just makes the whole book even sadder lol
Original versions/Matthew
pagesofmoonlight asked:
was matthew ever going to ....
die/turn into a vampire in your original outline for chain of thorns?
poesflowercrown asked:
Based on the original epilogue you talked about, was matthew originally gonna die in edom ??
No.
I think we kinda need to dispense with the idea that there was some âoriginal ideaâ for the Last Hours, start to finish, and the current version is different. There isnât and there wasnât. When I talk about old ideas Iâm usually talking about concepts I rolled around in my head before discarding them in coming up with the final concept; it would be rare that Iâd even have gotten far enough at that stage to write down a note. Thinking âmaybe everyone James knew is deadâ at some point is not detailed enough for me even to have known anyone was going to Edom, or how anyone died, or anything else that happened.
This is the way anything is created. Every book involves the writer having had a thought in the past like âMaybe this would be interesting if it happenedâ and then tossing the idea: it does not mean that idea has any bearing or influence on the final product. While I think the past thoughts writers had while engaged in the process of coming up with a book are interesting, I think theyâre irrelevant to the book. I see people twisting themselves into pretzels trying to figure out if some past âversionâ of TLH determined how the eventual TLH was plotted, or coming up with long conspiracy theories about how someone or other had to die because of the family tree.*
None of these things are true. Thereâs no âoriginalâ TLH, just a series of evolving thoughts that eventually become a final story, which is the version we consider to also be the actual story. Iâm sure I considered every characterâs death at one point or another. I probably considered blowing up London and having Oscar become prime minister. Thatâs how plotting works; it doesnât mean any of that stuff is important, or â more significantly â that there is one âoriginal versionâ rather than thousands, none of which have any more bearing on the final book than any other.
I will say I never thought of Matthew being a vampire even once! I did enjoy the theory though.Â
*I made no decisions about anything based on the family tree. I decided it had to be inaccurate in order to free myself up to make whatever decisions I wanted â whether those decisions made the tree more or less inaccurate was irrelevant because it had to be. At the end of the day, the family tree is just extra content, and 90% of my readers have never heard of it or seen it.
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Jess letter to Emma was just heart wrenching. what could the ghost activity be on a flask? Also, someone mentioned Nathaniel Gray being a ghost, could that be the ghost Lucy saw at chiswick house when she was talking to Jessie? Lucy saw a ghost, a male with blonde hair and a face that looks familiar... was that her uncle?!
So the ghost in the house wants the silver object, which happens to be maths flask, which happens to have a moth on it... oh man I am not ready for the heartache we are about to experience in chain of thorns!
Emma To Bruce
Dear Bruce,
We went back to Devil Tavern today with Jemâs advice (bring family rings, show to bartender, gain access to secret room). I donât know, the Devil Tavern seems to really like elaborate ways of getting in places? So we went in and there was some confusion because when we were there before I heard one of the customers call the bartender âErnie,â so we asked one of the waitresses for Ernie, and she said there was no Ernie. But then, because we were Shadowhunters she thought we were there to question Ernie about something, so I figured she was just covering up for Ernie and I said, âNo, itâs okay, you can tell Ernie heâs not in any trouble,â and the waitress looked even more baffled and said there was no ErnieâŚwe went around like that a few times.
Anyway eventually the bartender comes back up from the basement or wherever he was, and he explains that he is Fred, not Ernie, but that for many many years the bartender was named Ernie, his grandfather and his great-grandfather at least were both named Ernie. So most of the vampires and faeries who have been coming since the Time of Ernies have just stubbornly refused to learn any of the newer bartendersâ names. He tried, when he was a younger man, but they just laughed and said, âThatâs a good one, Ernie.â He sounded kind of sad when he said it. I guess everyone has their weird stuff they have to deal with.
We explained to Not Ernie about what Jem had told us, and we showed him our rings. He said yeah, thereâs an old room that used to be used by Shadowhunters for clandestine meetings, upstairs. There are instructions left that go back a hundred years that say the room has to be maintained for the use of Shadowhunters, even though none have come around for a long time. They take it really seriously though.
He brought us the key from somewhereâone of those old skeleton key type keys you never see anymoreâand we went upstairs and let ourselves in. Let me tell you, Bruce, they do not think being obligated to âmaintainâ the room means they are obligated to âdustâ the room. Absolute nightmare for an asthmatic.
