Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices Book 3)

by Cassandra Clare

“Perhaps not,” said Will, who had ears like a bat’s. “But I would make a radiant bride.”

He wanted to run to her, wrap her in his arms. Protect her. But it was Jem’s place to do those things, not his. Not his.

Will felt the words as three needle pricks inside his heart. Always when Will did something to protect Tessa, Jem thought it was for his sake, not for Will’s. Always Will wished Jem could be entirely right. Each needle prick had its own name. Guilt. Shame. Love.

“That sometimes when you cannot decide what to do, you pretend you are a character in a book, because it is easier to decide what they would do.”

“Sometimes one must choose whether to be kind or honorable,” he said. “Sometimes one cannot be both.”

“You know that feeling,” she said, “when you are reading a book, and you know that it is going to be a tragedy; you can feel the cold and darkness coming, see the net drawing close around the characters who live and breathe on the pages. But you are tied to the story as if being dragged behind a carriage, and you cannot let go or turn the course aside.”

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

They have grown every day. I love you now more desperately, this moment, than I have ever loved you before, and in an hour I will love you more than that.

“She is my priority!” Will shouted.

You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.”

For five years it had been his absolute truth. Jem and Will. Will and Jem. Will Herondale lives, therefore Jem Carstairs lives also.

“You said I am a good man,” he said. “But I am not that good a man. And I am—I am catastrophically in love with you.”

“I shall see you on Blackfriars Bridge, Tessa.”

“You would make a very ugly woman.” “I would not. I would be stunning.”

With hope at last, Will Herondale

“Those of you who are mortal, you burn so fiercely. And you fiercer than most, Will. I will not ever forget you.”

“I will tell you the story of it. Another story of Lightwoods and Herondales and Fairchilds.