CHAPTER THIRTEEN: SECRETS
Margo and Alec were laying down in her bed, looking up at the ceiling.
"How long do you think it'll be till someone disturbs us?" she asked, turning her head to the side to look at Alec.
He did the same. "Not long," he admitted, brushing a piece of hair out of her eye. She caught his hand as he did so, interlacing their fingers.
This brought a smile to Alec's face, one that stayed put until Isabelle entered Margo's room, frustratingly groaning. "Mom's in rare form today," she exclaimed, laying down between her brother and her parabatai.
Margo's green eyes found Alec's hazel ones as Isabelle shut her eyes. She smiled innocently at him, shrugging. Yes, their moment had been ruined, but this was Izzy – it was kind of hard to be mad at her.
"She's been different since she got back from Idris," Alec observed, placing his hands by his sides.
Margo quirked an eyebrow. "Really? Cause she seems to be the same old judgmental Maryse to me."
A silence passed over the trio until Izzy broke it. She opened her eyes, glancing her brother's way. "Have you spoken to Jace yet?"
"He can call me when he's done chasing that little girl and—"
Margo cut him off, understanding the look that framed Izzy's face. "Alec, you need to call Jace."
Suddenly, the door to Margo's room swung open, making the three on the bed sit up abruptly. At Margo's doorway stood Robert Lightwood and his youngest son, Max, both dressed in suits.
A smile adorned Margo, Alec, and Isabelle's faces as they saw the familiar pair. "No welcome home for the old man?"
"Max!" Alec greeted excitedly, joining the two girls in standing up and welcoming Max and Robert. His younger brother ran up to him, allowing Alec to bend down and hug him as Isabelle hugged her father.
Robert turned to Margo, pulling her in as well. "Good to see you, kiddo," he smiled, ruffling up her hair before she turned to Max, who ran towards her and latched onto her leg.
She grinned, bending down to hug the boy. "Hey, Mighty Max. What're you doing back so soon?"
He pulled away from the hug to answer her. "Got in trouble in Mumbai."
She smiled playfully. "Uh oh, what'd you do?"
"Nothing."
Robert cleared his throat from a few feet away, correcting his son's answer. "He started a fire with his stele during rune studies."
Margo chuckled. "I told you, I was hungry," he tried to explain, turning to Margo and Alec as they crouched to reach his height. "I was trying to draw the Nourishment rune."
"Those two runes look nothing alike, Max," Alec stated with a teasing smile.
Max shrugged. "Well, they do to me."
Robert turned to Max, pointing out of Margo's door. "Max, go up to your room, open the Gray Book and look up the Extinguish rune."
Max hastily exited, turning around for a second to glance at Margo and Alec, stretching his hands out in a well, what are you going to do? manner. As he disappeared around the corner, Margo turned to Alec and the two shared a playful look as they stood upright, facing Robert.
His brows furrowed as he stared between the three teenagers, getting right down to business. "Where is Clary Fairchild? Your mother said she's missing."
Alec rolled his eyes. "She's not missing. She's with Jace."
"We can't have that girl out of Institute control. The entire Shadow World is looking for her. It's a security risk. Get them both back here now," Robert ordered before also exiting room.
Margo reached a hand out, grabbing at the air. "Wow, you can really feel the negativity in my room right now," she tried joking. Alec groaned as Isabelle giggled. He turned to Margo, pulling her with one arm and placing a kiss to the side of her head before going towards her bedside table, where his phone laid.
He dialed Jace's number, pacing the room as the two girls sat down on Margo's bed, eyeing him.
"You need to get back to the Institute... No, I'm not messing around... You okay? Magnus? Why does Magnus need me? No, I told you at the wolf den, no more Downworlder business. We can't be seen as interfering with a pack alpha dispute. How can you even ask me—"
As Alec angrily spoke on the phone, using more hand gestures than he was comfortable with, the two girls turned towards each other.
Margo's fingers fumbled as she glanced at Alec's tense stature. "Do you think everything's okay?"
"I hope so," Isabelle mumbled, leaning her head on her parabatai's shoulder. "M, can I ask you a question about you and Alec?"
"Shoot."
"Have you two had sex?"
Margo's eyes widened as she did a double take of Isabelle, wondering if she heard correctly. "W—What? No."
Isabelle sighed. "Good, that means Magnus can use Alec's virgin energy."
Margo snorted. "Alec's virgin what?"
Isabelle shrugged. "I just heard Jace say that over the phone. Man, you've got some bad ears on you, Go." Isabelle playfully flicked Margo's ear.
Before she could reply, Alec had hung up the phone and had turned to face them. "I've gotta go," he hurriedly stated, making his way out of Margo's room quickly.
The two girls assumed whatever the problem was, Alec had it covered. They hung around in Margo's room for most of the day. Izzy only left when her father called her for a private talk. Margo saw this as an open opportunity to bond with Max. The two grabbed some ice cream from the kitchen before walking around the Institute.
They stopped in the training room, where Margo sat down near the corner and Max plopped right down next to her, leaning into her body. The two ate their ice cream and laughed a lot and watched Alec practice from afar.
That is, until Isabelle stormed into the training room, stopping Alec's practicing. "Promise me you won't go through with it. Promise me you'll say no." She looked disturbed and stressed, to say the least.
Margo's lips tightened into a line as she observed the siblings interact. "What are you talking about?" Alec asked, obviously as puzzled as Margo. "Say no to what?"
Isabelle glanced at the corner, where she caught eyes with Margo, before pulling her brother away to talk privately. Clearly, this was something that she didn't want to tell Margo, which caused her parabatai to frown.
