1991

The door at the end of the hall was cracked open, and Alexander could hear his parent's voices on the other side. He crept forward and peeked in, keeping a firm grip on the small stuffed bear he'd brought with him.

Maryse was rocking a small crib, back and forth. Alexander was too short to see the new baby, but he could hear her fussing. A tiny fist appeared through the bars, then vanished.

Robert was sitting at Maryse's side, one hand resting on the side of the crib as he watched the baby.

"Mommy?" Alexander asked, inching farther into the room. "Daddy?"

Maryse and Robert both looked up. Alexander crossed the room and threw his arms around his mother's legs.

"Alexander, honey," Maryse said. "Where's Hodge? You were supposed to stay with him."

Alexander shrugged, and Maryse lifted him up onto her lap. Alexander peered in over the top of the crib bars.

The baby opened her dark brown eyes and squinted up at him.

"That's your little sister, Alexander," Maryse said. "That's Isabelle."

Robert leaned forward and offered the baby his finger. Alexander watched Isabelle cross her eyes as the finger approached, wave her hand in its general direction, and close her eyes again.

Alexander stared at the back of his father's hand, at the voyance rune and scars there.

Alexander was less than two years old, but he already knew what he was, and what his parents were, and what his little sister would be, too.

Shadowhunters. And he knew it was dangerous. He was young, but he already knew that sometimes, Shadowhunters didn't come back home.

Watching his new sister now, Alexander wished he could make it a little less dangerous. For her, at least.

o-o-o-o-o

1997

Alec didn't think he was supposed to know about the vampires, but it wasn't his fault his parents had left the library door open.

Alec was sitting in an alcove across the hall from the library, playing with an arrow he'd found in the training room. He'd only recently started training with a bow and arrow, but he liked it better than the swords and seraph blades his father kept handing him.

"This is the third hospital this week," Maryse was saying. "If the Head of the Clan won't do anything about it—"

"The Head of the Clan doesn't see a problem," Robert said. "She claims since they're not feeding directly on mundanes, they aren't in breach of the Accords. And she's technically right. This may be a problem for mundane law enforcement."

"We can't just let vampires run wild in the city," Maryse argued. "Mundane law enforcement wouldn't know what to do with a vampire if they somehow managed to catch one. Besides, letting mundanes handle this risks exposing the Shadow World. Which is against the Accords."

Robert sighed, and Alec heard his footsteps crossing the library. "We can reach out to the second in command," he said. "He's slightly more reasonable. As vampires go."

"I'll send a message," Maryse said. "But if he can't get this under control, Robert, we'll have to go in ourselves."

"Alright," Robert said.

Alec turned the arrow over in his hands. He knew what his mother meant when she said "go in ourselves." She meant they were going to kill all the vampires.

It didn't seem very fair to Alec. If he were in charge, he didn't think he would want to kill the vampires. They were just trying to eat.

Alec stood up and crossed the hall to the library. His parents were standing on either side of Hodge's desk. Robert was bent over the surface, scribbling a note. Maryse was strapping a dagger to her forearm.

Alec tapped on the door, and without waiting for his parents to say anything, he announced, "I don't think you should kill the vampires."

He turned and left, before his parents could tell him he was wrong.

o-o-o-o-o

2000

Alec lingered outside the training room, watching his new brother practice throwing knives. Jace had found himself a weapons belt, and he'd filled it with at least ten blades. He was pulling the knives from the belt and flinging them, leaving a perfectly straight line stretching from one edge of the target, across the bullseye, to the opposite edge.

Jace stopped only when he ran out of knives. When he crossed the room to retrieve them, Alec stepped into the room. "Jace?"

Jace froze, one hand outstretched, fingers wrapped around the hilt of the first knife.

"Do you, um." Alec cleared his throat. "Do you need someone to practice with?"

Jace yanked the first knife free of the target and turned to face Alec. Alec realized, with some shock, that Jace had been crying.

Alec didn't think he'd ever seen Jace cry. Not really. He didn't know what to do about it, other than what he was doing—offering his company. He wanted to fix it, so it never had to happen again.

"You don't have to," Jace said. "I'm fine on my own."

Alec shrugged and reached for the small bow he kept in the training room. A quiver of arrows hung beside it, and Alec adjusted the strap over his chest as he approached Jace. "I don't mind."

"Okay, then." Jace finished gathering his knives, flipped one into his palm, and tossed it. It hit the target, dead center.

Alec's first arrow hit the target just above it.

The corner of Jace's mouth twitched up into a smile. "Nice shot."

"Nice throw," Alec said.

o-o-o-o-o

2002

Alec had never been on patrol without an adult before.

Then again, he wasn't even sure this counted as patrol. Robert and Maryse had given the two of them three blocks to watch, and they were under strict orders not to wander.

"This is it," Jace said. He was practically jumping up and down with excitement, perched at the edge of the roof next to Alec. "Our first ever patrol."

"We're five minutes from the Institute," Alec pointed out. "Covering a three block area. It's not really the most dangerous thing they could have had us do."

"Still," Jace said. "We do this. Next week it's four blocks. Next year, we can cover the subway tunnels, too—they're infested with demons, only the best Shadowhunters patrol there—and eventually—"

"I get it," Alec said. "So let's focus on this, alright?"

"Alright," Jace said. "Hey—what's that?"

Alec peered over the edge of the roof. The Farsighted rune on his arm burned as his sight extended into the alley below him.

There were four people crowded into the alley. One of them was on the ground.

Alec climbed over the edge of the roof and dropped soundlessly onto a fire escape. He didn't need to look to know that Jace was right behind him as he continued down, jumping the last few feet to the ground.

