Tessa Gray Quotes

The Will I fell in love with, she almost said."And be Will," she finished instead. "Or I shall hit you with my umbrella. ~ Cassandra Clare

I shall see you on Blackfriars Bridge, Tessa. ~ Cassandra Clare

If you do not help me," Tessa said to Jem, "I swear, I will change into you, and I will lift him myself. And then everyone here will see what you look like in a dress." She fixed him with a look. "Do you understand? ~ Cassandra Clare

Charles had climbed on a bench and was calling out that he had something to say, creating a racket that quickly got the attention of the room. Everyone looked immensely surprised, including Tessa and Will. Sona frowned, clearly thinking Charles was very rude. She didn't know the half of it, Cordelia thought darkly.
"Let me be the first to raise a glass to the happy couple!" said Charles, doing just that. "To James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs. I wish to add personally that James, my brother's parabatai, has always been like a younger brother to me."
"A younger brother he accused of vandalizing greenhouses across our fair nation," muttered Will.
"As for Cordelia Carstairs - how to describe her?" Charles went on.
"Especially when one has not bothered to get to know her at all," murmured James.
"She is both beautiful and fair," said Charles, leaving Cordelia to wonder what the difference was, "as well as being brave. I am sure she will make James as happy as my lovely Grace makes me." He smiled at Grace, who stood quietly near him, her face a mask. "That's right. I am formally announcing my intention to wed Grace Blackthorn. You will all be invited, of course."
Cordelia glanced over at Alastair; he was expressionless, but his hands, jammed into his pockets, were fists. James had narrowed his eyes.
Charles went on merrily. "And lastly, my thanks go out to the folk of the Enclave, who supported my actions as acting Consul through our recent t ~ Cassandra Clare

Tessa could not remember a time when she had not loved the clockwork angel. ~ Cassandra Clare

Mr. Rochester never courted Jane Eyre, Tessa pointed out.
No, he dressed up as a woman and terrified the poor girl out of her wits. Is that what you want? ~ Cassandra Clare

A broad smile spread across Will's face. "Then we have no choice but to give our blessing too. Cordelia Carstairs," he said, "the Carstairs and the Herondales will be bonded even more closely now. If James could have chosen his wife from all the women in all the worlds that are or ever were, I would wish for no other."
Tessa laughed. "Will! You cannot compliment our new daughter only on the chance of her last name!"
Will was grinning like a boy. "Wait until I tell Jem - ~ Cassandra Clare

And to the devil with it if she is!" said the Consul. "One girl, who is not Nephilim, is not, cannot, be our priority."
"She is my priority!" Will shouted. ~ Cassandra Clare

Tessa is gone, and every moment she is gone is a knife ripping me apart from the inside. ~ Cassandra Clare

I came to see that I could not bring someone home when they were already there. ~ Cassandra Clare

She knew she could not be Jem for Will. No one could. But slowly the hollow places in his heart were filling in. ~ Cassandra Clare

He seemed to realize she was staring at him, because the cursing stopped. "You cut me," he said. His voice was pleasant. British. Very ordinary. He looked at his hand with critcal interest. "It might be fatal."
Tessa looked at him with wide eyes. "Are you the Magister?"
He tilted his hand to the side. Blood ran down it, spattering the floor. "Dear me, massive blood loss. Death could be imminent. ~ Cassandra Clare

This was a voice that drew out memories stretched thin by years of recollection, like paper unfolded and refolded too many times. A voice that brought back, like a wave, the memory of another time on this bridge, a night so long ago, everything black and silver and the river rushing away under her feet ... ~ Cassandra Clare

I forget sometimes I need to eat and drink now. ~ Cassandra Clare

You're the shape-changer aren't you?" he said. "Magnus Bane told me about you. No mark on you at all, they say."
Tessa swallowed and looked him straight in the eye. They were discordantly human eyes, ordinary in his extraordinary face. "No. No mark."
He grinned around his fork. "I do suppose they've looked everywhere?"
"I'm sure Will's tryed," said Jessamine in a bored tone. Tessa's silverware clattered to the plate. Jessamine, who had been mashing her peas to the side of the plate with her knife, looked out when Charlotte let out an aghast, "Jessamine! ~ Cassandra Clare

