Life of Bry

The Gang Goes to Hell

Oh boy. Where do I even begin?

City of Heavenly Fire, Cassandra Clare’s sixth and final installment of The Mortal Instruments series, is a harrowing finale to a chaotic yet touching journey that literally takes readers to hell and back in the quest to save the world, while discovering one’s true self and learning how to love and be loved along the way.

Finales are hard. I couldn’t even begin to imagine putting forth so much time, effort and emotion into pouring your soul onto the pages of five whole books and then being faced with the daunting task of tying it all together neatly in the sixth. 

Maybe that’s why CoHF is anything but neat. Clare wraps up TMI with a messy bow that leaves long ribbons that lead far into the past and future — which is a choice. 

Since a TON happened in this book, I’m going to split this up into two posts. Both parts are incredibly long and I had a lot to say, so bear with me. 

Buckle up Shadow Babies ‘cause I’ve got all the thoughts on City of Heavenly Fire.

New Kids on the Block

I want to preface this with the fact that I usually hate when an author introduces new characters in the final book. You can’t recklessly throw more characters into the race in the final lap and then expect me to care about them just as deeply as the ones I spent five books giving my heart to. It just doesn’t work for me.

Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn are the exception.

Readers meet the pair under tragic circumstances when Sebastian’s attack on the Los Angeles Institute leaves both Emma and the gaggle of Blackthorn children orphaned. Immediately we learn a few things about our pair of 12-year-old bffs. Emma is the chaotic mess of a warrior, Jules is the level-headed protector, and the two of them are inseparable. They very much give off the same vibes of Jace and Alec.

Emma just stole my heart to be honest. She’s an absolute badass. She throws a dagger straight into Sebastian’s chest when he attacks the L.A. Institute. She sneaks out of the Consul’s house and into the Inquisitor’s to give intel to Clary and Jace. She helps Jules take care of his younger siblings and speaks up when they’re forced to hold the Mortal Sword. She’s only 12 years old, and she’s already realizing that the Clave can be brutally unjust.

And Jules has her back no matter what. He’s a true ride or die. The two have always taken care of each other, and that doesn’t end just because they lost their parents.

When Julian is forced to hold the Mortal Sword to recount the attack, Emma rushes forward, begging for them to question her instead since she’s the one who threw the dagger at Sebastian. Then, it’s Jules who speaks up when Robert Lightwood questions whether or not Emma hit her target.

“Emma doesn’t miss.”

Julian, Page 87

Being best friends is a huge deal at 12. Friendship is important at any age, but, when you’re 12 and everything is changing and nothing seems to make sense anymore, it’s vital to have that person to lean on and help navigate life. Emma and Julian are going through way more than the average preteen, so that bond is even more essential. 

But with both of their parents gone, Emma and Jules face another nightmare; being separated. In a desperate attempt to stay together, Jules suggests becoming parabatai and delivers what may be my favorite line of the entire series.

“Jules, being parabatai is a big deal. It’s — it’s forever.”

“Aren’t we forever?”

Emma & Julian, Page 380

This quote hit me so incredibly hard. I felt that Julian had been thinking about it for a while, maybe even before the Institute attack. In the days leading up to this question, Julian’s father was changed into an Endarkened One, his older brother was kidnapped by Sebastian’s army and he now has to take care of his four younger siblings. With so much in his life already changed and so much responsibility on his shoulders, of course Julian wants to prevent losing another person he loves. Maybe he already wanted to ask Emma to be his parabatai — it would make sense with how close the pair are — but never had the courage to do so, however the situation at hand gives him the opportunity. 

Do all parabatai duos consist of a reckless blonde with a determination for revenge and a soft, sweet dark-haired protector? 

I also just want to point out that, while Emma is clearly painted as this determined warrior, the strength that Jules exhibits is unmatched. It takes a lot of power to take care of four children when you’re still a child yourself. He makes sure they all eat, he picks the glass out of Ty’s hand and handles his tantrums as best he can, he does their laundry and he cleans his siblings up after messy meals. In the end, when little Ty reaches out for their Endarkened father, Jules is the one who has to kill his own dad to protect his siblings no matter the mental toll. Through everything, he put others before himself, which is a strength that very few 12 year olds possess.

