Smoke and Mirrors ▹ Alec Lightwood [1]

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"I...I didn't know there was more than one," was all he could think of saying. Usually he didn't mind admitting he was wrong, but with Maryse, he had trouble doing so.

"Unfortunately, there is." Maryse took the file back, closed it, and set it back on her desk. "The killings don't seem to have a pattern other than that they're both children. You can understand why I don't want you, or anyone else, out so much because of that. I would rather you stay here, where it's safe." Adrian stared at her in disbelief. Not because her words surprised him, but because of what she had said to them all not even an hour earlier. His jaw clenched.

"Is that what you said to Jace?" he asked coldly. He was surprised when she flinched.

"I kicked him out for the time being," Maryse said in an attempt to defend herself. "Not permanently. If he had stayed long enough to hear my explanation, he would know that."

"Why kick him out at all then?" he demanded. When she remained silent, Adrian stepped closer and let a bit of desperation slip into his voice. "Maryse, please." Again, she remained silent. Adrian decided to try a different tactic. "Would you rather me snoop and eavesdrop until I get an answer?" Maryse gave an exasperated sigh.

"It's not safe for Jace here, not in the Institute," she revealed. "The Clave doesn't trust him. The Clave doesn't trust any of us." Adrian pressed his lips together and cocked his head to the side.

"Former Circle members, you mean?" he asked. Maryse's mouth tightened. She clearly didn't appreciate him throwing her past mistakes in her face. Adrian thought it was more than fair. All of the adults connected to the New York Institute—Maryse and Robert Lightwood, Hodge Starkweather, Jocelyn Fairchild, even Luke Garroway—had been in the Circle. They had all been particularly close to Valentine Morgenstern. The Clave's distrust of them was entirely their fault, even if Jocelyn and Luke had made up for their mistakes.

"Yes," Maryse said, voice cold. "The Inquisitor is on her way here now to watch over the Institute. I'm trying to protect him, Adrian, as best as I know how, and right now, he needs to be as far away from the Inquisitor as possible." Adrian thought that she could have accomplished all of that without hurting Jace and making him feel even more abandoned than he already did, but before he could voice it, a shadow flickered beside him, and then the ghostly form of Raphael Santiago was standing in the room. Vampires couldn't enter the Institute, since it was holy ground, so they usually used astral projection. Even though Adrian knew this, he still found it unnerving. He could see through Raphael's body, and it made his skin crawl, like he was standing next to a ghost.

"If that will be all, Adrian," Maryse said. Adrian knew a dismissal when he heard one, so without another word, he turned on his heel and left her office.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Adrian thought Jace being kicked out and seeing the dead body of a werewolf child would have been the worst things to happen in the week, but then he woke up the next day and heard more bad news. The Inquisitor had arrived at the same time Jace arrived to speak with Maryse, and she had promptly thrown Jace into jail. The second Adrian had heard the news, he had roamed the halls of the Institute until he found Isabelle and Alec in Isabelle's bedroom. He burst in without a word and flopped down on Isabelle's bed, jostling where Alec was sitting.

"When the hell did she even get here?" was how he greeted them. Alec snorted and threw a throw pillow at him, which Adrian placed under his head. Isabelle answered his question from where she was brushing out her hair at the vanity table.

"Early this morning."

"This all happened this morning and I didn't find out until the afternoon?" Adrian asked, voice flat. Isabelle was the one to snort this time.