Magnus Bane stared down at the text message on his phone for the third time, frowning at the words from his boss. Throwing the phone on his desk, he leaned back in his chair and scrubbed his hands over his eyes. She couldn't be serious! He sat up with a sigh and stared around at his new office, wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into.

He thought back to the conversation he'd had with Jia Penhallow, a few weeks ago.

*

"We need somebody for both positions, you're more than qualified for either," Jia said, as she poured the tea.

"What exactly is going on in New York?" Magnus asked. When she offered it, he took the cup from her hands, holding his hand up when she offered him the small jug of milk too.

"It's a mess, I had no choice but to remove Aldertree. He was running the Institute into the ground," Jia said with a sigh. "It's all-out war, Magnus," she said, placing her cup on her desk and leaning forward, her head in her hands.

"When was the last time you got any sleep?" Magnus asked, concerned for his friend.

Jia looked tired. As if she hadn't slept in weeks. "You're taking on too much. You need to delegate, you're going to make yourself ill if you continue to worry like this," he said, resting his hand on top of hers on the desk and giving it a quick squeeze.

As an Alpha female, if it had been anyone else that had made that move, she would have torn their hand clean off. Only the fact that they had been friends for fifteen years saved his hand.

"Magnus, I'm the consul for the clave. It's my job to worry," Jia said with a tired smile. "What am I supposed to do? I have no inquisitor and nobody to run the New York Institute. On top of that, I have a war with the downworlders on all fronts, none of their leaders will meet with me and I have shadowhunters trying to revolt and come for my job at every turn." She scrubbed her hands through her hair in a very uncharacteristic show of frustration.

"Ha, I'd pay to watch that!" Magnus said with a grin. "You would annihilate anyone that came at you. You are consul for a reason, Jia. There isn't a single shadowhunter that can best you in combat or an Alpha that would stand a chance against you," he said with a chuckle.

"Magnus Bane, I could activate every rune on my body and I still wouldn't have a hope in Edom against you," Jia said, staring at Magnus incredulously. "We both know you can put me on my ass with three moves. I'm only Consul because you refused it," she said, grinning at the expression on his face.

"Me, in charge of the entire clave?" Magnus asked with a shudder of horror. "It was bad enough heading up the multitude of Institutes I've already had to deal with. Do you really think I want to be responsible for the entire tribe of idiots? Internal politics, squabbling Alphas, and a seraph dagger in the back at every turn? No thanks, you can keep it. I have enough power within the clave as it is. I don't want any more than I already have, thank you," he said, chuckling when she just rolled her eyes at him.

"I do have a suggestion though, if I may?" Magnus asked, setting his cup aside when Jia gave him the nod, having finally come to a decision. "Why don't you make Ragnor Fell the new inquisitor? You know he's fair and he's respected by just about everyone so I don't think you'll get many complaints on that front. Plus, he chafes at being stuck in LA and he would make a powerful ally," he said.

"He wants the position less than you do," Jia said, her eyebrows practically in her hairline. "I asked him already and he flat out refused," she admitted with a frown.

"That's why he would be perfect, he doesn't want it. He's probably the only one aside from me that won't come for your job," Magnus said. "Anyway, that was six months ago. A lot of things can change in six months," he said with a wink, pouring himself a second cup before topping Jia's cup up.

"If you are referring to that... debacle with the werewolf and Valeria Ravencroft..." she muttered under her breath, distractedly. The cogs started to turn in her head, thinking about how to entice Ragnor into accepting the position while simultaneously wondering how Magnus even knew that she had already asked Ragnor.

"Just order him to accept," Magnus offered, reading Jia's thoughts on her face. "That way he can save face, you have an inquisitor and Ragnor can escape his.... Problems," he chuckled. Jia was sat there, practically rubbing her hands together at the idea.

"Thank you, Magnus, I knew there was a reason we were friends," Jia said.

Jia pulled her phone out and fired off a quick text to Fell, ordering him back to the Gard.

"Wait, if Ragnor takes the Inquisitor position, who's going to take over the LA Institute?" Jia asked, almost slamming her head against her desk as a whole pile of new worries settled over her. She couldn't stop the growl that rumbled through her chest. Fuck!

"I so don't envy you your job," Magnus chuckled. "Morgenstern has been chomping at the bit for a promotion. I think she's ready and she's already there. Make her the head and Wayland her second. They might as well run it together," he said, a sly grin spreading across his face when Jia's head shot up.

"I need a mated pair," Jia said, the Alpha in her tone clear as her frustration slipped through the cracks of her self-control once more. "The rest of them won't follow anyone but an Alpha and Omega that are mated! You did a great job, Magnus, but without the right leadership, the Institute will revert to what they were before you dealt with them," she muttered.

