“I’m never talking to you again if those names don’t stop,” Alec told her, gathering his arrows and tucking daggers and seraph blades into his weapons belt. He found himself thinking of the heartbroken way Jem said parabatai. It made him remember the shadow that hung over his father, the wound where a parabatai should be. It made him think of Jace. Ever since he could remember, Alec had loved and felt responsible for his family. There had never been any choice, but with Jace it was different. Jace, his parabatai, the first person who’d ever chosen him. The first time Alec had decided to choose someone back, to take on another responsibility. The first choice, opening the door to all the others.

Alec took a deep breath and tapped out MISS U into his phone.

He immediately received back MISS U TOO and let himself take a breath, the ache in his chest easier now. Jace was there, waiting for him in New York with the rest of his family. Talking about feelings wasn’t so bad.

Then he received another text.

R U OK?

In rapid succession, Alec received several more texts.

R U IN SOME KIND OF TROUBLE?

DID U GET HIT IN UR HEAD!

Then he got a text from Clary.

WHY DID JACE GET A TEXT FROM YOU AND LOOK VERY PLEASED BUT THEN SUDDENLY VERY WORRIED? IS SOMETHING GOING ON?

Talking about feelings was the worst. Once you did it, everybody immediately wanted you to do it more.

Alec typed out a grouchy I’M FINE and then called out cautiously, “Rafe?”

Rafael popped immediately up from his bed.

“Would you like the phone back?” asked Alec. “Here it is. Take it. Don’t worry if any more texts arrive. Just show me if there are any more pictures.”

He didn’t know how much Rafael understood of what he said. He suspected not much, but Rafe certainly understood the gesture of Alec offering his phone. He held out his hands eagerly.

“You’re a good kid, Rafe,” said Alec. “Take that phone away.”

“Are we going to smuggle our way into the house in laundry carts?” Lily asked Alec excitedly.

Alec blinked at her. “No, we’re not. What laundry carts? I’m a straightforward person. I’m going to knock on the door.”

He stood with Lily on the cobbled street before that great gray house. Jem and Tessa were waiting on the roof. Alec had literally used rope to tie Rafe to Jem’s wrist.

“I know Rafe stole your phone,” said Lily, “but who stole your sense of adventure?”

Alec waited, and the door opened. A warlock blinked up at him. He looked as if he was in his early thirties, a businessman with close-cropped blond hair and no visible warlock mark until he opened his mouth and Alec saw his forked tongue.

“Oh, hello,” he said. “Are you another of Clive Breakspear’s men?”

Alec said, “I’m Alec Lightwood.”