“What if he doesn’t care? Just because she wants his forgiveness doesn’t mean he’s ready to forgive. And...” Jace looked away. “Sometimes losing someone hurts less than getting them back.”
“I think,” Jace said carefully, “that I would feel extremely angry, if my family and friends and everyone I knew made me choose between them or losing you.”
“Herondales.” Zachariah’s voice was a breath, half laughter, half pain. “I had almost forgotten. No other family does so much for love, or feels so much guilt for it. Don’t carry the weight of the world on you, Jace. It’s too heavy for even a Herondale to bear.”
He felt his sympathy leap toward Brother Zachariah, as he imagined himself without Alec, with only that faded rune to remind him where once he had been bonded to someone who knew all the best and worst parts of his soul.
To look upon Clary is to be reminded of the beauty given to us by the Angel; to run one’s hands through her hair is to weep with the beauty of this world.
The two clashed together with the sound of ringing metal, and Sebastian grinned. “You can’t win,” he said. “I’m better than you, always have been. I might be the best.”
“Modest, too,” Jace said, and their swords slid apart with grinding noise.
He wanted to grab her, kiss her, cling on to her, protect her, but the fighter in him knew he had brought her into this life. Encouraged her. Trained her. When he saw the understanding in her eyes, he nodded and let her go.
“I love you,” she said. “But don’t try to stop me.”
Jace reached to take her hand. “All right,” he said. “Then we run, together. Toward the Portal.”
“We run,” she agreed, and they did.
It all changed, of course; it all changed when I turned ten, but the foundations of your childhood, they stay with you. Sometimes I wonder if all of this is my fault.”
“Don’t tell me I’m not like him,” he said. “I am. Raised by the same father—we both have the benefits of Valentine’s special education. We speak the same languages. We learned the same style of fighting. We were taught the same morals. Had the same pets.