lightinglampinthedark said: Hi cassie I love your books so much that sometimes it hurts. I was wondering if Will would want Lucie to marry Alastair. I know he’s a Carstairs and thats probably a reason but I don’t think he would pressure her to especially if he sucks. Does he pressure her or forbid her from dating anyone else? Or does he just drop hints or something. I love Will and I know I will love Lucie and the other Last hours characters.

Haha, poor Alastair. Matthew Fairchild agrees with you! Nobody really dates in the Edwardian era, though you can court a lady–if a gentleman drops by the house at visiting hours often, asks you to dance a lot, and squires you around on outings, you probably have “an understanding.”. So Will cannot forbid Lucie to date. But of course, we all know and love Will, and Will would never pressure Lucie into anything, or forbid her to do anything–unless he thought she was throwing herself into danger. Certainly if Lucie said unto Will, “Da, I have considered Alastair and I find him to be a pill, I wish to marry this nice Shadowhunter in good standing, I love him”… well then, Will would be happy for her. Will would be less happy if he thought Lucie was making bad choices, and putting herself in jeopardy, or getting herself involved in dark magic. Will loves Jem, so he looks with the generous eye of love on Alastair and Cordelia, willing to believe in their goodness, thrilled that Lucie and Cordelia want to be parabatai. (When Lucie decides she wants to be Cordelia’s parabatai–and we’ll see the moment it happens–she thinks that she has found what her father had.) Will likes the idea of uniting his family with the Carstairs family, because of how much Will loves Jem, but more than anything he wants his children to be safe, happy, and to find real, true love. Will believes love —platonic or romantic — saves and transforms you. He wants nothing less for his kids.

immerundnie said: Hi Cassie! I’m waiting for the last hours since years and I’m so happy you’re giving us details and I can’t wait for matthew’s tale! Will we get to know more about Alastair even through the other characters pov? I can’t wait to know more about him I feel in my heart he’s not bad. <3 thank you so much for all. Love you.

I’m so happy you guys are interested in TLH! I know you’ve been waiting for it, and I really appreciate your patience and am working hard to make sure it pays off! I really love these characters and am delighted your heart is open to loving them too.

Alastair is a complicated soul! He’s very much at war with himself. (He’s also at war with others.) As we already saw in Nothing But Shadows, he says and does some appalling things. Cordelia loves her brother very much, but she doesn’t really understand him. Sometimes, especially when there are just two siblings, you end up defining yourself against each other. So Charles and Matthew Fairchild are as different as it’s possible for two people to be. James and Lucie Herondale, while alike in a lot of ways, also have sharp differences–James longs for an epic love like his parents had, while Lucie thinks that seems too painful. And Lucie thinks at one point that Alastair and Cordelia are like a cat and a dog, not getting along because they have such essentially different natures and ways of expressing themselves. For instance, Cordelia is a warm-hearted girl, both verbally and physically affectionate, and Alastair is not at all, so Cordelia wonders painfully if her brother loves her. I’d say Alastair’s worst habit is that he doubles down on his bad choices, even though that’s bad for him. Alastair acts out around James, who is different from everybody because of his demonic heritage, because ostracizing someone else makes Alastair feels more like he belongs. Alastair didn’t have an easy time of it at Shadowhunter Academy, but that doesn’t mean he had to make life hard for James. Alastair’s full of bitterness, and that’s not good for people–he hates and is jealous of James, hates and despises Matthew, and thinks Christopher is a loon, but he also hates himself. Alastair is dyeing his hair, not singing ghazals as he once loved to do, he feels crushingly responsible for the wellbeing of his mother and sister: he’s not a happy person. Yet it’s very difficult to stop making bad choices once you start. The question is whether Alastair finds in himself the strength to stop… or continues to double down.