Targeted

Although Alec was usually the one to be counted on for steadiness, he let Jace remove the arrow from Eden’s shoulder before they lifted her to the infirmary straight down the hall. Maryse Lightwood, his mother, came bursting in moments later, her face pale as she took in the scene and closed the door behind her.

Turning to her eldest, she demanded in a short voice, “What. Happened.”

“Did you know that she was alive?” Jace said in a strangely defensive tone, stepping between Alec and his mother, the latter of who looked surprised, and then thoroughly offended.

“Of course not,” she spat, shaking her head. “It hurts me you would think so little of me, Jace. I care for Eden, and for you, as you were both one of my own, and I…”

The door slammed open, and their eyes all swiveled to where a tall, Asiatic man stood in the frame. He was wearing a velvety maroon trench coat that nearly touched the floor, studded black leather boots that reached above his knee and made his leather pants look like a mere continuation of the shoes, and a shimmery black glitter top. Alec thought in the back corner of his mind how Magnus Bane the Warlock actually looked a little more subdued than normal.

“What is that stink?” Magnus said, his nose twitching as if he were tapping into his more feline characteristics as of late. Alec hadn’t realized the stench at first, but now he did -- like sulfur. He shrugged helplessly as Magnus looked down at the girl, unconscious at his feet. His eyes widened as he asked, “Nephilim?”

“Of course she’s Nephilim,” Jace cut back, sarcastic when his parabati needed his silence. That only seemed to worsens Magnus mood as he turned from surprised to angry, his cat like eyes flashing from moss green to a dangerous and alarming gold.

“What are you doing, shooting another Shadowhunter?” Magnus asked angrily, taking out the frustration on the girl’s arm as he pulled out the arrow, throwing it behind him as if it were nothing. He pressed his hands over the girl’s wound, blood seeping between his fingers as he winced, but kept his angry tone. “Who is she, even? Is she an enemy?”

“No, no,” Alec said, biting the edge of his nail as he spoke. “She was... is a friend. We thought she was dead... like, a few months ago. She’s Eden Branwell.”

Magnus’ eyes fluttered in disbelief. Jace could’ve sworn he saw a piece of glitter drop rom his eyelashes. “Eden Branwell?”

Turning back to the girl, Alec saw Magnus regain his cool and continue the treatment in a very soft manner, almost caressing the girl’s arm rather than nearly pulling it out of its socket like he had moments earlier. Isabelle was the one to ask slowly, “Yes, why?”

“I used to know a pair of Branwells. I’ve of course heard of the following Branwells, but never thought I’d have the opportunity to know one again,” Magnus said in that overly compensating way of his that Alec could tell meant he was lying. However, Alec wasn’t comfortable enough with the warlock to push through the truth, nor was he all too curious, if he were to be honest with himself.

Throwing out his hands in front of him, Jace asked, “Well, can you heal her? Or are you giving us a history of your personal dealings with the family because you’ve learned the Branwells not able to be healed by magic?”

Magnus was about to visibly snap back some sarcastic comment when Eden gasped, her eyes flying back open as her face instantly screwed up into an expression of pain. His cat-like eyes refocusing on his patient, Magnus whispered a few words under his breath and Eden rested back against the table, her eyes barely open and her chest barely moving as she breathed.

When the four Shadowhunters looked at Magnus blankly, he shrugged, having the audacity to almost look bored. “What? I don’t know what questions to ask her.”

Alec felt anger rise up somewhere deep within him; the only thing that held him back was a firm hand on his shoulder from his golden-haired angel. His sister, on the other hand, still seemed only focused on Eden as she asked gently, “Ede. Where have you been?”

“I was in Los Angeles, with the Blackthorns, to help with Emma Carstairs and Julian while Helen went to Alicante to visit Aline,” Eden said, her eyes unfocused and confused. “I sent... letters...”

Isabelle’s eyes were watery as she pushed back Eden’s hair. “You left the Blackthorns’ over a year ago. Nobody’s heard from you since. The Clave pronounced you as dead three months ago.”

Eden’s eyes slammed shut, and her voice was rough. “No. That can’t… can’t be right. I…”

When her eyes slammed shut, Magnus quickly tightened his hands around her head and she lurched. The heart monitor they had put her on spiked and Alec found himself protesting right along Jace, Isabelle, and his mother.

“She’s not actually in any pain,” Magnus said, his voice slow and focused. “Now if you could all quiet down, I could read her thoughts more easily and figure out how to help her.”

The four Shadowhunters did as he asked, watching impatiently for the warlock to work his magic. It felt like days before Alec saw Magnus’ arms relax and lower softly to his sides. His face was one of confusion and frustration. Alec’s curiosity finally won over as he snapped, “What?”