"Haven't you heard?" Magnus asked, surprise coloring his tone when he saw the question on her face. And maybe just a hint of smugness. It wasn't very often that he knew something about the Clave members that Jia didn't.

"Clary claimed Jace last month, he's already pregnant. How have you not heard? If there's one thing the clave likes more than bickering and squabbling with downworlders, it's gossiping," he said.

Both of them burst into a fit of laughter at his understatement.

"They gossip like old female mundanes!" Jia said, howling. "Thank the Angel we were shoved into training together, I don't know what I would do without you, Magnus. You've saved my ass yet again," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes before fixing her gaze on him. "Does this mean what I think it means?" she asked him, hopefully.

"You need a mated pair for LA but not New York?" Magnus asked her, reigning his expression in and shutting down at his internal wince when he reminded himself that he hadn't found a mate yet.

How do you get to the age of twenty-eight and not find your mate? Magnus asked himself, bitterly. Long ago, he had accepted that he would probably always be one of those Alphas whose mate, the other half of themself, was lost to them. That he or she must have died. You do not get to his age and not find your mate. Especially if you were as widely traveled as him, after all.

Almost everyone Magnus, and Jia, had grown up with had already been mated for ten years and here he was, doomed to spend his life alone. Sure, he had accepted it. But that didn't mean the thought didn't shatter his heart into a thousand pieces and scrape at his soul, like a rusty seraph blade.

"Clary and Jace are barely out of training. They might have the potential to become great leaders but they need each other if they are to keep that rabble under control," Jia said, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms, all the better to study her oldest friend, before continuing.

"Whereas you could take on half of the New York Institute on your own and walk away without a scratch. You're a powerful Alpha, Magnus, you don't need a Beta or an Omega to run that place," she said, frowning at Magnus' demeanor.

The change in him had been instantaneous. The moment Magnus had mentioned mated pairs, he had sat ramrod straight in his chair, his face turning to an emotionless void. If there was one thing she hated, it was when he closed himself off like that. Something he did far too often.

"Don't underestimate yourself, my friend," Jia said, quietly, when a sad frown cracked Magnus' hardened exterior.

"You earned the respect of even the most hardened Clave veterans when you overhauled the Melbourne Institute. If it weren't for you it would have been an all-out war with the downworld. That's why I need you in New York, they are a mess. And who knows, maybe you will find your mate there," she said gently, watching his shoulders slump and his face crumple for a second. He reigned it in, but not before she saw it.

It broke Jia's heart. If anyone deserved to be happy it was Magnus Bane!

"You're far too shrewd for my own good," Magnus said with a sigh. "I'll take it on one condition, you pull my parabatai from the London Institute and promote her to my second. It's been far too long since we've been together and I've missed her. If I'm to take on that shower of shite I'm going to need her. Just for the comic relief if nothing else. You owe me this much, Jia. If I hadn't been stuck in Australia for the last year we would have been together, as it should be. She's my parabatai."

"Done!" Jia said, pulling her phone out and firing off another text. She waited a moment, smiling when she read the reply. "It's going to take her a week to find someone to take over her combat training classes, but after that, Dorothea Rollins is all yours," she said, grinning at the first true smile she had seen from Magnus in a long time.

"Excellent!" Magnus said, jumping to his feet and making his way over to the secret drink stash Jia kept in the cabinet behind her desk. "How about we get extremely drunk to celebrate?" he asked as he grabbed a couple of bottles and swung the door closed with a bump of his hips.

"Only if you make me one of your martinis," Jia said, laughing when he spun around, a bottle of gin in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other.

*

Magnus couldn't stop the growl ripping out of him when he considered the text he had received. He sat there, stewing angrily for several minutes before he heard a ruckus outside his office. His head shot up as his door was almost kicked off its hinges.

Not in the mood for any of them at the moment, Magnus launched himself over his desk. Hand shooting to the seraph blade in his left thigh holster, he whipped it out a second before realized who it was, almost sagging with relief when he saw her.

"I could hear that growl on the other side of the Institute," Dot said, sauntering into the office, throwing her jacket into the nearest chair and kicking her suitcases out of the way before she launched herself across the room and into her parabatai's arms. "Have you missed me Magnus?" she asked, almost lifting him off his feet, squeezing the life out of him.

"More than you know," Magnus said as he hugged his parabatai, his best friend. "I hope you're ready for this. These assholes are hard work. Thank the Angel you're here Dorothea, I want to put every one of them in a chokehold. Aldertree really fucked up," he said as he let go of her and walked back around his desk, slumping into his seat.

