rania ☼

“When they beat me for saying I was a Shadowhunter, it only made me more sure. I know what I am even if I cannot say it.”
“You can say it only to me,” said Kieran, his long fingers ghosting across Mark’s cheek. “Here in this space between us. It is safe.”
So Mark pressed up against his lover and only friend and whispered into the space between them, where his cold body pressed against Kieran’s warm one. “I am a Shadowhunter. I am a Shadowhunter. I am a Shadowhunter.”
― Cassandra Clare, Lady Midnight

“Oh, Mark Blackthorn, what are they doing to you?” Simon whispered.
He could not keep the pity out of his voice, and he saw it sting Mark: the slow flush that rose to his thin cheeks, and the way he lifted his chin, holding his head high.
He said: “Nothing I cannot bear.”
Simon was silent. He did not remember everything, but he remembered how much he had been changed. People could bear so much, but Simon did not know how much of the original you was left when the world had twisted you into a whole different shape.”
― Cassandra Clare, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy