β
We came to see Jace. Is he alright?"
"I don't know," Magnus said. "Does he normally just lie on the floor like that without moving?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
I don't want to be a man," said Jace. "I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can't confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead."
"Well," said Luke, "you're doing a fantastic job.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Don't." Clary raised a warning hand. "I'm not really in the mood right now."
"That's got to be the first time a girl's ever said that to me," Jace mused.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Don't touch any of my weapons without my permission."
"Well, there goes my plan for selling them all on eBay," Clary muttered.
"Selling them on what?"
Clary smiled blandly at him. "A mythical place of great magical power.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Not everything is about you," Clary said furiously.
"Possibly," Jace said, "but you do have to admit that the majority of things are.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
You could have had anything else in the world, and you asked for me."
She smiled up at him. Filthy as he was, covered in blood and dirt, he was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
"But I don't want anything else in the world.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Do you remember back at the hotel when you promised that if we lived, youβd get dressed up in a nurseβs outfit and give me a sponge bath?" asked Jace.
"It was Simon who promised you the sponge bath."
"As soon as Iβm back on my feet, handsome," said Simon.
"I knew we should have left you a rat.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Declarations of love amuse me. Especially when unrequited.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
I don't want tea," said Clary, with muffled force. "I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them."
"Unfortunately," said Hodge, "we're all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it's either tea or nothing.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
One of the Silent Brothers is here to see you. Hodge sent me to wake you up. Actually he offered to wake you himself, but since it's 5 a.m., I figured you'd be less cranky if you had something nice to look at."
"Meaning you?"
"What else?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
What are all these?" Clary asked.
"Vials of holy water, blessed knives, steel and silver blades," Jace said, piling the weapons on the floor beside him, "electrum wire - not much use at the moment but it's always good to have spares - silver bullets, charms of protetion, crucifixes, stars of David-"
"Jesus," said Clary
"I doubt he'd fit."
"Jace." Clary was appalled.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
A diary with no drawings of me in it? Where are the torrid fantasies? The romance covers?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
I know it's wrong - God, it's all kinds of wrong - but I just want to lie down with you and wake up with you, just once, just once ever in my life.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Don't stop there. I suppose there are also, what, vampires and werewolves and zombies?"
"Of course there are. Although you mostly find zombies farther south, where the voudun priests are."
"What about mummies? Do they only hang around Egypt?"
"Don't be ridiculous. No one believes in mummies.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
I don't care," Clary said. "He'd do it for me. Tell me he wouldn't. If I were missing-"
"He'd burn the whole world down till he could dig you out of the ashes. I know," Alec said.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
I figured all your classes were stuff like Slaughter 101 and Beheading for Beginners."
Jace flipped a page. "Very funny, Fray.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Is there some particular reason that you're here?" ...
"Not this again."
"Not what again?" said Clary.
"Every time I annoy him, he retreats into his No Mundanes Allowed tree house." Simon pointed at Jace.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Even in half demon hunter clothes, Clary thought, he looked like the kind of boy who'd come over your house to pick you up for a date and be polite to your parents and nice to your pets.
Jace on the other hand, looked like the kind of boy who'd come over your house and burn it down just for kicks.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
I suppose you've always been amazing at this stuff."- Clary
"I was born amazing." - Jace
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
Or maybe it's just that beautiful things are so easily broken by the world.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
Jace slammed his hand down on the stele. βClary-β
βShe said she doesnβt want it,β said Simon. βHa-ha.β
βHa-ha?β Jace looked incredulous. βThatβs your comeback?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
She turned and looked at him. "Ducks?" she said again.
A smile tugged the edge of his mouth. "I hate ducks. Don't know why. I just always have.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
Magnus, standing by the door, snapped his fingers impatiently. "Move it along, teenagers. The only person who gets to canoodle in my bedroom is my magnificent self."
"Canoodle?" repeated Clary, never having heard the word before.
