Chain of Gold (The Last Hours, #1)

by Cassandra Clare

“You saved my life,” he said. “Just as you saved my sister’s all those years ago. We should have given you a more warrior-like nickname. Not Daisy, but Artemis, or Boadicea.” She laughed softly. “I like Daisy.” “So do I,” he said, and reached up to lightly brush back a strand of her hair. She felt her heart nearly stop. In a low voice, he said, “ ‘And when her cheek the moon revealed, a thousand hearts were won: no pride, no shield, could check her power. Layla, she was called.’ ”

“You read to me,” he said. “Perhaps, now all this is over, we could read it again, together?” Reading together. Never had Cordelia heard of anything so romantic.

Will had been angry at the world, and then gone to see Jem.

Jem—she never could think of him as Brother Zachariah, no matter how hard she tried—walked

like her mother’s than her father’s. Was it strange for Will, she wondered, to be aging and have Jem remain in appearance still a boy? Or when you loved someone, did you not notice these things, just as her parents saw no difference between themselves?

It was as if someone had taken a small, sharp knife to Cordelia’s heart and sliced it into pieces that formed the shape of James’s name. She could barely breathe; she heard his voice in her head, low and sweet: Daisy, my angel.

Will inclined his head to Magnus; Cordelia had the feeling that there was a friendship there that went back a long way.

“When it comes to a woman’s reputation, if she is suspected, she is guilty. That is the way the world works.

“Daisy,” he said. “Will you marry me?”

“But we are friends, aren’t we?” he said. “You are one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I will not leave you in trouble alone.”

“I also do not want a situation in which my husband is unfaithful to me,” Cordelia said. “I will not marry you and turn some blind eye to whatever you do, James. I would rather be alone and scorned, and you would rather be free—” “Daisy,” James said. “I would never, ever do that to you. When I make a promise, I keep it.”

“A year,” he said rapidly. “Give me a year to make things right. Let us be married and live together as friends. We are exceptionally compatible, Daisy. It might well be a great deal of fun. I promise I will be better breakfast-table company than Alastair.”

“You wish to save such things for the true marriage you will find after this. Love will find you, Daisy. It is only a year.” “Yes,” she said. “Only a year.”

“I can’t express how disappointed Tessa and I are in you. We have taught you better than this, both in how you treat women, and in how you own up to your mistakes.”

“the Carstairs and the Herondales will be bonded even more closely now. If James could have chosen his wife from all the women in all the worlds that are or ever were, I would wish for no other.”

Tessa laughed. “Will! You cannot compliment our new daughter only on the chance of her last name!”

Will was grinning like a boy. “Wait unti...

She had only to try to forget that Will might have wished for her to join his family, but if James had been free to choose, he would have chosen someone else.

“We have raised a fine son, my darling,” Will said, kissing Tessa on the cheek. He glanced over at Cordelia and smiled. “And we could ask for no lovelier girl to be his wife.”

Will had come out onto the dance floor; everyone was all smiles as he cut in to dance with Cordelia.

“You don’t mind dancing with an old man like myself?” Will said, expertly turning Cordelia about the floor. She smiled. Will did not have the air of an old man about him—there was something of a boy’s mischief in the way he smiled. Strange that neither Jem nor Tessa had aged since the Clockwork War, yet both seemed older and more serious than Will Herondale did.

Will sighed. “I joke around a great deal,” he said. “It is one way in which I manage life in a complex world.

Another Carstairs binding themselves to another Herondale. Magnus had been amused when he’d heard about the engagement.

“It would be one thing if James loved her. I would go into the quiet dark like Jem did and never speak of her again. But he doesn’t love her.”

“Being married,” James said fiercely. “I know you gave up a great deal for me, and I never want you to regret it. We will live together as the best of friends. I will help you train for your parabatai ceremony. I will defend and support you, always. You need never be lonely. I will always be there.” His lips brushed her cheek. “Remember how well we did in the Whispering Room,” James whispered, and she shivered at the feeling of his warm breath against her skin. “We fooled them all.”

“I suppose,” James said, “I am saying that I know this is an odd experience—but I hope you can be at least a little bit happy, Daisy.”