Some of the best moments in Chain of Gold are of course the biggest surprises. But if you’re like us and have already read Chain of Gold multiple times, let us remind you of some of the most surprising, dramatic, and romantic moments. Cassandra Clare loves to tug at our heartstrings (and occasionally destroy us) and we know Chain of Thorns, coming in January 2023, will be no different!
Top 10 Chain of Gold Moments
10. Magnus Bane (His mere presence is enough to make this list)
[to James]
“Last time I saw you, you were facedownin the Serpentine,” Magnus said cheerfully. “Now you’re fiddling with a Pyxis. I see you have decided to follow in the long Herondale tradition of poor decision-making.”
9. Thomas and Alastair meet in Paris
Thomas told Alastair that he planned to get a tattoo of a compass rose on the inside of his arm.He hadn’t told anyone else that, and Alastair seemed curious.
“Where on your arm?” he asked, and when Thomas showed him, Alastair ran his fingers over the spot, unselfconsciously, his fingertips tracing a path from the sensitive skin of Thomas’s inner wrist to the crook of his elbow.
Thomas sat stunned and shivering…
8. Lucie (and a bunch of ghosts) save Cordelia from drowning
“Bring her out, please!” Lucie screamed. “Help me!”
Ghosts rose up on either side…a veritable army of the drowned and dead. In the center of them all, the ghost prisoner held Cordelia, her body limp, her bright hair soaked and streaming down over her shoulders.
7. Cordelia uses Cortana to save James in the other realm
This is a blade that can cut through anything…
She whipped Cortana forward, angled toward the archway as if it were so much paper she could slice through.
There was the sound of something shattering as Cortana drove through the barrier between this world and the next.
6. Thomas and Alastair complete Christopher’s antidote
Thomas cleared his throat. “Someone once told me that we need to stand back and let people do what they’re good at, and Christopher is good at this. I have faith in him. This antidote will work.”
Charles merely looked puzzled, but Thomas hadn’t said it for Charles. He looked at Alastair…
5. Cordelia dances with Cortana in the Hell Ruelle
Everyone in the room was looking at her as her body bent backward and her hair swept from side to side, an arc of fire. Her brown skin glowed; perspiration glimmered on her collarbones. James’s blood was pounding through his body like a river through a broken dam.
4. Jesse gives James his last breath
Lucie reached out her hand. It closed around the locket, and she felt it tumble into her palm, cool and solid. For a moment she hesitated—just for a moment, her eyes fixed on Jesse, kneeling in the grass.
3. Cordelia lies to protect James
“James cannot have been in Idris. He was with me. In my bedroom. All night.”
2. James insists on marrying Cordelia
“I can ask one last thing of you,” [James] said. “One last sacrifice for me.”
Since it might be the last time she ever saw him, Cordelia let her eyes linger on James’s face. The curve of his mouth, the arch of his high cheekbones, the long lashes that shadowed his pale gold eyes…“
What?” Cordelia said. “If it is in my power, I will do it…”
“Daisy,” he said. “Will you marry me?”
1. James and Cordelia kiss in the Whispering Room
[James] deepened the kiss, suddenly, as if he couldn’t help himself. He leaned into it, into her, his tongue tracing the shape of her mouth, making her shudder.