Sorry for the short chapter. I'm hella busy but hope to update sooner this time...

ROSE POV

I had never been to an Institute before. As far as I knew, there were only two in the country-this one and the one in L.A., neither of which were particularly close to the Academy. I couldn't even remember if I'd seen a picture of one. The New York Institute looked like an old gothic cathedral, ornate and imposing. Its two large spires reminded me of stakes. Not for the first time, I marveled at how everything in our world seemed to be so old compared to the human world.

It was much larger than our church at the Academy with massive columns stretching to its high vaulted ceiling. To the side of the columns were the multiple arches leading to long corridors. There was no one in the spotless pews. Our footsteps echoed, and I suddenly felt very small. Dimitri and I hung back from the shadowhunters, letting them lead the way, and I was reminded of the time he had used his day off to help me clean our church (my punishment for "letting" Stan capture Christian). He didn't say anything then, just as he wasn't now, but his presence was comforting all the same. In this crazy new world of shadowhunters and warlocks that had become my life, he was the sole remnant of better days.

DIMITRI POV

Rose was still uncharacteristically quiet, and I could tell from the set of her shoulders that she was still upset. Alex must have taken the hint that she didn't want to talk to him-or the other shadowhunters, for that matter, and volunteered to be the one to find Hodge, their tutor, while we collected weapons and waited for him in the library. Alec went with him.

The weapons room was impressive and unsurprisingly, Jace seemed excited to show it off. The tension in Rose's shoulders relaxed slightly as she ignored him and moved about the room gazing in awe at the various weapons on the walls. She opened her mouth as if to speak and turned to face me when Jace, seemingly exasperated at her inattention, said he had just the thing for me. He walked to the other side of the room and grasped a large axe by the handle, carefully taking it off the rack that held it. Rose laughed outright, and Jace looked at her.

"What?" he asked. She only shook her head and pulled out one of the sliding shelves. After I told Alex that I did not favor axes, I walked over to the opposite side of the shelf Rose had pulled out and admired the various silver weapons. Rose carefully, almost reverently, picked up one of the stakes and studied its intricate markings.

Isabelle walked up to her. "Stuck on stakes?"

Rose looked up. "These are much nicer than the ones I'm used to."

Isabelle shrugged. "Those markings are all runes. They enhance the stake in different ways, but mostly they're just for accuracy."

Rose decided she liked the one she had and put it in her inside jacket pocket, and almost as if an afterthought, also added an ornate silver dagger. After looking at his phone, Jace announced that we needed to leave, and I followed them out.

The library was located in a tower, making it circular, and was two floors high with books only on the first floor. Rose wasn't as interested in this room, and Jace, having noticed that and wanting to impress her, slung one arm around her shoulder, leaned in, and told her, "You should see the second floor."

She gave him a slide glare, slipped away from his arm, motioned forward, and said, "Lead the way."

Unreasonably not wanting Rose to be alone with Jace, I turned to Isabelle and asked as if I were curious, "What's up there?"

She smiled and grabbed my hand, startlingly me. "Come on. I'll show you." Then we followed them up.

On this floor were aisles of glass cases, each one holding some artifact with a little golden plaque beside it to name and describe it. Rose was walking up one of the aisles at the far end, Jace trailing her. I walked down a random aisle, pretending to be interested in the various objects and trying not to be too obvious in watching Rose. Isabelle followed me and I was so distracted that I flinched slightly when she started to speak.

"Damn." She sighed and leaned into the glass case beside her so that her back was to Rose and Jace. I glanced at her. She continued. "Why don't you just talk to her?"

"What?"

"Rose. Hello...You're obviously pinning. And she doesn't seem to notice. She must be blind.

"I am not," I protested.

"Look, Alex-" she began but stopped when she realized I wasn't listening, and followed my gaze to Rose, who was now walking rapidly down the main walkway toward the stairs. Jace followed her, and when Isabelle asked him what he'd done to make her mad, he looked genuinely confused. I told them I'd talk to her then followed her down the stairs.

"Rose," I called, stepping off the bottom stair, feet behind her. She swung around, her brown hair flying over her shoulder, and waited for me to reach her.

Unable to resist the urge to touch her, I put my hands on her shoulders and gazed down at her eyes. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Her eyes searched my face as she decided how to begin. I moved my hand to her back, said "Let's sit down," and guided her to one of the seating areas. We sat side by side on a brown antique couch small enough to be called a loveseat now.

"So. I saw a picture of The Circle up there. I've seen one before but I didn't exactly memorize what they looked like or anything so I didn't know. The man I met in Siberia, the one who kept telling me to go home, well, I found out from my mother that he's my father." She paused, looked down at her hands, then back up at me and continued, "He was in the picture. My father was a member of The Circle."

I reached for her hand and squeezed it. "Roza..."

She turned her body slightly so that she could better see me. "That's not all. There were always people with him-mobster like people. Dimitri, what if The Circle is in Siberia?"

"From what I've heard of him, he doesn't stay in one place for very long. Still, this is big. You need to report this."

"He kept telling me to leave. If he was trying to help me, if he thought that me leaving was that important, maybe he's not with them anymore. If I tell them," she looked across the room where Isabelle and Jace had moved, "The Clave will arrest him, and God knows what else."

While I was thinking of a response, she sighed and added, "My life is such a mess."

I considered this a moment. If I told her it wasn't, I'd be lying. Instead I said, "It's not boring." Her life was hardly ever boring. She smiled and shrugged. "True."

The sound of Isabelle's heels clicked on the floor and she announced, "Sorry to interrupt, but we need to go." The rest of our small group was standing by the door, including Alex and Alec. They had given Hodge a cover story about going to a place called Tacki's.