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“I do not ever want another love”
― Cassandra Clare, The Red Scrolls of Magic

“Magnus was the one who hesitated. "Can I ask you something? You loved a Shadowhunter."
"Do you think I stopped?"
"When you loved a Shadowhunter, were you ever afraid?"
"I was always afraid," said Tessa. "It's natural to be afraid of losing the most previous thing in the world. But don't be too afraid, Magnus. I know warlocks and Shadowhunters are very different, and there is a divide between your worlds that can be hard to cross. But as someone once said to me, the right man will not care. You can build a bridge over the divide and find each other. You can build something much greater than either of you could ever have built on your own."
There was a silence after she spoke, as they both thought of the ages they had seen pass already, and the ages to come. The sunlight was still bright through the window outside Magnus's Rome hotel room, but it would not last.
Magnus said reluctantly, "But we do lose love, in the end. We both know that."
"No," said Tessa. "Love changes you. Love changes the world. You cannot lose that love, no matter how long you live, I think. Trust love. Trust him."
Magnus wanted to, but he could not forget Asmodeus telling him he was a curse upon the world.. He remembered begging Shinyun with his eyes not to tell Alec who Magnus's father was. He did not want to lie to Tessa. He did not know how to promise he would do what she advised.
"What if I lost him by telling the truth?"
"What if you lost him by hiding it.?”
― Cassandra Clare, The Red Scrolls of Magic

“I've been meaning to ask," said Magnus. "When Shinyun and I were fighting in the pentagram in Rome, you shot her. You told me that you could see dozens of illusions of me fighting dozens of her. How did you know which one was really her?"
"I didn't," said Alec. "I knew which one was you."
"Oh. Was one version of me more handsome than the others?" Magnus said, charmed. "More debonair? Possessed a certain je ne sais quoi?"
"I don't know about that," said Alec. "You reached for a knife. You had it in your grasp, and then you let it go."
Magnus deflated.
"You knew it was me because I'm worse at fighting than she is?" Magnus asked. "Well, that's terrible news. I imagine 'pathetic in combat' is on the top ten list of Shadowhutner turnoffs."
"No," said Alec.
"Number eleven, just below 'doesn't actually look good in black'?"
Alec shook his head again. "Before we were together," he said, "I was angry a lot, and I hurt people because I was in pain. Being kind when you're in pain - it's hard. Most people struggle to do it at the best of times. The demon who cast that spell couldn't imagine it. But among all those identical figures, there was one person who hesitated to hurt somebody, even at the moment of utmost horror. That had to be you.”
― Cassandra Clare, The Red Scrolls of Magic