Eighteen
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"I heard that you stayed behind to help Isabelle with wedding preparations." Alec said as he stood in the doorway of my room, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched me go through the box I had taken from the loft the last time I'd been there. As soon as I had finished meeting the wedding guests I had slipped off to my room, not in the mood to talk to anyone.
"I'm not in the mood, Alec." I warned him as I looked back down at the box in my hands, at everything inside it.
"Let me guess, you stayed behind to avoid prolonging anytime with Magnus?" He guessed as he walked towards me, his soles clicking on the hard wood floor. "What is this?"
"Most people call them mementos." I shrugged as he reached inside, pulling out a picture of Jace, Isabelle, Alec, and I from back when we were all younger. All of us were smiling in the picture, it had been taken about a year before I had left.
"I didn't realize you kept anything." He sat down next to me on the bed as he put the picture back, pulling out a picture of just the two of us. It had been taken when we were two, shortly before Isabelle had been born. We were both sitting in a chair with Alec's arm draped over my shoulders, smiles on both of our faces.
"I left, but I never forgot." I glanced up at him, a sad smile filling my lips. "No matter how much I wanted to get away from the Shadow World, you guys are my family, you always have been and always will be."
"Are you sure that you want to go through with this?" He asked, putting the photo back.
"I'm sure." I nodded.
"Cecile," he sighed, running a hand through his messy hair.
"What is it?" I asked. "What's bothering you?"
"If you're doing this because of what Izzy said, you don't have to go through with it." He told me, meeting my gaze. Looking at his blue eyes, identical to my own, I frowned, seeing the softness in them. "You don't need to give up what makes you happy for the rest of us."
"Neither should you." I countered. "Besides, we don't know Joseph that well. I might be happy with him."
"Might." He stressed the word. He opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Isabelle opening my bedroom door, a worried look on her face.
"What is it?" I asked her, setting my box aside.
"Jace and Clary are back." She informed us. "They ran into complications at Ragnor's. There was a Shax demon waiting for them. It attacked-"
"Is Magnus okay?" I cut her off, finding panic swelling up inside me at the thought of the demon having hurt him.
"Magnus is safe." She assured me, a sad smile making its way back onto her face. "It attacked Ragnor, killing him. Jace believes that there's a mole here in the Institute, possibly Lydia or Joseph. He and Clary are trying to figure that out. In the mean time, Magnus took Ragnor's things back to his loft to look through, try and find a clue as to where the Book of the White is."
"Why are you telling me all of this?" I shook my head, confused as to her point.
"Because the first person you asked about was Magnus." She pointed out. "You were worried about him, more so than you were about Jace or Clary. That says something, Cecile."
*~*~*~*
I took a deep breath before I walked into Magnus' loft, trying to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to bother him. When I reached the end of the small hallway that opened out into his living room, I paused. In the living room there was a large collection of things that I knew didn't belong to Magnus, Ragnor's belongings. Sitting in the middle of all of it, with his back turned to me, I spotted Magnus looking over a book in his hands.
YOU ARE READING
In the Eyes
Fanfiction"You are a Lightwood, and you always will be. I never gave up hope that you would come back, that we would see you again. You would not imagine the lengths I went through to try and find you, how many times we tried to track you." He smiled at me as...
