true.
“Maryse asked me if I would take over running the Institute,” Jace added casually.
Alec did not say, I know, but instead asked, “Are you going to do it?”
Jace hemmed and hawed. “I don’t know.”
“Why not?” Alec said. “You’d be good at it. You’re a good leader.”
Jace shook his head, smiling. “I’m good at being the first guy into battle. I’m good at killing a lot of demons. Maybe I can lead that way.”
“You don’t want a desk job?” Alec said, amused. “You wouldn’t stop patrolling, you know. There aren’t enough of us for that.”
“I just don’t think I’m good at the stuff that’s part of running an Institute. Strategy? Diplomacy?”
“You’re great at that stuff,” Alec protested. “Who’s been putting this idea in your head that you’re only good at fighting? It better not be Clary.”
“No,” said Jace glumly. “Clary thinks I should do it.”
“I do too,” Alec said.
“None of us have to do it,” Jace said. “The Clave would send someone from another Institute, if it was needed. An adult.”
“Jace,” Alec said, “we’re adults. We’re the adults now.”
“By the Angel, that’s terrifying,” Jace said, with a bit of a smile. “They’ve let you have a child, even.”
“I should check in with Mom, actually,” said Alec. He took out his phone and waved it around. “And you should go to sleep.”
“You too,” said Jace, getting up. Before he could escape, Alec had grabbed him in a hug, and Jace, grateful as Alec had expected, hugged him back.
“It’s going to be fine,” Jace said. “We’re going to save the day again. It’s what we do.” So saying, he headed back in the direction of his room.
Alec watched him go, and then he turned his attention to his phone and called—he almost thought home, but no, the Institute wasn’t his home anymore. That still felt strange sometimes.
To his surprise, Kadir answered his mother’s phone. “Alec!” he said with surprising enthusiasm. “Just the person I wanted to talk to. We didn’t want to bother you, but—”
“What?” said Alec, on alert immediately. His nerves were not in good shape. “Is Max okay?”
“Yes, Max is fine,” Kadir said. “He is quite a crawler!”
“Yeah, he can crawl pretty fast,” Alec said, not sure where this was going. “Hopefully that means he’ll be really walking soon.”
“Well”—Kadir hesitated—“did you know… I mean… at home does he…”
“What?”
“Is that Alec?” Maryse said in the background. There was a clatter, and then she had clearly put him on speakerphone. “Alec, your son is climbing up the walls.”
“He can be pretty active, yeah,” Alec said.
“No,” Maryse said with great calm, “I mean he is climbing up our walls. And across the ceiling! And then hanging from the drapes.”
Alec pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. At home, of course, Magnus could prevent Max’s accidental magical adventures with gravity. “I don’t think he’ll fall,” he said doubtfully. “Usually when he does that, he doesn’t even notice it’s happened and we just wait for him to get back to the ground again.”
“Yes, but… Alec, the ceilings in the Institute are very high.”
“I have to walk around with a large cushion all the time just in case,” put in Kadir.
“There are some pikes in the weapons room, but nothing long enough to reach,” Maryse went on. “There isn’t a magic solution? Something in the spell components Magnus brought? Something to… to neutralize him?”
“Uh, no, Mom. There’s nothing to ‘neutralize’ him. I told you he was a handful.”
“Obviously we would only use the handle end of the pikes, if it came to that,” Kadir offered.
“Is he upset?” Alec said.
“Kadir? It’s always hard to tell—”
“No, Mom, Max. Is Max upset?”
“Max is thrilled,” Maryse said, in a tone that Alec strongly associated with his mother talking about Jace. “Max is having an excellent time.”
“Then you’ll just have to keep an eye on him and wait for him to come down,” said Alec.
There was a long pause. “Well… all right,” said Maryse. “If that’s all that can be done.”
Alec began to say, “You could call Catarina—”
“No, no, no,” Maryse said quickly. “We’ve got it under control here. You go back to your mission and don’t worry, all right?”
“Alec,” Kadir said, very intensely. “I also must speak to you about The Very Small Mouse Who Went a Very Long Way, by Courtney Gray Wiese.”
“What about it?” Alec said.
“You did not tell me,” Kadir said. “You did not warn me sufficiently.”
“We tried,” said Alec.
In bleak tones, Kadir recited, “ ‘The finest mouse will go neglected / Who is not often