“That the wall is coming down.”

“Tessa put a hand against the wall as she made her way numbly down the stairs. What had she almost done? What had she nearly told Will?”

“I thought you needed me," Jem said. "There is a wall you have built about yourself, Will, and I have never asked you why. But no one should shoulder every burden alone. I thought you would let me inside if I became your parabatai, and then you would have at least someone to lean upon. I did wonder what my death would mean for you. I used to fear it, for your sake. I feared you would be left alone inside that wall. But now ... something has changed. I do not know why. But I know that it is true.""That what is true?" Will's fingers were still digging into Jem's wrist."That the wall is coming down.”

“I can stand.”“It looks to me like you‘re using a wall to prop you up. that’s not my definition of ‘standing.’”“Its leaning,” Jace told him. “Leaning comes right before standing.”

“Jace, on the other hand, looked like the sort of boy who'd come over to your house and burn it down for kicks.”

“She looked up at him with a smile. The smile broke what was left of his resistance - shattered it. He had let the walls down when he'd thought she was gone, and there was no time to build them back up. Helplessly he pulled her against him. For a moment she clung to him tightly, warm and alive in his arms. Her hair brushed his cheek. The color had come back into the world; he could breathe again, and for that moment he breathed her in - she smelled of salt, blood, tears, and Tessa.”

“It's like banging my head against the wall, except if I were actually banging my head on a wall, I'd be able to make myself stop.”