"It's that bad?" Dot asked, walking over and slamming the door closed before throwing herself into the chair in front of his desk, propping her feet up on the desk and leaning back into her cupped hands behind her head. "Who's ass am I gonna have to kick?" she asked, laughing at the sly grin that spread across Magnus' face at the thought.

"Jia's, for sending me to this Raziel-forsaken place," Magnus said, almost yanking his hair out. He couldn't help but laugh at the shudder that ran through his parabatai. "I'm kidding... kind of. The worst one is Raj. He was Aldertrees lacky. He seems to think it's my fault his parabatai was sent to Wrangel Island and he isn't too impressed with you either."

"Me? I've only just got here, what could I have done already?" Dot asked, spinning on the spot and dropping the book she was inspecting, unable to resist poking around her friend's office.

"You took his job," Magnus chuckled at the outraged expression on Dot's face. "He was Victor's second, plus, you do have that effect on people, Dorothea," he said, howling at the superior expression that suddenly spread across his friend's face. By the Angel, he had missed her! She was able to make him laugh without even having to say a word!

"Looks like I'm gonna have to make this Raj my bitch then," Dot said as she continued to inspect Magnus' things. "Make him my assistant, Magnus. Might as well really piss him off if he's bitching and complaining already. You know I can't stand the whiney ones" she said, smiling when Magnus roared with laughter.

"Are you joking?" Magnus asked as he wiped his eyes. Raj had been a pain in his ass from the second he had arrived, a week earlier. The thought of turning him over to Dot was tempting. If Raj would actually do as he was told that is. "None of them listen to me," he said with a frustrated shake of his head.

"Have you gone full Alpha on any of them yet?" Dot asked, slumping back down in her chair with a scowl. She hated seeing her friend stressed out. Magnus was too young to be hunched over with the weight of the Institute on his back.

"I've kept it to a minimum for now," Magnus said. "I wanted to earn their respect, not their fear," he muttered, thinking back to his time at the Melbourne Institute and the LA Institute, the London Institute, the Hong Kong Institute before that.

Magnus had reformed so many of them they had started calling him the Institute whisperer, much to Dot's delight and his annoyance. With each Institute he had reformed, he had tried to start out as their friend. And failed every time, having to revert to being the Alpha each time. He had hoped this one would be different.

"Tomorrow morning we are going to call an Institute-wide meeting," Dot said, ready to wrest some of the responsibilities from her friend's shoulders. "You are going to introduce me to this bunch of reprobates and you're gonna hulk out on them. It's about time they learn who their Alpha is," she said with an evil grin, which turned into a full-on cackle when he started laughing.

"I've missed you, you crazy bitch," Magnus said, laughing harder when Dot jumped up and executed a graceful curtsey.

"This crazy bitch is here at your beck and call," Dot said when she straightened up and grabbed the handles of her suitcases. She threw one across the room without warning, testing Magnus' reflexes, and laughed when he snagged it out of the air before it could crash into his face. "Come on, you can show me to my royal quarters," she said as she dragged her other suitcase behind her.

"This way your majesty," Magnus said, leading her through the Institute, past the scowling faces, to her room. He couldn't stop himself from laughing as she traipsed around the room, deeming it fit for purpose. Things were already starting to look up!

"So, what were you growling about when yours truly rocked up?" Dot asked as she flung herself on the bed, leaving the unpacking for later. Her grin faded when she spotted the expression on Magnus' face.

Dot sat up, realizing it was time to be serious. She loved playing the joker, but she would end anyone that put that look on her parabatai's face.

"I received a text from Jia this morning," Magnus sighed. "I told her I wanted to sort this lot out before I tried to get a meeting set up with any of the downworlders. Apparently, she had other ideas though. She set up a meeting with the High Warlock of Brooklyn, the new leader of all downworlders in New York, tomorrow on my behalf," he said, wishing he had something to kick.

"That was kind of her," Dot said with an eye roll. "I love Jia but she sure knows how to throw you in at the deep end," she said, feeling sorry for her Parabatai.

Dot had heard of the guy before. Most shadowhunters had, he wasn't exactly known for his tolerance of the Clave. She supposed it could only be a good thing Magnus would be the one to meet him. One good thing about her parabatai was that Magnus could be extremely charming and diplomatic when he needed to be. Which was why he was most suited for his job. Not many of their fellow shadowhunters could achieve what Magnus had over his career.

"Oh, don't feel sorry for me," Magnus replied with a sly grin when he saw the pity on Dot's face. "If I have to meet this warlock, you are coming with me. She has thrown us into the deep end, not me." He chuckled at her grimace. "Prepare yourself, Dorothea, tomorrow, we meet Alexander Lightwood," he sighed. This should be fun, he thought to himself.