"She can bring Jace to his knees if she wants to," Alec said and figured that was explanation enough on how strong Isabelle was. Besides their mother, she was the only girl in an Institute full of males. She'd had to be strong, had to be confident to be able to hold her own and she'd done that over and over and over again. Alec knew she took after their mother in both looks, skill and demeanor but Alec found himself secretly glad that she wasn't as severe as their mother.

His mother had been like that for nearly the entirety of his life. She was caring and loving but never overly demonstrative. Alec absolutely knew she loved him and he was always well cared for no matter how busy his mother might be with her duties as both as Shadowhunter and a leader of the Institute.

"Did you and my parents ever have a dinner like this?" Alec wondered curiously. The Circle didn't really seem like a group who would sit down to dinner and talk about the day that had just happened but they had spent a lot of time together and Alec couldn't help but wonder what those times had been like.