The 'if' in that statement stabbed at Alec and he didn't really know how to deal with that unexpected pain. It sliced through his heart and settled in his gut, heavy and hard. Darrow was an enigmatic mystery, something that Alec had yet to figure out but he'd wanted to believe that he wouldn't be kept here forever. Whatever magical force had brought him here had to release sooner or later and then he'd see his parents and siblings again.

The thought of that not happening ever again made him nauseous. He hid it well, covering up any reaction under layers and layers of stoicism and cynicism.

"I don't know how much they'd tell me even if I did ask," Alec said, trying to remember the last time he'd had a very long and thorough talk with his parents. It hadn't been anytime recently and even before Valentine's reappearance, his parents had been busy with the Institute and the Clave. They'd been physically there but something always seemed to get in the way of conversations that were longer than basic greetings and a check on each other's well being. "They're secretive."

That, Alec supposed, is where he got it from. He kept huge secrets, kept them from everyone but Isabelle and only that one outlet kept him from dying on the inside.

"Your mother's an Iron Sister?" Alec asked, latching onto that new information in lieu of not thinking about his parents. "I didn't know. Have you never heard from her since she joined the order?"