I’m so glad that The Dark Artifices follows this pair more, because their dynamic was so interesting and I need to know how things pan out for them. These two are definitely in love, right? How does that work when you’re parabatai? Isn’t that a big no-no? 

Side note! The way Emma and Julian communicate by writing on each other with their fingers is extremely cute. That’s top notch best friend shit.

Kill ‘em with Kindness 

Sebastian … Jonathan … Whatever you want to call him … is an A+ villain in my opinion, picking up where Valentine fell flat. 

Valentine was a very bland villain because he chose to be evil due to his jealousy of Downworlders’ powers. He experimented on and abused children, got his own parabatai attacked by werewolves, imprisoned an Angel and so much more in his quest to destroy the Downworld. I never felt an ounce of sympathy for the guy and thought he got what he deserved when Raziel blasted his ass.

Sebastian didn’t choose to be evil. Valentine injected him with demon blood as an infant then raised him to be a soulless warrior. He was never given the opportunity to be anything else. It doesn’t make up for the grotesque things Sebastian did, but it does give me some empathy for him.

Plus, Sebastian didn’t just want power, he craved companionship and to be loved. 

“He wants to be liked, or really loved, for what he is, genuinely. But he doesn’t think he has to change to be worthy of being loved; instead he wants to change the whole world, change humanity, make it into something that loves him.”

Jace to Clary, Page 255

The issue, among many, is that Sebastian doesn’t know or understand what love actually is. He has a skewed perception of love because he never was shown true love. In fact, Sebastian thinks that Valentine loved Jace.

“But all his love was for Jace. The troubled one, the rebellious one, the broken one. I did everything our father ever asked of me, and he hated me for it. And he hated you, too. It’s ironic isn’t it, Clarissa? We were Valentine’s blood children, and he hated us.”

Sebastian, Page 231

What Valentine did to Jace was anything but loving. He abused him, experimented on him, trained him to fight and kill without emotion, taught him that love was a method of destruction and used him for his own personal gains. Perhaps Valentine cared for Jace, at least enough to send him to the Lightwoods once he was no longer of use, but the trauma that man caused both Jace and Sebastian is not what love is about. 

However nobody taught Sebastian otherwise, so he holds the idea that love is about power and control. 

That’s why he’s so obsessed with Clary. She’s his sister and the only family left that didn’t already abandon him, which in his mind means that she belongs to him since they are blood.

“You are mine. You have always been mine. When you were born, you were mine, my sister, though you did not know me. There are bonds that nothing can erase.”

Sebastian to Clary, Page 232

It’s this possessiveness that ultimately leads to Sebastian’s demise. Clary makes him think he won by accepting his offer to be Queen of Edom, taking the throne and then asking a simple question that unravels our ruthless villain.

“Please. Put your arms around me.”

Clary to Sebastian, Page 538

It’s with this embrace and a kiss on the cheek that Clary catches her brother off guard just enough to sink Heosphoros laced with Heavenly Fire into his chest to end the war.

Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was never given a chance to truly live. It made his death hurt deeply  despite knowing that it was necessary and inevitable. I was nearly as conflicted as Clary was as Jonathan took his final breaths. There’s no forgiving what he has done, but can you mourn the boy he should’ve been?

In Jonathan’s last moments, Cassandra Clare really sinks a dagger straight into my heart.

First, after the Heavenly Fire starts to burn the evil out of him, Clary notices that Jonathan’s eyes are green … just like hers. 

Then, Jonathan mentioned that he once dreamed of a “manor house and a little girl with red hair and preparations for a wedding.” It’s an exact match for what Clary dreamed of when she entered Edom. 

And finally, Clare twists the knife with this bad boy.

“The Fire of Glorious burned away the demon’s blood. All my life it has scorched my veins and cut at my hearts like blades, and weighed me down like lead — all my life, and I never knew it. I never knew the difference. I’ve never felt so … light.”

