Magnus had insisted warlocks needed to know what summoning demons entailed. He said that the more comfortable Max was with them, the less likely he was to be tricked or terrified when he summoned his first. Hence the temptation lessons. Elyaas was not so bad, as demons went, which meant he was still terrible. As Max had passed the pentagram, Alec had seen the wicked silver curve of one tentacle moving hungrily close to the edge lest Max make a false move.

Alec looked at Elyaas with narrowed eyes.

“Don’t imagine I ever forget what you are,” Alec said grimly. “I’m watching you.”

Elyaas held up all his tentacles in surrender, scooting to the other side of the pentagram. “It was a reflex! I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Demins,” said Max darkly.

Magnus banished Elyaas with a snap of his fingers and a murmur, then turned back to Alec.

“So, they’re asking for you in Buenos Aires,” said Magnus.

“Yeah,” said Alec. “I don’t know why anyone at the Market wants me specifically, as opposed to any other Shadowhunter.”

Magnus laughed. “I can see why someone might.”

“Okay, other than that.” Alec grinned. “I don’t speak Spanish.”

Magnus could speak Spanish. Alec wished that Magnus could go with him, but one of them always tried to stay home with Max. Once, when Max was still a baby, there had been a terrible time when they were both forced to leave him. Neither of them wanted to repeat it.

Alec was trying to learn Spanish, as well as several other languages. The Speak in Tongues rune didn’t last and seemed like cheating. Downworlders from all over the world came to New York to consult with them these days, and Alec wanted to be able to talk with them properly. First on the list of languages he was trying to learn was Indonesian, for Magnus.

Unfortunately, Alec wasn’t great at languages. He was able to read them, but when he was talking he found words difficult, no matter the tongue. Max had picked up more words in various languages than Alec.

“It’s fine,” Magnus had commented once. “I never knew any Lightwood but one who was good at languages.”

“Which one?” Alec had asked.

“His name was Thomas,” Magnus said. “Tall as a tree. Very shy.”

“Not a green-eyed monster like the other Lightwoods you’ve mentioned?”

“Oh,” said Magnus. “There was a bit of the monster in him.”

Magnus had elbowed him and laughed. Alec remembered a time when Magnus never talked about the past, when Alec thought it meant he was doing something wrong or Magnus didn’t care. Now he understood it was only that Magnus had been hurt before and was afraid Alec would hurt him too.

“I thought I might bring Lily,” he told Magnus. “She can speak Spanish. And I thought it might cheer her up. She likes Jem.”

Nobody at any Market would question Lily’s presence. Everybody had heard of the Downworlder-Shadowhunter Alliance by now, and it was well known that members of the Alliance helped each other out.