"Magnificent?" repeated Jace, who was just being nasty. Magnus growled. The growl sounded like "Get out.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Clary felt suddenly annoyed. "When the self-congratulatory part of the evening is over, maybe we could get back to saving my best friend from being exsanguinated to death?"
"Exsanguinated," said Jace, impressed. "That's a big word."
"And you're a big-"
"Tsk tsk," he interupted. "No swearing in church.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Watching Jace hug Isabelle, she tried to school her features into a happy and loving expression.
"Are you all right?" Simon asked, with some concern. "Your eyes are crossing.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Look," Luke went on, "In all the years I've known him, there's always been exactly one place Simon wanted to be, and he's always fought like hell to make sure he got there and stayed there."
"Where's that?"
"Wherever you were.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Pretty soon the only people left without a girlfriend will be me and Wendell the school janitor, and he smells like windex."
"At least you know he's still available.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
You're just worried they'll hire a male instructor and he'll be hotter than you."
Jace's eyebrows went up. "Hotter than me?"
"It could happen," Clary said, "You know, theoretically."
"Theoretically the planet could suddenly crack in half, leaving me on one side and you on the other, forever and tragically parted, but I'm not worried about that either. Some things," Jace said, with his customary crooked smile, "are just too unlikely to dwell upon.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
I stabbed you. With a massive sword. You caught on fire."
His lips twitched, almost imperceptibly. "Okay, so maybe our problems aren't like other couples.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
If you really love something, you never try to keep it the way it is forever. You have to let it be free to change.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Heroes aren't always the ones who win," she said. "They're the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don't give up. That's what makes them heroes.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Also, I'm sleeping with your mom. Just thought you should know.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Missing, one stunningly attractive teenage boy. Answers to 'Jace' or 'Hot Stuff
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
You are most powerful when you are most silent. People never expect silence. They expect words, motion, defense, offense, back and forth. They expect to leap into the fray. They are ready, fists up, words hanging leaping from their mouths. Silence? No.
β
β
Alison McGhee (All Rivers Flow to the Sea)
β
Something inside Clary cracked and broke, and words came pouring out. 'What do you want me to tell you? The truth? The truth is that I love Simon like I should love you, and I wish he was my brother and you weren't, but I can't do anything about that and neither can you!
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change -Clary Fray
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Don't tell me," Jace said, "Simon's turned himself into an ocelot and you want me to do something about it before Isabelle makes him into a stole. Well, you'll have have to wait till tomorrow. I'm out of commission." He pointed at himself - he was wearing blue pajamas with a hole in the sleeve. "Look. Jammies."
"Jace," Clary said, "this is important."
"Don't tell me," he said. "You've got a drawing emergency. You need a nude model. Well, I'm not in the mood. You could always ask Hodge," he said as an afterthought. "I hear he'll do anything for a -"
"JACE!" she interrupted him, her voice rising to a scream. "JUST SHUT UP FOR A SECOND AND LISTEN, WILL YOU?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
There is no pretending",Jace said with absolute clarity."I love you,and I will love you until I die,and if there's a life after that,I'll love you then."
She caught her breath.He had said it-the words there was no going back from.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Isabelle drifted over, Jace a pace behind her. She was wearing a long black dress with boots and an even longer cutaway coat of soft green velvet, the color of moss. "I can't believe you did it!" she exclaimed. "How did you get Magnus to let Jace leave?"
"Traded him for Alec," Clary said.
Isabelle looked mildly alarmed. "Not permanently?"
"No," said Jace. "Just for a few hours. Unless I don't come back," he added thoughtfully. "In which case, maybe he does get to keep Alec. Think of it as a lease with an option to buy."
Isabelle looked dubious. "Mom and Dad won't be pleased if they find out."
"That you freed a possible criminal by trading away your brother to a warlock who looks like a gay Sonic the Hedgehog and dresses like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?" Simon inquired. "No, probably not.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Clary screamed out loud as he fell like a stone-
And landed lightly on his feet just in front of her. Clary stared with her mouth open as he rose up out of a shallow crouch and grinned at her. "If I made a joke about just dropping in," he said, "would you write me off as a clichΓ©?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
You don't get to decide," she said, "where I go, or when."
