You speak of sacrifice, but it is not my sacrifice I offer. It is yours I ask of you," he went on. "I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain. But I love you enough to hope that you will not care that I am being selfish in trying to make the rest of my life--whatever its length--happy, by spending it with you. I want to be married to you, Tessa. I want it more than I have ever wanted anything else in my life.

What?" Jace was still staring at her as if she'd told him she'd found one of the Silent Brothers doing nude cartwheels in the hallway.

Dear me," said Will, and he took another bite of his apple. "Is it because I'm better-looking than you?

It’s fascinating. You know all these words, and they’re all English, but when you string them together into sentences, they just don’t make any sense.

There must always be a first," said Jem. "It is not easy to be first, and it is not always rewarding, but it is important.

I would have given it up--all of it up--to be married to you for a day. A day that would never have come. You are a reminder--a reminder of everything I am losting. The Life I will not have.

In some ways, we've been through something no one else can ever understand but the two of us... And it made me realize. We are always and absolutely better together.