Just Bite Me Already

Chapter 5

Magnus wandered around his throne room, looking around the room but not seeing it. It wasn't like there was much to look at. A throne, a couple of hundred books, some tall candelabra. It was monumentally boring.

"Come and rule Edom by my side," Magnus muttered in an uncanny impression of his father. "We shall rule over the demonic plane. Take your rightful place," he muttered. What a crock of shit. If this was ruling then Asmodeus was welcome to it. Not that his father would be able to rule over anything but Limbo ever again.

"Great, now you're talking to yourself," Magnus muttered, wandering over to the window to look out of it. He was the only person he had to talk to. Unless he counted Lilith. She had already come by once, asking him for a teeny tiny hole in the rift. Even the thought of it had him snorting.

Magnus spun his engagement ring on his finger, something that he did more and more often, trying desperately not to think about the fact that this was his existence now. Lonely, boring, nobody to talk to but himself. And he barely answered back.

What Magnus wouldn't give for a decent martini, a flavourful steak, and a red hot shower right now. What he wouldn't give to be sharing those things with Alec. Unfortunately, without the love of his life, the martini's were too weak and the steaks tasted like ash. And there was no indoor plumbing in Edom. In all honesty, he couldn't be bothered fixing a nice shower up.

Snapping his fingers, Magnus filled the window with an image of Alec, a small smile playing over his lips when the image blinked down at him, a slow smile spreading over image Alec's face.

"I miss you," Magnus said, brushing his fingers over the glass, wishing that he was actually touching Alec's skin. He had done this a few times over the last week or so, created a memory video in the window, infinitely more interesting than the view. It would have worried him if he hadn't been desperate enough to do it. But the thought of never seeing Alec's face again filled him with the worst kind of dread.

"How was your day, Magnus?" image Alec asked Magnus, the illusion fueled by Magnus' memories. It was a clever bit of magic. All Magnus had to do was remember a conversation between them and focus on it, and image Alec asked the same questions and gave the same responses that his Alexander had given during that particular conversation.

Maybe it was unhealthy but it was all Magnus had to hang onto. And he was hanging on by his fingernails at the moment. Speaking of which. He snapped his fingers and completely made his nails over with a thought, watching the green nail polish turn dark blue, the chips filling in. Even the joy of painting his nails had been sucked away by his father's miserable realm. You're slipping, Bane!

Having nobody to impress made Magnus sloppy, he had let himself go immensely. It didn't help that Edom was ridiculously hot. His hair was limp, his makeup slid down his sweaty face every five minutes, and clothes had become optional. It was too hot to bother with layers of fancy clothes so he had taken to wearing silk robes and pants. If there wasn't a chance of Lilith just wandering in unannounced, even those might have been an afterthought.

"How was your day, Magnus?" image Alec asked him again, warmth and love shining from those beautiful hazel eyes.

"The same as yesterday," Magnus said, dragging his father's throne over to sit down in front of the image and talk to his fiance. "I blasted several demons out of the air before breakfast, found one of them sleeping in my bed after lunch, and denied another formal request for a meeting from Lilith before dinner. She wants me to open the rift again," he said, focusing on image Alec once more.

"How was your day? Did you do anything interesting?" Magnus asked, waving his hand to produce a martini. It was warm and didn't quite have that alluring flavor that Alec always managed to add whenever he mixed the drinks. But it was wet and alcoholic so he sipped it anyway.