Alec couldn’t help the tiny sting of jealousy.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and Rafael perked up. Magnus had sent Alec a picture of Max sleeping, using Chairman Meow as his pillow. Rafael glared, obviously disappointed Magnus was not in the picture.

Alec was slightly disappointed about that himself.

The afternoon was hot, the streets mostly deserted. The house where the warlock lived was down several winding streets, some cobbled and some dirt. Most of the houses on the curving roads were small, painted bright yellow or brick red or snowy white, but the warlock’s house that Rafael pointed out was a huge gray building on the end of a street. A figure was approaching the door—a Shadowhunter. Alec and Jem exchanged a grim look. Alec recognized him as one of Breakspear’s men from the Institute. He pulled Jem and Rafael into an alleyway.

“Stay with Jem a minute,” he told Rafael, and tossed a grappling hook to the roof of a neighboring house.

Alec climbed up and made his way across the sloping terra-cotta tile until he was across from the gray building. There were bars on the windows, and the enchantments Magnus had put on his ring allowed him to sense wards with enormous accuracy. The place was heavily warded. Alec crouched down behind a chimney and swiftly drew runes for Clarity and Awareness on his arms.

With increased ability, he could hear noises from behind those walls. There were a lot of people in that house. Shuffling feet, muffled conversation. Alec was able to pick out a few distinct words.

“… next delivery from Breakspear will be at midnight tonight …”

He heard another noise, much closer up, and twisted to see Rafael and Jem coming toward him across the roof.

Jem offered a small rueful smile. “He slipped away from me and climbed a drainpipe.”

Jem was hovering at Rafael’s back, obviously nervous about touching him. Alec saw how Rafael had managed to slip away.

“Can you sense those wards?” Alec asked, and Jem nodded. Alec knew Tessa had taught him ways to use and discern magic, even though Jem no longer had all the power of a Silent Brother or a Shadowhunter. “Can Tessa handle them?”

“Tessa can handle anything,” Jem said proudly.

“I said to stay down there with Jem,” Alec told Rafael.

Rafael gave him a look that was at once uncomprehending and insulting, and then his big boots slipped on the ridged terra-cotta tiles. Jem caught him before he hit the tile, and set him upright. If Rafael kept walking like this, he was going to skin his knees.

“You have to walk differently on roofs,” Alec told him. He took Rafael’s hands in his, showing him how. “Like this, because they slope. Do it like me.”

It was oddly nice, to teach a child these things. He’d had all sorts of plans to teach his little brother, when he got older, but his baby brother hadn’t lived to be older.