Oh, do you have A Tale of Two Cities?"
"That silly thing? Men going around getting their heads chopped off for love? Ridiculus." Will unpeeled himself from the door and made his way toward Tessa where she stood by the bookshelves. He gestured expansively at the vast number of volumes all around him. "No, here you'll find all sorts of advice about how to chop off someone else's head if you need to; much more useful. ~ Cassandra Clare

As the carriage whipped forward, they passed the alley she had spent so many days staring at - it was there, and then gone as they careened around a corner, nearly knocking over a costermonger pushing a donkey cart piled high with new potatoes. Tessa screamed.
Will reached past her and yanked the curtain shut. "It's better if you don't look," he told her pleasantly.
"He's going to kill someone. Or get us killed."
"No, he won't. Thomas is an excellent driver."
Tessa glared at him. "Clearly the word excellent means something else on this side of the Atlantic. ~ Cassandra Clare

I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain ~ Cassandra Clare

He was Will, in all his perfect imperfection; Will, whose heart was as easy to break as it was carefully guarded; Will, who loved not wisely but entirely and with everything he had. ~ Cassandra Clare

It's about Will. About Will, and me."
"He loves you," Jem said. "I know he loves you. We spoke of it before he left here." Though the coldness had not returned to his voice, he sounded suddenly almost unnaturally calm.
Tessa was shocked. "I didn't know you had ever talked of it with each other. Will did not say."
"Nor did you ever tell me of his feelings, though you knew for months. We all have our secrets that we keep because we do not want to hurt the people who love us." There was a sort of warning in his voice, or was she imagining it? ~ Cassandra Clare

Will began to straighten up, to turn away from the bed. And as he did, he felt something wrap tightly around his wrist. He glanced down and saw Jem's hand braceleting his own. For a moment he was too shocked to do anything but stare.
"I am not dead yet, Will," Jem said in a soft voice, thin but as strong as wire. "What did Magnus mean by asking you if I knew you were in love with Tessa? ~ Cassandra Clare

Though Will was saying earlier," Tessa added, "that heroes all come to bad ends, and he could not imagine why anyone would want to be one, anyway."
"Ah." Jem's hand squeezed hers briefly, and then let it go. "Well, Will is looking at it from the hero's viewpoint, isn't he? But as for the rest of us, it's an easy answer."
"Is it?"
"Of course." His voice was almost a whisper now. "Heroes endure because we need them. Not for their own sakes. If Will ... ~ Cassandra Clare

Will stopped glaring at Gabriel, and turned to Tessa. He looked at her and his face softened: the traces of the wild, broken boy he had been vanished, replaced with the expression often worn by the man he was now, who knew what it was to love and be loved. "Dear heart," he said. He took her hand and kissed it. "Who knows your courage better than I? ~ Cassandra Clare

Some are just born bad, and that's all there is to it. ~ Cassandra Clare

They were staring at Will, Will looks wrong."
Tessa glanced over at Will, who was rummaging through the desk drawers with gloved hands.
"I find that hard to credit from someone dressed as you are. ~ Cassandra Clare

Tessa craned her head back to look at Will. "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 tight 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." His blue eyes were dark with understanding - of course Will would understand - and she hurried on. "I feel now as if the same is happening, only not to characters on a page but to my own beloved friends and companions. I do not want to sit by while tragedy comes for us. I would turn it aside, only I struggle to discover how that might be done."
"You fear for Jem," Will said.
"Yes," she said. "And I fear for you, too."
"No," Will said, hoarsely. "Don't waste that on me, Tess. ~ Cassandra Clare

Tessa, he said. Even when I cannot see, you are so beautiful. ~ Cassandra Clare

Alec, who was watching this back-and-forth as if sitting center court in a tennis match, raised a hand. "I'm sorry, but did you two used to date?"
That stopped the conversation dead in its tracks. Both Tessa and Magnus turned to him with identical looks of shock.
"You seem more horrified than I do," Magnus told Tessa, "and somehow I am deeply wounded. ~ Cassandra Clare

