Not by Blood - BEING REWRITTEN IN SEPARATE STORY

Chapter Fifteen

EDITED 5/30/2020

Found the picture on Pinterest, thought it was funny and decided to share. Notes at the bottom, please read.

"What about this one?" Magnus held up a green silk shirt from the rack.

"Mmm," Clary hummed uncertainly as she rounded the clothing rack to look at the other choices. She selected a red one in his size and held it up against him. "Go with the red one instead. The green makes you look washed out."

"This," Magnus said delightedly. "Is why I take you with me and not your brother."

Clary shrugged indifferently. They moved on to another rack and Magnus searched through the clothing with a critical look in his eyes. "I spoke to Wes this morning." He said, his eyes flicking up to look at her.

"Oh?" Clary asked.

Magnus watched her for a moment as she looked through her side of the rack. Alec had shown up at the apartment that morning in tears. The difficult client had left only fifteen minutes before and Magnus hadn't been expecting his boyfriend and Daughter to return for several more hours. When Alec had shown up without their little girl and in clear distress Magnus had thought the worst. Alec had quickly cleared the air and informed him that Madzie had stayed behind at the Institute with her Aunt Izzy.

Magnus hadn't been too shocked to hear Izzy's concerns about her sister. And while he hadn't been shocked, he was still concerned and saddened that Clary might be teetering on the edge of her sanity. If she's truly reached her limit then she needed help, and she needed it soon. Magnus had called Wes almost as soon as Alec was finished relaying what Izzy had told him.

Once he'd finished the conversation with his friend, he'd offered to keep an eye on Clary for the rest of the day as Wes had instructed.

He hadn't been prepared for Clary's appearance, though. Her attire was dreadful and she, herself, looked like death. Her hair was limp and stringy, her eyes had bags under them, and they were red and puffy around the edges. But her eyes themselves, it was like the light had been turned off inside her. It was like she had given up. Her face was drawn, and she looked pale, but it wasn't just how she looked either. It was in the way that she moved, the way that she held herself. It was obvious that something was very wrong with her. Again, Magnus wasn't surprised. After her mother's death alone, Magnus had been worried for Clary's mental health. It was traumatic, what had happened. Someone that Clary trusted and held in high regard, had killed her mother. Possessed or not, this was something that was sure to alter Clary, even just the tiniest bit. But on top of that, she'd been attacked and nearly raped by a demon, she'd had her DNA and appearance altered, she'd become an entirely different person, and the list could go on. Clary had gone through so much, so quickly. It wasn't normal and therefore Clary was bound to have a more drastic reaction to her abnormal circumstances.

"He'll be here tonight. The two of you are going out for dinner." Magnus said flippantly as he plucked a long navy-blue dress from the racks and held it up to her.

"Excuse me?" Clary's hazel eyes found Magnus' glamoured brown ones.

Magnus placed the blue dress back on the rack and then selected a green one. He held it back up to her and nodded his head, adding it to the basket. "In order for him to help you, the two of you need to get to know each other. What better way to do that then to share a meal? Hmm?"

Clary rolled her eyes and tossed him a cotton button up.

Magnus caught it expertly, giving it a distasteful look before depositing it on a nearby shelf.