Jonathan, Page 547

That line is super loaded. You can take it literally to mean he was physically hurting from the demon blood that coursed through his veins — the body has to reject that type of poison, right? — and now he is free of that bodily hurt. OR you take it figuratively to mean that all his life he’s been a slave to this demon nature that led him down a path of darkness, and now the Heavenly Fire has burned that burden away so that he can step into the light.

It was a very beautiful end to such a dark, twisted villain, which wasn’t what I expected after Clary and Jace practically made a vow that it would be one of them that gets to slit his throat. Everybody wanted Jonathan to suffer for the pain he caused. A bloody death would’ve been too predictable. It packed a more powerful punch that his downfall was his sister asking him for affection.

Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern may go down as one of my favorite book villains of all time. Sorry, not sorry.

Side note! The THEATRICS of Jonathan really sealed the deal for me. The man knew how to get people’s attention. We have the Angel wings that Maryse finds in the Institute library with Erchomai (I am coming) written in blood, followed by the floor in the Accords Hall saying Veni (I have come). Then when his plan to attack the London Institute gets thwarted, he decides to just wipe out the Praetor Lupus headquarters. We can’t forget the fact that he just stabs himself in the chest to prove to Jace and Clary that he’s invulnerable. And last but certainly not least, his motto of “if I cannot move Heaven, I will raise Hell”, is absolutely badass. What. A. Guy.

Parabae

CoHF was a huge step in the right direction for this group of characters in terms of communication, especially with our fave parabatai duo of Alec and Jace.

Clare stresses throughout the series that being parabatai is a very powerful bond between Shadowhunters. Nothing is quite like it. You’re pretty much connected to this other person for life, both physically and emotionally. In fact, this bond is so tight that when one dies, the other loses a part of themselves and it can destroy a person mentally.

We see the strength of this bond in CoHF at the Citadel battle when a Shadowhunter is forced to kill his own parabatai who was Endarkened. The grief is so unbearable that the Shadowhunter turns the blade on himself.

While we do see glimpses of this bond between Jace and Alec — e.g. Alec could feel something off with Jace when he was controlled by Sebastian, the pain Alec felt when Valentine killed Jace at Lake Lynn and then again when he was stabbed at the Citadel — I feel like these two have been fairly distant with each other. 

That could be for a few reasons. They both have a lot going on. Alec is heartbroken about Magnus and struggling with others not accepting him due to his sexuality, while Jace is caught up in all things Clary and his quest for revenge. Plus, they’re teen boys. They could be going through a phase.

No matter the reason, I really believe that Clare didn’t show us enough of the bond between Jace and Alec as parabatai leading up to CoHF. Other people talk about the importance of the bond all the time, but we really don’t see it in action. 

What we do get are moments where Alec and Jace prove why they are perfect to be parabatai. 

First, Alec really came out of his shell and started to dish out a little of Jace’s signature chirping. He gives us a classic: 

“You’re pining,” said Jace.

Alec shrugged. “Look who’s talking. ‘oh I love her. Oh, she’s my sister. Oh why, why, why—“

Jace & Alec, Page 37

Alec also jokes with Emma that being Jace’s parabatai is a full-time job since he’s prone to trouble.

Finally, we got the iconic:

“”I did not make a pie,” Alec repeated, gesturing expressively with one hand, “for three reasons. One, because I do not have any pie ingredients. Two, because I don’t actually know how to make a pie.’

He paused, clearly waiting.

Removing his sword and leaning it against the cave wall, Jace said warily, “And Three?”

“Because I am not your bitch,” Alec said, clearly pleased with himself.”

Alec & Jace, Page 389

I was rooting for Alec every step of the way. It’s easy to get blinded by Jace’s charisma and wit, but Alec slyly threw jabs that made me genuinely smile and laugh out loud. 