"I know." His voice was ragged. "I've always known that about you. I don't know why I had to fall in love with someone who's more stubborn than I am.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
I've noticed the Fair Folk often say 'perhaps' when there is a truth they want to hide," Clary said. "It keeps you from having to give a straight answer."
"Perhaps so," said the Queen with an amused smile.
"'Mayhap' is a good word too," Alec suggested.
"Also 'perchance,'" Izzy said.
"I see nothing wrong with 'maybe'," said Simon. "A little modern, but the gist of the idea comes across.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
You know," Clary said, "most psychologists agree that hostility is really just sublimated sexual attraction.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
When you love someone, you don't have a choice. Love takes your choices away.
- Clary Fray
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
I should have warned her about your habit of never doing what you're told." Jace squinted at her. "Are those Isabelle's clothes? They look ridiculous on you."
"I could point out that you burned my clothes." -Jace and Clary pg. 63
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Every time I think I'm missing a piece of me, you give it back.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
I love you Clary. More then I ever-- God. More than i probably should. You know that, don't you?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
Well, when I was five, I wanted my mother to let me go around and around inside a dryer with the clothes,β Clary said. βThe difference is, she didnβt let me.β
βProbably because going around and around in a dryer can be fatal,β Jace pointed out, βwhereas pasta is rarely fatal. Unless Isabelle makes it.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
He made a sound like a choked laughed before he reached out and pulled her into her arms. She was aware of Luke watching them from the window, but she shut her eyes resolutely and buried her face against Jace's shoulder. He smelled of salt and blood, and only when his mouth came close to her ear did she understand what he was saying, and it was the simplest litany of all: her name, just her name.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
You're my sister," he said finally. "My sister, my blood, my family. I should want to protect you" - he laughed soundlessly and without any humor - "to protect you from the sort of boys who want to do with you exactly what I want to do."
Clary's breath caught. "You said you just wanted to be my brother from now on."
"I lied," he said.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
I will have you know I practiced that speech. In front of a mirror before you got here."
"So what do you think it meant?"
"I'm not sure," Jace admitted, "but I know I look damn good delivering it.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
You think sheβll be able to talk sense into him?β she asked. βHis sister?β
"If he listens to anyone, it would be her.β
βThatβs sweet,β said Maia. βThat he loves his sister like that.β
βYeah,β Simon said. βItβs precious
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Beautiful. He'd called her beautiful. Nobody had ever called her that before, except her mother, which didn't count. Mothers were required to think you were beautiful.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
But maybe you never really had someone, she thought now. Maybe, no matter how much you loved them, they could slip through your fingers like water, and there was nothing you could do about it.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
Arenβt they supposed to be hiring someone else to train me full-time anyway?β
βYes,β he said, getting up and pulling her to her feet along with him,β and Iβm worried that if you get into the habit of making out with your instructors, youβll wind up making out with him, too.β
β Donβt be sexist. They could find me a female instructor.β
βIn that case you have my permission to make out with her, as long as I can watch.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
What's wrong, little sis? You look upset."
She could barely catch her breath. "Cracked...my...nail polish slapping your... worthless face. See?" She showed him her finger - just one of them.
"Cute" He snorted.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
I'm not an angel, Jace," she repeated. "I don't return library books. I steal illegal music off the internet. I lie to my mom. I am completely ordinary.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Depression isn't a war you win. It's a battle you fight every day. You never stop, never get to rest. It's one bloody fray after another.
β
β
Shaun David Hutchinson (We Are the Ants)
β
You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done. Youβve hit no traitor on the hip. Youβve dashed no cup from perjured lip. Youβve never turned the wrong to right. Youβve been a coward in the fight.
β
β
Charles Mackay
β
It's a girl," Jace said, recovering his composure. "Surely you've seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Is this Clarissa Fray?" The voice on the other end of the phone sounded familiar, though not immediately identifiable.
