The Time Traveler (Malec Fanfic with TMI/TID crossover)

Chapter 8

Warning: unedited. Proceed at your own risk.

Chapter 8

“Well that escalated pretty quickly,” Magnus, the real Magnus, said. He smiled at Alec crookedly. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Without warning, Alec threw his arms around him. Magnus stilled in surprise but then relaxed, burrowing his face into Alec’s hair. “I’m just glad you’re okay,” he repeated softly.

Alec pulled away and looked up at the warlock saying, “I knew it. I knew it was you all along.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Because you knew I wouldn’t say those overrated dramatic things?”

Alec smiled at this, remembering the other night. Magnus seemed to have thought of this too as his cheeks turned slightly pink which was something the warlock rarely does. It gave Alec a slight satisfaction at catching him off guard. “Actually,” he said, trying to hide his smile, “it was the painting that gave you away.”

“Ah yes, the painting.” Magnus looked at the said object and stepped closer. He plucked the dagger from the torn canvas which depicted an elegant bridge towering over a clear river. Alec recognized what it was: the Blackfriars Bridge across the River Thames in London.

Magnus snapped his fingers and the canvas mended itself. “This is actually given to me by Elizabeth I herself back in the eighteenth hundreds.” Magnus had a faraway look in his eyes. “A very nice lady.”

Alec knitted his eyebrows. “But Elizabeth I died in the sixteenth hundreds.”

“She did?” he looked surprised. “Well it might have been Elizabeth II then.” Magnus knitted his eyebrows. “I’m really having trouble remembering.”

Alec shook his head minutely, a smile carving his lips. Then he suddenly remembered. “Where’s the Chairman? Is he alright?”

Magnus waved his hand dismissively. “He’s perfectly fine. I revived him, of course, after that blasted demon petrified him and hung the poor thing up in the ceiling like a flyswatter.”

“What did the demon want with him anyway?” asked Alec. “And where is he?”

“Downstairs; too terrified to move,” Magnus shrugged. “That demon isn’t stupid, you know. He knew exactly that if he left the Chairman in the room, the cat would alert his presence to you.” He shook his head in grudging respect. “Besides, it was you he wanted anyway.”

“Me?” Alec blinked. “That’s impossible. I have nothing that he—” he stopped short when his gaze fell on the Lightwood family ring. “He wanted this,” said Alec, removing the heirloom and turning it in his hands. “But why does he want the ring?”

Magnus plucked the object from his hands. “He would use it to banish me back into Edom—back to my father.”

“Exactly the opposite of what he said,” Alec muttered. “Then why didn’t he just grab it from my finger to make things easier?  Not that I’m grateful he didn’t, of course,” he added quickly upon seeing Magnus’s raised eyebrow.

“It has to be given by freewill,” the warlock said. “Remember when God gave us our freedom to choose back in the Story of Creation? That’s one of the requirements in order for the dark binding spell to work. The irony, huh?”

Alec opened his mouth to reply when there was a loud scratching on the door.

Both heads snapped towards it, and Magnus caught Alec’s eye.

The message was clear: don’t move.

Alec started to protest when Magnus yanked the door open, palm igniting in blue. But what they saw raised even more confusion: scratching on the doorframe was a blue kitten, ears sticking out at the sudden commotion.