The Stars of Our Love [ Wattys 2017]

Epilogue

If someone lost their Parabatai.

Magnus fell to his knees, clutching his chest. He noticed both Clary's and Simon's eyes were red and puffy from crying. Just more and more evidence, Magnus thought. "No," he said again. But his voice was inaudible. He couldn't hear anything over the sound of his heart breaking. The only reason he noticed Jace again was because he dropped a manila folder into his lap. Magnus looked up into the shadowhunter's dull gold eyes.

"Alec told me that if he died, I should give this to you," he said. His voice sounded raw and pained, not at all like the strong, confident young man that had left three weeks ago. Now he was only a hollow, broken shell.

Magnus nodded dully and looked down at his scribbled name on the envelope. Magnus was written in Alec's messy-neat handwriting that only he could perfect. Then Magnus got up and began walking to the city, knowing exactly where he should read it.

Those few minutes were the worst moments of Magnus' life. Finding out that your only true love had been killed right before you were to be married was like stabbing someone in the eyes with hot coal-pokers after telling them they were about to see the most beautiful creature ever. Only Magnus would much rather experience that.

After composing himself, Magnus sat up in the chair he was sitting in and got up to go to the telescope. He had figured that he would observe the stars that had reminded him of his and Alec's love. After adjusting the lens, he put his eye up to it and spied through.

The stars blinked back at him, indifferent to the intense emotions that were raging inside of the warlock. They were simply there as a reminder of the things one aspired to touch, but could never quite reach. Much like his love. He so desperately wanted to have his perfect love with Alec but had fallen short of the long life they needed. Magnus just felt like a supernova. Like his emotions would implode and destroy him.

Magnus stepped back and looked down at the last two sentences in Alec's letter. Come soon, Magnus. Come soon. And that's exactly what he planned to do.

----

Jace walked up the steps to Magnus' apartment, careful not to trip. He had been worried about him ever since he had left the Institute looking lost and broken. So he decided to bake the warlock some cookies and bring them to him. He knew that no amount of cookies would ever, ever, help Magnus cope with the loss of Alec, but all he hoped to do was let Magnus know that he had support.

Jace knocked on Magnus' new door, waiting for some reply. There was none, so he tried twisting the knob. It was unlocked. He stepped in uneasily, a cold pit sitting in his stomach. Something wasn't right. The smell of magic lingered in the air, making Jace automatically tense up. He set the cookies down and quickly walked into the living room-

-and stopped as he saw Magnus' dead body lying on the floor. His arms and legs were bent in awkward, painful looking positions. Blood leaked out of his nose and mouth, a shocking red against the stark pale of his face. Ugly purple welts and bruises covered the exposed skin.

"Oh, Magnus, what did you do?" Jace asked sadly. Then he knelt down and picked up a piece of paper that was laying next to the warlock's corpse.

My dearest Alec,

Angel. Sweet, sweet Angel. I'd do anything for you. You told me to come soon, so I did. The moment I realised that you were gone, I knew life was pointless. 850 years, all useless without you. I decided I'd take the shortcut to you. I made it as painful as possible so I could try to experience the pain you were in, but it was nothing compared to the agony of life without you, my dear Alec. I now understand that all of our arguments were so trivial, but you were the farthest thing from that. You had the perfect laugh, the perfect pout, the perfect moans. Your whole essence was perfection. I never understood how you never saw that. I truly regret ever leaving you. I must have been insane. The moment I met you, I swore I would catch you, and I did. And I let you go. For some reason, I thought you weren't good enough. Oh, how truly wrong I was, for I was the one who didn't deserve you. I was the one who wasn't good enough. This letter shall be short; I cannot wait any longer to see you again. I cannot wait for those deep blue eyes, that beautiful scarlet blush. Your tender laugh, your sweet concern. But we have no reason for worry now. We will be together, forever. I now realise that this was the very moment I have lived this long for. To be able to be overcome with bliss, knowing the fact that I can finally be with you without interruptions of any sort. I am coming, love. I am coming.

With burning love,

Magnus Bane

****

Oh. My. Goodness. It's over. It's done. I can't believe it. AND THE CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE IS COMING OUT TOMMORROW T.T AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But anywho, Thank you all for reading! I really appreciate everyone's comments and votes! I can't belive I have over 1,700 reads! That's crazy! Thank you all, I can't express how happy I am with this and you guys. I seriously gave myself feels writing this *deep breath* *sobbing* well, this is it. Thank you again! And listen to the song I tagged.! thank you!

{Post write, june 10, 2017: ... omg. I was a monster. I'm literally crying so bad right now T.T I'm so sorry, everyone. Still salty that that ending answered more questions than the actual book did -_- seriously, did Cassie Clare forget all about Alec's and Maureen's meeting? ugh}