He caught the guard by surprise, and Magnus felt the sickening crunch of the man’s nose breaking. Magnus shoved him away before he could react. The archer still hadn’t revealed themself, but an arrow embedded itself in the guard’s chest as Magnus staggered away from him.
Magnus spared another second to watch as his father’s men moved to fight the army before he forced himself to move. He ran towards Alec, nothing more than to take Alec into his arms, feel his heart beating in his chest.
They would have time for that later, though, Magnus told himself. He was not losing Alec again. It simply was not an option.
Alec grinned at him around the gag as Magnus approached. The bruising on his face was even more stark up close. Magnus swallowed, his throat tight, as he removed the gag.
“Told you I had a backup plan,” Alec rasped. Magnus let out a desperate laugh, remembering the last words Alec had whispered to him before his father’s men found where they hid.
We’ll get out of this,
he’d said.
I promise. I always have a backup plan.
Magnus spared a second to cup his cheek. “I love you,” Magnus said. “I thought—”
“I love you, too,” Alec said, unable to reach for Magnus with the shackles still on his wrists. He leaned forward instead, and Magnus met him for a kiss even though they didn’t have time for it. Even though they needed to move.
“Can you run?” Magnus asked.
Alec nodded as Jace and Isabelle ran to their sides. Izzy threw her arms around his brother. “It’s really good to see you,” she said.
Jace put a hand on Alec’s shoulder, holding up a key. “Look what I found,” he said, moving to unlock Alec’s shackles. Alec rubbed at his wrists, and Magnus stared at the red rings where the metal had chafed his pale skin.
“Hey,” Alec said, pulling Magnus back to the present. “I’m okay.”
Magnus nodded, the feeling mechanical. “We need to get out of here,” he said, his voice rough.
“Max is waiting in treeline,” Jace said in a low voice. “He’ll cover us until we’re out of sight, and then he’ll meet up with us about a mile from here. There’s a safe house we can go to. It’s not far enough away to stay, but it should keep us safe for the night.”
“Max is here?” Alec asked.
Izzy grinned at him. “Who do you think is firing the arrows?”
Alec’s smile lit up his face and Magnus thought what an honor it was to be blinded by him again. He remembered the way Alec’s voice had filled with pride when he’d told Magnus of teaching his little brother to use a bow and the way he’d picked it up as easily as Alec once had.
“Let’s go,” Jace said. “We don’t have much time.”
Alec looked to Magnus, holding a hand out in an invitation Magnus was quick to take. He gripped Alec’s hand tight, and together, the four of them ran for the treeline.
***
It was hours before they finally reached the safe house. Magnus had spent much of that time watching Alec carefully for signs of pain or exhaustion. More than once, Magnus caught him trying to catch his breath or clumsily catching himself against a tree trunk, but he insisted he was fine to keep going. All it took was a shared glance with Isabelle for her, Jace, and Max to join him in convincing Alec to rest at least a few moments every few miles or so. It made the journey slow, but Magnus noticed the relieved slouch of Alec’s shoulders each time they stopped. Each break was worth it, no matter how much it slowed them down.
It was past nightfall when the house came into view. Jace motioned the rest of them to wait, slipping quietly toward the house. He returned moments later, an easy smile on his face.
“All clear,” he told them. “No light tonight, though. Too risky,” he added, and they all nodded in easy agreement.
The five of them made their way inside. Jace led Magnus and Alec to a small room in the back of the house. The only window was high on the wall, letting in hardly any moonlight between the thick trees surrounding the house.
“It’s good to have you back, Alec,” Jace said, pulling his brother into a tight hug. Alec nodded, murmuring something Magnus couldn’t hear. Jace nodded at Magnus as he pulled away. “Take care of him,” he told Magnus.
“Of course,” Magnus whispered as Jace slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Unable to hold himself back any longer, Magnus pulled Alec into an embrace. Alec grunted, and Magnus pulled back hastily, an apology on his lips. Alec shook his head, pulling Magnus back in just as hard.
