Magnus's POV
The room was silent for a moment. Then Alec turned on the others. "I told you! I saw him pull out a stele!"
"After you saw me, I decided to let my little secret out. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it much longer, anyway," Magnus replied.
"So you're not eight hundred years old?" Jace asked.
Magnus shook his head. "I am. When I was nineteen, I created an immortality rune - which I am not teaching any of you - and used it on myself. The only problem is, it's permanent. I can't get it off. But that's beside the point. I also discovered a way to make a very strong glamour, so strong that even fellow Shadowhunters couldn't see past it if they tried. I did the glamour after I had Marked myself with the immortality rune, in hiding. I let everyone believe that Matthew Banemark was dead, then emerged several years later as Magnus Bane." Magnus paused for breath.
"But weren't you afraid someone might recognize you?" Clary asked.
"That's what the glamour was for. It hid everything: the scars from my old Marks, the two Marks I kept - immortality and the one on the back of my right hand - which were permanent, even covered up the way I looked. Then I had to cast another glamour on my eyes, to give me the cat's eyes, and yet another whenever I 'cast a spell.' Oh, sure, I have runes that help me perform simple warlock spells, but, while fighting, I'm more comfortable casting glamours, then rushing up with a seraph blade. I almost lost the one on my eyes recently, which was what made my mind up about giving it up."
"So this is all a disguise? You don't really look like this?" Alec asked.
Magnus shook his head.
"Then what do you really look like?" Alec asked.
Magnus grinned shyly. "I, ah, forget. It's been so long. I could take the glamours off, if you like."
Clary, Jace, Alec, and Isabelle nodded.
Magnus disappeared into an empty room. He stood in front of the mirror, removing glamours one by one. First the one on his Marks, revealing one black design on the back of his right hand and another on his left shoulder. He then removed the glamour on his eyes, and all of the others.
Alec's POV
"It's taking him a long time," Alec said to no one in particular.
"He said he had a ton of glamours, though. Aren't those hard to remove?" Clary asked.
"She's right," Jace answered.
A door opened down the hall. "Done!" Magnus called, entering the kitchen. Everyone gasped.
The first thing Alec noticed was the Mark on the back of Magnus's right hand, shaped like an open eye. It was the same Mark every Shadowhunter child got when they turned twelve. But that wasn't all. While his features had stayed mostly the same, the hazel cat's eyes had become blue-green, and had lost the slit pupil. His black hair had become dark brown. Silvery-white scars stood out on his tanned skin - a memory of old Marks.
No one said anything. They just stood there, dumbstruck.
"Wow," Alec said finally, just to break the silence.
"I know, right?" Magnus agreed, pushing a piece of his long brown hair, which now skimmed the tops of his shoulders, out of his face. He grinned, his blue-green eyes twinkling.
The Institute's doorbell rang, causing everyone to jump. Clary shook her head, as if waking from a dream. "I've got it," Jace said, already halfway to the door.
Alec followed slowly. Simon was standing in the doorway, saying something to Jace. He broke off, looking at something behind Alec. "Who's that?" he asked.
Alec turned around. Magnus was standing behind him. "Hello, rat."
Simon looked confused for a moment. "Magnus? But I thought…" Simon stopped, staring at the black Mark on the back of Magnus's hand. "You're not a warlock. You're a Shadowhunter."