“You’re ‘kay?” His boy asks him, desperately, searchingly. “Wha’d you pay?”

“Nothing but to ask you to trust me, as you always do.”

Alexander nods instantly and asks tiredly, pained, “Jace?”

“It will hurt him, but it will save his life. Lilith will no longer have any control over him.”

Alec smiles up at him, blood burbling from the corner of his mouth as he coughs.

“I trus’ you. L’ve you.” His eyes are fluttering and Magnus kisses him, easing him with magic into unconsciousness.  Magnus summons the stele his father handed him with a smirk and draws a rune over the parabatai rune and then he draws three more.

They are both demonic and divine and with his father’s power still boosting him, Magnus has no problems ripping Alexander and Jace’s bond apart.  Alexander convulses and coughs up more blood and Magnus uses magic to hold him down — even unconscious his body is reacting to losing a piece of what its held for years as its own soul.

Magnus rips Jace from Alexander like one might rip the skin from a carcass or a hook from a wound. It’s dug in and tightly barbed but Magnus is merciless, because he promised Alexander that Jace would live and he will, but as with all things there will be a price.

And this is it.

His father thinks that Alexander will hate him, will loathe him for this but Magnus knows better and he knows that what Alec wants the most is Jace to be still alive and to also live. Alexander will forgive him because his boy is viciously pragmatic and he understands that things have cost better than most.

Magnus works desperately the moment the bond is broken, ignoring the pain he’s causing to call for Catarina and to desperately try and heal his by.

It’s hours before his and Cat’s combined work leave a deep but no longer fatal wound.  And impressive task when you consider that adamas wounds rarely heal.

Alexander wakes slowly, eyes wet and wild as he looks up at Magnus and gasps out his name in shock as his body shakes.

“Jace—” he gets out hoarsly.

“Alive, but no longer your parabatai. Two lives saved for the cost of two soul shards.” Magnus says, making it sound much less intimate than the price truly was.

“Are you upset with me, sayang?” Magnus asks gently as he leans down and presses his ear to Alexander’s beating heart, gently hovering over the skin, not actually pressing down for fear of hurting the tender and raw wound.

“It’s the price that should have been paid from the beginning.” Alexander says and he sounds sad but grim. “Jace was brought back and the bond came back wrong from the beginning. It was broken like it wasn’t supposed to reform.” And Magnus lifts his head and watches as Alexander looks at him, eyes damp, “and what else could you have done, Magnus? This was always Jace and mine’s price to pay. You only ever went to Edom for me and that you came back unharmed is a gift I can’t take lightly.”

Alexander is serious, so sincere as he speaks and Magnus once again sighs with delight at how earnest and loving his boy is.

“My father hoped to break my heart. That by breaking your parabatai bond, I would have betrayed you. That you would hate me.”

Alexander scoffs and shakes his head, pain on his face but adoration still strong in his eyes.

“You saved us, Magnus. Me and Jace. I wouldn’t have made it with that much adamas in my heart without your magic and Jace would still be under Lilith.” Alec coughs and shifts with a grimace before he looks at Magnus sulkily. “I just had a piece of my soul ripped out Magnus, and my heart stabbed. I think I’d rather have cuddles than conversations right now.”

Magnus blinks and stares at his magnificent boy, who is looking at him with a pout and Magnus already knew, but he truly can’t resist Alexander.

“Jace is going to have a bitch of a time healing too.” Alexander mutters, and he sounds smug in only the way a nephilim can once they are out of true danger and are pleased with their skills.

“Oh?”

“He always said my arrow training wouldn’t ever come in handy.” Alexander rasps out with a hoarse, forced chuckle that seems a little sad, “but I got him in every tendon and to drop his weapons. So—” and here Alexander looks grimly pleased, “he was wrong.”

Magnus soothes a hand over his boy’s face and just drinks in his exhausted and pained face. Alexander is alive and that is all that matters and Magnus reminds himself of this as he leans forward and delicately kisses his beloved with a fierce possessiveness despite how gentle he is.

Because Alexander trusts him and Asmodeus was wrong and going to Edom was worth having Alexander’s soul all to himself.

—

Elsewhere at the New York Institute, Izzy sobs as she holds a screaming Jace down. Clary is crying to, unable to help her beyond activating Izzy’s strength runes.

He has a soulmate, a match to his now undeniable soul and Magnus can’t wait any longer.

He’s been waiting for centuries after all.

It’s with that in mind that Magnus un-tethers himself and lets himself follow the echo.

It’s faint, so very faint and Magnus realizes it’s because his soulmate is young.

The dream realm is unlike he’s ever seen it before, as if something is trying to keep him from following. After nearly six hundred years of dedication however, Magnus is too talented to let himself become lost or

It becomes clear when he finds them why this is so different from any dream Magnus has traipsed through.

His soulmate is a shadowhunter and Magnus remembers the shadowed halls, so hard to traverse and not be devoured by. Raziel has been keeping his soulmate from him, trying to hide him from Magnus and no doubt prolonging his birth.

That’s the only thing Magnus can think of, the only direction he can aim all the hurt and anger he’s been carrying all of these years.

None of it’s his soulmate’s fault. His perfect soulmate who is listlessly staring into the empty distance, sitting on the ground and facing away.

His dreamscape is devoid of almost anything good and hopeful, only a few brittle familial bonds and Magnus ignores them, much more interested in the strong bond already singing with vibrations between them

“Beloved—” Magnus murmurs and his voice takes on almost a presence as his words wrap around his soulmate like an embrace. He shudders and lets himself drift into his magic.

