Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices, #2)

by Cassandra Clare

“I remember when I met him,” Alec said. He’d found two boxes and was dumping bandages into one, jars of powder into another. “When he arrived from Idris. He was skinny and he had bruises and he had these big eyes. He was arrogant, too. He and Isabelle used to fight….” He smiled at the memory. “But to me everything about him said, ‘Love me, because nobody ever has.’ It was all over him, like fingerprints.

But Alec spoke of Jace as if he saw him as a vulnerable child, someone who needed love because he’d never gotten it. “I’m no one, though,” he said, taking the box full of bandages. “Why would he care what I think? I don’t matter. I’m nothing.” “You matter to Shadowhunters,” said Alec. “You’re a Herondale. That’ll never be nothing.”

“The Herondales have always been famous for their good looks,” said Bridget, “but if you ask me, the Lightwoods are the more sexually charismatic of the bunch.” Alec spit out his tea. Magnus seemed to be keeping a straight face, but with an effort.

That is the problem with revenge—you wind up destroying the innocent as well as the guilty.”

“You mean she died?” Magnus started to cough. “Of course not. She went to visit your great-aunt Marjorie, actually, in the countryside.” “Is this like when the family dog dies and they say he’s living on a farm now?” Kit asked, curious. It was Alec’s turn to choke. Kit strongly suspected he was laughing and trying not to show it.

There was no reason to sail down Sexy Thoughts River to the Sea of Perversion when it wasn’t going to go anywhere.

“I’m Drusilla.” She stuck out her hand. “Drusilla Blackthorn. Call me Dru.” He gave a dry sort of chuckle and shook her hand. His was warm. “A pretty name for a pretty girl.” Dru felt herself blush. Jaime wasn’t as perfectly handsome as Perfect Diego—his nose was a little too big, his mouth too wide and mobile—but his eyes were a brilliant sparkling brown, his lashes wickedly long and black. And there was something about him, a sort of energy that Diego didn’t have, handsome as he was.

Oh Dru, this slimy boy is about to prey on all of your insecurities.

“I think to be loved by you would be a tremendous honor.”

“I am saying the choices we make in captivity are not always the choices we make in freedom. And thus we question them. We cannot help it.”

“He uses the headphones less when you’re around,” she said, her eyes on her brother, though her words were for Kit. “Is that good?” Kit was surprised. Livvy shrugged. “It isn’t good or bad. It’s just something I noticed. It’s not magic or anything.” She glanced sideways at him. “I think he just doesn’t want to miss anything you say.”

Almost all of them had been inscribed on the inside cover by a James Herondale, who had neatly written out his favorite lines.

It seems like Sleeping Beauty’s castle now. As if the Dark War surrounded it with thorns and since then it has slept.”

Because where the Blackthorns were, was his home now.

The Black thorns really do collect damaged children like Pokemon.

“What is so special about him, that you care if he is bound? Or should he be bound only to you?” “I would not want that,” Kieran said fiercely. “I would never want that. He should love me freely.”

“People often run even when they have nowhere to go,” said Cristina. “It is all about what you can bear in the place where you are.”

“And yes,” he said, as the first images began to unroll across the screen. “I hope we will in the future be friends.”

I don’t .

In all our lives there has only been one thing we have sought and not found.” “A sense of humor?”

I love you, she was about to say. It wasn’t ever Cameron, or Mark, it was always you, it will always be you, the marrow of my bones is made up of you, like cells make up our blood. But he cut her off with a hard kiss.

“Break my heart,” he said. “Break it in pieces. I give you permission.”

“Hating you would be like hating the idea of good things ever happening in the world. It would be like death. I thought you didn’t love me, Emma. But I never hated you.”

“Breaking the bond involves using the Black Volume to dig out the root of all parabatai ceremonies,” said Julian. “It would break our bond, yes. But it would also destroy every parabatai bond in the world. They’d all be snapped. There’d be no more parabatai.”

In that case we can put a FULL STOP to this plan.

“Does it matter?” “It matters in that I wish to know you,” he said. “I would kiss you, but you draw away from me; I would know your heart, but you hide it in shadow. Is it that you do not like or want me? Because in that case I will not trouble you.”

She raised her chin, thinking of her namesake, goddess and warrior, who had nothing to apologize for.

“You loved them and you kept them alive,” said Julian. “Sometimes that’s the best anyone can do.”

“Ty, don’t sound so excited,” Livvy said. “Pyromania interests me,” said Ty. “I think you have to burn down several buildings before you can consider yourself to be an actual maniac for pyro,” Emma said. “I think before that you’re just an enthusiast.”

“Maybe she didn’t want life,” said Alec. He shrugged. “He never did ask her what she wanted, did he?”

“Some loves are strong, like cords. They bind you,” Cristina said. “The Bible says love is as strong as death. I believe that.”