The room is still intact, thoughâactually, itâs more like a tiny apartment (a âbedsit,â Julian adorably called it), with a tiny bedroom off of a sitting area with a table in the middle and a rather shabby couch. Itâs not like the rest of the tavern at all, it feels like youâd imagine a study room in the oldest library at the oldest college in Oxford would feel. Books everywhere, lots of big chunky carved wood, peopleâs initials carved into the table (note for people scratching their initials into tables: include your last initials! It makes it much easier for your descendants to figure out who you were! There could be a million people named âJ!â).
There was nothing obviously ghostly, so Julian used the Sensor we got from Ty. It didnât find much, but eventually it reacted near a particular book on one of the shelves built into the wall. We pulled it out and it seems to be a handwritten book, with a really elaborate stitched cover. It was called The Beautiful Cordelia and itâs by âL.H.â I would bet any amount of money âHâ stands for Herondale. But there was nothing magical about the book. I mean, I didnât read it yet; maybe it weaves a truly magical tale. But the Sensor didnât react much to the book itself, there was nothing in between any of the pages, the ink wasnât sparkly, etc.
Eventually we thought to kneel down and look into the space on the shelf where the book had come from, and sure enough, there was a little nook carved deeper into the wall. Julian and I agreed that in that nook was definitelyâŚa ton of spiders. So we rock-paper-scissorsed for it, I lost, and stuck my hand back there. Luckily, no spiders. Instead, a surprise: an antique metal flask! Like the kind a gentleman would keep in his coat pocket. It is silverâwell, at least the color is silver. It might be pewter. It is also definitely not a âband.â
BUT. The Sensor went bananas. We put the flask on the table and the Sensor next to it and it wailed like crazy. It looks like a normal flask to me, kind of blackened with time, and itâs not like when we opened it, a ghost slithered out. I donât know. It was empty, and the Sensor didnât react to anything else in the room. We hung out there for about half an hour even after we were done, though. The place did feel comfortable, it must have been really great in its day. I thought I might go back sometime and offer to pay Fred if he would have it dusted and cleaned. Thereâs probably stuff in there the London Institute would want, too. But thatâs for when weâre done with Blackthorn House (and its ghost).
We couldnât think of anything to do with the flask there at the Tavern, so we left and locked it up and returned the key. We brought the flask into the house, and Julian went to get the silver polish. When we cleaned the flask up, we saw that it had a pretty, elaborate tracery pattern of leaves and flowers on it, and was monogrammed. Not a Herondale this time. Not a Blackthorn, either. The initials were M.F.
Julian is squinting angrily at the witchlight Iâm holding to write this. I guess it is pretty late. Good night, Bruce. Good night, groovy bedroom. Good night, ghost. Good night, mysterious flask.
Good night, Julian my love.
â Emma
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Kieran is feeling âthe wicked powersâ and they are waking him up at night. Are the powers connected to Ash? Kit? The death of the riders of manan? I know that storyline canât be over. Cassie has mentioned the riders being bronze and in bronze armor numerous times. âBronze to summon wicked powersâ⌠if there is one thing we know after reading every.single.book. is that death isnât always death in the shadowhunter world! So what could the death of the riders summon?!
Kieran to General Winter
General Winter,
Three sunsets. I told you, I have three sunsets. I will be back in just that amount of time. It is not a very long amount of time. And yet you have written to me, spent your valuable time and mine because you could not wait three sunsets to know whether I prefer velvet in midnight blue or one in more of an eggplant, I believe was your phrase.
Forgive me my temper. I am not really angry with you. I am only somewhat out of sorts this morning, after a night of merriment and whimsy on the streets of London-Town, along with my Nephilim friends. Now, obviously any faerie revel contains such dark delights as mortals can only dream, and so on. But after the previous night I must concede a grudging respect for the reveling capacities of an unexpected group: London businessmen of late middle-age. In our journeys we encountered what is known here as a âRetirement Party,â a kind of movable feast in which these businessmen traverse the city in celebration of a chosen one. In this case I knew him only as âKraig.â
We met his Party thrice last night! The first time, at the Tongue & Grapes, we shared only a mutual acknowledgement of fellow celebrants passing in the night. The second time, at the Inn of the Shaved Werewolf, there were mutual roars of recognition from both parties, and a ceremonial exchange of beverages, as is custom. And the third time, at the Pigeon & Spoon, we were welcomed andâa great honorâinducted as honorary members of the Party, whereupon we were bestowed with festive hats and jersey-cotton smocks proclaiming the majesty of the great Kraig.
