Chain of Iron (The Last Hours, #2)

by Cassandra Clare

“What it is like,” Matthew said slowly, “to be entirely undeserving of the person you love most in the world.”

And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea’s broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods. —Hesiod, Theogony

You are my constant star, Daisy.”

His form had yet not lost All her original brightness, nor appeared Less than archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured. —John Milton, Paradise Lost

She had wanted to be a hero so badly it had blinded her, and now she was here, crushed and shamed, gazing into the dark.

She seemed to be learning restraint, James thought; he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Lucie’s exuberance had always been so much a part of her.

There was little point being stubborn when you lived forever. You learned to bend rather than break.

“You look like someone who just had his heart kicked out on a train station platform.” James was silent. We suffer for love because love is worth it.

“You cannot save people who do not want to be saved,” said Magnus. “You can only stand by their side and hope that when they wake and realize they need saving, you will be there to help them.” He paused. “It’s something to keep in mind as we go to help your sister.”