It also seemed like Alec began to adapt Jace’s act first, think later later mentality. Alec is the one who fires the arrow at the Endarkened Matthias to free the Consul, and he even expected Jace to scold him for it (of course, Jace only acknowledges what a great shot it was). Then, when the Seelie Queen reveals that Meliorn is the traitor — he’s only half faerie, so he can lie — it’s Alec who put an arrow in his heart. 

“Sharp are the arrows of a broken heart.”

Seelie Queen, Page 314

My first thought through all this was that Alec was trying to prove a point to himself. Before evacuating the Institute, Magnus shows up to see Alec off, forgive and kiss a little — probably because there’s a pretty good chance that Alec will die. While Magnus forgives Alec for his faux pas of considering taking away his immortality, he refuses to get back together.

“I forgive you, but I can’t be with you. I can’t. It doesn’t work. I’m going to live forever, or at least until someone finally kills me, and you’re not, and it’s too much for you to take on —“

Magnus to Alec, Page 65

Heart break definitely hardened Alec in a way where he will no longer stand to the side and simply accept things as they are. He stands up for himself, even Magnus is thrown off when Alec’s response to the above quote is, “Don’t tell me what’s too much for me.”  I believe that Alec took this as Magnus saying he was not strong enough to handle the weight of the warlock’s immortality against his own mortality, and he’s on a mission to prove otherwise — especially when Magnus is kidnapped.

In finding and proving his strength, Alec has a heart-to-heart conversation with Jace in Edom — the kind of talk that stems from the possibility of death— about how he’s not OK. There’s about four pages of dialogue that just melted my God damn heart.

Jace didn’t realize that Alec was hurting so badly between their father’s disapproval, feeling like a second fiddle since the Lightwood’s took him in, and now Magnus’s life in danger. Alec says it himself, “this is me in pieces.”

“I always thought I was happy being the dark star to your supernova. I mean, you have the angel’s gift. I could train and train … I’d never be you … But the day you asked me to be your parabatai, I knew you meant that you weren’t the lone and self-sufficient warrior able to do everything alone. You needed me. So I realized that there was one person who didn’t assume you were better than me. You.”

Alec to Jace, Page 394

Alec also mentions that he’s been holding himself together and not expressing his pain because that’s what he saw Jace do for the last seven years. 

“I can break down? We both know that’s not true. We need to hold it together, and all those years I watched you, I watched you hold it together, I watched you after you thought your father died, I watched you when you thought Clary was your sister, I watched you, and this is how you survived, so if I have to survive, then I’m going to do the same thing.”

Alec to Jace, Page 393

I was really proud of Alec for being honest about his feelings. I’m sure that this weighed on his shoulders since Jace arrived from Idris, and it was a heavy burden to carry. I was also proud of Jace, who so rarely opens up to anybody, for comforting Alec by reciprocating the honesty. 

“I might be physically stronger, but you have the truest heart of anyone I’ve ever known, and the strongest faith in other people, and in that way you are better than I could ever hope to be … The best thing Valentine ever did for me was send me to you.”

Jace to Alec, Page 395

It’s obvious that Jace has a hard time trusting people, he says so throughout the series. His early childhood was spent being isolated in Wayland Manor with only Valentine as company, and then he was sent to the Lightwoods, who he admittedly only gave little pieces of himself to because he was too afraid of loving them and being loved in return. Alec clearly knows this, so having Jace open up his heart a little more to him, is comforting. It may not heal the pain completely, but perhaps it can soothe his soul to have someone who’s always on his side. 

“Thanks for seeing me.” This quote and a ruffle of Jace’s hair is how Alec seals the conversation shut for the time being, and it’s just so perfect. Sometimes all it takes is for one singular person to see your pain, to acknowledge it and to stand by you while you learn to heal. 

Give it up for Alec and Jace, guys. Just two dudes being bros.

End Part 1

That’s where I’m going to end Part 1, but stick around for Part 2, where I’ll be discussing my undying love for Malec, what I thought about Jace and Clary sealing the deal in hell, why Simon is the MVP of the entire series, and how the ending reminded me of the Avengers and I hated it. 

You’re not going to want to miss this.