Magnus' heart broke every time he remembered Alec's scream as Victor gave him the mating bite. Magnus wanted to use magic to erase the memory, but Magnus had learnt that erasing memories was dangerous and he owed it to Alec to remember. It wouldn't be fair to Alec if he was alone in his suffering.
Magnus had immediately sent a fire message to Lorenzo when Victor had allowed him to leave the insitute. Magnus hated having to leave Alec with Victor, but he had no choice when Victor held all the cards. If they could distract Raj enough with Lorenzo they could save Simon. Then Victor couldn't use Simon as a hostage against Alec anymore.
Even though Magnus couldn't kill Victor, he would at least be able to get Alec away from him. And Alec wouldn't refuse to escape as Simon would be safe. Magnus had already conjured more rooms to house Alec's loved ones so Victor couldn't take another hostage instead of Simon. Magnus had been reluctant to allow Andrew Underhill to stay at his loft as he was worried he had feelings for Alec.
But he knew how much Alec cared for Andrew, and he knew Victor wouldn't hesitate to use Andrew as a hostage even though he was an alpha. So even though things were tense between him and Andrew he was willing to soldier through it for Alec's sake.
Lorenzo had tried to get out of the meeting Magnus asked for in the fire message, but when Magnus reminded him of the favour Lorenzo owed him Lorenzo reluctantly agreed. Magnus let him in when Lorenzo arrived. He had asked the others to stay in their rooms as he didn't want them to get angry with Lorenzo and ruin any chance of him helping them. He was particularly worried about Jace as he had a tendency to lose his temper quickly.
"Magnus what do you want?"
Magnus rolled his eyes, Lorenzo was always so blunt and straight to the point. Though in this case Magnus was glad as he needed him to agree to his plan as quickly as possible. Magnus explained everything that had happened with Alec, Simon and Victor. "I need you to seduce Raj so he will be distracted enough for me to save Simon", Magnus said as he handed Lorenzo a photo of Raj so he could see what he looked like.
"He's good looking enough but why should I do this for you? Can't you distract Raj?"
"I already reminded you about the favour you owe me and Raj knows how I feel about Alexander. He won't believe I'm really interested in him, he will see right through me".
"I think you are overestimating the shadowhunter's intelligence. I hate to admit it but you are very attractive and I think you could trick him".
"Thanks for the compliment Lorenzo", Magnus said with a grin to irritate Lorenzo, "But I think you are wrong, the whole reason Victor forced me to see the bonding ceremony was to hurt me. So Victor knows how I feel and even if Raj didn't realize it Victor would have told him".
Lorenzo sighed, "Even so, I don't care about your precious omegas. My favour to you wasn't binding, we didn't have a contract".
"Yes but I will tell everyone that you refused to help save Alec and Simon if you won't help me. Unlike nephilim the majority of us care for omegas and treat them the way omegas should be treated. It will make everyone hate you and turn them against you if they learned how you really feel about omegas. They would want a new high warlock of Brooklyn and you would lose your position".
Lorenzo glared furiously at Magnus and he could tell Lorenzo was trying desperately to find another loophole. Lorenzo's shoulders sagged in defeat.
"Fine, I'll help you. But not for the omegas, I'm only doing this to stop you from ruining my reputation".
"As much as I hate the backwards views you have about omegas, I don't care why you are helping me as long as you pull through".
Magnus and Lorenzo planned Simon's rescue first as that was the first step. Now that Lorenzo had agreed to the plan he had let the others come back in to talk to Lorenzo. Having seen what was happening through Magnus' magic, they were very angry that Lorenzo didn't care for Alec and Simon. But Magnus managed to hold them back from taking their anger out on Lorenzo.
Meanwhile Alec was being forced to stay in Victor's bedroom or office, depending on what Victor wanted to do. Alec hated that Victor had so much control over him, he wanted to fight back so badly. But Victor had threatened to make Alec watch as he raped Simon and he couldn't face that or be the reason Simon had to suffer more.
At the moment Alec was chained to Victor's office chair. But thankfully Victor had a long meeting so he had some time away from the monster. Though he had made sure Alec wasn't alone, he had an alpha shadowhunter guard Alec. Alec knew the alpha, they used to be close before he presented. But when he became an omega Jake lost all respect for him.
Alec didn't like the way Jake kept staring lustfully at him. He was scared Jake would force himself on him, though it had been an hour and Jake hadn't yet. He was suprised he hadn't. Had Victor made him swear not to? He wouldn't put it past Victor to threaten Jake into promising not to touch him.
"Jake please let me go".
"That's not happening, you are an omega and omegas are meant to please alphas".
"You were my friend, how could you change so much just because I'm an omega?"
Jake moved close to Alec and cupped Alec's face ignoring Alec's flinch, "Like I said you are only good for pleasing alphas. You are the oldest Lightwood, I thought for sure you would be an alpha. You have no idea how disappointed I was when I found out you are an omega".
"You were always against omegas?"
"Yes, I just hid it from you because I knew you were different and respected omegas. I was hoping that when you became an alpha I could court you and we could have become mates".
"I wouldn't have agreed to let you court me, I was in love with someone else", Alec said angrily.
But Jake just smirked, "Right, your parabatai. I wouldn't have cared if you didn't love me, it is all about image. Your family is the equivalent of nobility for mundanes, it would have made my career to be mated to you. But you ruined everything by being an omega!"
"I can't control that, you're willing to let me suffer because of something I have no control over?"
Jake straddled Alec and gave him an unsettling grin, "Yes, you more than deserve it. Victor said I wasn't allowed to hurt you. But he still has an hour left of his meeting, he doesn't have to know".
"No please get off me", Alec said but he was just ignored.
Lorenzo had managed to trick Victor into letting him in the insitute and he secretly brought Magnus with him. Magnus waited while Lorenzo seduced Raj. Lorenzo successfully managed to gain Raj's attention and had even got a date from him. When Lorenzo gave the signal Magnus crept into the room they were keeping Simon. Magnus' heart clenched in pain when he saw Simon was tied to the bed, it wasn't hard to guess what Raj had been doing to him.
Simon flinched when he heard someone come in the room, afraid Raj had come back. But when he looked up he was immensely relieved to see Magnus. "Magnus? You came for me".
"Unfortunate choice of words. But yes of course I wouldn't let them keep you here".
Simon blushed when he realized what he had said, he hadn't meant it to sound that way. "What about Raj? He will be back any minute".
"Don't worry about him, Lorenzo is distracting Raj. Simon is it safe to use my magic to free you, did Victor have a warlock enchant the chains?"
"No it's safe for you to use magic. I'm suprised he didn't have my chains enchanted, he's a smart guy I would have thought he would have done that".
"He may be smart but he is also cocky. He was probably overconfident now that he has Alexander", Magnus said as he used magic to break Simons' chains and free him. Magnus was suprised when Simon hugged him as soon as he was free.
"Thank you for saving me, I was so scared I would be trapped in here literally forever".
"I would do anything for the ones I love".
Simon couldn't hold back his tears when Magnus said that. He had been through so much and was scared that he was damaged goods now. But Magnus had still saved him. He didn't know Magnus loved him and it meant so much to Simon that he did. He hoped Jace would still love him. Magnus comforted Simon until he calmed down enough to leave, thankfully with Lorenzo as a distraction for Raj they had time on their side.
When Simon was ready to go, Magnus portaled Simon out of the institute and back to his loft. Jace, Izzy and Clary all engulfed Simon in a huge hug while Magnus portaled back to the institute. He wouldn't leave without Alec safe in his arms.