Since when did Margo and Isabelle keep secrets from each other?
She decided to let it go, hoping that her best friend would tell her when she was ready.
She didn't.
As Margo and Max spent time together that day, Isabelle tried to inconspicuously avoid her, except it wasn't so inconspicuous.
Margo noticed by the afternoon and had an internal battle with herself until late in the evening. Was she going to confront Isabelle and ask her what secret she was keeping from her? Was she going to ask Alec? Was she going to just let it go and hope it wasn't anything life-changing?
No, she had decided, I'm not just going to let it go.
Max had gone to bed early that night, completely worn out from the active day he and Margo had experienced. By 9 PM, Margo had tucked him in bed, kissed his cheek and wished him a dreamful sleep. Then, she had made her way out of his room and towards her own, taking a detour when she heard Isabelle's heels clicking.
She chased after her, calling out her name as Isabelle tried quickening her walking pace and entered her room. Unfortunately, her heels were not her allies at this moment, considering how quickly Margo reached her, shutting the door to her best friend's room as she entered. She pulled at Izzy's arm gently, allowing her parabatai to turn around.
Margo had understood then why Isabelle was ignoring her. Her eyes were red and irritated and watery. She had been crying. "Izzy, what's wrong?" she asked, her voice laced with concern.
Isabelle reached out, wrapping her arms around Margo and resting her head on her friend's shoulder. She cried silently, allowing Margo to rub her back comfortingly.
At this point, she was scared to know. She had never seen a secret have such a negative effect on her parabatai.
"They're going to make him marry," she sobbed into her friend's shoulder.
"What? Who?"
"My parents are making plans for both Alec and I." As Isabelle pulled back and wiped her tears away, Margo stood silently, staring at Izzy oddly. "They need a political alliance quickly to restore our family name and our influence at the Clave."
Margo growled, muttering under her breath. "I knew Clary Fray would come back to bite us in the ass."
She had yet to completely process Isabelle's words. She was still in denial.
Her thoughts were interrupted as her best friend chuckled softly at her response. "That's exactly what Alec said."
"Wait, so while Alec gets... married... What are you doing?"
Isabelle groaned, sniffling. "They need me to convince the Clave to placate the Seelies somehow."
Margo listened but it seemed as though everything was going in through one ear and out the other.
This was Alec – her Alec – and he was getting married to someone else.
Of course, Margo hadn't thought of marrying him since she was a lovesick thirteen year-old. She remembered that Isabelle and her had gotten together and created the perfect wedding. They'd picked everything from the theme to the flowers and the songs and the dress.
He was supposed to marry her, not anyone else. There wasn't ever a discussion about it and obviously they weren't official, but they were each other's – everyone knew that – and now some girl was going to swoop down and take him away?
Absolutely not.
Margo decided then that she would do everything in her power to stop the wedding. Alec, Jace and Isabelle would help and maybe, just maybe, they'd convince Maryse and Robert. Maybe the wedding wouldn't happen and maybe they could go back to what they had.
Margo excused herself from the conversation with Isabelle, quickly snatching her jacket out of her room and making her way to Magnus' lair, where she assumed the oldest Lightwood would be.
She happened to walk in at a bad time, considering it was chaos in the lair. Clary was mixing up a concoction hurriedly with Simon and Jace's help. Alec held hands with Magnus, providing him with the energy needed to aid Luke, who laid on Magnus' couch with deep gashes across his chest.
Margo paused at the foyer, about to retract and go back to the Institute until Alec caught her eye, furrowing his eyebrows. "Alexander, focus," Magnus ordered, making Alec close his eyes and breathe deeply.
As soon as Clary rushed past her and fed the odd mixture to Luke, the werewolf calmed down, slowing his breathing. Magnus and Alec fell back, drained of energy. Margo sighed, rubbing her arm awkwardly as she leaned against a support pillar in Magnus' loft.
Everyone was quiet for a long time after that, all enjoying the peace and quiet that had been stolen from them for a long time.
Then, they all started cleaning up. Clary helped Magnus clean the sheets and pick up any fallen objects as Jace and Simon seemed to be having a memorable talk.
Margo quietly made an exit, realizing that she had clearly intruded on something that did not involve her. She slipped past the front door, making her way through the hall to the elevator that led to the exit.
She took a step outside Magnus' building, pulling her jacket closer as the wind rushed past her. She started walking back to the Institute.
"What are you doing here?" his voice sounded from behind her, making her come to an abrupt stop only a few feet from where he had just exited.
She raked her mind for a comprehensible reason. She couldn't very well say, I came here to tell you not to marry another girl because I'm in love with you.
She realized then – she was in love with Alec.
It had taken her five years to understand that somewhere along the way, her little school crush had blossomed into a detrimental L-bomb.
"Don't marry her."
She turned around, facing Alec as she stepped closer to him.
"Margo—"
She grabbed his hands. "Just listen to me. I've had our wedding planned since I was thirteen years old. I've memorized every imperfection on your face, learning to love them more than I ever though possible. I wake up every morning thinking of you and go to bed every night, dreaming of you. You can't marry her, Alec... You can't marry someone else when I'm in love with you."
And as far as declarations of love go, it was a hell of a good one.
So, Alec did the only thing he could think of, the only thing plaguing his mind.
He cupped her face in his hands and evidently pressed his lips against hers.
[S1EP6 Of Men and Angels]
written: May 2, 2016
edited: May 20, 2016
published: July 26, 2016