Of course you can have a true Shadowhunter name," Will said. "You can have mine."
Tessa stared at him, all black and white against the black-and-white snow and stone. "Your name?"
Will took a step toward her, till they stood face-to-face. Then he reached to take her hand and slid off her glove, which he put into his pocket. He held her bare hand in his, his fingers curved around hers. His hand was warm and callused, and his touch made her shiver. His eyes were steady and blue; they were everything that Will was: true and tender, sharp and witty, loving and kind. "Marry me," he said. "Marry me, Tess. Marry me and be called Tessa Herondale. Or be Tessa Gray, or be whatever you wish to call yourself, but marry me and stay with me and never leave me, for I cannot bear another day of my life to go by that does not have you in it. ~ Cassandra Clare

Do not seek revenge and call it justice. ~ Cassandra Clare

Gentleness was not something she would ever have associated with Will. But it was there, in the touch of his hand on her cheek, in the softness of his voice, in his eyes when he looked at her. It was the way she had always dreamed a boy would look at her. But she never dreamed up someone as beautiful as Will, not in all her imaginings. ~ Cassandra Clare

Will? Will, is that you? ~ Cassandra Clare

If I might ask
," she began.
Will sighed. "You know you'll ask whether I say it's all right or not. ~ Cassandra Clare

I am," said Tessa. "I am Theresa Gray, daughter of a Greater Demon and Elizabeth Gray, who was born Adele Starkweather, one of your kind. I was the wife of William Herondale, who was the head of the London Institute, and I was the mother of James and Lucie Herondale. Will and I raised our Shadowhunter children to protect by the Laws of the Clave and Covenant, and to keep to the Accords. ~ Cassandra Clare

Jem always said that Will rushed toward the end of a mission rather than proceeding in a measured manner, and that one must look at the next step on the path ahead, rather than the destination in the distance, or one would never reach one's goal. Will closed his eyes for a moment. He knew that Jem was right, but it was hard to remember, when the goal that he sought was the girl that he loved. ~ Cassandra Clare

Tess? A soft voice at the door; she looked up and saw Will there, silhouetted in the light from the corridor. ~ Cassandra Clare

Thank you for asking. Of course one wishes to break down on a heart-shaped sofa and week into one's lace handkerchief, but I am somehow managing to hold it together. After all, I still have a warlock contact."
Magnus inclined his head with a slight smile.
"Tessa Gray," said Raphael. "Very dignified lady. Very well-read. I think you know her?"
Magnus made a face at him. "It's not being a sass-monkey that I object to. That I like. It's the joyless attitude. One of the chief pleasures of life is mocking others, so occasionally show some glee about doing it. Have some joie de vivre."
"I'm undead," said Raphael.
"What about joie de unvivre?"
Raphael eyed him coldly. Magnus gestured his own question aside, his rings and trails of leftover magic leaving a sweep of leftover magic leaving a sweep of sparks in the night air, and sighed.
"Tessa," Magnus said with a long exhale. "She is a harbinger of ill news and I will be annoyed with her for dumping this problem in my lap for weeks. At least."
"What problem? Are you in trouble?" asked Raphael.
"Nothing I can't handle," said Magnus.
"Pity," said Raphael. "I was planning to point and laugh. Well, time to go. I'd say good luck with your dead-body bad-news thing, but ... I don't care."
"Take care of yourself, Raphael," said Magnus.
Raphael waved a dismissive hand over his shoulder. "I always do. ~ Cassandra Clare

He looked surprised, as if he were not used to such praise, but surely he must be, Tessa thought in confusion. Surely everyone who knew him knew how lucky they were. ~ Cassandra Clare

And the gold of her ruined wedding dress. ~ Cassandra Clare

His eyes went soft and silver as she spoke. "Zhe shi jie shang, wo shi zui ai ne de," he whispered.
She understood it. In all the world, you are what I love the most. ~ Cassandra Clare

He touched her as he usually touched his beloved violin, with a soft and urgent grace that left her breathless. ~ Cassandra Clare

Tess, Tess, Tessa.
Was there ever a more beautiful sound than your name? To speak it aloud makes my heart ring like a bell. Strange to imagine that, isn't it - a heart ringing? But when you touch me, that is what it is like, as if my heart is ringing in my chest and the sound shivers down my veins and splinters my bones with joy. ~ Cassandra Clare

Life was an uncertain thing. ~ Cassandra Clare

Julian: "Wikipedia knows about everything. It might be run by warlocks."
Emma: "You think that's what they do all day in the Spiral Labyrinth? Run Wikipedia?"
Julian: "I admit it seems like a letdown. ~ Cassandra Clare

