Angels Twice Descending Read Online Free PDF

all over again. What could possibly make you think I have any standards left when it comes to you?”
    â€œUh, thank you, I think?”
    â€œÊ»Thank you’ is the correct response. And also ‘I love you, too, Isabelle, and I would love you even if you lost your memory or grew a mustache or something.’”
    â€œWell, obviously.” Simon tugged at her chin. “Though I’d draw the line at a beard.”
    â€œGoes without saying.” Then she looked serious again. “You do believe me, right? You can’t be doing this for me.”
    â€œI’m not doing it for you,” Simon said, and that was true. He may have gone to the Academy, in part, because of Isabelle—but he’d stayed for himself. When he Ascended, it wouldn’t be because he needed to prove something to her. “But . . . if I did back out, which I would never do, but if I did, wouldn’t that make me a coward? You’d date a mundane, maybe. But I know you, Izzy. You couldn’t date a coward.”
    â€œAnd you, Simon Lewis, couldn’t be a coward. Not if you tried. It’s not cowardly to make a choice about what you want your life to be. Choosing what’s right for you, maybe that’s the bravest thing you can do. If you choose to be a Shadowhunter, I will love you for it. But if you choose to stay a mundane, I’ll love you for that, too.”
    â€œWhat if I just choose not to drink from the Mortal Cup because I’m afraid it will kill me?” Simon asked. It was a relief to finally say it out loud. “What if it had nothing to do with how I want to spend the rest of my life? What if it’s just being scared?”
    â€œWell, then, you’re an idiot. Because the Mortal Cup could never hurt you. It will know what I do, which is that you’d make an amazing Shadowhunter. The blood of the Angel could never hurt you,” she said, intensity blazing in her eyes. “It’s not possible.”
    â€œYou really believe that?”
    â€œI really do.”
    â€œSo the fact that we’re here, and you’re, you know—”
    â€œPartially disrobed and wondering why we’re still making small talk?”
    â€œâ€”has nothing to do with the fact that you think this might be our last night together?”
    This earned him another exasperated sigh. “Simon, do you know how many times I’ve been almost certain one of us wouldn’t survive the next twenty-four hours?”
    â€œUm, several?”
    â€œSeveral,” she confirmed. “And on not one of those occasions have we ever had any sort of desperate, angsty farewell sex.”
    â€œWait—we haven’t?”
    Over the last several months, Simon and Isabelle had gotten very close. Closer, he thought, than they’d ever been before, not that he could quite remember. At least conversationally. As for the other kind of close—talking on the phone and writing each other letters wasn’t exactly conducive to losing your virginity.
    Then there was the excruciating fact that Simon wasn’t certain he still had a virginity to lose.
    All this time he’d been too embarrassed to ask.
    â€œAre you kidding me?” Isabelle asked.
    Simon could feel his cheeks burning.
    â€œYou’re not kidding me!”
    â€œPlease don’t be mad,” Simon said.
    Isabelle laughed. “I’m not mad. If we’d had sex, and you’d forgotten— which, by the way, I assure you would not be possible, demon amnesia or no demon amnesia—maybe I’d be mad.”
    â€œSo we really never . . . ?”
    â€œWe really never,” Isabelle confirmed. “I know you don’t remember, but things were a little hectic around here, what with the war and all the people trying to kill us and such. And like I said, I don’t believe in ‘farewell sex.’”
    Simon felt like the whole night—possibly the most