City Of Falling Darkness

Love or Parabati

I start to get mad at this full-of-himself boy, as he continues to question. 

"Look, it's none of your business!" I shout and storm out of the infirmary. 

"Jonathan?" 

It must be Alec, my shouting must have woke him. But I don't care, I keep walking down the halls. I take turn after turn, until I realize I'm lost. I hadn't paid attention to the direction I was going, and I was never good at navigating the Institute. 

I walk until I reach a dead end, and when I do, there's a large set of obsidian black doors. I try to open them but they appear to be well blocked. 

I pull out my stele and draw an open rune, but as soon as I do, the finished rune glows bright purple. It flares the bright purple and the rune flies off the door into the wall behind me. 

The rune does nothing, as it cannot affect solid walls, and it fades until it's gone. 

"What the hell?" I wonder out loud. That purple glow was similar, if not exactly the same as the one I saw in the woods. 

I gasp and stumble back from the door. 

I don't want to be near that door. 

I study the makings of the door and realize there's not even a gap between the 'two doors'.  It's all just one big door. 

It would be impossible to open a door like this, unless you used..

I gasp again and back even further away from the door. 

...dark magic. 

I run away from the door down the hall, thinking things through in my head. 

That explains how Clary and Isabelle practiced their dark magic without getting caught. 

I run and turn corner after corner, hoping to end up when I need to be, but this time I take note of which way I turn. 

I'm going to need to show this to the clave. 

After what feels like an hour, I reach the main room of the Institute. 

"Father!" I yell, hoping to catch someone's attention, if not my Father's. 

"Father! I've found something!" 

He comes running from the family room. 

"Son? What? What is it?" 

I start off back down the halls while yelling, "Follow me!" over my shoulder. I pant as I break into a run. I can hear my father's footsteps behind me. 

Finally, we reach the large set of black doors. I tell him what happened when I came to the door on my own. 

I even drew another opening rune to show him what happened. 

Father gasps when it glows purple and flies off the door again. 

"This... this is very dark ancient magic." 

He looks worried. "We need to tell the clave." 

Father and I start back down the hall again. 

"I need to check on Alec," I say, starting towards the infirmary. 

"Son?" My father catches my arm and pulls me back. "Listen, I need to talk to you about Alec." 

My heart starts pounding loudly like a herd of elephants stomping around. I can feel the color drain from my face. 

"Y-yes father?" 

"Listen, you don't have to wait for him to ask you." My face twists in confusion. 

"Huh?" 

Father laughs. "Oh you know, to be your parabati. I've noticed you two getting closer. You work great together. You'd make quite the pair of parabati. You don't have to wait for him to ask. You can ask him first." Father looks hopefully towards me. 

"Oh...ya.." I say, trying to sound enthusiastic. "I'll just.. do that.. well, I'll see you, father." I walk into the infirmity and try to breath. 

As I do, I see Jonathan leaning into Alec, who is looking conflicted and trapped. 

"Stop!" I yell, glaring at Jonathan. 

"What? You're only friends," he says maliciously.