City of Ashes

“I can stand.”
“It looks to me like you’re using a wall to prop you up. That’s not my definition of ‘standing.’”
“It’s leaning,” Jace told him. “Leaning comes right before standing.”

“I don’t want to be a man,” said Jace. “I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can’t confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead.”
“Well,” said Luke, “you’re doing a fantastic job.”

“There’s one thing I don’t get,” he said.
“Just one thing? You’re way ahead of the rest of us,” said Jace.

the sound of her name in his mouth was so intimate

when you saw someone every day, you didn’t always notice small changes in their outward appearance

The man looked away from him, as if the wings displeased him

A Season in Hell

I believe I am in Hell, therefore I am.

—Arthur Rimbaud

pleasant the way the burn of the stele was sometimes pleasant

“And the first thing you’re going to do is free my son from that accursed Malachi Configuration.”

Clave and make the whole pack pay for your behavior.” With a sharp tug, she yanked the knife loose, freeing Maia’s T-shirt