It was books that kept me from taking my own life after I thought I could never love anyone, never be loved by anyone again. ~ Cassandra Claire

I adore Wilkie Collins," Tessa cried. "Oh - Armadale! And The Woman in White …
Are you laughing at me?"
"Not at you," said Will, grinning, "more because of you. I've never seen anyone get so
excited over books before. You'd think they were diamonds."
"Well, they are, aren't they? Isn't there anything you love like that? And don't say 'spats' or 'lawn tennis' or something silly."
"Good Lord," he said with mock horror, "it's like she knows me already. ~ Cassandra Clare

Jem told me what Ragnor Fell said about my father," Will said. "That for my father, there was only ever one woman he loved, and it was her for him, or nothing. You are that for me. I love you, and I will only ever love you until I die - ~ Cassandra Clare

Tessa had lain down beside him and slid her arm beneath his head, and put her head on his chest,listening to the ever-weakening beat of his heart. And in the shadows they'd whispered, reminding each other of the stories only they knew. Of the girl who had hit over the head with a water jug the boy who had come to rescue her, and how he had fallen in love with her in that instant. Of a ballroom and a balcony and the moon sailing like a ship untethered through the sky. Of the flutter of the wings of the clockwork Angel. Of holy water and blood. ~ Cassandra Clare

To his children, Will showed the same love he had always shown to her, fierce and unyielding. And the same protectiveness he had only ever showed to one other person: the person James had been named after. Will's parabatai, Jem. ~ Cassandra Clare

I believe one day he will have his hours with Tessa Gray even if he does not dare to hope for it. But his parabatai, Will Herondale, is old and frail and drawing near the end of his life. I want you to give them both a span of time. Both of them in a time and place where they can be young and happy and together. ~ Cassandra Clare

I think there is hope for you yet, Will Herondale.
I will try to learn how to have it, without you to show me.
Tessa, Jem said. She knows despair, and hope as well. you can teach each other. Find her, Will, and tell her that I loved her always. My blessings, for all that it is worth, is on you both. ~ Cassandra Clare

She smiled at him. "How did you know just what I'd want to see?"
"How could I not?" he said. "When I think of you, and you are not there, I see you in my mind's eye always with a book in your hand." He looked away from her as he said it, but not before she caught the slight flush on his cheekbones. He was so pale, he could never hide even the least blush, she thought - and was surprised how affectionate the thought was. ~ Cassandra Clare

Your place is with me," Jem said. "It always will be."
"What do you mean?"
He flushed, the color dark against his pale skin. "I mean," he said, "Tessa Gray, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Tessa sat bolt upright. "Jem!"
They stared at each other for a moment. At last he said, trying for lightness, though his voice cracked, "That was not a no, I suppose, though
neither was it a yes."
"You can't mean it."
"I do mean it."
"You can't - I'm not a Shadowhunter. They'll expel you from the Clave - "
He took a step closer to her, his eyes eager. "You may not be precisely a Shadowhunter. But you are not a mundane either, nor provably a
Downworlder. Your situation is unique, so I do not know what the Clave will do. But they cannot forbid something that is not forbidden by the Law.
They will have to take your - our - individual case into consideration, and that could take months. In the meantime they cannot prevent our
engagement."
"You are serious." Her mouth was dry. "Jem, such a kindness on your part is indeed incredible. It does you credit. But I cannot let you sacrifice
yourself in that way for me."
"Sacrifice? Tessa, I love you. I want to marry you. ~ Cassandra Clare

Will." Her hands pulled at his shirt, and it came away, the buttons tearing, his head shaking free of the fabric, all wild dark hair, Heathcliff on the moors. His hands were less sure on her dress, but it came away as well, off over her head, and was cast aside, leaving Tessa in her chemise and corset. She went motionless, shocked at being so undressed in front of anyone but Sophie, and Will took a wild look at her corset that was only part desire.
"How - ," he said. "Does it come off?"
Tessa couldn't help herself; despite everything, she giggled. "It laces," she whispered. "In the back. ~ Cassandra Clare

Anyone that looked like that wouldn't need to tie up girls and imprison them in order to get them to marry him ~ Cassandra Clare

