Uncertain Times • {Alec Lightwood}

11. do you love her

"Cassia, I'm telling you, he is your husband. I need you to try, okay? Try to remember. He's got to be in there somewhere," Jace said to Cass for about the millionth time the next day. She shook her head adamantly, looking at him in a ridiculously stubborn way.

"I don't fucking remember him, Jace. I don't remember him at all. I remember you," she said, repeating the same thing she'd been harping on the whole time.

"We're not together, Cass. We haven't been in a long time. In fact, the last time I kissed you, you got pretty pissed at me," Jace told her, and she scoffed.

"You probably did it at a stupid moment," she said, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Glad to see they didn't erase your attitude," he told her, rolling his eyes at her.

"Alec, he's here," Izzy's voice cut through Alec's thoughts as she tapped on the door of the bedroom. Alec looked at her cautiously, trying to gauge the tension of the room outside through her body language. By the looks of it, it wasn't great. It made sense, though. The 'he' Izzy was referring to was none other than Alec's ex-boyfriend and high warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane. They'd called him because they knew that if anyone could figure out what had happened to Cass, it would be him. It had taken a lot of convincing just to get him to come, and the only reason he ultimately had was because Cassia had never done anything to him in any way.

"Great," Alec said, trying to force his voice to sound genuine. He followed Izzy out into the hallway and tried his absolute best to look and sound professional.

"Hi, Magnus. Thanks for coming. I know you didn't have to," he said, and Magnus nodded.

"You're right. I didn't have to. Where is she?" Magnus asked, and Alec was relieved that he apparently wasn't interested in any sort of small talk. "Tell me everything you know."

"She was kidnapped by a clan of vampires. They're all in custody now; apparently they were using her for ransom, basically just for fun. As far as we're able to tell with them, they didn't even have any sort of real goal with taking her. They're the ones that summoned all of the demons here the night we were attacked, but they didn't really have a point. They took her and kept her over water so that we couldn't track her, and then when they went to transport her, they almost seemed to want to get caught. And now, it seems I've been completely erased from her memory. She doesn't even remember me from childhood. It's like I don't exist," Alec explained, and Magnus nodded.

"And nothing else is gone from her memory?" he asked, and Alec shook his head.

"Not that we can tell. She remembers Izzy and everyone else just fine. She can tell us things that happened ten years ago and everything about herself, other than the marriage. She thinks she's in a relationship with Jace and her wedding ring is something he gave her," Alec said, and he could tell that Magnus was doing his best not to look at him, and then suddenly he turned towards him and stared at him severely.

"Do you love her, Alexander?" he asked, and Alec looked at him blankly, blinking hard. It was the last thing he'd expected Magnus to ask, but the answer didn't take much thought at all.

"Yes, I do. She's awful and irritating and sometimes I want to absolutely strangle her, but we make a great pair and I do love her. I don't know what I'll do if she never remembers me," Alec said, his eyes cast downward to keep them from filling with tears.

"That's all I needed to know. Let's go get her fixed up, yes?" Magnus asked, putting a finger underneath Alec's chin to lift it so that he could look at him.

"Okay," Alec whispered, following Magnus the rest of the way to the infirmary.

•••••

a/n: sorry it's been a few days and also sorry this is short, but it would've been way too long if i added the next part to it! either the next chapter or the one after that will be the end and i'm sad to be letting go of these characters but i really love how this story ended up. 💖