Light Shadows • Alec Lightwood

Thirty-Four

Jace scoffed and pulled out his phone, alerted by the feel of a message. When she had returned from seeing Luke, she had found him sitting outside her bedroom door with his head in his hands.

He'd told her everything. About Aldertree and how he'd essentially benched the poor Shadowhunter because of the elder mans distrust of him, even after saving his life and about Clary, how he still felt for her and it sickened him but also how she'd managed to create a new rune.

Surprisingly, Talia hadn't found herself shocked by that information, with them both being connected to Valentine, the older girl wasn't surprised to find something was different with her than other Shadowhunters.

Jace grinned at his phone before placing it back in his pocket, no doubt finding a 'distraction' from everything that's been going on.

Izzy quickly waved before fleeting from the room. Alec called out her name but she was already around the corner.

He looked at Talia and raised an eyebrow in question. She shook her head in return. Izzy had said she wanted to talk to her a couple of days back, but she'd never approached Talia again to speak about it and the blonde was getting suspicious.

"I've got to go too actually, book club," Jace mustered hurriedly, passing the pole to Talia who was barely able to react in time before it hit on the head.

She whacked him on the back of the legs with it, "Hey! We're meant to be a team here!"

"Bye Talia!" Jace winked as he jogged towards the entrance of the Institute, leaving her to fend for her rights to food alone.

"Traitor," She muttered under her breath, turning to see Alec with a hand outstretched an a smile dancing on his lips as she took the hand to pull herself up, "You're not forgiven either."

He clicked his tongue, "All I said was that you couldn't eat the Institutes supply of it."

"But where's the fun in that?"

Alec placed a light kiss on the pout she had on her lips and then another on her forehead, making the young woman melt at the gentleness of his touch.

"Just ask me and we'll go get some together before they run out okay?" He ruffled her hair playfully.

She swatted at his hands before laughing, nodding her head at his proposition, "It's a deal, only as long as..."

Talia trailed off as she ducked into a corner of the room, returning with two small chains. Alec looked at her in confusion before latching his eyes onto the jewellery, "Are those-?"

"Dog tags? Yep!" Talia smiled brightly as he fingers reached out to look over them, tracing the indentations and the small pieces of metal that looked so realistic, they could've been pulled from a war zone.

"When did you even get these?" Alec twiddled the one she handed him in his palm whilst Talia placed her own over her neck.

"The other day, Jace was with me, so you don't need to worry about me being alone," She winked at him, knowing he would've had her head if she had been, "I mentioned to him that I wanted to get you something, and you mentioned the Winter Soldier the other day. And from what Jace said, you have actually watched the movie-"

Alec flushed at the comment, knowing he had told Jace that he enjoyed the movie a few weeks ago, wanting to know more about why Talia liked it so much.

"-he also said you like war movies, so...tada! I found a place that could customise the look of them so mine has your name on one with some 'would be' squad numbers, whilst the other is the same but with your initials, and yours is the same, except it has mine for both."