Chapter Text
The Ops Center was dark when Alec came in except for the blue light emanating from the screen savers of a few computers that no one had turned off. Several hours past dusk, most of the conclave was either out on patrol or off duty. He expected to slip in unnoticed, but Isabelle had always been unpredictable, and she had a canny knack for anticipating when he came and went.
She hadn’t been scheduled for a patrol that night. Most of her patrols were with Alec, Jace, and Clary, and Alec had purposefully given himself the night off, but he’d hoped she’d take the opportunity to have some fun outside the Institute. Instead, she was reading through files on her favorite computer, smack dab in the center of the room where Alec couldn’t sneak past her.
Always vigilant, she turned to look at him as soon as he stepped inside the room. He tugged on the collar of his shirt. It was newly bought. He’d been so desperate for a nice-looking shirt that he hadn’t taken time to consider whether it was comfortable before he purchased it, and he’d been itching all night as a result.
Though whether that was actually from the shirt or how uncomfortable he’d been since arriving at the restaurant earlier in the evening, he wasn’t sure.
Isabelle raised an eyebrow, no doubt noticing his outfit. It wasn’t every day he bought new clothes. In fact, he tended to avoid it until his previous ones were so worn that he couldn’t pretend they were wearable anymore.
“Where have you been?” Isabelle raised an eyebrow.
Alec sighed as he slid into the chair beside her, looking over the computer screen she’d been analyzing. A map of New York showed various points of demon activity, all of which were being responded to by members of the conclave. “Are you tracking something in particular?” he asked, ignoring her question.
Isabelle shrugged and turned the monitor off, making their immediate surroundings darker. Unfortunately, he could still make out her expression even without his Nyx rune, which meant she could scrutinize him perfectly fine.
“I was just passing the time.” She fixed him with a gaze that made it clear what she’d been passing her time waiting for. “Where have you been?”
Alec gave an exaggerated sigh and reclined in his chair, tilting his head towards the ceiling.
“Come on,” Isabelle urged. “Are you really going to make me force it out of you?” She motioned at his crisp shirt. “You didn’t get dressed up like that to run errands.”
“I went on a date,” he admitted without looking at her.
It was silent for a second. Alec didn’t look at her. He could already imagine her expression, and it pained him. While she may have meant well, her sympathy only ever made him feel worse.
“How did it go?”
He closed his eyes briefly before turning towards her again. “You know how it went. It went how all the others have gone for the past three years.”
Isabelle slowly nodded her head.
There’d been a period of time, about six months after his breakup with Magnus, when Isabelle had been the driving force behind his dates. She decided that he needed to get over Magnus and set him up with a series of men, each one less compatible with him than the last. Every single date was a disaster.
Well, “disaster” was an exaggeration. Alec was self-aware enough to know that he was the problem most of the time. He just couldn’t bring himself to care about the men who sat across from him, no matter how great they sounded in the abstract. No matter what they were like, he compared them to Magnus in his mind, and none of them could measure up to someone as incredible as Magnus Bane.
It wasn’t their fault that Alec had impossible standards.
Eventually, Isabelle realized it was hopeless and gave up. For a few months, Alec had enjoyed some peace and relished in not needing to force himself into uncomfortable situations, but after a while, he’d started feeling sad for himself and wanted to change that. He did, after all, want a relationship, even if he couldn’t have the relationship he wanted most of all.
It had been terrifying at first, actually putting himself out there without relying on his sister, but he’d forced himself to do it. He stuck to dating mundanes, telling himself that it was because dating another Shadowhunter, or even a Downworlder, as the head of the Institute was a disaster waiting to happen.
In reality, he knew the truth was that dating a mundane felt safer because it couldn’t go anywhere. Not really. There was a convenient barrier between them, and when things inevitably fizzled out after only a date or two, he could blame it on that instead of the truth.
Isabelle’s voice broke through his melancholy. “Do you want to talk more about it?”
Alec shook his head. He never wanted to talk about it.
His siblings surely thought it was because he was embarrassed or just sad about it, but the truth was that there wasn’t anything to talk about. He’d been on enough first dates that they’d begun to feel routine, and it was rare that anything happened that he couldn’t predict within five minutes of sitting down across from his date.
There was no story to tell beyond, “We talked for an hour, and I found the whole thing completely boring. I don’t even remember his hobbies or what he does for a living. By tomorrow, I’ll forget his name too.”
He’d only left his date behind half an hour earlier, and he’d already forgotten everything about the guy other than that he had a nice smile.
Not as great as Magnus’, but nicer than most at least.
“I’m going to bed.” He groaned as he stood.
He really was tired. It always surprised him how much the dates took out of him mentally when he was used to hunting demons late into the night.
“Wait.”
