Bloodlines: An Alec and Magnus (Malec) Fanfiction

Chapter 22

The crowd is steadily growing, forming a crushed semi-circle around the wall that encircles the Institute. We've grouped around the back to portal in, as opposed to within the library, to accommodate the vampires.
"Hello! I'm - Malcolm, no. Here. Stay, just - honestly, anyone would think you were 5 not 500."
Catarina fights her way through to the front of the crowd, a man who I recognise in tow: Malcolm Fade, distinctive purple eyes vacant. Magnus goes to hug Catarina in greeting but she waves him away briskly.
"Not now, Magnus." she says, matter-of-fact as usual, but she shoots him a fond smile. "Hi, Alec." She adds to me, with a small wave.
Malcolm Fade looks puzzled. "Alec? Alec who?"
I give an awkward wave. "That's...that's me. Hi."
"Malcolm Fade." He says, offering a hand.
Catarina rolls her eyes impatiently, swatting his outstretched hand.
"Yes, yes, Malcolm. Alec knows who you are. But we are in a bit of rush. You know, what with the war and all."
"Oh, yes, of course." Malcolm nods. "Urm, what war was that again?"
Catarina either doesn't hear, or doesn't want to even acknowledge what he's said. The flash in her eyes makes me think it's the latter.
"Come on," Magnus says, in a seeming effort to diffuse the tension. "Let's set up the portal."

"Alec should do it." Catarina says. "The portal, I mean. Alec should make it now. If anything happens to Malcolm, Magnus and I in the battle, if we get injured or killed..."
"Which we won't." Magnus assures me quickly, laying a hand on the small of my back. But I know he can't be certain of their safety. I've been in enough battles to know that there are no guarantees.
"Then Clary and Alec would be our only means of portalic escape." Catarina finishes. "We already know Clary is proficient in creating safe and effective portals, we've seen her do it, but we need to make sure whether Alec can do the same."
I turn to face the blank brick wall, waiting to open up into my first ever portal, and feel the start of sour dread creep into my chest. An emotion of apprehension is unfolding within me, making my stomach clench and somersault. I tense and feel the pressure of Magnus's hand on my back, his fingers stroking comfortingly back and forth. However, determined not to embarrass myself in front of over 200 shadowhunters and Downworlders, I just nod.
"Yes, of course." I say, with more confidence in my voice than my mind. "Just...you'll have to talk me through it."

"It's easy, Alec." Clary says, in a way I'm sure is supposed to be encouraging but in reality is just infuriatingly condescending. "I use a rune, of course, but I can try and help."
"Thank you." I say, through gritted teeth.
"Okay, so a portal is made of three different types of rune;" Catarina tells me. "Seraphic, demonic and incomplete."
I nod. "And I can just use magic to draw them?"
"Yep, that's fine. Clary would use a stele, but yes, you use your magic."
Obediently, I summon sparks to my hand, green spitting embers encircling my fingers. "Okay, what now?"
"Create a frame of seraphic runes - those are shadowhunter runes, so you know them well. Use stability, precision, creation, transmission, accuracy and opening."
Like Catarina said, I know all of these already, so this is easy enough. I draw a 3x2 rectangle of runes. I've spent years perfecting my recreation of these symbols, and this requires barely any effort. I trace the shapes with a finger shooting green fire and they burn black against the red brick. Nothing seems to have happened yet though; they just look as if they have been graffitied onto the wall.
"Okay, next are the incomplete ones. They should rest as if on the tips of a five-pointed star. You need depth, mendelin, guidance, power and unseen." Catarina coaches. "Halfway through them, stop drawing."
Again, this isn't too difficult, though it requires more focus to leave the runes unfinished. It's...odd. It feels wrong; like writing half-finished letters.

"Perfect." Catarina says. "Now a few demonic runes in the centre - three or four should be fine - and it will be ready to use."
"D-demonic runes?" I ask, apprehension flooding through me. I've never even seen a demonic rune. What in the Angel's name does a demonic rune look like? I fight not to spin around to cast Magnus a confused look. I want to ask him to help me, but I don't want to be seen as the shadowhunter who runs to their boyfriend for help whenever they can't do something. So I focus hard on Catarina, and try to just let Magnus's fingers against my spine soothe my worry.
"Yes," Catarina tells me. "Which runes to use will just come naturally. Don't worry."
"I-I'm not sure I can..." I admit quietly to Catarina, hoping the gathered crowd isn't listening, and wishing they weren't so silent. This is beginning to feel uncomfortably like a spectator sport.
"You must have studied demonic runes and practises as a trainee shadowhunter, though?" Clary says, questioning. Ignorant idiot.
"We didn't draw the runes, we studied them." I hiss. "I've heard of them, heard what they do, but I don't...I can't..."
"Just try." Catarina says patiently.