“Few of us are lucky enough ever to know the whole truth of anything.”

Did all children cry like this, like everything in the world was ruined and their hearts were broken, even at the news of a short parting?

appeared noiselessly at Mark’s side. “You can’t help the past. We grow up with losses, all of us except the supremely lucky.” “I cannot help wishing my brother had been one of the supremely lucky,” said Mark. “You can understand.” Magnus glanced toward Jules and Tavvy. The little boy had cried himself out and was clinging to his older brother, his face mashed against Julian’s shoulder. His small shoulders were slumped in exhaustion. “Which brother?” “Both of them,” said Mark.

“Placing the lives of Shadowhunters above the lives of your own people—what could be worse?” “Selling your son to the Wild Hunt because you worried that people liked him better than they liked you,” said Mark. “That’s worse.”

“Why are you helping us so much?” Julian asked. “I mean, I know we’re a likable family, but no one’s that likable.”

‘The Fair Folk have long hated the Nephilim for their harshness. Show them something other than harshness, and you will receive something other than hate in return.’ But they didn’t listen to you, did they?”

“You won’t know love from hate. And you’ll destroy what’s around you, not because you want to, any more than a crashing wave wants to shatter the rocks it breaks on. You’ll do it because you won’t know not to.” He looked at Julian with an ancient sympathy. “It doesn’t matter if your intentions are good or bad. It doesn’t matter that love is a positive force. Magic doesn’t take note of small human concerns.”

“But I would just say that it isn’t always about people trying to protect you, or knowing what’s best for you, or thinking they do. Sometimes they just know they’d miss you.”

He agreed to it because he thought he loved me and I loved him—” “Isn’t that true?” Cristina said. “And even if it wasn’t, he didn’t just forget that you fought. He forgot what he did. He forgot what he owes. He forgot his own guilt. And that is part of why he is so angry. Not at you, but at himself.”

Her voice was firm, but her eyes were glimmering with tears. Julian sensed the same wave of desperate love he’d felt before threatening to overwhelm him and forced it back. “I hate the idea of being separated too,” Julian said, running his hand over the blanket, the rough texture comforting against his fingers. “The way I love you is fundamental to me, Emma. It’s who I am. No matter how far we are from each other.”

“Because when this universe was born, when it blasted into existence in fire and glory, everything that would ever exist was created. Our souls are made of that fire and glory, of the atoms of it, the fragments of stars. Everyone’s are, but I believe ours, yours and mine, are made from the dust of the same star. That’s why we’ve always been drawn to each other like magnets, all our lives. All the pieces of us belong together.” He held her tighter. “Your name, Emma, means universe, you know,” he said. “Doesn’t that prove I’m right?”

He remembered it even now, the driving pain as if something deadly had struck him. It had made him understand why the Greeks had believed love was an arrow that tore through your body and left a blazing trail of longing behind. In French, falling suddenly in love was the coup de foudre. The bolt of lightning. The fire in your veins, the destructive power of a thousand million volts. Julian hadn’t fallen suddenly in love: He always had been in love. He had only just that moment realized it.

he was someone now who had friends who would sleep by his bed if he was sick. For however long that lasted, he would appreciate it.

The bad things can’t matter more than the good things, Kieran.”

“I really had nothing to do with this,” Kieran pointed out stiffly. “I think you will find many poor decisions led you here, my friend,”

You—all of you—wait here. And don’t do anything stupid.” He strode out of the room on long, black-clad legs, swearing under his breath. “He’s getting more and more like Gandalf,” said Emma, watching him go. “I mean, a hot, younger-looking Gandalf, but I keep expecting him to start stroking his long white beard and muttering darkly.”

Their swords crashed to the ground with the loud clang of metal against stone. “Hey,” muttered Kit. “Free swords.”

And there is Jules. You might like him the best. He is the one who takes care of us all. He is the reason we’re all okay and still together. I don’t think he knows we know that, but we do. Sometimes he might tell us what to do or not listen, but he would do anything for any of us. People say we’re unlucky because we don’t have parents. But I think they’re unlucky because they don’t have a brother like mine.

“It is unusual,” said Cristina, “for a revolution to call for fewer rights for people, not more.”

“And I am a prince of Faerie,” said Kieran. “Son of the King, Prince of the Frost Court, Keeper of the Cold Way, Wild Hunter, and Sword of the Host. Do not annoy me.”

I expect you mean to be rude and cruel, but I doubt you meant to sound stupid as well.”

Alec Lightwood you utter SAVAGE

“Now get out of here before I risk his life by waking him up so he can turn you into a garbage fire. Something that would match your personality.”

But you can’t just be content with the Clave letting you pervert your angelic lineage. No, you have to force it on the rest of us.” “Really?” said Kieran, who Kit had nearly forgotten was there. “You all have to sleep with Magnus Bane? How exciting for you.”