Living Like Legends [Alec Lightwood]

{Chapter Seventeen}

Alec

"You wanted to see me?"

Maryse looked up as Alec paused in the doorway.  She set down the stack of papers she'd been holding.  "Yes, come in."

Alec stepped inside and noticed Lydia standing beside his mother.  He shut the door behind him and took a seat on the couch in front of her desk.

"Are you feeling better?" 

"Yeah."  He glanced at Lydia again.

"Your introduction to Lydia was rather abrupt in the Infirmary... with Ashlyne present."  His mother brushed an imaginary speck of dust from her desk surface.

"Ashe."  Alec said, crossing his legs.  "Nobody calls her Ashlyne."

Maryse stopped what she was doing to look at him with eyes like chips of blue ice.  Then she stood.  "Lydia Bronwell.  Fierce warrior.  Well known in Idris and respected by the Clave."

Lydia smiled at Alec and he returned it, hesitantly. 

"Alexander Lightwood," his mother continued.  "One of the best hunters in the Shadow World and archer.  His bond with Jace Wyland is the strongest we've seen in years."  She sounded like she was reading a brochure of their lives.  Her painted lips turned up into a smile, one Alec had never seen before.  "This is so exciting."

"I'm sorry,"  Alec shifted forward in his seat.  "What's going on?  Why am I here?  I've already been introduced to Lydia."

"Alec."  Maryse stood and walked around her desk to stand in front of her son.  "You are getting married."

"Married?"  Alec stood abruptly.  "Married?  To who?  When?  I-"

"To me."  Lydia spoke up for the first time.  "Your mother thinks it will be a solid partnership and will strengthen the Institute."

Alec stood speechless.  Maryse placed her hands on his shoulders.  "I know this comes as a bit of a shock-"

Alec knocked her hands away.  "I'm... I can't get married.  This doesn't make any sense."

"Alexander."  Maryse's voice became hard.  "Yes, you are.  You carry our family name with honor and dignity.  This marriage with be a strong sign of our family power."

"You mean your power."  Alec spat, backing up.  "This is absurd."

"Alec, stop being so selfish and naive!  We need this."  His mother snapped.

"No."  Alec growled.  "We don't.  I won't marry Lydia."

Hurt flashed across Lydia's face but Alec didn't notice as he flung the door open and exited the room.

"Don't worry, Lydia.  Alec, will come around.  He's just surprised.  He'll see the necessity of our actions soon enough."  Maryse calmly sat back down at her desk, as if the exchange had never happened. 

Lydia nodded before leaving the room quietly.

~

Alec burst into his bedroom.  He couldn't be here.  He needed to get out, anywhere but the Institute and near his mother. 

He yanked away the drapes from his window and glanced outside.  The evening sun shone through wisps of cloud.

Growling, he nearly pulled his door from its hinges as he pulled it open and stalked down the halls.  He yanked his bow and arrows from their place in the weapons room and headed for the elevator.

"Alec!"  It was Izzy, going as fast as she could in her heels, hurrying to catch him.  "Alec, where are you going?  What's wrong?"

He didn't answer, knowing he'd beat her to the elevator.  He stepped inside and the door slid shut with a hiss, closing him off from the Institute.  He loosed a breath of relief as he exited out into the fading sun.

His mother was insane.  No, insane wasn't the right word.  Delusional.  Calculating and coy.  That was what summed her up, Alec thought angrily as he stormed through the tall grasses. 

He'd put up with her demands, obeyed her every command and sacrificed much in the name of family.  But marrying?

He couldn't even wrap his head around it and Ashe-

Ashe.  He dropped to the ground and held his head in his hands. 

How could he marry someone else when he was so blindly in love with another?