“Emma,” said a voice beside her. She turned and saw Jem Carstairs. (BLESS YOU, CASSIE)
Jem. She was too surprised to speak. Jem had been a Silent Brother once, and though he was a Carstairs, he was a very distant relative, due to being more than a century old. He looked only about twenty-five, though, and was dressed in jeans and scuffed shoes. He wore a white sweater, which she guessed was his concession to Shadowhunter funeral whites. Jem was no longer a Shadowhunter, though he had been one for many years.
“Jem,” she whispered, not wanting to disturb anyone else in the procession. “Thanks for coming.” [...]
“Did your parabatai ever pull away from you? When you, you know, wanted to talk?”
“People do strange things when they’re grieving,” said Jem gently. “I was watching from a distance, earlier. I saw Julian climb to the top of the pyre for his brother. I know how much he has always loved those children. Nothing he says or does now, in these first and worst days, is who he is. Besides,” he added, with a slight smile, “being parabatai is complicated. I hit my parabatai in the face once.”
“You did what?”
“As I said.” Jem seemed to enjoy her astonishment. “I struck my parabatai— I loved him more than anyone else in the world I’ve ever loved save Tessa, and I struck him in the face because my heart was breaking. I can hardly judge anyone else.”
|Queen of Air and Darkness pp. 67, 68, 69
There will (probably not) be a day when my eyes won’t sparkle and my heart won’t sing every time I read about Jem, but it is not this day.
He’s so full of life now that he can finally be with Tessa and so full of memories of the other person he loved more than his life and that he will always remember. I’m so excited for the baby on the way and already betting how they’ll name it (not that it leaves much to the imagination, knowing Tessa and Jem).
And I can’t wait to put my hands on the new released book Ghosts of the Shadow Market, which features Jem in most of its tales.
KJM