“I’m sore, but I’m okay,” Alec said into the space between his neck and shoulder.
When his father had told Magnus what he’d done—what he hadn’t done, Magnus now knew—he hadn’t allowed himself to cry. He couldn’t cry in front of his father; it wasn’t safe to, and Magnus certainly wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction, no matter how irreversibly broken he was.
Even alone, he’d held it all in. His father’s spies were always watching. His safest option had been to turn to stone, to calcify, to push all his grief so far down it became ingrained in every fiber of his being.
But now he was safe in the arms of the man he’d never lost at all, in a safe house that would keep them safe for the night, at least, filled with people who loved them and would storm a tyrant’s compound to keep them both safe.
And most of all, Alec was safe. Alec was
alive.
And finally, his stone walls could crumble and his soul could rest.
It all came pouring out, sobs shaking him and Alec both. Alec said nothing, but he held Alec tighter still, and Magnus felt tears of Alec’s own against his shoulder.
“He told me—” Magnus gasped. “He told me you were dead. That he killed you himself.”
“Oh, god,” Alec said, his voice hoarse.
“When I saw you today, when I realized it was you—” Magnus broke off with a sob. “It was like my heart started again.”
“I’m here,” Alec said. “I’m here. I’m okay.” His hand trailed up Magnus’s back to rest at the nape of his neck. “He kept visiting me in my cell. Telling me you didn’t want me. That you never had. That I was just a distraction that you didn’t want anymore, and it wouldn’t matter to you when he killed me on a hangman’s rope.”
“No,” Magnus said, the sound torn out of him. “No, Alexander. I’ve always wanted you. I only ever want you. I—”
“I know,” Alec soothed. “I know, baby. I knew the whole time. I never doubted you or us. I knew he must’ve been keeping you away somehow. I knew if you’d been able you would’ve found a way to reach me.”
“I’m sorry,” Magnus whispered. “I should’ve known he was lying. I should’ve felt it. I should’ve—”
“Magnus,” Alec said, pulling back to hold his face in his hands. “You couldn’t have known. None of this is your fault. All I care about is that you’re with me, that my family is here. That everyone I love is safe, in this house, tonight. No apologies, baby. I don’t need them, and you don’t owe one.”
Alec’s eyes were so warm, full of a love Magnus thought he’d lost forever, that it almost hurt to meet his gaze. He wanted to close his eyes against it all, but the thought of looking away from Alec hurt more.
“I love you,” Magnus said, desperately.
“I love you, too,” Alec said, steady as he’d ever been. “And if you need to hear it, I forgive you. But baby, there’s nothing to forgive.”
“Tomorrow,” Magnus said, “ we leave this place forever, and we are not stopping until we reach a land that’s never even heard of my father, and then we go just a bit further.”
Alec laughed, the sound a balm to Magnus’s sutured heart. “What about your magic? It’s yours. You should have it, not him.”
Magnus shook his head, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Alec’s. “I spent the last year thinking I’d lost you forever. This wonderful, amazing man who has held my heart and been gentle with it and who handed me his in return. I was resigned to a life of never seeing my heart again, and then suddenly there you were, carrying it with you even after everything you’ve suffered because I made it yours.”
“Magnus,” Alec whispered, but he wasn’t finished.
“There was a time losing my magic felt like losing my entire world,” Magnus said. “But that loss was nothing compared to losing you, Alexander.” Magnus slid a hand across Alec’s chest, resting over his beating heart and relishing the feeling. “To know that I haven’t lost you at all? To see you standing before me? To touch you? To kiss you?” He tilted his chin to catch Alec’s lips in a chaste kiss. “That’s all the magic I’ll ever need.”
Alec’s eyes were wet when Magnus looked up. “Charmer,” he murmured, blinking away the tears. “I love you,” Alec said, touching his forehead to Magnus’s again.
“I love you, too, Alexander,” Magnus said, brushing a stray tear from Alec’s cheek.
Yes,
he thought.
This. This is enough.