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Clockwork Prince
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Excerpts from Clockwork Prince



They slowed finally at the southeastern corner of the church. Watery daylight poured through the rose windows overhead. 鈥淚 know we are in a hurry to get t..."
So do I....:D

鈥淭hey鈥檙e not hideous,鈥 said Tessa.
Will blinked at her. 鈥淲hat?鈥
鈥淕ideon and Gabriel,鈥 said Tessa. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e really quite good-looking, not hideous at all.鈥
鈥淚 spoke,鈥 said Will, in sepulchral tones, 鈥渙f the pitch-black inner depths of their souls.鈥
Tessa snorted. 鈥淎nd what color do you suppose the inner depths of your soul are, Will Herondale?鈥
鈥淢auve,鈥 said Will.
#2
Will's voice dropped. 鈥淓veryone makes mistakes, Jem.鈥
鈥淵es,鈥 said Jem. 鈥淵ou just make more of them than most people.鈥
鈥淚 鈥斺
鈥淵ou hurt everyone,鈥 said Jem. 鈥淓veryone whose life you touch.鈥
鈥淣ot you,鈥 Will whispered. 鈥淚 hurt everyone but you. I never meant to hurt you.鈥
Jem put his hands up, pressing his palms against his eyes. 鈥淲ill 鈥斺
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 never forgive me,鈥 Will said in disbelief, hearing the panic tinging his own voice. 鈥淚鈥檇 be 鈥斺
鈥淎lone?鈥 Jem lowered his hand, but he was smiling now, crookedly. 鈥淎nd whose fault is that?鈥
#3
鈥淗e鈥檚 Nephilim,鈥 said his companion. 鈥淎nd you鈥檝e never cared for them. How much did he pay you?鈥
鈥淣othing,鈥 said Magnus, and now he was not seeing anything that was there, not the river, not Will, only a wash of memories: eyes, faces, lips, receding into memory, love that he could no longer put a name to. 鈥淗e did me a favor. One he doesn鈥檛 even remember.鈥
鈥淗e鈥檚 very pretty. For a human.鈥
鈥淗e鈥檚 very broken,鈥 said Magnus. 鈥淟ike a lovely vase that someone has smashed. Only luck and skill can put it back together the way it was before.鈥
(Cassie doesn't tell us who Mangus is speaking with)
:)
CP deleted scene:
The darkness came and went in waves that grew ever slower. Tessa was beginning to feel lighter, less like an awful weight was pressing her down. She wondered how much time had passed. It was night in the infirmary, and she could see Will a few beds away from her, a curled figure under the blankets, dark head pillowed on his arm. Brother Enoch had given him a tisane to drink once the [redacted] was cut out of his skin, and he had fallen asleep almost instantly, thank God. The sight of him in that much pain had been more harrowing than she could have imagined.
She was in a clean white nightgown now; someone must have cut away her blood-stiffened clothes and washed her hair before bandaging her 鈥 it lay softly over his shoulders, no longer twisted into rat-tails of tangles and drying blood.
鈥楾essa,鈥 came a whispered voice. 鈥淭ess?鈥
Only Will calls me that. She opened her eyes, but it was Jem seated on the side of her bed, looking down at her. The moonlight spilling through the high ceilings turned him almost transparent, an ethereal angel, all silver but for the gold chain at his throat.
He smiled. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e awake.鈥
鈥淚鈥檝e been awake here and there.鈥 She coughed. 鈥淓nough to know I鈥檓 all right besides a crack on the head. A lot of fuss about nothing 鈥斺 Tessa鈥檚 eyes dropped, and she saw that Jem was carrying something in his hands: a thick mug of some liquid that sent up a fragrant steam. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 that?鈥
鈥淥ne of Brother Enoch鈥檚 tisanes,鈥 said Jem. 鈥淚t will help you sleep.鈥
鈥淎ll I鈥檝e been doing is sleeping!鈥
鈥淎nd very amusing it is to watch,鈥 said Jem. 鈥淒id you know you twitch your nose when you sleep, like a rabbit?鈥
鈥淚 do not,鈥 she said, with a whispered laugh.
鈥淵ou do,鈥 he said. 鈥淔ortunately, I like rabbits.鈥 He handed her the cup. 鈥淒rink just a little,鈥 He said. 鈥淚t is right for you to sleep. Brother Enoch says to think of the wounds and shocks to your spirit as you would think of wounds and shocks to your body. You must rest the injured part of yourself before you begin to heal.鈥
Tessa was dubious, but she took a sip of the tisane anyway, and then another. It had a pleasant taste, like cinnamon. Barely had she swallowed the second mouthful when a feeling of exhaustion swept over her. She lay back against the pillows, listening to his soft voice telling her a story about a beautiful young woman whose husband had died building the Great Wall of China, and who had cried so much over his loss that she had turned into a silvery fish and swum away across a river. As Tessa drifted off into dreams, she felt his gentle hands take the cup from her and set it down on the bedside table. She wanted to thank him, but she was already asleep.
The darkness came and went in waves that grew ever slower. Tessa was beginning to feel lighter, less like an awful weight was pressing her down. She wondered how much time had passed. It was night in the infirmary, and she could see Will a few beds away from her, a curled figure under the blankets, dark head pillowed on his arm. Brother Enoch had given him a tisane to drink once the [redacted] was cut out of his skin, and he had fallen asleep almost instantly, thank God. The sight of him in that much pain had been more harrowing than she could have imagined.
She was in a clean white nightgown now; someone must have cut away her blood-stiffened clothes and washed her hair before bandaging her 鈥 it lay softly over his shoulders, no longer twisted into rat-tails of tangles and drying blood.
鈥楾essa,鈥 came a whispered voice. 鈥淭ess?鈥
Only Will calls me that. She opened her eyes, but it was Jem seated on the side of her bed, looking down at her. The moonlight spilling through the high ceilings turned him almost transparent, an ethereal angel, all silver but for the gold chain at his throat.
He smiled. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e awake.鈥
鈥淚鈥檝e been awake here and there.鈥 She coughed. 鈥淓nough to know I鈥檓 all right besides a crack on the head. A lot of fuss about nothing 鈥斺 Tessa鈥檚 eyes dropped, and she saw that Jem was carrying something in his hands: a thick mug of some liquid that sent up a fragrant steam. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 that?鈥
鈥淥ne of Brother Enoch鈥檚 tisanes,鈥 said Jem. 鈥淚t will help you sleep.鈥
鈥淎ll I鈥檝e been doing is sleeping!鈥
鈥淎nd very amusing it is to watch,鈥 said Jem. 鈥淒id you know you twitch your nose when you sleep, like a rabbit?鈥
鈥淚 do not,鈥 she said, with a whispered laugh.
鈥淵ou do,鈥 he said. 鈥淔ortunately, I like rabbits.鈥 He handed her the cup. 鈥淒rink just a little,鈥 He said. 鈥淚t is right for you to sleep. Brother Enoch says to think of the wounds and shocks to your spirit as you would think of wounds and shocks to your body. You must rest the injured part of yourself before you begin to heal.鈥
Tessa was dubious, but she took a sip of the tisane anyway, and then another. It had a pleasant taste, like cinnamon. Barely had she swallowed the second mouthful when a feeling of exhaustion swept over her. She lay back against the pillows, listening to his soft voice telling her a story about a beautiful young woman whose husband had died building the Great Wall of China, and who had cried so much over his loss that she had turned into a silvery fish and swum away across a river. As Tessa drifted off into dreams, she felt his gentle hands take the cup from her and set it down on the bedside table. She wanted to thank him, but she was already asleep.