So you will understand if I am shorter of patience than I would like, this day, for I have a vile headache engendered by too much of what mortals call âshandyâ, a repellent beverage with a kick like an angry kelpie. It quite left my darling Cristina asleep on a rather sticky table at the Pigeon and Spoon; Mark and I had to carry her back to the Institute. She is awake now, of course, and demanding coffee with rather more force than usual. Given that my time is short, I shall endeavor to answer your queries as well as I can.
I like the midnight blue, for the throne room. I think it sets off the creeping vines well, and also I think that you were hinting you prefer it as well. Next, I am in general agreement that the overall aesthetic of the throne rooms should move in the direction of an opulent Gothic feel, rather than its previous occupantâs preferred mood of âblasted hellscape.â Let us remind our Court that we are the Moon, as the Seelie Court is the Sun; rather than that they are Beauty, and we Tackiness.
However, I disagree about the skulls. I think they should remain. Skulls are perfectly appropriate in an opulent Gothic setting. In fact, I am hard-pressed to think of a style in which skulls would not be an improving presence. If such a style exists, it would definitely not be a good choice for the throne rooms of the Unseelie Lord, let us at least agree upon that.
Lastly, I am disturbed to hear that the Seelie Court continues to rebuff my requests for a summit of peace. You were right when you noted your suspicions earlier; they have become more secretive in this past year, even for them. We will see if our scouts manage to learn anything, although in my experience our scouts mostly seem to fall into forbidden romances with Seelie scouts and then they run off together; we lose something like four out of five that way. I suppose what I am saying is that I am not exactly holding my breath. (A charming human expression, is that not?)
You do not need to suggest to me that I contact Adaon; he is my own brother and I speak with him often. Whenever I bring up the possibility of a united court, or a meeting between myself and the Seelie Queen, he says the same thing: now is not the time for a summit that might lead to discord â now is the time to preserve the fragile peace between the two courts by leaving well enough alone. He has the Queenâs ear, so I must trust he knows what I do not. Still, you know it is not in my nature to do nothing and call it progress.
Speaking of that fragile peace, I must inquireâhave your redcaps learned any more about the strange presence that has been noted in Faerie, and whether it is beneficial or antagonistic to our interests? I feel it through my connection to the Land â I am woken sometimes, feeling that presence I cannot define, knowing it is both of Faerie and not of it, and that the Land itself is afraid.
Enough of that. I trust that you can manage to keep the Court in working order for the thirty-six remaining hours I will be gone. If more color selection is necessary before my return, I trust you to go with your instincts, which have always served you well.
Until then I have the honor to remain Your Eternal Sovereign, Master of the Hob and the Domovoi, Breaker of the Broken Lands, Crown Under the Hill, Dark Star of the Evening, Friend of Kraig, and King of the Unseelie Court â
Kieran
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ALWAYS a Herondale..... :(Â
Emma to Dru
Dear Dru,
Hey, baby bat! So howâs Shadowhunter Academy? Still having a good time? Howâs the roommate â Thais, isnât that her name? Howâs having a roommate? I always kinda wished Iâd gotten to go to SA, although obviously the weather was better in California. But you like things dark and gloomy! Just, you know â try to get some sun sometimes, okay? While I know you love your ghostly pallor, vitamin D is a real thing.
Not that weâre getting any sun here in Chiswick, where England is being fully England with the weather. I guess it goes with the house, though. Youâre going to love this place when you see it, by the way. Itâs the most goth building youâve ever seen. The whole place is full of crumbling statues and faded wallpaper with creepy stains and a LOT of these dark bramblesâ
Huh, I guess it makes sense there are a lot of black thorns at Blackthorn Manor. Still, theyâre a huge pain to cut back. Why didnât your ancestors go with something less pointy? This was owned by Lightwoods for years, why no light woods? We may never know.
