Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

by Cassandra Clare

Simon felt it then, not the twinge of fondness he often experienced when Clary smiled at him, but a forceful rush of love that nearly swept him off his feet and into her arms. For the first time, he looked at her, and she wasn’t a stranger, she was Clary—his friend. His family. The girl he’d sworn always to protect. The girl he loved as fiercely as he loved himself.

🥺🥺🥰🥰

“Clary—” he said. “When we were friends, it was great, right? I mean, I’m not just imagining things, feeling like this is where we belong? We got each other, we supported each other. We were good together, right?” Her smile turned from sad to something else, something that glowed with the same certainty that he felt, that there was something real between them. It was as if he’d switched on a light inside her. “Oh, Simon,” she said. “We were absolutely amazing.”

😫😫 I love them so much. ❤️❤️

I know who you would ask. A flash of memory came to Simon, as it did sometimes, cutting like a knife. I love you, he’d told Clary. He’d said it believing he was going to die. He’d wanted those to be his last words before he died, the truest words he could speak. He’d been thinking all this time about his two possible lives, but he didn’t have two possible lives. He had a real life, with real memories and a real best friend. He had his childhood as it had actually been, holding hands with Clary as they crossed the street, and the last year as it had actually been, with Jace saving his life and with him saving Isabelle’s and with Clary there, Clary, always Clary.

Friends to live and die for, to have entangled with every memory. The other Shadowhunters, especially Clary, were a part of him. She was the color that had been ripped out, the bright thread woven through his first memories to his last. Something was missing from the pattern of Simon’s life, without Clary, and it would never be right again, unless she was restored. My best friend, Simon thought. Another thing worth living in this world for, worth being a Shadowhunter for. Maybe she wouldn’t want to be his parabatai. God knew Simon was no prize. But if he got through this school, if he managed to become a Shadowhunter, he would have all the memories of his best friend back.

“But there’s something else I’ve never had,” Simon added. “At least until now.” “What’s that?” “A brother.” The word felt right. Not someone you chose—someone the fates assigned you, someone who, under any other circumstances, might never have given you a second look, nor you him. Someone you would die for and kill for without a second thought, because he was family. Judging from George’s radiant smile, the word sounded right to him, too. “Are we going to have to hug now or something?” George said. “I think that may be inescapable.”

I had forgotten what happened to George and it gutted me. 😭😭