He wasn't sure what to expect from Jace, which was strange since it'd been years since he'd truly worried about not understanding his parabatai's reactions. "He is. For years, I imagined tying him up and leaving him in a closet until he learned some manners."

The rune was an easier subject than the differences between the Jace he grew up with one the one studying the Fearless on his arm. Alec knew that suggesting needing the rune wasn't a hint that he had been a coward. Jace knew he wouldn't run from battle. "We were fighting a fear demon that could take on the form of whatever someone feared most. You used the rune when you went against it." When Jace had told him about the battle, the rune probably had faded by then, but they'd won. That was the important detail.

"He brought demons into Idris. Alicante. We fought them on the Brocelind Plain." Looking over at the lanterns, Alec swallowed hard. "Valentine's spy killed Max." Better to phrase it that way than to say Valentine's son. "We stopped him, but there was another war afterward. We stopped that uprising too. Things were settling down finally before I was brought here."