The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,20

said Alec. “My mom is watching Max while we’re away. She’s never watched him for more than, like, a few hours. Can you… keep an eye on them?”

“I’m sure Max will be fine,” said Maia.

“Honestly, I’m more worried about my mother,” said Alec.

“I’ll stop by a few times,” Maia said. “I’m sure I can come up with some boring bureaucratic reasons I need to come to the Institute anyway. Um, anyway—” She suddenly looked up and past him. “You have company.”

Alec turned in surprise to see Jace, Clary, Simon, and Isabelle, all in gear and fully armed. They were mostly holding their usual favorite weapons—Simon his bow, Clary her sword, Isabelle her whip. Jace, for some reason, was carrying a kind of spiked flail on a chain. They and Maia waved—Jace waved very carefully, due to the flail—and exchanged hellos.

“We made a pile of our luggage,” Clary said, gesturing vaguely behind her. “So Magnus can teleport it later if we need to stay overnight.”

“Got the Projection working, I see,” Simon said to Maia approvingly. He gave her a thumbs-up.

“Wait—how can you tell she’s a Projection?” said Alec.

“You can totally tell,” Jace said. “You just get a feel for it.”

“You do?” said Alec.

“Yeah.” Simon nodded.

“Huh. What’s with the, uh, flail, Jace?”

“It’s a morning star,” said Clary, in deeply mournful tones.

“Morning stars don’t have chains,” said Alec. “It’s a flail.”

“He wants us to call it a morning star,” said Clary, even more gloomily. “You’re not even a Morgenstern,” she said to Jace. “I’m a Morgenstern.”

“I’m still closely associated with the name,” Jace insisted. “I was just feeling like—can I pull off having a morning star as my signature weapon? Is it me?”

“You mean, can you avoid looking like a heavy-metal album cover?” said Simon.

“I don’t know what that is, and I don’t want to,” said Jace. “I just mean, am I cool enough?”

“Of course you are, honey,” said Clary. “Look,” she added to Alec, “I see the concern on your face. I figure we let this run its course for a week or so. If it doesn’t burn out by then we can step in.”

“Fair enough,” said Alec.

“It’s a trial run,” agreed Jace. “Maybe I won’t like it and I’ll stop using the morning star. I’ve got seraph blades too, obviously. And, I don’t know, probably four or five knives on my person that were already in the pockets of my clothes when I put them on.”

Alec felt a rush of fondness for his parabatai. “I wasn’t worried.”

They said their good-byes to Maia, and she disappeared just as Magnus appeared at the door of the Sanctuary. He’d changed clothes—only the Angel knew where he had gotten the new outfit from—and was now in a velvet suit in dark navy, with a matching navy shirt and tie. Alec had always secretly found Magnus to be at his absolute most handsome in a suit and was pleased that his boyfriend had gone in that direction. He also noted that it prevented any possibility of his glowing wound being visible.

Behind Magnus was Alec’s mother, holding Alec’s son. It still felt strange, even after half a year, to think, my son. Strange but good. Maryse and Max were both waving excitedly.

“Wish your daddies luck on their mission,” Maryse said. “Let’s hope they get the magic book back from the bad woman who stole it.” Alec nodded. They had all agreed, at Magnus’s pleading, not to tell the Clave about Ragnor. So all Maryse knew was that a warlock named Shinyun Jung of Magnus’s acquaintance, who was bad news, had stolen the Book of the White, and that they were going to Shanghai to find her.

Alec went over to them and kissed Max’s forehead. “Be nice to your grandma, okay, kiddo?” Max put his hand on Alec’s nose and Alec quickly turned, gave his mother a kiss on the cheek, and retreated successfully without choking up.

“You kids be careful out there,” Maryse said.

Isabelle said, “Mom, we’re grown-ups.”

“I know,” said Maryse, leaning forward to embrace her daughter. She turned to Jace and, after a brief standoff, he also allowed her to hug him. “But be careful anyway.”

She blew Magnus a kiss and retreated, closing the door behind her.

Alec began to laugh. “This is not the way I’m used to launching a mission. It’s very emotional compared to the old way.”

Jace said, “You mean sneaking out under cover of darkness? I myself don’t miss it.”

“So, we’re already in the Sanctuary,” Magnus said. “I may as well make the Portal