So I close my eyes and try to picture what a demonic rune might look like. I summon all the knowledge I've learnt about them to my mind, but it's no use. They aren't like Nephilim runes, they're less like shapes and more like live symbols, shifting and changing as the mood takes them.
"Why are we doing this?" I mumble, eyes still squeezed shut. "Just let one of the others make the portal and be done with it."
"Alec, we need to know you can do this, in case anything happens to us, we need to know you can open an escape portal." Catarina says, in the comforting way she always speaks to me, like she's my mentor and I'm her favourite pupil. "Just relax, Alec."
I try to ignore the audience gathered behind me and summon the runes back to my mind. But again, they move too fast, impossible to hold on to. They whip past me in a dizzying blur warping my sense of everything; direction, reality, time. But despite this, I know somehow that I'm still stood staring at a solid brick wall, and minutes are dragging like hours.
Under my feet, the ground swims, and I stagger. I'm too afraid of losing concentration to open my eyes, but I can feel myself swaying unsteadily. I tilt forward and inhale sharply, then I feel a pair of gentle hands on my shoulders, holding me straight. Magnus.
"It's okay, Alec. Stop worrying. Just focus on the runes." He says against my ear.
After three agonising minutes of me "focusing on the runes" and nothingness, I hear someone behind me sigh in exasperation.
"Shut up." Josiane's French accent lilts in reply. "He's doing his best."
And whilst I know she's sticking up for me, I feel a burning flush of embarrassment scalding my face, feel my cheeks and tips of my ears flaming. This is terrible I...

"Alec! Look!"
At the sound of Izzy's voice, I crack an eye open hesitantly. Sure enough, a tiny whirl of watery shimmer is spreading out to fit the confining frame of runes I drew. Magnus turns away from me as I go over to Isabelle.
"How did you do that?" Jace asks, sounding impressed, as the portal swells and takes depth.
But that's just it; I have no idea. I'm about to say as much when I see Magnus subtlety shaking out his hand, before shoving both fists into the pockets of his purple jeans. Then it's obvious: I didn't do this at all; Magnus finished it for me to save me the humiliation of standing there helpless until it eventually became obvious I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know whether to be furious or grateful. The latter is winning out, at present.
"So?" Jace prompts.
"Oh, well, I had a little help." I say ambiguously.
Then I move over to Magnus and lean close.
"Thank you, but why?"
"You won't need to make that portal. We're not going to die in this battle; not me, not you, not Catarina or Malcolm or Catarina." He smiles then. "Plus, I didn't want to see you embarrass yourself. You were going really red; I was concerned you were going to spontaneously combust."
I smile, blushing. "Well, thank you anyway. But I am getting the feeling you have a distinct lack of faith in me, since you did it for me."
"I have an immense amount of faith in you; it's you who lacks faith in yourself. You just have to have some confidence. Come on," Magnus says, taking my arm and steering me towards the wall. "You should be the first to try out your first portal."
Then I brace, imagine the rocky landscape of Cadair Idris and step with Magnus into the portal.

My senses are flooded as the portal spits us out into the open, grey field. The rain pours down, running off my face in rivulets and, within minutes, there isn't a single one of us not drenched. I can feel my shirt sticking to me, saturated, under my jacket. I pull my bow from my shoulder, gripping it tightly in one hand, the wood digging into my palm. Beside me, having just emerged from the portal, Izzy huffs, shaking her wet hair out of her face.
"Is this...?" I ask.
"This is it." Tessa confirms. "Cadair Idris."
Lily appears at my elbow, flanked at her sides and back by her Clan - around a hundred of them, as promised. You have to hand it to her, she must be pretty persuasive to have convinced so many to betray their leader to fight beside us. However, it may be less her powers of persuasion, and more likely her powers of flirtation that mean so many of blindly followed her.
Catarina closes off our portal in an explosion of brilliant blue sparks, her white hair plastered to her head with rain. In one swift move, Izzy yanks her whip from her wrist along with a hair tie. She spins her hair into a bun, pinning back a loose strand with a hair pin clamped to her jacket sleeve. Forget runic manipulation, the real magic is that Izzy can do her hair perfectly in a storm and fight flawlessly in heels.
"Come on," she says, a determined flash in her black-brown eyes. "Let's go and kick some ass."
And she moves forward with Tessa and Jem at her sides for direction. Magnus glances across at me.
"Si vales, valeo."
"Hm?" I ask absently.
"'When you are strong, I am strong'." He says, and begins walking. "Honestly, Alexander. You need to brush up on your Latin."