After the memory demon incident Alec and Clary had nearly been inseparable, Alec had partly moved into the institute in the day, however, went back to Magnus' at night. He had been receiving some odd looks from the other shadowhunters obviously uncomfortable with the constant presence of a warlock however, no matter how much they stared they never said anything or at least to Alec's face. Alec was currently sat in the ops centre with Clary, Jace and Izzy trying to work out how they could find the Mortal Cup without Clary's memories.

"Just a thought" Alec spoke up before stuffing his face with a crisp then continued "could mom have shown us where she hid the mortal cup without us realising, I mean from what I found out from Magnus he had discussed and got Mom's permission to feed Clary's memories to the memory demon so, she must have known the risk of getting them back and the chance that they could be lost. So, she must have had a plan for it. Maybe, your memories aren't the key to finding the mortal cup maybe it's something else that needs unlocking".

"Yeah but what? Mom wasn't usually this cryptic. There are thousands of places in the apartment that she could have hidden the mortal cup" Clary replied. Alec shrugged; it had only been an idea. Like Clary, they never expected their mother to hide anything like this from them and Alec just felt stupid, how could he believed his mother when she said that his magic was caused by an extra chromosome. He put his hand into his crisp packet to find it empty, Alec pouted before magicking the rubbish away and summoning some more food, he finished some chocolate this time.

"Do you ever stop eating" Jace complained, he swore in the last few days since he met Alec, the man hadn't stopped eating and hadn't gained a pound in weight which was so unfair. If, he ever had anything unhealthy, he had to spend the rest of the day training to burn the calories off.

"Not really" Alec replied.

"Alec is obsessed with snacks. Trust me, we've tried for years to break it and if we haven't succeed then you don't have a cat in hell chance to stop him. He always used his magic to summon snacks no matter where he was" Clary laughed, she was never annoyed with her brother snacking habit, it's what made Alec well Alec. Izzy however, frowned.

"What I'm confused with, is how you never thought that there might be more people like Alec? I mean you grew up with him being able to do magic how did you never think 'oh there might be others'" Izzy asked. Alec and Clary look at each other before Clary replied.

"Well Mom told us that Alec had a rare condition where he had an extra chromosome which caused his magic. I guess because we were young and believed that our mother would never lie to us that what she said was the truth".

"Okay… but how did she explain your warlock mark?" Izzy asked. Alec frowned his warlock what?

"What? What the hell is a warlock mark?" Clary asked equally confused. Jace and Izzy looked at each other, how the hell did Alec not know he was born with some sort of animal feature after all they're not something you could easily play off as a birthmark or minor deformity.

"All warlock have one. It's an animal feature, so they might have horns on their head or scales" Jace explained which only made Alec and Clary's frown deepened. Alec didn't remember seeing any type of animal mark on his body, and he hadn't been called out on having some strange mark during gym at school when they had to change in the locker room.

"I don't have a warlock mark or not that I've or others have seen" Alec said.

"Oh… can you perform warlock glamour" Izzy asked. Alec shook his head. He had read about it in one of the books in Magnus' loft however, he hadn't tried it himself.

"Maybe Dot kept your mark glamoured?" Clary suggested but Jace shook his head.

"If that was true then the glamour would have warn off by now, we would see his mark. There something else, maybe something your mom did to keep his mark hidden" Jace explained but before either Clary or Alec could reply the doors to the institute were thrown open and in walked a tall woman with long black hair which was pulled back in tight ponytail and piercing brown eyes.

"Maryse" Jace said as the woman walked over to them and pulled Jace into a hug. "We weren't expecting you back from Idris so soon, where's Max?".

"Robert is picking him up from the Mumbai institute. And you must always be prepared for the unexpected Jace, I thought I taught you better than that. Isabelle still dressed to impress I see" Maryse said. Clary and Alec shared a look, they could tell whoever this woman was she was important, and it was probably best not to get on the wrong side of her.

"Mum welcome back" Izzy said sheepishly, it was obvious that Izzy didn't get along with Maryse that well. Izzy turned to them "Mum this is Clary and Alec Fray".

Alec gulped when he felt Maryse's eyes move from Izzy to him and his sister. Alec couldn't shake the feeling that Maryse looked familiar to him, but he wasn't sure why, maybe he saw her talking to his mother. Then he suddenly had brief flashes of seeing a younger version of this woman with a younger version of his mother. Maybe, Jocelyn and Maryse knew each other and that's why Alec recognises her. Maryse eyes widen slightly when she saw Alec.

"Jocelyn Fairchild children?" Maryse said even though it sounded more like a question then a statement. Alec and Clary nodded.

"Alec Fray come with me. Miss Fairchild stay with Isabelle and Jace" Maryse ordered, and even thought Clary looked like she wanted to argue. Alec put a reassuring hand on his sister's shoulder and whispered underneath his breath but loud enough for Clary to here "don't worry, I'll be fine". After all he had dealt with homophobia all his life so, warlockphobia couldn't be any different. With that Alec gave Clary a quick side hug and followed after Maryse Lightwood.