Distractions

Twenty-Two: Broken Furniture and Needed Apologies

This chapter was very nearly my villain origin story, I kid you not. This chapter took so much longer than normal to write. I don't know what it is about writing Alec's point of view and writing him so angry and bitter that made it so difficult to write. 

Trigger Warnings!! There is a lot of description of anger and hurt and feeling upset and betrayed in this entire chapter, and this chapter is also a very heavy chapter in other aspects. If you think that this could be triggering to you, don't feel obligated to read the chapter, but if you do want to read the parts that don't have those descriptions and aren't as heavy, the triggering parts will be marked/separated with bold words like always.

They all watched as two people that each of them loved dearly were pulled backwards into Valentine's portal. They were helpless, unable to do anything without endangering Jace and Everest even more, and that hurt all of them, no matter what their relationship to the two was.

Clary shoved the Book of the White into Simon's arms as she rushed towards the Portal that had taken her siblings from her. As she ran, Valentine tugged at Everest and Jace's arms harder, causing them to fall through the Portal with him. The last she saw of them, the last any of them saw of the two, was Jace's regret-filled gaze and the tears rolling down Everest's face as she mouthed words none could make out.

"Jace! Everest!" the redhead cried as the swirling pink mass grew smaller and fainter by the second.

Alec rushed after the girl, grabbing her and stopping her from going through the Portal after the two. As much as he disliked Clary at times, he wasn't going to let her go rushing off through unknown Portals and potentially getting herself stuck in limbo. He didn't dislike her that much, and besides, he'd never hear the end of it from anyone if he let her get stuck in limbo.

"What are you doing?" Clary demanded, ripping herself from his grip.

"Saving your life," he snapped. "If you enter a Portal not knowing where you're going, you'll be stuck in limbo forever."

They all watched, helplessly, as the Portal disappeared, Jace and Everest along with it. Clary's breath came in shuddering gasps as she collapsed into Alec's arms. Hot tears rolled down her face as she clutched him, desperate for any kind of support. His arms circled her shoulders as he pursed his lips and looked up towards the chandelier in an attempt not to let his own tears fall.

Once he was sure he would not start crying, Alec looked at the other three in the room. Simon looked lost, as if he didn't know what to feel. Alec couldn't bring himself to hate the newly-turned vampire just then. He, like the rest of them, had just lost Everest and Jace, and even if he didn't know Jace very well—or like him very much for that matter—he had still lost his sister figure. Izzy was clenching her fists and glaring at where the Portal had been. He knew his sister well enough to know that once they returned to the Institute, he should expect broken furniture to be outside her room at some point. His gaze turned to his boyfriend's, and his heart seemed as if it were trying to knot itself up as he met Magnus's broken gaze. Alec didn't even try to give the warlock a smile. It'd be more of a grimace and he knew that. He just looked at Magnus as he comforted Clary as best he could, and he prayed to the Angel that they'd all be okay. He wasn't so sure they would be, but it never hurt to hope.

They had just lost two very important members of their mismatched family, siblings to some, girlfriend to two, and whatever Jace was to Simon. They had just lost Jace and Everest, they had disappeared through a Portal with Valentine and now they were gone. He wasn't sure when he'd see them again, when any of them would see them again, but they would see them again. They had to. Their group wasn't complete without the two, and Alec didn't want to think of what life would be like if Jace and Everest never came home.