Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3)

by Cassandra Clare

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think Will could fight in that dress either.” “Perhaps not,” said Will, who had ears like a bat’s. “But I would make a radiant bride.”

“A forty-foot worm?” Will muttered to Jem as they moved through the Italian garden, their boots—thanks to a pair of Soundless runes—making no noise on the gravel. “Think of the size of the fish we could catch.”

“There was a time when my inappropriate humor brought you a certain amusement,” sighed Will. “How the worm has turned.”

“You are my conscience. You have ever been, James Carstairs.

“Perhaps, but you would not exist without a woman, would you? However little use you may find us, we are cleverer and more determined and more patient than men. Men may be stronger, but it is women who endure.”

“A heart divided against itself cannot stand, as they say. You love them both, and it tears you apart.”

“Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two.”

Will let his cutlery clatter onto his plate. “The Consul? Breaking up our breakfast time? Whatever next? The Inquisitor over for tea? Picnics with the Silent Brothers?” “Duck pies in the park,” said Jem under his breath, and he and Will smiled at each other,

“I would think that counted as offering resistance,” Will said. “Eating one’s son-in-law, that is. Though I suppose everyone has their family altercations.”

“I want you to be happy, and him to be happy. And yet when you walk that aisle to meet him and join yourselves forever you will walk an invisible path of the shards of my heart, Tessa. I would give over my own life for either of yours. I would give over my own life for your happiness.

“If there is a life after this one,” he said, “let me meet you in it, James Carstairs.”