I Always Need Your Strength,alec

He Pulled The Carstairs Family Ring From His Finger And Held It Out To Will. "take It." Will Let His Eyes Drift Down Toward It, And Then Up To Jem's Face. A Dozen Awful Things He Could Say, Or Do, Went Through His Mind. One Did Not Slough Off A Persona So Quickly, He Had Found. He Had Pretended To Be Cruel For So Many Years That The Pretense Was Still What He Reached For First, As A Man Might Absently Turn His Carriage Toward The Home He Had Lived In For All His Life, Despite The Fact That He Had Recently Moved. "you Wish To Marry Me Now?" He Said, At Last.

She Had Made The Choice For Him - In A Moment Of Flight And Panic, But She Had Made It - Not Realizing That Her Jace Would Rather Die Than Be Like This, And That She'd Been Not So Much Saving His Life As Damning Him To An Existence He Would Despise.

In Will's Experience, When Someone Who Ought To Be Afraid Wasn't, The Reason Was Rarely Bravery. Usually It Meant That They Knew Something You Didn't.

There Are Some People—people The Universe Seems To Have Singled Out For Special Destinies. Special Favors And Special Torments. God Knows We're All Drawn Toward What's Beautiful And Broken; I Have Been, But Some People Cannot Be Fixed. Or If They Can Be; Its Only By Love And Sacrifice So Great That It Destroys The Giver.

Just Like An Alley In New York -like Every Alley In The World, Apparently- It Smelled Like Cat Pee.