“She has walls around her mind, little Nephilim,” Magnus said, giving Alec a small sneer that told him how little he appreciated Alec’s attitude. “The walls are so thick, so tall, so fortified that even I can’t get through them.”

Jace seemed relaxed, but his words still came out as sardonic. “So, where can we find someone who can do your job better than you?”

Giving him a judgmental look with a simple quirked eyebrow, Magnus shook his head once. “Very few can do what I can do. Even less can do it better than I. Your friend not only has walls around her mind. She’s been made to believe that she really did just back from Los Angeles, that she really did just spend the last year babysitting or whatever.”

“What does that mean?” Isabelle asked, rubbing her arms almost absent-mindedly while her brother lowered himself down beside the girl he had injured.

“It means someone didn’t want Eden to remember the last year. Somewhere in her mind, there is a secret someone doesn’t want to let lose. And that means you Nephilim have a huge issue on your hands,” Magnus said in his typical cocky manner, looking back at Eden lying in the bed, Alec watching over her closely, both of his hands wrapped around one of hers as he held all three to his mouth. Magnus knew the Shadowhunters couldn’t hear it, but his warlock ears picked up Alec whispering apologies and prayers.

Turning back to Maryse, Isabelle, and Jace, he shook his head and used a more calm tone to tell them, “I’ll do all I can to help you. She’s made me... curious. There aren’t many mind blocks I can’t step around. You might want to see if a Silent Brother can be brought, although, if I’m riding on the not so humble road that seems to lead most of my life, I am not sure that it will help. I can barely budge the wall that is there.”

“Thank you, Magnus,” Maryse said, finally speaking up for the first time since the warlock’s arrival. “Jace, would you like to show Mr. Bane out?”

Jace looked like he wanted to do anything but show Mr. Bane anywhere, but he saw how unwilling Isabelle, who had been in the process of becoming Eden’s parabati, and her brother were to moving, so he left with the warlock. Maryse Lightwood watched her eldest children watch over the girl she had once considered to be like a second daughter.

Finally, one of the dark-haired children turned toward her, nodding once as her daughter followed her into the hallway. They closed the door, leaving the eldest Lightwood in the room with his victim. The moment the door’s locked clicked into place, Isabelle sighed, a shaky noise, as she leant against the wall. “Raziel, Mom. Eden... after all this time.”

“Perhaps it was best we waited for you two to become parabati,” Maryse said, shaking her head in wonder. “I don’t know what happened to Eden in the last year, but I can’t have imagined it happening to you as well.”

Isabelle grew slightly defensive; Maryse could see it in her position, a protective type of posture that she knew mirrored her own behavior exactly. “Eden is an honorary Lightwood, Mom. We... we always thought she’d be a real one, one day.”

It had been the running joke, as was typical between boys and girls who grew up alongside each other: Alec and Eden were to be married. When they grow older, it became less of a joke and more of a serious question, as they began to learn that cooties weren’t real and that holding hands wasn’t just something fun to do anymore. Isabelle was the first one to know when Eden had told Alec, two years her superior, that she wanted more than a friendship. Coming from anyone else, it would’ve sounded desperate, but from Eden, it was brave. Alec had never been one for being open emotionally, but she somehow cracked his shell.

So, when she disappeared over a year ago, Alec slightly did, too. Luckily, his parabati bond with Jace kept him surfaced. Jace knew, better than even Eden, the true emotions of Alec Lightwood. And Isabelle was sure that Jace was the real reason Alec survived the loss of Eden.

Maryse shook her head, bringing Isabelle back to the current moment. “I know, it’s just...”

To see her mother lost in thought was jarring to Isabelle. Her mother was usually very in control, alway four steps ahead.

Isabelle stepped closer to her mother. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. I just need to speak with the Clave. You stay out here for your brother, and make sure when Jace comes back, he doesn’t bother Alec much,” Maryse said, gently patting her daughter’s cheek before she turned and made her way back to the library. Isabelle pricked up at the same moment her mother, spoke; her voice was as soft as when Isabelle had accidentally broken her mother’s favorite perfume bottle. It was affectionate as when she would call Alec ‘Al’ and Isabelle ‘Izzy’. It was as caring as when Alec had broken his wrist at age five, or when Isabelle had broken her ankle at age eight.

The softness, affection, and care in her voice was reserved for only special moments. And the fact that she was using it now on her daughter meant only one thing in Isabelle’s mind.

The warning Magnus Bane had given made the courageous and usually stoic Shadowhunter Maryse Lightwood fearful for her children’s lives.