Secret (Alec Lightwood)

Chapter 7

"Because I was in here first," Alec sighs.

She smiles a little. "Okay, okay."

I finish my donut, then wipe my hands with a napkin. "Okay, I'm gonna go train."

"I'll be there in a few minutes," Jace says.

I nod as I walk out of the room. I go to my room and quickly change into black leggings and a white t-shirt that I cut the sleeves off of, then go down to the weaponry with my throwing runes in hand.

"There you are," Jace says while turning to face me with a blade in his hand. "I've been here for like, five minutes."

"I was getting changed," I say as I put down my runes and grab my dagger from my boot.

"I can tell. You ready?"

Instead of saying something or giving him a signal of some sort, I charge at him.

He swings his blade at me, but I jump back and tear the handle from his hand.

I kick his legs out from under him, and he falls to the ground. I put my foot on his chest as a smile creeps across my face. "Looks like I win."

He chuckles. "Guess so."

I help him stand up and hand him the blade I ripped from his hand.

"So, what's happened in your life since I left Idris?"

"A lot."

"Anything you wanna talk about?"

I shake my head. "No, not really."

"You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Jace, I don't even know you anymore. I'm sorry."

"You can get to know me now. What do you wanna know?"

I shake my head. "I don't wanna get to know you through questions, I wanna get to know you by being your friend. Like when we were kids."

He sighs. "Can I get one question without declining an answer?"

I sigh. "Why?"

"Because I wanna know something." He puts his blade down and pulls out a blue slip of paper. "I remember, when we were like, eight, you gave me what you called an anything dollar in replace of a birthday present. I could get anything I wanted without retribution."

"Why do you still have that?"

"I took it with me when I left Idris, figured it'd give me a memory of my old friend."

"How did you not lose it within six years?"

He shrugs. "Don't know. I saw it this morning and figured it'd be a way to get an answer for a question I really wanna know."

I sigh. "What is it?"

"What happened to your family?"

"Please ask me something else."

"I want to know."

I sigh again and sit down against a place on the wall where there are no weapons. "When I was thirteen... I met this guy. His name was Jake. We started going out, hell we were parabatai. And about a year later, I found out that he wasn't who I thought he was. He'd been bitten by a werewolf and neglected to tell me. And one day he pissed off some vampires, killed a few of them with his pack. They came after him while he was at my house, and they killed everyone. Except for us. He and I survived. But I was so mad at him, I broke our parabatai bond and told him to get out of my life."

"They got killed by vamps?"

I nod while choking back a small sob. I always cry when I tell the story.

"I-I'm sorry."

"I don't want your pity."

"If the last guy you trusted broke your heart, why are you trusting Alec not to? I mean, he wouldn't dare break your heart, but why so willing?"

I sigh. "Jake left a huge hole in my heart, a huge hole in my life. Ever since then, I've been looking for something or someone to fill it. When I first saw Alec... it kind of felt whole again."

"Are you already in love with Alec?"

My eyes widen as I shake my head. "No, no god no." I look down at the ground and sigh. "After they died, I was alone for so long. I eventually tried to find Jake, but he was gone."

"You're not alone anymore. You've got us."

I take a deep breath and nod. "I know."

We sit in silence for almost a minute, until I speak up.

"We're here to train, not tell sad stories."

"Right, right." He stands up and holds out his hand to help me.

I grab his hand and stand up as I take my dagger out of my boot. "Let's do this."