Alec tensed, expecting her to question him more about the date or, god forbid, bring up Magnus, but there was something tense in her tone that made him sit back down.
“What is it?”
She frowned, and Alec found himself scooting closer to her subconsciously.
“There actually is something else I want to talk to you about,” she said. “It’s about work.”
“Can’t it wait until morning?”
She gave him a severe look and turned the monitor back on. “No, I don’t think it can.”
Alec rubbed at his forehead but nodded. They were Shadowhunters. Ten p.m. was actually rather early for an emergency to unfold.
“It’s Lorenzo Rey.”
Alec groaned, shaking his head. “What ridiculous stunt has he pulled this time?”
Lorenzo Rey had been a continual thorn in Alec’s side for years. Apparently, his long-standing feud with Magnus extended to anyone who dared date Magnus as well, and he treated Alec with thinly veiled contempt. He took every opportunity he could to bring up Alec’s failed relationship, twisting the situation into whatever narrative served him best.
Isabelle, who usually joined him in complaining about Lorenzo, didn’t crack a smile.
“I don’t know what he’s done,” she said slowly. “The thing is, he’s missing.”
Alec stared at her. “Missing? You’re sure he hasn’t just moved out of the city?”
Warlocks rarely, if ever, stayed in one place for their entire life. Sure, Lorenzo hadn’t been in New York long by warlock standards either, but Alec could hope. It wasn’t like warlocks were required to notify the local Institute when they moved. (Though Alec was surprised the Clave had never tried to pass a law like that, now that it occurred to him.)
Isabelle shook her head. “It was actually Magnus that notified the Institute about his disappearance, and you know he wouldn’t have done that unless there was an actual problem. His bad blood with Lorenzo goes much further back than yours.”
Alec slumped in his seat. The mention of Lorenzo at a late hour was bad enough, but now Magnus’ name was being brought into it.
He nodded. “Alright, alright. So it needs to be looked into, but it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. I’m too tired to deal with Lorenzo Rey right now. I need a full night’s sleep, an Energy rune, and three cups of coffee before I touch that.”
If it were only Lorenzo, one cup of coffee would be sufficient, but if Magnus was being brought into the situation, it was at least three. He’d already spent his evening doing his best not to compare his date to the High Warlock of Brooklyn. He couldn’t handle seeing him face to face.
He stood up, running a hand through his hair.
“We won’t be able to do anything tonight anyway. Everyone is either off duty or on patrol. And you don’t have a lead, do you?”
Isabelle shook her head, but her lips were thin as she looked up at him.
He didn’t have to ask why. A missing person usually warranted a quick response, especially if a High Warlock was requesting assistance. Magnus never would have contacted the Institute unless he felt he had no other choice. Warlocks loathed Shadowhunter interference in their problems. And Alec had to admit that he wouldn’t dare delay acting if it was anyone other than Lorenzo.
But Lorenzo was quite fond of talking about how competent he was, so far be it from Alec to question his ability to protect himself.
Isabelle may not have been fond of his decision, but she didn’t care enough to intercede on Lorenzo’s behalf.
“I’ll do some more poking around and see what I can find before I go to bed.” She had already turned back to the computer and was clicking away with the mouse. “The report on what I find will be on your desk tomorrow morning.”
Alec sighed. He didn’t love the idea of Isabelle working into the night for Lorenzo’s sake either, but he couldn’t stop her.
“Yeah, alright. Good night, Iz.”
She muttered her own good night, already engrossed in whatever she was looking at.
The next morning was almost blissful for a few minutes as Alec laid in bed, soaking in the warmth and comfort you could only find in those first few moments after a good night’s sleep. Like always, that bliss was short-lived as the events of the night before came back to him.
With a groan, he flopped over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. He hadn’t had to deal with Lorenzo Rey for several months, and he’d hoped to maintain that streak for much longer. Now he wondered if the lack of trouble he’d been causing was because something or someone had harmed him.
He rubbed at his eyes, willing the last fog of sleep to dissipate. While he didn’t like Lorenzo, he couldn’t abandon him to whatever misfortune had befallen him. Especially when he didn’t have proof that Lorenzo’s disappearance was his own fault. (Alec certainly had his suspicions though.)
By the time he made it to his office, he’d mentally prepared himself for the file Isabelle claimed would be waiting for him, but there was nothing there. He opened the tablet laying on his desk, but there was no electronic file there either.
Just as he was preparing to set off in search of his sister, Isabelle appeared, her hair still damp from a shower. She gave him a tight, tired smile as she slid into the chair across from his desk.
“As it turns out, there’s no useful information on Rey’s disappearance.” She crossed her arms against her chest. “At least nothing I could turn up using our database or connections.”
