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Mark didn’t think he’d ever danced with Kieran before, not at a revel; they had always tried to conceal their relationship in front of the greater world of Faerie. And Kieran, if he could not dance with his chosen partner, would not dance with anyone.

But he was dancing now. And if Cristina had moved like fire, Kieran moved like lightning. After a moment of hesitation, Cristina followed him—he drew her into his arms—caught her, lifted her up into the air with easy faerie strength, whirling her around him. She gasped, and her face lit up with the pleasure of the music and the movement.

Mark stood where he was, feeling awkward and startled in equal measure. What was Kieran doing? What was he thinking? Was this a reproach of some sort? But it didn’t seem to be one. How much had Kieran seen? The kissing, or just the dancing?

He heard Cristina laugh. His eyes widened. Incredible. She and Kieran were like stars whirling together, just touching at the edges, but flaring up into a rain of sparks and fire when they did. And Kieran was smiling, actually smiling. It changed his face, made him look as young as he actually was.

The music ended. Cristina stopped dancing, looking suddenly shy. Kieran lifted his hand to touch her long dark hair, sweeping it back over her shoulder so he could lean in and kiss her cheek. Her eyes widened in surprise.

Only then, when he had drawn back, did he look at Mark. “There,” he said. “That is how the blood of Faerieland can dance.”

@cassandraclare

queenoffangirlsxx said:. I just have one question, faeries are my favourite downworlder species and I was just thinking if faeries believe names have power so they don’t tell people their birth name, isn’t that technically a lie, so how do they get around this, and if you were to ask a faerie for their birth name what would they do? love you xxx

First off, I should mention that the idea that faeries are unable to lie is not something I invented, but is in fact a very old aspect of faerie folklore. A huge amount of the built world of the Shadowhunters depends on stories from myths and folklore — stories of ancient myths, like the Nephilim and giants who walked the earth, myths of angels and demons. When those myths are not about gods and devils, we call them folklore — stories about creatures like vampires, werewolves and faeries. In order to enrich the world of the Faeries in the Shadowhunter books, I’ve mixed folklore (that faeries cannot lie, that they rarely reproduce and often steal human children, that their true names have power, that there is a Seelie and Unseelie Court) with invented aspects — the Thorn Mountains, the Seelie Queen and Unseelie King, the Riders of Mannan. That is in many ways how we define urban fantasy as a genre — the mixing of our own individual and original storytelling with ancient tales and myths. 

 The idea that faeries cannot lie figures into Thomas the Rhymer, among many other stories. Here’s a fun list of tropes that have grown out of faerie folklore: http://allthetropes.wikia.com/wiki/The_Fair_Folk (You’ll see True Name on there, too!)

So: There’s a big difference between being unable to lie and being constantly compelled to tell the truth. The inability of faeries to lie is not an inability to be dishonest. They excel at dishonesty, precisely because they cannot tell boldfaced lies. Avoiding sharing one’s true name isn’t lying, it’s evasion, and as we’ve seen with the Seelie Queen, faeries are nothing if not skilled at evasions and misdirections!

All of you are Christ’s body and each one is a part of it.

-Corinthians 12: 27