I feel like you can look inside me and see all the places I am odd or unusual and fit your heart around them, for you are odd and unusual in just the same way. We are the same. ~ Cassandra Clare

I thought you two might be up against it. Benedict Lightwood's parties have a reputation for danger. When I heard you were here - "
"We're well equipped to handle danger," Tessa said.
Magnus eyed her bosom openly.
"I can see that," he said.
"Armed to the teeth, as it were. ~ Cassandra Clare

It was good to be here with Jem and Cecily an Charlotte, to be surrounded by their affection, but without her there would always be something missing, a Tessa-shaped part chiseled out of his heart that he could never get back. ~ Cassandra Clare

Would you like to meet him? I could summon him up in a trice of you like. Being a warlock, and all. ~ Cassandra Clare

Why are we bringing him along, again?" Will inquired, of the world in general as well as his sister.
Cecily put her hands on her hips. "Why are you bringing Tessa?"
"Because Tessa and I are going to be married," Will said, and Tessa smiled; the way that Will's little sister could ruffle his feathers like no one else was still amusing to her.
"Well, Gabriel and I might well be married," Cecily said. "Someday."
Gabriel made a choking noise, and turned an alarming shade of purple.
Will threw up his hands. "You can't be married Cecily! You're only fifteen! When I get married, I'll be eighteen! An adult!"
Cecily did not look impressed. "We may have a long engagement," she said. "But I cannot see why you are counseling me to marry a man my parents have never met."
Will sputtered. "I am not counseling you to marry a man your parents have never met!"
"Then we are in agreement. Gabriel must meet Mam and Dad. ~ Cassandra Clare

I had hope enough to take out those old dreams again, to dust them off and give them to you. ~ Cassandra Clare

Jem's knees gave out, and he sank to the trunk at the foot of his bed, still playing. He played Will breathing the name Cecily, and he played himself watching the glint of his own ring on Tessa's hand on the train from York, knowing it was all a charade, knowing, too, that he wished that it wasn't. He played the sorrow in Tessa's eyes when she had come into the music room after Will had told her she would never have children. Unforgivable, that, what a thing to do, and yet Jem had forgiven him. Love was forgiveness, he had always believed that, and the things that Will did, he did out of some bottomless well of pain. Jem did not know the source of that pain, but he knew it existed and was real, knew it as he knew of the inevitability of his own death, knew it as he knew that he had fallen in love with Tessa Gray and that there was nothing he or anyone else could do about it. ~ Cassandra Clare

Let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs. ~ Cassandra Clare

Mr. Branwell and Mr. Carstairs seem to have no problem cleaning their boots,"
Sophie said, looking darkly from Will to Tessa. "Perhaps you could learn from their example."
"Perhaps," said Will. "But I doubt it."
Sophie scowled, and started off along the corridor again, her shoulders tightly set with indignation.
Tessa looked at Will in amazement. "What was that?"
Will shrugged lazily. "Sophie enjoys pretending she doesn't like me."
"Doesn't like you? She hates you! ~ Cassandra Clare

You haven't broken his heart yet, have you?"
"No," Tessa said. Just torn my own in two. "I haven't broken his heart at all. ~ Cassandra Clare

I hope you can break that protection before tomorrow night, or I wouldn't say much about our chances."
"Will" Jem chided "Don't say that."
"You're right." Will said, "I shouldn't underestimate my own skills. Should Tessa make a mess of things, I'm sure I'll be able to fight our way through the slavering masses of vampires to freedom. ~ Cassandra Clare

His blue eyes were very dark ... Will's were the colour of the sky just on the edge of the night ... ~ Cassandra Clare

He looked at her curiously. He did something that surprised her then, and took her hand, turning it over. She looked down at it, at her bitten fingernails, the still-healing scratches along the backs of her fingers.
He kissed the back of it, just a light touch of his mouth, and his hair-as soft and light as silk-brushed her wrist as he lowered his head. She felt a shock go through her, strong enough to startle her, and she stood speechless as he straightened, his mouth curving into a smile.
"Mizpah," he said.
She blinked at him, a little dazed. "What?"
"A sort or goodbye without saying goodbye," he said. ~ Cassandra Clare

