Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes

"Actually," said Jace, "I prefer to think that I'm a liar in a way that's uniquely my own."

"Isabelle rolled her eyes. "Oh, for the Angel's sake. Look, if there's no other way of getting out of this, I'll kiss Simon. I've done it before, it wasn't that bad."Thanks," said Simon. "That's very flattering."Well, I'm not kissing the mundane," said Jace. "I'd rather stay down here and rot."Forever" said Simon. "Forever's an awfully long time."Jace raised his eyebrows. "I knew it," he said. "You want to kiss me, don't you"Simon threw up his hands in exasperation. "Of course not. But if—"I guess it's true what they say," observed Jace. "There are no straight men in the trenches."That's atheists, jackass," said Simon furiously. "There are no atheists in the trenches."

"Perhaps there isn’t anything Alec is afraid of.”Magnus glanced at Alec and raised his eyebrows. “Boo,” he said. Jace was grinning. “Come on, surely you’ve got a phobia or two. What scares you?”Alec thought for a moment. “Spiders,” he said. Clary turned to Luke. “Have you got a spider anywhere?”Luke looked exasperated. “Why would I have a spider? Do I look like someone who would collect them?”“No offense,” Jace said, “But you kind of do.”“You know”---Alec’s tone was sour---”Maybe this was a stupid experiment.”“What about the dark?” Clary suggested. “We could lock you in the basement.”“I’m a demon hunter,” Alec said, with exaggerated patience. “Clearly, I am not afraid of the dark."

"Isabelle," she said, lightening her tone with an obvious effort, "your loyalty to your friend is understandable --"He's not my friend." Isabelle looked over at Jace, who was staring at her in a sort of daze. "He's my brother."

"The Chairman likes you.”“Is that good?”“I never date anyone my cat doesn’t like,” Magnus said easily, and stood up."

"You just like me because I’m safe. There’s no risk. And then you never have to try to have a real relationship, because you can use me as an excuse."

"A pair of werewolves occupied another booth. They were eating raw shanks of lamb and arguing about who would win in a fight: Dumbledore from Harry Potter books or Magnus Bane."Dumbledore would totally win," said the first one. "He has the badass Killing Curse."The second lycanthrope made a trenchant point. "But Dumbledore isn't real."I don't think Magnus Bane is real either," scoffed the first. "Have you ever met him"This is so weird," said Clary, slinking down in her seat. "Are you listening to them" "No. It's rude to eavesdrop," said Jace."

"We had and incident. I took care of it."Really." Jace's voice dripped sarcasm. "Do you even know how to use that knife, Clarissa? Without poking a hole in yourself or any innocent bystanders?"

"That seems like stealing, doesn't it" Simon pulled a cup toward him. He drew the lid back. "Ooh. Mochaccino." He looked at Magnus. "Did you pay for these"Sure," said Magnus, while Jace and Alec snickered. "I make dollar bills magically appear in their cash register."Really"No." Magnus popped the lid off his own coffee. "But you can pretend I did if it makes you feel better. So, first order of business is what?"

"You are mortal. You age, you die. If that is not hell, pray tell me, what is?"

"We're not dating," Alec said again."Oh" Magnus said. "So you're just that friendly with everybody, is that it?"

"And what about us? Do you want a vampire boyfriend" He laughed bitterly. "Because I forsee many romantic picnics in our future. You, drinking a virgin piña colada. Me, drinking the blood of a virgin."

"Clary- "How to Come Out to Your Parents," she read out loud. "LUKE. Don't be ridiculous. Simon's not gay, he's a vampire."

"I've got a stele we can use. Who wants to do me"A regrettable choice of words," muttered Magnus."

"But unlike you," said Jace, "there is nothing of hell in us."You are mortal; you age; you die," the Queen said dismissively. "If that is not hell, pray tell me, what is?"

"While this is all very amusing, the kiss that will free the girl is the kiss that she most desires,” she said. “Only that and nothing more.”Jace’s heart started to pound. He met the Queen’s eyes with his own. “Why are you doing this?”… “Desire is not always lessened by disgust…And as my words bind my magic, so you can know the truth. If she doesn’t desire your kiss, she won’t be free.”“You don’t have to do this, Clary, it’s a trick—” (Simon)... Isabelle sounded exasperated. ‘Who cares, anyway? It’s just a kiss.”“That’s right,” Jace said. Clary looked up, then finally, and her wide green eyes rested on him. He moved toward her... and put his hand on her shoulder, turning her to face him… He could feel the tension in his own body, the effort of holding back, of not pulling her against him and taking this one chance, however dangerous and stupid and unwise, and kissing her the way he had thought he would never, in his life, be able to kiss her again. “It’s just a kiss,” he said, and heard the roughness in his own voice, and wondered if she heard it, too. Not that it mattered—there was no way to hide it. It was too much. He had never wanted like this before... She understood him, laughed when he laughed, saw through the defenses he put up to what was underneath. There was no Jace Wayland more real than the one he saw in her eyes when she looked at him… All he knew was that whatever he had to owe to Hell or Heaven for this chance, he was going to make it count. He...whispered in her ear. “You can close your eyes and think of England, if you like,” he said. Her eyes fluttered shut, her lashes coppery lines against her pale, fragile skin. “I’ve never even been to England,” she said, and the softness, the anxiety in her voice almost undid him. He had never kissed a girl without knowing she wanted it too, usually more than he did, and this was Clary, and he didn’t know what she wanted. Her eyes were still closed, but she shivered, and leaned into him — barely, but it was permission enough. His mouth came down on hers. And that was it. All the self-control he’d exerted over the past weeks went, like water crashing through a broken dam. Her arms came up around his neck and he pulled her against him… His hands flattened against her back... and she was up on the tips of her toes, kissing him as fiercely as he was kissing her... He clung to her more tightly, knotting his hands in her hair, trying to tell her, with the press of his mouth on hers, all the things he could never say out loud... His hands slid down to her waist... he had no idea what he would have done or said next, if it would have been something he could never have pretended away or taken back, but he heard a soft hiss of laughter — the Faerie Queen — in his ears, and it jolted him back to reality. He pulled away from Clary before he it was too late, unlocking her hands from around his neck and stepping back... Clary was staring at him. Her lips were parted, her hands still open. Her eyes were wide. Behind her, Alec and Isabelle were gaping at them; Simon looked as if he was about to throw up... If there had ever been any hope that he could have come to think of Clary as just his sister, this — what had just happened between them — had exploded it into a thousand pieces... He tried to read Clary’s face — did she feel the same? … I know you felt it, he said to her with his eyes, and it was half bitter triumph and half pleading. I know you felt it, too…She glanced away from him... He whirled on the Queen. “Was that good enough?” he demanded. “Did that entertain you?”The Queen gave him a look: special and secretive and shared between the two of them. “We are quite entertained," she said. “But not, I think, so much as the both of you."

"Jace stood up, knocking his chair back violently. "You are not taking Clary to the Seelie Court without me and THAT is FINAL."

"I was even a little glad that if it wasn’t going to be me she wanted, it was going to be someone who really deserved her."

"Mundane humans create distinctions between themselves, distinctions that seem ridiculous to any Shadowhunter. Their distinctions are based on race, religion, national identity, any of a dozen minor and irrelevant markers. ~ Valentine"

"Maybe it's true what the Seelie Queen had said, after all: Love made you a liar."