(I always forget about the Lightwoods because I think of it as Blackthorn Manor but I found a diary of a girl who grew up here, hidden under one of the floorboards. Like way back in the 1870s. Sheâs just a normal Shadowhunter teenager of the time, complaining about boring history lessons and obnoxious older brothers. Normal stuff! Sheâs about 13 in the part Iâm reading but it goes for a few years. Her name was Tatiana Lightwood, I wonder if Isabelle and Alec have heard of her?)
Anyway, Jules is working hard on de-spookying the place, but trust me, itâll still be gothier than a ripped fishnet whenever you get to see it. Itâs going to be ages before weâre done with all the hallways full of empty birdcages and decaying books. This house is big. And extremely busted.
Also . . . haunted. At first I think we were both in denial. It was just weird moving shadows, cold spots in places â if this was one of your mundane movies, weâd still be arguing about what was going on. But weâre Shadowhunters. We know ghosts exist. And we finally broke down and admitted to each other that thereâs definitely one in this house. Somebodyâs moving small objects around and playing the piano off in the distance⌠low, haunting bits of sweet music we can both hear. But hereâs the thing â the only piano here isnât even playable. It rotted through a long time ago.
So, we have a ghost. But they donât seem definitely or even particularly hostile. It could just be a bitty poltergeist, or a passing unquiet spirit. Iâve just started going through papers and itâs obvious Some Stuff Went Down Here at some point, lots of weird references to demons and bindings. (Oh, Iâm putting a thing aside for you, itâs a taxidermied raven covered in flowers, I think it used to be part of a really extra hat.) So the potential for unquiet spirits is definitely there. One more thing to deal with along with the need for all new drains. (What, exactly, are drains?)
Anyway, I canât wait to see you and oh no, I spent most of the letter telling you about the house but I really do want to hear about the Academy and your roommate and teachers, like is Catarina there? What about Ragnor? Have you seen Jaime lately? Tell me everything!
XOXO
Emma
PS I just found out who Tatiana Lightwood thought was the cutest boy in London. Will Herondale. Wasnât that the guy Tessa was married to, a long time ago? Would she think this was funny? I mean, itâs kind of funny. Always a Herondale, you know?
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Round Tom is flat out Robbing Julian!
Julian to Mark
Mark Blackthorn
â
Helen Blackthorn
Los Angeles Institute
Malibu, CA
Dear Mark,
Donât worry about the parchment scroll yet, Iâll get to it at the end of the letter.
Hello from Chiswick! Itâs pronounced like chizzick, itâs just outside central London, and it is a collapsing ruin. The house, I mean, not the neighborhood, which is cozy, a little suburban, lots of green space, quiet. Youâd like it.
I should have been in touch before, I know that â and Iâm sorry. We had to move fast to save this place and I knew a fire-message wouldnât reach you. Blackthorn Hall may be a ruin, but itâs our familyâs legacy, one of the very few things that weâve inherited from Blackthorns past. I feel this sense of responsibility, a need to preserve the place for Tavvy and Dru, for Ty and Liv â well. You know.
It was us or the Clave, and they would have knocked it down and put something else in its place. Itâs easily in bad enough shape that knocking it down would be the practical move. But itâs ours, and I kind of love it. I mean, if we donât love it, who will? It can be truly beautiful again, I believe that. You should visit when you get a chanceâall of you there are invited, of courseâbut be warned that if you come in the next couple of months you will be put to work.
This brings me to the parchment, which is the estimate and contract from the faerie builders for the renovation work on the house. I was hoping you and Kieran could look it over for faerie trickery, both in terms of whether their rates seem reasonable, and also to make sure they donât get Tavvy if weâre late with payment, that kind of thing. They came highly recommendedâtheyâre brownies? I think? They look like big garden gnomes. I mean, itâs probably the pointy hats. They could take them off, of course, but I guess they like them. They must know they look like garden gnomes. Anyway, they seem trustworthy and industrious and all that. But faeries do love tricking humans. Let me know what you think.