Clary twirled the phone cord nervously around her finger. "Yeees?"
"Hi, I'm one of the knife-carrying hooligans you met last night in Pandemonium? I"m afraid I made a bad impression and was hoping you'd give me a chance to make it up to-"
"SIMON!" Clary held the phone away from her ear as he cracked up laughing. "That is so not funny!"
"Sure it is. You just don't see the humor."
"Jerk." Clary sighed, leaning up against the wall.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Jordan doesn't really care about the blood," Simon said now. "His whole thing is about me being comfortable with what I am. Get in touch with your inner vampire, blah, blah."
Clary slid in next to him onto the bed and hugged a pillow. "Is your inner vampire different from your...outer vampire?"
"Definitely. He wants me to wear midriff-baring shirts and a fedora. I'm fighting it."
Clary smiled faintly. "So your inner vampire is Magnus?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
If we're going to the Silent City, you might want to get dressed. I mean, I appreciate the bra-and-panties look, but I don't know if the Silent Brothers will. There are only a few of the left, and I don't want them to die of excitement.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
I've never felt so... light.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6))
β
Do you remember,β he said, βwhen we first met and I told you I was ninety percent sure putting a rune on you wouldnβt kill youβand you slapped me in the face and told me it was for the other ten percent?β Clary nodded.
βI always figured a demon would kill me,β he said. βA rogue Downworlder. A battle. But I realized then that I just might die if I didnβt get to kiss you, and soon.β Clary licked her dry lips. βWell, you did,β she said. βKiss me, I mean.β
He reached up and took a curl of her hair between his fingers. He was close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body, smell his soap and skin and hair.
βNot enough,β he said, letting her hair slip through his fingers. βIf I kiss you all day every day for the rest of my life, it wonβt be enough.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
She pulled away. "That doesn't make any sense."
"Neither does this," he said, "but I don't care. I'm sick of trying to pretend I can live without you. Don't you understand that? Can't you see it's killing me?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
Take off your shirt."
Jace raised his eyebrows.
"I'm not going to attack you," she said impatiently. "I can take the sight of your naked chest without swooning."
"Are you sure?" he asked, obediently sliding the shirt off his shoulders. "Because viewing my naked chest has caused many women to seriously injure themselves stampeding to get to me.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
Clary stopped dead in her tracks. "Simon?"
"Oh, God," said Jace, sounding resigned. "And here I'd actually hoped I'd got hold of something interesting." -Clary and Jace pg. 114
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Jace looked as if she had slapped him. "Why are you determined not to believe us?"
"Because she loves you," said Valentine.
Clary felt the blood drain out of her face.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
What I actually want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Sebastian never does anything just for fun.β Jace took Claryβs hand and pulled her toward him. βBut I do.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
I think heβs handling it with grace. A lot of teenage boys would sulk, or lurk around under your window with a boom box.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Wait." Clary was suddenly nervous. "The melted metal-it could be, like, toxic or something."
Maia snorted. "I'm from New Jersey. I born in toxic sludge.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Now very much against her will, she thought of the way Jace had looked at her then, the blaze of faith in his eyes, his belief in her. He had always thought she was strong. He had showed it in everything he did, in every look and every touch. Simon had faith in her too, yet when he'd held her, it had been as if she were something fragile, something made of delicate glass. But Jace had held her with all the strength he had, never wondering if she could take it--he'd known she was as strong has he was.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Well, I'd certainly hate to interrupt your pleasant night stroll with my sudden death."
He blinked. "There is a fine line between sarcasm and outright hostility, and you seem to have crossed it. What's up?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Isabelle and Jace had left the topic of dead Shadowhunters behind and had moved on to something Jace apparently found even more horrifying__Isabelle's date with Simon.
"I can't believe he took you to an actual restaurant." Jace was on his feet now, putting away the floor mats and training gear while Isabelle leaned against the wall and played with her new gloves. "I assumed his idea of a date would be making you watch him play World of Warcraft with his nerd friends."