Alec sighed. “I’m not surprised that the Downworlders willing to work with the Clave aren’t fond of Lorenzo either. Quite a few of them are probably glad he’s gone.”
Let it be known that he didn’t add that he would be glad for Lorenzo to be gone. It was remarkable he had so much restraint when he was only halfway through his first cup of coffee of the day.
“Yeah, well, knowing that isn’t useful,” Isabelle said. “All we have is Magnus’ notification that he’s missing. I think we need to go talk to him, see what he’s heard.”
Alec’s stomach churned. Magnus’ involvement was inevitable from the moment Isabelle mentioned him, but Alec had still been hoping to put it off for as long as possible.
“You’re right,” he allowed, struggling to keep his voice level. “How about you find Jace and go out to Brooklyn this morning?”
He kept his gaze on his desk, hoping that ignoring the look Isabelle was sending him would be enough to dissuade her from questioning him.
Of course it wasn’t.
“I’m not going without you,” she said, her tone not leaving anything up for discussion.
“I’m the head of the Institute,” he said as if he had any hope. “There are a million and one things I need to do.”
“We’ll probably have to pay Magnus for his help,” she pointed out, completely ignoring his protests. “I can retrieve the money from the safe if you want. Have you got the key?”
“He’s the High Warlock of Brooklyn. You think he’s going to charge us for helping search for a warlock he asked us to find?”
Even as he protested, he fished the key to the Institute’s safe from his pocket and handed it over to Isabelle, who shrugged. As old-fashioned as it was, each Institute was required to have a stash of physical currency stored away. Not many warlocks accepted a debit card as payment.
“Depends on what requests we have. Magnus isn’t really a friend anymore, is he, Alec? Warlocks make deals. They don’t give out favors.”
She turned on her heel and left the room, seemingly oblivious to the way she left Alec reeling.
He wasn’t stupid. Of course he realized that they couldn’t expect favors from Magnus anymore. Their relationship now was that of the High Warlock of Brooklyn and the head of the New York Institute, and warlocks demanded payment for the help they doled out to Shadowhunters. Magnus was the same.
In fact, his prices had gone up over the past several years, as if he was daring the Institute—daring Alec—to stop hiring him, and Alec had tried to hire other warlocks whenever he was the one who had to interact with them. The idea of handing payment over to Magnus like there was nothing more between them than a business deal made his chest ache. It was a potent reminder that there really wasn’t anything between them anymore.
He found Jace in the training room tossing knives at a mannequin. A few younger trainees stood off to one side, watching him in awe, but as far as Alec could tell, Jace wasn’t meant to be training them at the moment. Jace just had a habit of attracting attention with his talent, especially from younger Shadowhunters who idolized him.
Alec ignored their grumbling over their show being interrupted as he approached and Jace turned away from the mannequin. Jace, as always, acted completely oblivious to the attention despite soaking in every bit of it.
“What’s up?” He raised an eyebrow. “You’re looking particularly irritated this morning.”
Alec rolled his eyes. “Lorenzo Rey is missing.”
Jace took in the information with the same level of interest that he’d show to a common Rahab demon sighting.
“We need to go to Magnus for help.” Alec clenched his jaw as Jace’s eyebrows rose.
“You’re going yourself?” he asked.
“With Izzy.” Alec motioned his head towards the door. “She refused to go unless I did.”
The serious look on Jace’s face was worse than Isabelle’s reaction. Unlike Isabelle, Jace had never pushed him to talk things out with Magnus after the break up or set him up on dates. Instead, he’d focused on cheering Alec up in other ways and being supportive. Usually, Alec appreciated that, but when seeing Magnus again was staring him in the face, he wished Jace didn’t look so grave about it.
“Will you be able to handle it?” Jace asked.
If the question had come from anyone else, Alec would have been mortified at the prospect of being seen through so easily.
“I’ll be fine.”
His parabatai knew it was a lie, but he nodded anyway. “Mind if I tag along?” Jace walked over to the mannequin and pulled three knives free. “I’m done here anyway.”
The two knives that had still been in his hand when Alec approached said otherwise, but Alec didn’t protest as Jace stored them away in their case, much to the dismay of the lingering trainees.
“You don’t have to,” Alec said half-heartedly, not able to conceal his real desire, which was to have Jace come along.
It shouldn’t have mattered. Having Jace there was liable to make things worse rather than better, but sometimes, even as an adult, he found himself clinging to his parabatai like a security blanket. He wasn’t sure how healthy it was, but in moments of desperation, that never stopped him.
Jace clapped him on the shoulder. “I don’t have to, but I’m going to.”
He gave Alec a smile before guiding him out of the room with his hand still on his shoulder. Alec followed, thankful for a few minutes where someone else was in control.