Oh, I should explain that there is one part of the house that is in all right shape and has all the âmod cons,â as they say here. It was redone in the Sixties and, well⌠it is groovy. The cons are Mod as well as mod. I am not sure you will get that joke but donât worry about it, it was pretty stupid. The thing is, Iâd never thought about it, but I realized this must have been fixed up by our grandparents. The timing works out. So this must be where Dad lived, once. And Uncle Arthur. It was where they grew up. And I realized: they, too, must have been groovy.
Arthur. Must have at one point. Been really groovy.
I just want you to sit with that for a moment, the way I did. It creates a feeling I believe to have never been felt before by any human being in the world.
You should see the clothes. I mean, really. You should see them. Thereâs a consignment shopâs worth of vintage stuff here and none of it suits me at all. Youâre welcome to it but it is almost all synthetic fabrics and would not go over in Faerie itself.
Aaand I know Iâm rambling. I was trying to avoid saying this, but thereâs something about this house. It reminds me of some of the nights you and I used to ramble around the Institute back home. Which I know is weird, London couldnât be more different than the Santa Monica Mountains â I miss the wildfire tang in the air, the smell of the chaparral and sage, the coarse dirt under our feet. (Do you miss it too? I feel like it has to be very different where you are in Faerie.) But there were plenty of times, especially when we were younger, when weâd tell ghost stories out there and scare ourselves that something was watching us. Maybe something was, though Iâm inclined to think now that it was something friendly. Here in this house I get the same watched feeling, like there are eyes on me, shadows I see out of the corners of my own eyes that disappear when I turn around.
Anyway, I really wish you were here. Iâd bring it up with Emma, but I donât want to freak her out. Sheâs started the massive job of sorting through decades of papers and journals that used to belong to the people who lived here, and Iâve started painting the ballroom. I know Emma has been in touch with Cristina, please send my love to her and to K as well!
Your loving bro,
Julian
PS: I realize now I donât know where this letter will find you, so let me clarify that âall of you are invitedâ from the LA Institute, not âall of you are invitedâ from the Unseelie Court.
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sooooo.... my question is, is Thule clary actually dead? No body, no proof! And wit Cassie, even a body doesnât mean proof, seeing how fixated she is on necromancy lol. Could Thule Clary be with Thule Simon?!!!
I asked Why didnât Janus gave Clary a proper funeral?
âHeâd is been crawling across the scorching sand of the desert where her body lay for yearsâ
Hold up Iâm confused. If I read it wrong could someone explain
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Ash. Â QoAAD + TWP (spoilers)
I find it strange how It was never mentioned that the Sebastian of Thule isn't Ash's father, or at least not the one of his world.There is mention of each Thule character in accordance with the characters of our world, but never any mention of there being a second Ash. technically wouldn't he have been conceived after the battle of the Burren, where the worlds split? if not, why aren't there two ashes? there are obviously different courts in Thule vs the regular world since Julian told Thule Livvy the unseelie king's name, so there was a Thule seelie Queen and Unseelie King. anyone have any theories?
The reason I ask is because I'm listening to Forever fallen on audiobook, and I'm wondering if Ash will ever feel any sort of loyalty to Clary and Jace while Janus is trying to basically steal her from Jace. I know he feels no sense of loyalty to the shadowhunters because knows that they would not trust him being half fae and half Sebastians kid, but Im holding onto hope that familial ties pull him to do what's right lol.
I hope what im saying makes sense lol.
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Yet another proof of the office being the perfect tv show
TMI as The Office GIFs
When Alec kiss Magnus in front of all shadowhunters and his parents
Simon (through all the saga)
Isabelle
Jace to Clary
Shadowhunters when Clary and Simon talking about mundane stuff
Ok, this can be two things: 1.MagnusCatarinaRagnor or 2. Simonâs Band. Itâs your choice
Everyone to Sebastian
Camille or Raphael
Clary when she met the shadowhunters for the first time
Faeries
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Queen of Air and Darkness...
Iâve finally digested what I read and now im just disappointed at how mundane it was. the book fell completely flat and this is the first cassie book that i have not read or listened to back to back. All that hype for what? All that to say, I will still be purchasing the books she publishes lol
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Angst and sex more angst
cassie: writes an interesting plotline in qoaad
cassie: how do i ruin this
cassie: insert sex scene here
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QoAad bonus story?