The darkness came and went in waves that grew ever slower. Tessa was beginning to feel lighter, less like an awful weight was pressing her down. She wondered how much time had p..."
i think im in love!! lol hes so sweet! <3

The darkness came and went in waves that grew ever slower. Tessa was beginning to feel lighter, less like an awful weight was pressing her down. She wondere..."
yes!


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Clockwork Prince (other topics)Clockwork Prince (other topics)
They slowed finally at the southeastern corner of the church. Watery daylight poured through the rose windows overhead. 鈥淚 know we are in a hurry to get to the Council meeting,鈥 said Jem. 鈥淏ut I wanted you to see this.鈥 He gestured around them. 鈥淧oet鈥檚 Corner.鈥
Tessa had read of the place, of course, where the great poets and writers of England were buried. There was the gray stone tomb of Chaucer, with its canopy, and other familiar names: Edmund Spenser, who had written The Faerie Queen, 鈥淥h, and Milton,鈥 she gasped, 鈥渁nd Coleridge, and Robert Burns, and Shakespeare 鈥斺
鈥淗e isn鈥檛 really buried here,鈥 said Jem, quickly. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a monument.鈥
鈥淥h, I know, but 鈥斺 She looked at him, and felt herself flush. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 explain it. It鈥檚 like being among friends, being among these names. Silly, I know . . .鈥
鈥淣ot silly at all.鈥
She smiled at him. 鈥淗ow did you know just what I鈥檇 want to see?鈥
鈥淗ow could I not?鈥 he said. 鈥淲hen I think of you, and you are not there, I see you in my mind鈥檚 eye always with a book in your hand.鈥 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 鈥 and was surprised how affectionate the thought was.
She had become very fond of Jem over the past fortnight; Will had been studiously avoiding her, Charlotte and Henry were caught up in issues of Clave and Council and the running of the Institute 鈥攅ven Jessamine seemed preoccupied. But Jem was always there. He seemed to take his role as her guide to London seriously: they had been to Hyde Park and Kew Gardens, the National Gallery and the British Museum, the Tower of London and Traitor鈥檚 Gate. They gone to see the cows being milked in St James Park, the fruit and vegetable sellers in Covent Garden, had watched the boats sailing on the sun-sparked Thames from the Embankment. And as the days went on, Tessa felt herself unfolding slowly out of her quiet, huddled unhappiness over Nate and Will and the loss of her old life, like a flower climbing out of frozen ground. She had even found herself laughing. And she had Jem to thank for it.
鈥淵ou are a good friend,鈥 she exclaimed, and when, to her surprise, he said nothing to that, she said, 鈥淎t least, I hope we are good friends. You do think so too, don鈥檛 you, Jem?鈥
He turned to look at her.