"Hey!" Jace said. The three people standing must have been mundanes, because they didn't even flinch at the sound of Jace's voice. The person on the ground looked up.

She was obviously a faerie. Her pointed ears stuck up through a mess of raven hair. Her eyes were leaf-green, and a pair of fluttering gossamer wings peeked over her shoulder.

When she opened her mouth, her teeth were long and pointed, like a shark's.

One of the people crowding her reached down and grabbed her wrist, hauling her upright. She cried out.

Alec pulled out his bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed for the wall, just over their heads.

All three mundanes looked around at the clatter of metal on stone. The faerie took advantage of the distraction and sunk her pointed teeth into the arm of the man holding her. He screamed, and the faerie whipped her arm free and took off, running past Jace and Alec, out into the street.

Alec pulled his stele out of his pocket and turned to the wall of the alley, scrawling every rune he could think of to block pursuers. Jace caught on almost at once, and did the same on the other side.

The mundanes made to follow the faerie girl out of the alley and ran directly into a wall of force, pushing them back.

Alec and Jace both ran for the fire escape. The mundanes couldn't see or hear them climbing, and they escaped onto the rooftop without being noticed.

"What was that?" Jace asked. "Like, what did three mundanes want with a faerie?"

"They probably didn't know she was a faerie," Alec said. "Just some girl."

"Still," Jace said.

"Yeah."

It hadn't really occurred to Alec before, just how dangerous the world was even when there weren't demons lurking in the shadows. Alec thought he felt better about the demons. Those, at least, he could fight.

o-o-o-o-o

2005

"He's kind of cute, you know," Isabelle said.

They were sitting across from each other in a booth at Taki's. Alec wasn't sure why Izzy had insisted he come, but the alternative was that Izzy cook breakfast, so he hadn't objected when she had suggested it.

"Who?" Alec asked. "Actually, never mind. I don't want to know."

"Werewolf boy," Izzy said. "Up at the counter."

Against his better judgement, Alec turned and glanced over his shoulder. Just once. For a few seconds.

The problem was, Isabelle was right.

The boy had dark eyes and spiky brown hair, with dyed-green tips. His eyebrows were green, too, popping against his pale skin. Alec thought the dyed eyebrow thing was a little weird, but the boy was also wearing a leather jacket that did amazing things for his shoulders, so it balanced out.

"If you say so," Alec said, turning back to his food.

Isabelle leaned across the table, almost knocking a cup of coffee off the edge with her elbow. Alec caught it just in time. "Alec, it's just me. You can talk about this stuff."

He really couldn't, though. Because Alec thought he knew what his parents would say, if they ever found out. He definitely knew what the Clave would say.

And he was afraid if he let himself start wanting, he'd never stop. He wouldn't be able to stop. He'd end up spending the rest of his life miserable, longing for things he couldn't have.

Alec didn't really want to explain all that to his sister, though, so he just took a sip of coffee and said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Isabelle sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Of course you don't."

Alec glanced back over his shoulder, only to find the werewolf boy looking back at him. The boy winked, and Alec immediately looked away. He knew his face was on fire.

Izzy snorted into her scrambled eggs. "Very smooth, Alec."

o-o-o-o-o

+1. 2012

Alec thought the fancy desk and old-fashioned wax stamp was a little bit overkill, but no one had asked for his opinion.

With the Clave in shambles, it had taken almost three weeks to get Alec an actual office. In that time, everyone had been busy, making lists of active Shadowhunters in Institutes around the world, reaching out to the religious organizations that funded almost everything they did, and generally not worrying about whether the Consul had a place to look at all the paperwork this was generating.

Alec glanced over at the three filing cabinets Clary had brought in for him, already filled with hundreds of files, and sighed.

"You're helping me with that, right?" he asked Diego, who only shrugged.

"I'm not the Inquisitor yet. Until then, it's your problem."

"Thanks so much," Alec grumbled.

"Are you getting started now?" Diego asked. "If you are, I guess I could help sort things. I know for a fact Jace just threw stuff in there when it showed up. So, you know, it might tentatively be grouped by Institute, but good luck actually finding anything."

"Thanks, Diego," Alec said. "But there's actually something else I've been meaning to do."

The Council hadn't been able to meet since the Clave's exile, but it was still in Alec's power to call a vote on anything he saw fit. They'd had to do this one by fire-message, which was why it had taken almost a month.

It was all worth it, though, for the pieces of paper now sitting on Alec's desk. One was a list of signatures from most of the remaining Council representatives. The other was Alec's proposed amendment to the Law. Once he signed it, it was official.

"Oh," Diego said, glancing over at the desk. "Right. Did you want me to grab anyone before you signed that, or are you doing it alone?"

"You're welcome to stay," Alec said. "But I think I'd rather just sign the thing." He slid into the fancy leather desk chair Clary had found for him and picked up a pen.

"Congratulations, Alec," Diego said, as Alec signed his name and stamped the four Cs of Clave, Covenant, Council, and Consul next to it. "I'm happy for you."

Alec stared down at the signed paper that officially required the Clave to recognize a Shadowhunter's marriage to a Downworlder or mundane and said, "You're assuming he'll say yes."

"You know he will," Diego said.

Alec tucked the papers carefully away in his new desk. "I know."

"Anyway," Diego said. "There's a party at the L.A. Institute next week, on the beach. Are you coming?"

"The beach?" Alec asked. An idea was already starting to form.

It was crazy. There was next to no way he could pull it off. But…

"Diego," Alec said. "Do you want to help me plan a wedding?"