Catarina hooked her hand around Magnus's elbow and hauled him away, like a schoolteacher with a misbehaving student. They entered a narrow alcove around the corner, where the music and noise of the party was muffled. She rounded on him.
"I recently treated Tessa for wounds she said were inflicted on her by members of a demon-worshipping cult," Catarina said. "She told me you were, and I quote, 'handling' the cult. What's going on? Explain."
Magnus made a face. "I may have had a hand in founding it."
"How much of a hand?"
"Well, both."
Catarina bristled. "I specifically told you not to do that!"
"You did?" Magnus said. A bubble of hope grew within him. "You remember what happened?"
She gave him a look of distress. "You don't?"
"Someone took all my memories around the subject of this cult," said Magnus. "I don't know who, or why."
He sounded more desperate than he would've liked, more desperate than he wanted to be. His old friend's face was full of sympathy.
"I don't know anything about it," she said. "I met up with you and Ragnor for a brief vacation. You seemed troubled, but you were trying to laugh it off, the way you always do. You and Ragnor said you had a brilliant idea to start a joke cult. I told you not to do it. That's it."
He, Catarina, and Ragnor had taken many trips together, over the centuries. One memorable trip had gotten Magnus banished from Peru. He had always enjoyed those adventures more than any others ~ Cassandra Clare

The moment the door closed behind him, Tessa was in Will's arms, her hands locked about his neck. "Oh, by the Angel," she said. "That was mortifying."
Will slid his hands into her hair and was kissing her, kissing her eyelids and her cheeks and then her mouth, quickly but with fervor and concentration, as if nothing could be more important. "Listen to you," he said. "You said 'by the angel.' Like a Shadowhunter." He kissed the side of her mouth. "I love you. God, I love you. I waited so long to say it. ~ Cassandra Clare

I take your hand, brother, so that you may go in peace. ~ Cassandra Clare

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 tight 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. ~ Cassandra Clare

The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. ~ Cassandra Clare

They were in love, of the realest, truest kind. ~ Cassandra Clare

Sona looked slightly horrified. "Cordelia has a tendency to throw herself into every situation headlong," she said to Tessa and Will. "I'm sure you understand."
"Oh, we do," said Will. "We're always speaking very sternly to our children about that very thing. 'If you don't throw yourself into situations headlong, James and Lucie, you can expect bread and water for supper again.'  "
Alastair choked on a laugh. Sona stared at Will as if he were a lizard with feathers. ~ Cassandra Clare

It's that I think Will is angry with me," Tessa explained. "So whatever he told you - "
He laughed. "Will is angry with everyone," he said. "I don't let it color my judgment. ~ Cassandra Clare

Tessa was laying on her side, her brown hair spread over the pillow, watching Will, whose face was bent over the pages, with a look of tenderness in her eyes, a tenderness mirrored in the softness of Will's voice as he read. ~ Cassandra Clare

Well, I don't want you to die," Tessa said. "I don't know why I feel it so strongly
I've just met you
but I don't want you to die."
"And I trust you," he said. "I don't know why
I've just met you
but I do. ~ Cassandra Clare

Because women never say what they think. ~ Cassandra Clare

Tessa touched his wrist lightly with her hand. "Be brave," she said. "It's not a duck, is it? ~ Cassandra Clare

In Paris she found Magnus, who was living in a garret apartment and paiting, an occupation for which he had no aptitude whatsoever. He let her sleep on a mattress by the window, and in the night, when she woke up screaming for Will, he came and put his arms around her, smelling of turpentine.
"The first one is always the hardest," he said.
"The first?"
"The first one you love who dies," he said. "It gets easier, after. ~ Cassandra Clare

I need to know you believe me when I say I love you. That is all."
"I believe everything you say," Tessa said with a smile, her hands creeping doen from his waist to his weapons belt. Her fingers closed on the hilt of the dagger, and she yanked it from the belt, smiling as he looked down at her in surprise. "After all," she said, "you weren't lying about the tattoo of the dragon of Wales, were you? ~ Cassandra Clare

The first one is always the hardest. ~ Cassandra Clare

He touched her as he would touch his violin: it was how he knew to touch something that was precious and loved. ~ Cassandra Clare