"I," Clary pointed out, "am one of his nerd friends, thank you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
β
Your Bracelet," she said. "Acheronta movebo.' It doesn't mean 'Thus always to tyrants.' That's 'sic semper tyrannis.' This is from Virgil. 'Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.' If I cannot move Heaven, I will raise Hell.
β
β
Cassandra Clare
β
He grinned. It was a wicked grin, the kind that made the blood in Clary's veins run a little faster. "You want to go on a date?"
Caught off guard, she stammered. "A wh-what?"
"A date," Jace repeated. "Often 'a boring thing you have to memorize in history class,' but in this case, 'an offering of an evening of blisteringly white-hot romance with yours truly."
"Really?" Clary was not sure what to make of this. "Blisteringly white-hot?"
"It's me," said Jace. "Watching me play Scrabble is enough to make most women swoon. Imagine if I actually put in some effort.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
Clary,
Despite everything, I can't bear the thought of this ring being lost forever, any more then I can bear the thought of leaving you forever. And though I have no choice about the one, at least I can choose about the other. I'm leaving you our family ring because you have as much right to it as I do.
I'm writing this watching the sun come up. You're asleep, dreams moving behind your restless eyelids. I wish I knew what you were thinking. I wish I could slip into your head and see the world the way you do. I wish I could see myself the way you do. But maybe I dont want to see that. Maybe it would make me feel even more than I already do that I'm perpetuating some kind of Great Lie on you, and I couldn't stand that.
I belong to you. You could do anything you wanted with me and I would let you. You could ask anything of me and I'd break myself trying to make you happy. My heart tells me this is the best and greatest feeling I have ever had. But my mind knows the difference between wanting what you can't have and wanting what you shouldn't want. And I shouldn't want you.
All night I've watched you sleeping, watched the moonlight come and go, casting its shadows across your face in black and white. I've never seen anything more beautiful. I think of the life we could have had if things were different, a life where this night is not a singular event, separate from everything else that's real, but every night. But things aren't different, and I can't look at you without feeling like I've tricked you into loving me.
The truth no one is willing to say out loud is that no one has a shot against Valentine but me. I can get close to him like no one else can. I can pretend I want to join him and he'll believe me, up until that last moment where I end it all, one way or another. I have something of Sebastian's; I can track him to where my father's hiding, and that's what I'm going to do. So I lied to you last night. I said I just wanted one night with you. But I want every night with you. And that's why I have to slip out of your window now, like a coward. Because if I had to tell you this to your face, I couldn't make myself go.
I don't blame you if you hate me, I wish you would. As long as I can still dream, I will dream of you.
_Jace
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
His eyes softened. "But it doesn't change what we are to each other. It's like there's always been a piece of my soul missing, and it's inside you, Clary. I know I told you once that whether God exists or not, we're on our own. But when I'm with you, I'm not.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
β
Oh, you know. Jace reminds me of an old boyfriend. Some guys look at you like they want sex. Jace looks at you like you've already had sex, it was great, and now you're just friends--even though you want more. Drives girls crazy. You know what I mean?"
Yes, Clary thought. "No," she said.
pg. 280
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
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Yeah, well, you clearly also couldn't be bothered to call me and tell me you were shacking up with some dyed-blond wanna-be goth you probably met at Pandemonium. After I spent the past three days wondering if you were dead."
"I was not shacking up," Clary said, glad of the darkness as the blood rushed to her face.
"And my hair is naturally blond," said Jace. "Just for the record."
Simon, Clary, and Jace, pg. 115
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Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
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I think everything that happened in Idris-Valentine, Max, Hodge, even Sebastian-I kept shoving it all down, trying to forget, but it's catching up with me. I... I'll get help. I'll get better. I promise."
"You promise."
"I swear on the Angel." He ducked his head down, kissed her cheek.
"The hell with that. I swear on us.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
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What were you dreaming about?"
"You." He twisted a lock of her hair around his finger. "I always dream about you."
"Oh, yeah? Because I thought you were having a nightmare."
