Magnus' Shadow (Alec Lightwood Love Story)

II

Yasmin and Ajax walked into the party, Ajax dressed in a simple black suit and Yasmin in a royal blue tight-fitting dress, her bound hair circled down her back. Both hybrids made for the corner where Alec and Magnus were whispering quietly to each other. Yasmin could tell by the tension in Alec's shoulders that he was nervous, she slid her hand into his causing the boy to look at her. His mouth opened in surprise as he took in her appearance.

"Wow. You look beautiful...not that you don't anyway...just tonight..." he stuttered pink creeping up his neck. Yasmin smiled fondly up at him.

"Thank you, Alexander," she chuckled as they both studiously ignored the intense kiss between Magnus and Ajax occurring next to them. "I know you are the only Shadowhunter in a room full on warlock but please try not to glare at them the whole time" she chided.

"Easy for you to say. They raised you"

"Trust me, not necessarily a good thing. It's tradition for the outgoing High Warlock to pass the baton onto his replacement. We are here for Magnus; it won't be long" she said as she gently pulled him after Magnus and Ajax who were winding towards a man in an expensive-looking suit; Lorenzo Rey.

"Magnus. Magnus Bane" called Lorenzo garbing everyone's attention, his gaze slide to Ajax who received an analysing sweep onto Yasmin, his eyes lit up. Her stomach sunk. "You made it, and you brought friends' he stepped forward caressing Yasmin's cheek, 'And your dear little shadow".

"Yes. Hi, I'm..." Alec tried to be polite putting out his hand but was quickly interrupted.

"Alec Lightwood. Head of the New York Institute. I'll expect we'll be seeing quite a bit of each other at your downworld cabinet meetings" he smiled at Magnus "No hard feelings, right, Bane?"

"On the contrary. I'm very content with my new position. Being the High Warlock is a thankless job. Long hours. Little pay. But I'm sure it doesn't matter to a young, civic-minded person like you" Magnus' voice was filled with bitterness.

"Oh, don't be so jaded. I may only be 484 but I'm no stranger to service" he turned to Ajax smiling, "I look forward to working with you Ajax, you have a unique power that we can use to help our warlock community" Ajax's eyes lit up a smile on his face, he unlike Yasmin missed the jealous look that sat on Magnus' face.

"I can help?" Ajax said excitedly. Yasmin knew how much his kind heart yearned to help the downworld, having felt useless during the whole Valentine crisis.

"Absolutely. Magus has been sheltering you from your true abilities" Lorenzo took Ajax's hand his magic whirled around their touching palms, Ajax's golden magic danced around them sending beautiful sparks around the room, a sense of warmth and peace filtering through the room. "See, your magic yearns to be set free. You need a teacher. A proper teacher that won't go soft on you and shelter you".

"I don't need sheltering" Ajax blurted out indignantly but then catching Magnus' hurt eyes stuttered "I mean...um thank you for the offer but I think Magnus has got it covered".

Lorenzo smiled his eyes looked more cat-like than even Magnus' cat eyes in the light, "My offer has no sell-by date Ajax" he then turned from where Magnus had grabbed Ajax's hand causing the young hybrid to look utterly confused, to look down at Yasmin. "I expect you at my place tomorrow morning 8 am sharp, you and I are going to do great things now you are my little shadow"

"Now wait just a moment" Alec cut in; Yasmin felt his breath on the top of her head as he stepped forward. "Yasmin is under the protection of the institute..."

"Ahh. I see the confusion" with a snap of his finger Lorenzo produced a piece of paper, Yasmin caught the official seal of the Clave. Lorenzo handed it over to Alec, "Enjoy the Party" he smiled as he pushed past the boys, placing a full glass of champagne delicately in Yasmin's hands. Yasmin now had a feeling that her face mirrored the one that she had seen on Ajax's seconds earlier.

Magnus snatched the glass out of her hand, stomping over to Alec's side whose hand were shaking in anger, shoving the paper into Magnus' hands. Yasmin put her hand on his shoulder, feeling a little tense release from them at her touch. "The Clave has legally bound you to the High Warlock of Brooklyn! From the looks of it Lorenzo tried to get Ajax as well but because the New York downworld didn't raise him they have denied the request" Magnus spat angrily.

"The Clave are selling Yasmin like a Seraph blade, being passed from one person to another. She's a person, not an object" Alec was shaking in anger, but Yasmin now also felt her own indignance rising.

"You two will keep your noses out of this," she told them firmly, "This is my problem. You wanted to keep an eye on Lorenzo Alec? I have two" she would have said more but an excited yell sounded from behind her. Turning to see Madzie in a lovely purple dress running towards her. Yasmin bent down to pull Madzie up into her arms "Madzie. Hey, my favourite little sorceress" she held the young girl on her hip while Alec played a game of 'A sailor went to sea-sea-sea' with Madzie. Alec's eyes were bright, he looked happy. A warm unusual feeling filled Yasmin's chest on watching Alec and Madzie together.

A sudden shaking caused them to go silent, everyone cried out in confusion. "I can't control my magic" was the whispers that filled the room. Yasmin held Madzie close to her, keeping her on her hip as she caught Ajax's eyes. His eyes were flashing between chocolate brown to pure gold, but as of yet his power remained contained unlike many of the surrounding warlocks.

The warlock Rufus tried to conjure a portal to leave but the gold turned red, Yasmin swore she could hear whispers from the portal. To her surprise no fear filled her, the power from the portal felt familiar, almost like she had felt it before. The portal burnt Rufus' hands and he lost control sending it towards Yasmin and Madzie, Yasmin saw Alec move to grab both of them to cover them with his own body, but it was Magnus' magic that saved them.

One of Alec's hand cradled the back of her head pressing it into his shoulder the other was behind Madzie's back covering her as well. He looked to Magnus asking the unspoken question filling their minds. "What's going on?"

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A/N My favourite part of this chapter is Madzie! I honestly can't wait for you guys to see some of the scenes with Alec, Yasmin & Madzie! 

Thank you all so much for the support on this book, it reached 200k reads which is absolutely crazy to me. I started this book over 2 years ago and it has helped me improve my writing so much over that time and I'm so glad that you are enjoying it still.

See you next Sunday!

Wren