Extraits

— C’est l’amour fou entre vous, pas vrai ? demanda Isabelle. Je veux dire, avec mon frère ?

— Ah, avec Alec ? Je croyais qu’on parlait de mon chat !

Isabelle éclata de rire et donna un coup de pied dans la porte d’un placard avec son talon clouté, insouciante et radieuse.

— Bon, sérieusement, dit-elle. C’est l’amour fou ?

— On ne m’avait pas dit qu’on parlerait mecs, fit Magnus. Si j’avais su, je me serais préparé. Tu peux revenir plus tard, quand j’aurai enfilé mon pyjama ? Je t’avouerai que je craque pour Alec, mais à condition qu’on se fasse des tresses et des masques de beauté !

“Then Alec had smiled at one of Magnus’s jokes, and the smile had lit a lamp in his solemn face, making his blue eyes brilliant, and briefly taking Magnus’s breath away”

Magnus remembered a town in Peru whose Quechua name meant “quiet place.” He recalled even more vividly being obscenely drunk and unhappy over his heartbreak of that time, and the maudlin thoughts that had recurred to him over the years, like an unwanted guest slipping in through his doors: that there was no peace for such as he, no quiet place, and there never would be.

Except he found himself remembering lying in bed with Alec—all of their clothes on, lounging on the bed on a lazy afternoon, Alec laughing, head thrown back, the marks Magnus had left on his throat very plain to see.

“It is urgent,” said Magnus. “You know that I’ve been, ah, spending time with one of the Nephilim at the New York Institute.”

“A Lightwood, right?” Catarina asked.

“Alexander Lightwood,” said Magnus, and he was mildly horrified to hear how his own voice softened on the name.

He knew Alec well enough by now to know what he was feeling, the conflicting impulses that warred in him. He was conscientious, the kind of person who believed that the others around him were so much more important than he was, who already believed that he was letting everybody down. And he was honest, the kind of person who was naturally open about all he felt and all he wanted. Alec’s virtues had made a trap for him: these two good qualities had collided painfully. He felt he could not be honest without disappointing everybody he loved. It was a hideous conundrum for him. It was as if the world had been designed to make him unhappy.

Magnus se réveilla à la lueur dorée de la mi-journée qui filtrait par la fenêtre. Son chat dormait sur sa tête.

Il arrivait que le Président Miaou témoigne son affection de cette fâcheuse manière. D’un geste ferme mais délicat, Magnus tenta de dégager son crâne. Le Président Miaou poussa d’abord un long miaulement plaintif, enfonça davantage ses minuscules griffes dans les cheveux de son maître, avant de renoncer subitement : il bondit sur l’oreiller, atterrit d’un pas léger au pied du lit et se précipita vers sa gamelle en lançant un cri de ralliement.

“Why are you calling?” Magnus asked, assailed by a sudden fear that his birthday present had been immediately discovered in some way and the Lightwoods were shipping Alec to Idris because of spells cast on whips by heedless warlocks, which Alec could not explain.

“Um, I can call another time,” said Alec, sounding worried. “I’m sure you have better things to do—”

He didn’t say it in the way some of Magnus’s past lovers would have said it, accusing or demanding reassurance. He said it quite naturally, as if he accepted that was the way of the world, that he would not be anyone’s top priority. It made Magnus want to reassure him ten times as much as he would have, had Alec seemed to even slightly expect it.

Il y eut un silence, puis Ragnor ronchonna :

-Qu'est-ce que tu me veux, Magnus ?

-Je me tourne vers toi, ô cher et vieil ami, collègue sorcier, fidèle camarade, ancien grand sorcier de Londres en qui j'ai toute confiance, pour que tu m'offres tes conseils.

-Tes flagorneries m'ont toujours fait peur, répondit Ragnor. Tu me flattes quand tu as besoin que je te rende service. D'horribles services, soit dit en passant.

“Magnus deeply disliked people who were early to business meetings. It was just as bad as being late, since it put everyone out, and even worse, people who were early always acted terribly superior about their bad timekeeping skills. They acted as though it were morally more righteous to get up early than to stay up late, even if you got the same amount of work done in the exact same amount of time. Magnus found it to be one of the great injustices of life.”

Then Alec was there, standing in the open doorway.

"I wanted to see you," said Alec with devastating simplicity.