He tipped his head back to look at her. "Sometimes I dream you're gone," he said. "I keep wondering when you'll figure out how much better you could do and leave me.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
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It's my special magical power. I can read your mind when you're thinking dirty thoughts."
"So, ninety-five percent of the time."
She craned her head back to look up at him. "Ninety-five percent? What's the other five percent?"
"Oh, you know, the usual--demons I might kill, runes I need to learn, people who've annoyed me recently, people who've annoyed me not so recently, ducks."
"Ducks?
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Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
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Despite the heat in her face, it felt as if cold needles of ice were running up and down her veins. "What are you doing here?"
He drew back slightly, looking disappointed. "That isn't really an answer to my question, you know. I was expecting more of a "Hallelujah Chorus.' I mean, it's not every day your boyfriend comes back from the dead."
"I already knew you weren't dead." She spoke through numb lips. "I saw you in the library. With--"
"Colonel Mustard?"
"Sebastian.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
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Stop it." Isabelle tapped a booted foot in the shallow water at the lake's edge. "Both of you. In fact, all three of you. If we don't stick together in the Seelie Court, we're dead."
"But I haven't-," Clary started.
"Maybe you haven't, but the way you let those two act..." Isabelle indicated the boys with a disdainful wave of her hand.
"I can't tell them what to do!"
"Why not?" the other girl demanded. "Honestly, Clary, if you don't start utilizing a bit of your natural feminine superiority, I just don't know what I'll do with you.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
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We need to talk,β she said. βAll of us. About what weβre going to do now.β
βI was going to watch Project Runway,β said Jace. βIts on next.β
βNo youβre not,β said Magnus. He snapped his fingers and the TV went off, releasing a small puff of smoke as the picture died. βYou need to deal with this.β
βSuddenly youβre interested in solving my problems?β
βIβm interested in getting my apartment back. Iβm tired of you cleaning all the time.β Magnus snapped his fingers again menacingly. βGet up.β
βOr youβll be the next one to go up in smoke,β said Simon with relish.
βThereβs no need to clarify my snap,β said Magnus. βThe implication was clear in the snap itself.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
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You're a Shadowhunter," he said. "You know how to deal with injuries." He slid his stele across the table toward her. "Use it."
"No," Clary said, and pushed the stele back across the table at him.
Jace slammed his hand down on the stele. "Claryβ"
"She said she doesn't want it," said Simon. "Ha-ha."
"Ha-ha?" Jace looked incredulous. "That's your comeback?"
Alec, folding his phone, approached the table with a puzzled look. "What's going on?"
"We seem to be trapped in an episode of One Life to Waste," Magnus observed. "It's all very dull.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
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Clary wasn't sure what she'd expected -exclamations of delight, perhaps a smattering of applause. Instead there was silence, broken only when Jace said, "Somehow, I thought it would be bigger."
Clary looked at the Cup in her hand. It was the size, perhaps, of an ordinary wineglass, only much heavier. Power thrummed through it, like blood through living veins. "It's a perfectly nice size," she said indignantly.
"Oh, it's big enough," he said patronizingly, "but somehow I was expecting something⦠you know." He gestured with his hands, indicating something roughly the size of a house cat.
"It's the Mortal Cup, Jace, not the Mortal Toilet Bowl," said Isabelle.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
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Jace set what he was holding down on the windowsill and reached out to her. She came to lean against him, and his hand slid up under her t-shirt and rested caressingly, possessively, on the small of her back. He bent to kiss her, gently at first, but the gentleness went quickly and soon she was pressed up against the glass of the window, his hands at the hem of her shirt β his shirt β
βJace.β She moved a little bit away. βIβm pretty sure people down there in the street can see us.β
βWe could β¦β He gestured toward the bed. βMoveβ¦over there.β
She grinned. βYou said that like it took you a while to come up with the idea.β
When he spoke, his voice was muffled against her neck. βWhat can I say, you make my thought processes slow down. Now I know what itβs like to be a normal person.β
βHow β¦ is it?β The things he was doing with his hands under the t-shirt were distracting.
