Shadowhunter: Two twins: A new world

CHAPTER 19

At the institute, everyone was still dressed in their wedding outfits. Alec walked over to his mother, hoping to be able to have a deeper and more constructive conversation than the one earlier. He had waited about an hour before going to see his mother, so that the tension between them would come down again. To try to ease the tension, he began to talk about Lydia.
"Have you spoken to Lydia?"he asked, but he got no answer from his mother. "No one has seen her since the wedding."
Robert arrived, feeling the tension between his son and his wife, and preparing their departure for the Paris institute.
"Mom, I understand that you may be upset..."Alec began.
"To have stopped the wedding even before it happened would have already been a tragedy," Maryse cut in, "but to kiss this warlock in front of the whole institute... Everything embarrassed us."
Maryse had a heartache to say this to her son. She loved her children more than anything, but she knew the Enclave. No one in Idris would accept the latest events.
"Why?"dared to ask Alec. "Because he's a guy?"
"The fact that he's a guy, as you say, is the last of my worries," Maryse replied, which surprised Alec. He thought that this was the main reason for their disagreement. Alec looked at his two parents, both in front of him as if they were confronting him.
"So, What's the problem," he concludes.
"It's because you chose Magnus Bane," Robert explained to complete his wife's words, "and his reputation precedes him. And even for a warlock, he is a womanizer. Alec, please, you don't really know him."
"I'm planning to learn more," Alec replied. "And if you have problems with that, I suggest you deal with it."
Alec did not wait for any response from his parents and put Lydia's topic back on the table. Maryse suggested that she must be doing her business to go back to Idris. He withdrew and left to thank her for everything she had done for him.
In front of his father's office, where Lydia had settled, was Magnus, walking the hundred steps, still dressed in his burgundy suit. Alec was surprised to notice that Magnus was anxious to know how the discussion with his parents had gone. Alec tried to look as undone as possible, but Magnus was pretty good at reading people. Alec tried to explain to Magnus that even after all the time in the world, his parents would continue to be disappointed and angry with him.
"Don't underestimate the love of a parent," he concludes.
Alec stopped walking to be sure Magnus knew he didn't regret what he had just done. While walking to the door so that the two of them could thank Lydia, Magnus suggested to Alec that they slow things down between them and that they simply start with a date. Alec was glad that they decided not to go too fast between them.
Opening the door of his father's office, Alec saw Lydia lying on the floor of the room, just above the debris of the table that was in the center of the room. Lydia must have been thrown against the table. When Alec knelt in front of her to see how she was doing, she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Alec sent Magnus to get help, while Alec applied a healing rune to him.

Jace, Isabelle and Clary were already in the control room to watch the surveillance video when Alec arrived. Isabelle, sitting on a chair, launched the video when she felt her brother behind her back. He positioned himself between Clary and Jace. Alec explained to the small group that Magnus was helping her to get better and that the Cup had disappeared.

"Just like Hodge," Isabelle said, "he was probably attacked too."Clary thought back to all her sister's words and hinted aloud that it may have been the aggressor and not the victim. The three came to Hodge's defense, explaining that they had known him since they were little and that he would never be able to do this. Before their eyes, the video was scrolling. Lydia was arriving in the office, her bag in her hand, her things ready to leave. Being sent by the Enclave, it had to bring the Cup back to Alicante. Isabelle advanced the video until the moment when Lydia was attacked. The three could see that it was indeed Hodge, still in his outfit that he wore during the wedding. Each of the Lightwoods had a different reaction to this betrayal. Isabelle was trying to understand, Alec was watching the scene and Jace was filled with anger at himself, convinced that he was the reason Hodge had found the Cup. In the silence, Isabelle opened another video, the last surveillance video where we could observe Hodge. Jocelyn was in the middle of the room, Luke, as usual, was sitting peacefully next to her and talking to her. Isabelle activated the sound and watched the video since Hodge's arrival.

"I think Simon is looking for you," Hodge tells Luke. The latter left the room, addressing a smile to another person.

"It looks like there's someone else," Jace says. Deep down, they all knew who was in the room.

Abby got up and took her father's place in the chair, Hodge offered her a filled glass, Abby took it, politely thanking Hodge and drank.

"Alec has changed his mind," Hodge says trying to break the ice.

"He changed his mind about what? »

"He is no longer marrying Lydia, Magnus has landed. "Abby took a deep breath before answering.

"First of all, I think Alec doesn't want you to be the one playing viper tongues through all of Idris, and Isabelle invited Magnus so landing is not really the right word. Thirdly, I would really like to feel something for this information, but it did not hurt or kill people so I will react to this information later. I'm too tired. "Abbigael was slumped on the small table that was right next to the chair. The four Shadowhunters saw in Abbigael's gaze that the pieces of the puzzle had finally come together. She discreetly spat out the sip she had just drunk, we could observe her body wobbling. She got up, walked to the door. A few steps before this one, Hodge stopped her. To keep herself from falling, she had to lean against Hodge's bag. She felt the deadly cut :

"So I was right from the start not to trust you". Abby was doing the best she could to ignore the dizzy sensations. Hodge took Abbigael's chin to make her look.

"You will not pass through this door".

"I don't need to go through this door". The feeling of intoxication was beginning to be felt and Abby had had enough discussions about drugs with her parents to know that this was not a good sign. "If you told the truth about the wedding and knowing the Lightwoods a minimum, the tension must be so strong that the slightest unusual sound will put them on alert. So I just have to make enough noise to be heard. If you fight me, you will certainly win, but you will make too much noise. "Abbigael withdrew with difficulty from Hodge. She tried to make her way to the door. "A good shout and everyone will be there". But Hodge took his head by the hair and hit his head hard against the wall. Abby fell to the ground, leaving a trail of blood against the wall. When she touched the ground with her entire body, she was still conscious and noticing this, Hodge approached her and said :

-You want my opinion, if right now you disappeared, no one would miss you."The very small part of her that had confidence and hope broke down when she heard his words. Hodge got up, walked over to Jocelyn and Abby couldn't see anymore, feeling the darkness closing in on her. They watched Hodge on the screen playing with the ring on his finger, he took the cup out of his bag and showed it in the void, suddenly he started talking in the void.

"Help me to break my punishment and I will bring it to you."He put the cup back in the bag and left, leaving Abby unconscious on the floor. As soon as the video was finished, Jace and Clary hurried to look for Abbigael, while Isabelle and Alec watched the other cameras of the institute. On one of them, Hodge could be seen picking up a ring on the hand of a damned man who had attacked the institute a few days before.