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Part 11 of Whumptober 2022
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Whumptober 2022
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Published:
2022-10-13
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976
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1/1
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bright as fire

Summary:

Alec is beside Magnus when the Soul Sword goes off.

 

Or, pure angst (with a compulsory happy ending) ft. Magnus being in the Institute when the Soul Sword is activated.

Notes:

tw temporary character death, presumed dead

Written for Whumptober day 12: alt prompt: tears

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Alec is beside Magnus when the Soul Sword goes off. 

 

He turned the corner at a run and saw Magnus at the end of a hallway, but a flash of light lit the Institute just as Alec reached him, and he knew immediately what it was. 

 

How Valentine managed it doesn’t matter; all that matters is the deadly light that filled the hall, the light that seeks to take everything. 

 

Magnus gasps, a sharp inhale like he’s been punched, and drops to his knees before Alec can catch him. Alec is holding him in a moment, cradling him in his arms, but he can feel Magnus’ heartbeat slowing, feel that steady beat quieting, feel the world crashing down around his ears. 

 

“Magnus,” he’s saying, “Magnus, please, don’t die, Magnus—”

 

“I love you,” Magnus whispers, eyes unglamoured and impossibly beautiful, and then the eyes shutter closed and his breath grows too quiet. 

 

Alec tries to hold him tighter, to wake him up, but Magnus isn’t moving, his heart barely beating and growing weaker all the time. “I love you too,” he says, “I love you too, I love you, I love you,” as though repeating it can make Magnus hear it. 

 

There are tears on Alec’s cheeks and a scream in his soul because how can Valentine take this all away so easily, kill with such a simple choice, destroy all that Alec holds dear with one, devastating blow. Alec doesn’t know if he’s breathing, doesn’t know if his throat is sore from the litany of pleas and cries pouring from his lips, doesn’t know anything but the body in his arms whose heartbeat is slowing… slowing… stopped.  

 

“No,” Alec says, like it’s the only word he knows, “no, no, no no no no nononono—”

 

The parabatai bond is swirling with guilt and horror from Jace, but Alec’s pain is overwhelming all of it, he’s cradling in his arms the body of the man he loves and all else is nothing to the cold in his soul to the hole in his heart to the empty place where Magnus ought to be. 

 

His makeup is still perfect, clothes bright, eyes shut, and he might be sleeping except that he’s never this still when he sleeps and his chest isn’t rising and falling, and the terrible terrible scream in Alec’s heart goes unheard because Magnus is dead.  

 

Alec’s face is wet and so is Magnus’, and he can’t let go of Magnus, can’t release him from his hold. There are hands on Alec’s shoulders but he doesn’t care; people are speaking and his parabatai is caught between worry and guilt but Alec doesn’t care. He can’t care, can’t feel anything but the heavy cold grief, can’t speak anything but Magnus’ name and endless endless denials that will never deny enough. 

 

He closes his eyes but he can never block out the pain, can never erase the still cold face imprinted on his eyelids, can never breathe through his shattered heart. “I love you,” he says, into the silence, into the dark that is the world without Magnus’ light. 

 

The world is red through his closed eyelids as though sunlight is falling on his face, but he doesn’t bother opening them to see what the light is, because who cares if the sun shines when Magnus doesn’t. 

 

Somebody’s saying his name behind him, urgently, a voice that would usually pull him from himself but right now there is nothing but himself, nothing but the absence in himself because Magnus isn’t there. Nothing can break through the dark. 

 

Magnus’ body shudders in Alec’s arms, and he blinks his eyes open through the bright light because maybe they’re trying to take Magnus away and he can’t let go of him — but nobody’s pulling Magnus away, nobody’s touching him at all, and the light is pouring from Magnus. 

 

Magnus is glowing, lit up like the sun from within, back arched as light streams from mouth and eyes even brighter than it does through his skin. His eyes are open, though too bright for Alec to look at, and he doesn’t know what’s happening, only knows that he will hold Magnus until the end of the world. 

 

Then the light dims and Magnus sucks in a shuddering breath. 

 

“Magnus,” Alec says, voice hoarse, and Magnus blinks his eyes open — golden cat eyes that are brighter than normal, still holding some of that light that poured from him before. 

 

“Alexander,” Magnus says, and Alec sobs, because he hadn’t thought he’d hear his name from that voice again. 

 

He tugs Magnus up closer, hands cradling Magnus’ head to keep his head from falling back, eyes flickering over every inch of his face to memorise the way it moves, the way Magnus smiles like sunlight through a cloud. The world is wavering with Alec’s tears, still falling even as Alec struggles to breathe through the hope pushing up his heart. 

 

“Are — are you okay?” he asks, half strangled, the words incongruous but always the most important thing. 

 

“I think so,” Magnus said, brow furrowing as he pushed himself into a proper sitting position, still half-lying across Alec’s lap. 

 

Alec kisses him with all the desperation of the last few minutes, with all the love he holds. Magnus kisses him back with equal force until they’re chuckling against each others’ mouths, smiling with pure relief and love. How and why Magnus survived is a pressing question, but Alec can’t bring himself to worry about that when Magnus was here, and alive, and kissing Alec. 

 

“You were dead,” he gasps out when they part for the unfortunate necessity of air. “I — I felt your pulse stop, Magnus.”

 

“Shh,” Magnus says, soothingly, reaching up to run his fingers through Alec’s hair. “I’m alright. I’m alive.”

 

That, Alec thinks, as he pulls Magnus into another kiss, is all that matters.

Notes:

magnus is now half-angel rather than half-demon btw. the soul sword took away the fallen part of his fallen angel blood. he can bear runes & probably do other cool stuff, idk.

I’m @the-great-lightwood-bane on Tumblr.

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