βTerrible. Iβm already way behind on my quota of witty comments for the day.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
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Lost in thought, it took her several moments to realize that Jace had been saying something to her. When she blinked at him, she saw a wry grin spread across his face. "What?" she asked, ungraciously.
"I wish you'd stop desperately trying to get my attention like this," he said. "It's become embarrassing."
"Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt," she told him.
"I can't help it. I use my rapier wit to hide my inner pain."
"Your pain will be outer soon if you don't get out of traffic. Are you trying to get run over by a cab?"
"Don't be ridiculous," he said. "We could never get a cab that easily in this neighborhood.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
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But isn't that what love is, Clarissa? Ownership? 'I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine,' as the Song of Songs goes."
"No. And don't quote the Bible at me. I don't think you get it...It's not just that someone belongs to you, it's that you give yourself to them. I doubt you've ever given anything to anyone. Except maybe nightmares."
"To give yourself to someone?" The thin smile didn't waver. "As you've given yourself to Jonathan?"
"What?"
"You think I haven't seen the way you two look at each other? The way he says your name? You may not think I can feel, but that doesn't mean I can't see feelings in others.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
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The alley and the music all fell away, and there was nothing but her and the rain and Jace, his hands on her. . . He made a noise of surprise, low in his throat, and dug his fingers into the thin fabric of her tights. Not unexpectedly, they ripped, and his wet fingers were suddenly on the bare skin of her legs. Not to be outdone, Clary slid her hands under the hem of his soaked shirt, and let her fingers explore what was underneath: the tight, hot skin over his ribs, the ridges of his abdomen, the scars on his back. This was uncharted territory for her, but it seemed to be driving him crazy: he was moaning softly against her mouth, kissing her harder and harder, as if it would never be enough, not quite enough β
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Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
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But that's not what you said when she walked into the room," said Simon quietly. "You said, 'Why didn't you ever tell me I had a brother?'"
"I know." Clary yanked a blade of grass out of the dirt, worrying it between her fingers. "I guess I can't help thinking that if I'd known the truth, I wouldn't have met Jace the way I did. I wouldn't have fallen in love with him."
Simon was silent for a moment. "I don't think I've ever heard you say that before."
"That I love him?" She laughed, but it sounded dreary even to her ears. "Seems useless to pretend like I don't, at this point. Maybe it doesn't matter. I probably won't ever see him again, anyway."
"He'll come back."
"Maybe."
"He'll come back," Simon said again. "For you.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
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This could be the last night of our lives, certainly the last even barely ordinary one. The last night we go to sleep and get up just as we always have. And all I could think of was that I wanted to spend it with you."
Her heart skipped a beat. "Jace-"
"I don't mean it like that," he said. "I won't touch you, not if you don't want me to. I know it's wrong - God, it's all kinds of wrong - but I just want to lie down with you and wake up with you, just once, just once ever in my life." There was desperation in his voice. "It's just this one night. In the grand scheme of things, how much can this one night matter?"
...There was nothing she had ever wanted in her life more than she wanted this night with Jace.
"Close the curtains, then, before you come to bed," she said. "I can't sleep with this much light in the room.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
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His hands lay flat on either side of him, his arms at his sides. He seemed barely to be breathing; she wasn't sure she was breathing herself. She slid her own hand across the bedsheet, just far enough that their fingers touched-so lightly that she would have probably hardly been aware of it had she been touching anyone but Jace; as it was, the nerve endings in her fingertips pricked softly, as if she were holding them over a low flame. She felt him tense beside her and then relax. He had shut his eyes, and his lashes cast fine shadows against the curve of his cheekbones. His mouth curled into a smile as if he sensed her watching him, and she wondered how he would look in the morning, with his hair messed and sleep circles under his eyes. Despite everything, the thought gave her a jolt of happiness.
