Assassin, until the first moment (🇬🇧)

Do you trust me?

Alec leant back relaxing into the soft leather of his armchair, rotating his shoulders to loosen the tense muscles in his back. The pounding at his forehead, which had accompanied him throughout the day, had been continuous, but had now abated slightly; which had Alec more relaxed, as he gazed absentmindedly through the darkness in his bedroom, he suppressed a yawn that threatened to escape.

The full moon, that had been hidden behind a blanket of dark, heavy clouds for most of the night, broke through the thick layer; bathing the room in dim white light, throwing eerie shadows on the bare walls of his bedroom.

Alec had made no effort during the last five months to decorate the rooms of his flat, he had only bought the bare essentials and necessities. He would leave this flat permanently, eventually. Alec would move back into the family house, on the fateful day of his father passing; but until then, he will remain living here; much to his father's dismay.

Thinking of his father, his mind flooded with memories of his childhood; a time in which Alec hadn't always been happy. The relationship between himself and his father had always been strained and had turned more negative a few days after his fifteenth birthday when he had told his parents he wasn't interested in girls but only in boys. Although Robert Lightwood had reluctantly accepted that his eldest son was gay, he had on more than one occasion clarified that he wasn’t at all happy about it.

Fortunately, his mother, Maryse and sister, Isabelle had always assured him he need not be ashamed of anything. Their support has helped Alec to build up the self-confidence to be proud of his sexual orientation and open about it outside of the safe embrace of his family.

This also helped him to withstand the five years of military duty, which he had started at the same time as Jace; to fulfil one of their aged traditions. But, when he had reached the legal age, he had turned his back and renounced his homeland and all of its rigid, strict and uncompromising traditions.

Alec remembered it very well, how he had triggered turmoil and uproar with his decision to emigrate to North America, only a few days after his 21st birthday. It doesn't happen often that a family member from one of the five dukedoms, skedaddles their country to live elsewhere, but Alec had never cared about the whispers and gossip of the noble society and their archaic ideas. He just wanted to live his own life.

Despite everything, Alec had remained faithful and loyal to his family and to his duties, visiting his mother and sister on the regular and taking part in the most important events in Idris.

When his mother had called him six months ago, telling him with a mournful and tearful voice that with every passing day, his father had been feeling worse and could no longer perform his duties efficiently as Duke anymore.

Without hesitation, Alec had taken steps to move back to Idris. His homecoming was mostly uneventful, people had only spoken about him in whispers here and there, but no one had dared denounce him in public because of his seven years-long absence.

During the last few months, Alec had not only proven that he was more than capable of fulfilling the tasks as Duke of Alicante but he could also do it efficiently and reliably; gradually the members of the noble families had accepted him back into their circle. Even so, some of them were still gossiping about his sexual orientation on the quiet, but Alec tried his best to ignore them.

His thoughts returned to the present and a lazy smile tugged at his lips when he thought about today's events; namely the dance with Magnus. Alec had enjoyed the dance, and he had almost wished that the moment would never end. They had agreed to talk about the delicate issue of the previous night at a later time to avoid being overheard by the King's hundreds of guests.