His precious boy shudders as if he can’t believe it and then he sobs, tears running down his face as Magnus wraps untangable arms around him and holds him as tightly as he can. Magnus’ grip will be bruising enough to leave a reminder in the waking world and the thought only makes him hold tighter.

Let his soulmate never suffer the fear Magnus has, that he will be forever alone. He’s so young and just entering when his soul was strong enough to start echoing Magnus’ own and yet his mind is so bleak, so empty of warmth and good things.

Magnus knows forced strength when he sees it and he vows to himself to carry whatever burdens are necessary to change his soulmate’s dreamscape into a place of wonder, where their souls will always be connected.

— “Alexander, darling. Let me hold you.” The voice says and Alec has never once considered saying no and as the energy of his soulmate envelops him, all he can do is sigh in contentment.

It’s so easy — night after night — to slip to sleep in the early morning sun and be immiedately claimed by his soulmate. It’s impossible to resist the hands that soothe over his muscles or the way invisible fingers grip his nape and pull him into a firm, warm lap.

Alec learns to rest like that, secure in his soulmates embrace rather than drifting in his dreams. It’s not what he was told finding a soulmate would be like, but he can’t imagine it any other way.

Sometimes, when he’s torn up from his training and the expectations layered on him, his soulmate will lay them down, Alec’s head in his soulmate’s lap as fingers gently pet through his hair.

It’s a gentle, soothing ritual that soon has Alec aching for it to be real, something he can have all the time.

From how his soulmate acts, the power he uses in the dream and the fact that Alec knows this isn’t how bonds are supposed to work, he knows that there has to be magic involved. Which means Alec is going to have to make a choice and quickly.

It’s getting harder every night to wake up alone and with only the phantom touch of his soulmate on his skin. Sometimes he’ll wake up, tacky and sticky with the evidence of his dreams but no one to soothe the chill that comes when he finds himself alone.

It’s turned into a burn that he can no longer ignore and Alec doesn’t think he can do this. His parents want him to be a leader but all Alec wants is his soulmate’s touch.

They want him to be strong and Alec doesn’t mind that but he wants to buckle and be pliant, to be good for his soulmate who is so good to him. Alec wants to ensure that he always earns the sweet, soft caresses he’s given and he can’t imagine how he could, if he himself is caught between duty to the clave and duty to his soul.

It’s with aching anger that Alec works himself into exhaustion every day so he can sleep deeply each night and while sometimes the evidence of dreams carries over, the evidence of his own battles does not.

Alec never feels as safe or as peaceful as he does when hands hold him still and tight and his head goes calm and blank. It’s as if with his soulmate holding him down all the worries and weight and pressures of his family fade away. It’s addicting and unfair, to be given a taste of something he desperately needs and then to have it be taken away every time he wakes.

Alec imagines that it will only be worse, when they truly meet.

Alec wants to be able to feel the warm band of fingers comfortingly circling his throat. The little tugs on his hair that keep him coherent enough not to drift and send shivers down his spine so intense that his toes curl.

How will he ever be able to pull himself away from his soulmate once he’s felt their actual touch and not just their spiritual one. How will he ever be able to force himself to be strong again when he’s finally allowed to feel safe and protected in his soulmate’s embrace and magic.

It’s an agony that follows him daily until once again his intructions and orders are ignored and he’s being verbally reprimanded in half a hall of shadowhunters for his siblings mistakes.

There is only one thing he knows about his soulmate and that’s that he’s old and he’s powerful. Alec knows that from the weight of the magic that caresses him so gently — like he’s delicate — but firmly, like it wants to make sure he feels it.

His soulmate wouldn’t treat him like this.

The echo of his soul would treasure him and gentle him and keep Alec safe in a way that no one ever has and Alec suddenly wants that. The pressure feels like it’s about to crush him and Alec retreats to his room and runes his door shut, rubbing a hand over his heart as he bites his lip.

There is only one way that Alec can get to his soulmate even faster than the magic of dreams and souls allows.

Alec is the younger one in the relationship, it’s his soulmate’s duty to protect him if the environment Alec is in becomes hostile and Alec — for all that he doesn’t want to admit it — is now in enemy territory.

His parents might tolerate Izzy sleeping with downworlders, but thats because none have ever been her soulmate. They will never tolerate Alec’s soulmate being a warlock, especially not one older than him. Perhaps, if Alec had an equal standing to his soulmate, but he doesn’t yet and he doubts he ever will from how strong the other is.

It might be salvageable if Alec could wait until he becomes the HOTI, but that could be years from now and Alec refuses to wait any longer.

He won’t survive it if he does.

So, Alec runes the floor with the array he needs and cuts his palm so that his grace-blessed blood paints over each symbol.

It’s with a pained goodbye to all the years that he suffered for what feels like nothing, that Alec severs the angelic rune that connects him to Raziel. It’s the worst pain he’s every felt and he’s screaming, he knows he is but he’s soundproofed and runed his room.

He’ll be fine and when he’s done, the only claim on his soul will be his soulmate, who will come find him.

He has to, because Alec doesn’t have the strength to do anything more.

—

Magnus feels the agony through his very soul and he portals from the meeting without a second thought. The wards shatter around him and he’ll have some very disgruntled Elders to handle, but nothing matters beyond getting to his soulmate now.

Magnus portals into a room and sees his soulmate lying on the floor, unconscious and trembling over a bloodsoaked array primed with desperation. Magnus scoops his boy up and snaps his fingers, vanishing the evidence and summoning every single thing from Alexander’s room into a dimensional ring.