will-herondale

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.

Astriola. That IS demon pox. You had evidence that demon pox existed and you didnt mention it to me! Et tu, Brute!' He rolled up the paper and hit Jem over the head with it.

Trains are great dirty smoky things," said Will. "You won't like it." Tessa was unmoved. "I won't know if I like it until I try it, will I?" "I've never swum naked in the Thames before, but I know I wouldn't like it." "But think how entertaining for sightseers," said Tessa, and she saw Jem duck his head to hide the quick flash of his grin.

Tessa craned her head back to look at Will. __ou know that feeling,_ she said, __hen 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. __ 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.___ou fear for Jem,_ Will said.__es,_ she said. __nd I fear for you, too.___o,_ Will said, hoarsely. __on__ waste that on me, Tess.

I thought... that we could at least talk about books.

There were valuable first editions of books in the enormous library, most of them had been scribbled in by some idiot named Will H.

You know that feeling,_ she said, __hen 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.

Haven't you ever heard of pornographic gibberish before?

Demon pox, oh demon poxJust how is it acquired?One must go down to the bad part of townUntil one is very tired.Demon pox, oh demon pox, I had it all along__ot the pox, you foolish blocks,I mean this very song__or I was right, and you were wrong!

Jem gave her a wistful look. __ust you go? I was rather hoping that you__ stay and be a ministering angel, but if you must go, you must._ ____l stay,_ Will said a bit crossly, and threw himself down in the armchair Tessa had just vacated. __ can minister angelically._ __one too convincingly. And you__e not as pretty to look at as Tessa is,_ Jem said, closing his eyes as he leaned back against the pillow. __ow rude. Many who have gazed upon me have compared it to gazing at the radiance of the sun._ Jem still had his eyes closed. __f they mean that it gives you a headache, they aren__ wrong.

They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite

Jessamine recoiled from the paper as if it were a snake. "A lady does not read the newspaper. The society pages, perhaps, or the theater news. Not this filth.""But you are not a lady, Jessamine---," Charlotte began."Dear me," said Will. "Such harsh truths so early in the morning cannot be good for the digestion.

Pulvis et umbra sumus. It's a line from Horace. 'We are dust and shadows'. Appropriate, don't you think?" Will said. "It's not a long life, killing demons; one tends to die young, and then they burn your body - dust to dust, in the literal sense. And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a mark on the page of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all.

I want you to be happy, and him to be happy. And yet when you walk down that aisle to meet him and join yourselves forever you will walk an invisible path of the shards of my heart, Tessa. I would give over my own life for either of yours. I perhaps that when you told me you did not love me my feelings would fall away and atrophy, but they have not. They have grown every day. I love you now more desperately, this moment, than I have ever loved you before, and in an hour I will love you more than that. It is unfair to tell you this, I know, when you can do nothing about it.

Jem grinned. __here have you been? The Blue Dragon? The Mermaid?_ __he Devil Tavern if you must know._ Will sighed and leaned against one of the posts of the bed. __ had such plans for the evening. The pursuit of blind drunkenness and wayward women was my goal. But alas, it was not to be. No sooner had I consumed my third drink in the Devil than I was accosted by a delightful small flower-selling child who asked me for two-pence for a daisy. The price seemed steep, so I refused. When I told the girl as much, she proceeded to rob me._ __ little girl robbed you?_ Tessa said. __ctually, she wasn__ a little girl at all, as it turns out, but a midget in a dress who goes by the name of Six-Fingered Nigel._ __asy mistake to make,_ Jem said.

Even more blood welled up and spilled down his arm, splattering onto the ground.__amille__ carpet,_ Magnus protested.__t__ blood,_ said Will. __he ought to be thrilled.

Magnus began to be truly alarmed. Will's voice would have shaken, betraying that his cruelty had been part of his playacting, but his son's laugh was that of someone genuinely delighted by the chaos erupting all around him

Will grinned. __ome of these books are dangerous,_ he said. __t__ wise to be careful.___ne must always be careful of books,_ said Tessa, __nd what is inside them, for words have the power to change us._____ not sure a book has ever changed me,_ said Will. __ell, there is one volume that promises to teach one how to turn oneself into an entire flock of sheep____nly the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry,_ said Tessa