Can someone post pics?! I got the ebook and audible, the story wasnât included and now Iâm gonna cry!
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inktober 16: julian, ty and livvy, ghost
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The Queen says it is an exact duplicate. It was made with the assistance of a wizard of great power called OfficeMax, of whom I know nothing.
Queen of Air and Darkness
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Zara Dearb*tch
I am just NOT satisfied with how she was handled in any part of the book. I needed someone to seriously crack this girls skull! I love cassie and her writing but sometimes her comebacks arenât sharp enough for me lol. I pray sheâs handled for good in TWP
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These are pretty much exactly what I feel! I didnât really care for Kierarktina but I donât mind either way. I do wish I saw more of Christinaâs mom! She seems like a badass. I donât care for Thule jace either!! Weâve had enough of evil tormented jaces for one series lol. I am really nervous for ty after that spell. What Livvys ghost said to him and what magnus said about him hoping he never has to pay the price... cue scary music for the wicked powers!
Qoaad: My opinion
*disclaimer: everyone is entitled to their own opinions, these are just mine*
- The first few chapters had me non-stop crying. I donât really have anything to stay except that they were really beautiful.
- Letâs talk about Jemma. I did not really like emotionless Julian..he kinda pissed me of a LOT. I also wish the ending wasnât so cliche. It doesnât make sense that the whole parabatai curse could be solved so easily. I guess Iâm happy though because both of them are okay.
- Kit and Ty were an emotional rollercoaster.. Iâm kinda sad that we didnât get to see how Ty feels about Kit, but I was constantly looking forward to their scenes together. I wish they had gotten to say goodbye, but Iâm actually kind of happy they didnât kiss. Donât get me wrong, I love them together but if they got together in qoaad their entire relationship would be developed before twp. I can not wait 4 years to see what happens with them.
- Iâm VERY glad that Ty didnât successfully raise Livvy and Iâm glad that he has gotten more closure.
- Also Iâm so excited that Kit is staying with Jem, Tessa and baby Carstairs. I canât wait to see their family dynamic later on.
- Kierarktina is a thing!!! (Kinda disappointed we didnât get a hot faerie threesome though). I really loved their dynamic together and I canât wait to see Kieran as the Unseelie King.
- That fight scene at the end was so freaking epic. That might be one of my favorite battles in the chronicles. I was so scared, but I also couldnât stop grinning.
- I loved getting to know Dru more! Sheâs such an amazing character that I regret looking past. Sheâs so smart and kind and cool. Iâm so glad that she will be in twp.
- Diana and Gwyn are actually the cutest couple ever. Gwynâs relationship with Diana really humanized him and I canât wait to see him and Diana in the future.
- That scene when the Blackthornâs were trying to save the Emma and Julian giant things had me sobbing. No matter how cliche it was, it was really beautiful.
- Iâm kind of disappointed someone significant didnât die. I guess I was just expecting it to be a lot more tragic than it was. I think a significant character death could have added a lot more to the book. Iâm not surprised that no one died because Cassie is known for being careful with character deaths, but that still doesnât keep me from being a little disappointed.
- I didnât really love ThuleâŚlike it was cool but Iâm just not personally a big fan of the whole alternate universe thing. Edom was fine because it was so different than the actual world, but I still donât really know how to feel about it.
- So the Shadowhunterâs are kicked out of Idris. I surprisingly didnât mind this too much. I think itâll be really interesting to see the Shadowhunterâs adjust to living amongst mundanes
- IM SO HERE FOR CONSUL ALEC. I called it and Iâm so so happy my theory was right. This is a big step for the clave and I know my boy Alec will lead them in the right detection.
- Speaking of Alec..HE AND MAGNUS GOT MARRIED!! That scene had me in tears. Iâve always looked up to Magnus a lot, his and Alecâs characters have helped me through a lot. Iâm just so glad the Lightwood-Baneâs are happy.
- Iâm also very happy for Clary and Jace!! I knew neither of them would die, but I didnât expect to see them so much.
- The epilogue has me so conflicted. I donât want anything to do with Thule Jace and definitely do not want him anywhere near Clary. I hope people wonât automatically love him because heâs Jace.
- In conclusion: qoaad was a 12/10 from me. I canât want to read twp, tec and tlh!!
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