Stay Strong (Alec Lightwood)

Chapter 4

Alec's POV

After he was interviewed by Aldertree, Alec found himself making his way to the training room.  He went over to a punching bag and punched it furiously as the realization hit him:  His wife was gone.  His sister's parabatai.  The mother of his son.  The love of his life, who he risked so much for.  She was gone.  She wasn't a Shadowhunter anymore.  

He punched the punching bag harder.  He imagined it being Aldertree, or Valentine, even Clary.  It was all her fault.  Things started going wrong the minute she showed up.  It had only been a matter of weeks, but everything had changed and gone to hell.  Once Jocelyn got kidnapped by Valentine, Clary went to reckless lengths to get her mother back, which resulted in them losing Jace.  His best friend.  His parabatai.  His brother.  And when he left, he took Henry with him.

Valentine's attacks raged on, Clary's actions were only like fuel to burn her father's fire.  Because Valentine came back, his family lost their Institute to the Clave.  Their birthright.  His birthright.  And the man that they brought in, he de-runed his wife.  Who knew where she was?  Someone could be trying to hurt her.  Valentine could be after her.  He knew he shouldn't have let Aldertree make her leave.

He punched at the punching bag furiously until his knuckles were close to bleeding.  When he finally took a rest, Clary came in, much to his disappointment.  He rolled his eyes and looked away from her, but she pestered him anyways.

"I wanna find him too," she said.  "He's my brother too."

That sparked a new rage inside of him.  She knew Jace for a matter of weeks, and was already acting like they shared anything other than blood?  They had tried to be together, for Angel's sake.  And she had the audacity to call him her brother?  "I grew up with Jace," said Alec bitterly.  "He's more my brother than he'd ever be to you."

"Alec-"

"Stop it!  This is all your fault!"  His face was turning red, from both exhaustion and anger.  "I've lost everything since you showed up, and it's all your fault!  I lost my birthright, I lost my wife, I lost my son!  And what have you lost?  Nothing!  You think this is some sort of a game, something you don't need to train for.  You've been here for a couple weeks and already think you can do what the rest of us can!  When's it going to get through your thick skull that you'll never be one of us?!"

She just stared at him, speechless.  Her brown eyes were wide with shock, and she couldn't even bring herself to move the piece of red hair that fell onto her face.

He picked up his towel and stormed out of the training room.  He knew what he had to do.

"Where do you think you're going?" Lydia asked as he passed her, and she grabbed onto his arm.

He yanked his arm away from her and glared at her.  "To find my wife.  Don't try to stop me, don't any of you try to stop me."

She looked at him for a moment before giving him a gentle, sincere smile.  "Go get her, Alec.  Find your wife."

And with that, he left.