She laced her fingers through his. "Good night," she whispered. With their hands clasped like children in a fairy tale, she fell asleep beside him in the dark.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
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I look up at the sky, wondering if I'll catch a glimpse of kindness there, but I don't. All I see are indifferent summer clouds drifting over the Pacific. And they have nothing to say to me. Clouds are always taciturn. I probably shouldn't be looking up at them. What I should be looking at is inside of me. Like staring down into a deep well. Can I see kindness there? No, all I see is my own nature. My own individual, stubborn, uncooperative often self-centered nature that still doubts itself--that, when troubles occur, tries to find something funny, or something nearly funny, about the situation. I've carried this character around like an old suitcase, down a long, dusty path. I'm not carrying it because I like it. The contents are too heavy, and it looks crummy, fraying in spots. I've carried it with me because there was nothing else I was supposed to carry. Still, I guess I have grown attached to it. As you might expect.
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Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)
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While this is all very amusing, the kiss that will free the girl is the kiss that she most desires,β she said. βOnly that and nothing more.β
Jaceβs heart started to pound. He met the Queenβs eyes with his own. βWhy are you doing this?β
β¦ βDesire is not always lessened by disgustβ¦And as my words bind my magic, so you can know the truth. If she doesnβt desire your kiss, she wonβt be free.β
βYou donβt have to do this, Clary, itβs a trickββ (Simon)
...Isabelle sounded exasperated. βWho cares, anyway? Itβs just a kiss.β
βThatβs right,β Jace said. Clary looked up, then finally, and her wide green eyes rested on him. He moved toward her... and put his hand on her shoulder, turning her to face himβ¦ He could feel the tension in his own body, the effort of holding back, of not pulling her against him and taking this one chance, however dangerous and stupid and unwise, and kissing her the way he had thought he would never, in his life, be able to kiss her again. βItβs just a kiss,β he said, and heard the roughness in his own voice, and wondered if she heard it, too.
Not that it matteredβthere was no way to hide it. It was too much. He had never wanted like this before... She understood him, laughed when he laughed, saw through the defenses he put up to what was underneath. There was no Jace Wayland more real than the one he saw in her eyes when she looked at himβ¦ All he knew was that whatever he had to owe to Hell or Heaven for this chance, he was going to make it count.
He...whispered in her ear. βYou can close your eyes and think of England, if you like,β he said.
Her eyes fluttered shut, her lashes coppery lines against her pale, fragile skin. βIβve never even been to England,β she said, and the softness, the anxiety in her voice almost undid him. He had never kissed a girl without knowing she wanted it too, usually more than he did, and this was Clary, and he didnβt know what she wanted. Her eyes were still closed, but she shivered, and leaned into him β barely, but it was permission enough.
His mouth came down on hers. And that was it. All the self-control heβd exerted over the past weeks went, like water crashing through a broken dam. Her arms came up around his neck and he pulled her against himβ¦ His hands flattened against her back... and she was up on the tips of her toes, kissing him as fiercely as he was kissing her... He clung to her more tightly, knotting his hands in her hair, trying to tell her, with the press of his mouth on hers, all the things he could never say out loud...
His hands slid down to her waist... he had no idea what he would have done or said next, if it would have been something he could never have pretended away or taken back, but he heard a soft hiss of laughter β the Faerie Queen β in his ears, and it jolted him back to reality. He pulled away from Clary before he it was too late, unlocking her hands from around his neck and stepping back... Clary was staring at him. Her lips were parted, her hands still open. Her eyes were wide. Behind her, Alec and Isabelle were gaping at them; Simon looked as if he was about to throw up.
...If there had ever been any hope that he could have come to think of Clary as just his sister, this β what had just happened between them β had exploded it into a thousand pieces... He tried to read Claryβs face β did she feel the same? β¦ I know you felt it, he said to her with his eyes, and it was half bitter triumph and half pleading. I know you felt it, tooβ¦She glanced away from him... He whirled on the Queen. βWas that good enough?β he demanded. βDid that entertain you?β
The Queen gave him a look: special and secretive and shared between the two of them. βWe are quite entertained," she said. βBut not, I think, so much as the both of you.
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Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))