You may be right. I think it was round about Christmas when I got my Welsh dragon tattoo."
At that, Tessa had to try very hard not to blush. "How did that happen?"
Will made an airy gesture with his hand. "I was drunk ... "
"Nonsense. You were never really drunk."
"On the contrary - in order to learn how to pretend to be inebriated, once must become inebriated at least once, as a reference point. Six-Fingered Nigel had been at the mulled cider - "
"You can't mean there's truly a Six-Fingered Nigel? ~ Cassandra Clare

It's too late," she said.
"Don't say that." His voice was half a whisper. "I love you, Tessa. I love you. ~ Cassandra Clare

If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all? ~ Cassandra Clare

He wanted to make her laugh. He wanted to sit and listen to her talk about books until his ears fell off. But all these were things he could not want, because they were things he could not have, and wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness. ~ Cassandra Clare

She glanced over at Zachariah, who was busy patting Church. The cat had climbed up onto the champagne table and was gleefully knocking over glasses. Her look was one of exasperation and fondness mixed together. ~ Cassandra Clare

Will glanced over at Cordelia and smiled. "We could ask for no lovelier girl to be his wife."
Alastair looked as if he wished to edge away. Cordelia didn't blame him. "Thank you, Mr. Herondale," she said. "I hope to live up to your expectations."
Tessa looked surprised. "Why would you ever worry about that?"
"Cordelia worries," Alastair said unexpectedly, "because of the idiots who mutter about our father, and our family. She should not let them bother her."
Tessa laid a gentle hand on Cordelia's shoulder. "The cruel will always spread rumors," she said. "And others who take pleasure in that cruelty will believe them and spread them. But I believe that in the end, truth wins out. Besides," she added with a smile, "the most interesting women are always the most whispered about. ~ Cassandra Clare

One does no question miracles, or complain that they are no constructed perfectly to one's liking. ~ Cassandra Clare

I can't - I'll chop off my own foot!"
"If you're going to chop off anyone's foot, chop off Benedict's," Will muttered. ~ Cassandra Clare

Come back to me, Tessa. Henry said that perhaps, since you had touched the soul of an angel, that you dream of Heaven now, of fields of angels and flowers of fire. Perhaps you are happy in those dreams. But I ask this out of pure selfishness. Come back to me. For I cannot bear to lose all my heart. ~ Cassandra Clare

They are watching for magic, so avoid traveling by Portal whenever possible," Tessa said.
"You're using a Portal right now," said Magnus, amused. "Always 'do as I say and not as I do,' I see. Will you be safe?"
Tessa was more than a century old, but she was so much younger than Magnus, and he had known her almost her whole life. He had never stopped feeling protective of her. ~ Cassandra Clare

Kit straightened up. "Nope, I'm good. Come on Brother Hauntingly Attractive."
"There's no need to mention this to Tessa."
"And Yet," said Kit, "I'm gonna. ~ Cassandra Clare

Simon had only had a few encounters with Jem Carstairs, who was apparently as old as his wife, Tessa Gray. They both looked amazingly fit for 150 years. Tessa even looked pretty hot. (Maybe Jem looked hot too? As Simon had thought once before, he probably wasn't the greatest judge of male attractiveness.) Was it weird to think people who were twice as old as your grandparents were good-looking? ~ Cassandra Clare

Do you remember when we stood together on Blackfriars Bridge?" he asked softly, and his eyes were like that night had been, all black and silver.
"Of course I remember."
"It was the moment I first knew I loved you," Jem said. "I will make you a promise. Every year, Tessa, on one day, I will meet you on that bridge. I will come from the Silent City and I will meet you, and we will be together, if only for an hour. But you must tell no one. ~ Cassandra Clare

No, i mean enterprising." said Will. "When I mean morally deficient, I say,`Now, that is something i would have done´ ~ Cassandra Clare

You don't even like poetry," Tessa said, her voice catching on a half laugh of relief.
"No. But you make me want to write it. Does that not count for anything? ~ Cassandra Clare

Being a vampire is not a curse. It's a disease," Tessa filled in. "But they still can't enter hallowed ground, then? Does that mean they're damned?"
"That depends on what you believe," said Jem. "And whether you believe in damnation at all."
"But you hunt demons. You must believe in damnation!"
"I believe in good and evil," said Jem. "And I believe the soul is eternal. I don't believe in the fiery pit, the pitchforks, or the endless torment. I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness. ~ Cassandra Clare