With a howl, Sebastian had kicked at Alec’s body. The desolate lack where the parabatai bond had been screamed. It was one of the few times Janus was able to think, Kill him.

Now, in the sunlight of the park, the undergrowth crackled. Janus spun around to face the enemy, cursing himself for being distracted, for being sentimental, as Sebastian and Valentine always said he was.

“What’re you doing, Uncle Jace?” asked the warlock boy, clutching his ball and clearly pleased at making a much greater discovery. His round face was smiling and curious.

Janus went still.

“Are you playing hide-and-seek?” the boy continued.

Slowly, Janus’s hand moved toward his dagger.

He whispered, “Yes.”

The boy darted into the bushes and put his arms around Janus’s leg. Janus’s hand tightened on his knife.

“I love you, Uncle Jace,” the boy whispered, with a conspiratorial grin, and Janus shuddered. “Don’t be sad. I won’t tell where you’re hiding.”

Janus drew his knife. Warlocks were not safe to be around. It would be a quick, clean kill, and better for Alec, in the end.

“Max!” Alec shouted. He didn’t sound concerned now, but if there was no response, he would be.

Max, thought Janus. Long ago, the youngest Lightwood. In this world Magnus was alive, so Alec was alive. Alec was the Consul, and they had children. Alec had named his son for that lost Max.

Janus let go of his knife. He let go of the boy. His hands were shaking too much to hold on to either.

Little Max darted out of the bushes with his arms outstretched, making a zooming sound as if he were an airplane, and ran back to his family. When they went home from the park, Max was still holding on to his ball, trotting at Magnus’s side as Magnus sang a soft Spanish lullaby, while the Shadowhunter boy slept, drooling on Alec’s shoulder.

Janus did not follow them out of the park. He stayed by the gates and watched them go.

The words of Janus’s parabatai oath echoed in his head, worse than a death sentence. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. He had not kept his oath, but he’d wanted to. Death would have been welcome. Death would have meant being with Clary.

Long ago in the other world, when Sebastian was sleeping, Janus had gone back for Alec, but the bodies had vanished. Janus hoped now that they had not been eaten by the roving, starving demons. He hoped Maryse had burned Alec and Magnus both. He wished that a kind wind had carried their ashes away, and let them stay together.

When they first moved into Cirenworth Hall, the house in England that they intended to be their family’s home, Jem and Tessa had noticed how often Kit’s eyes fell on the valuables they had decorated the house with.

One evening they collected up everything they could think of and placed all their most prized possessions in Kit’s room, lining them up on tables and windowsills.