Page 169 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
Caer’s eyes opened. “Fae actually do that? I assumed it was rumour.”
“Are you horrified or curious?”
“Um, a little of both?” He looked around them, a sinful smirk flirting across his cheeks. He lowered his voice to a hushed whisper. “I’d definitely take you here if I could.”
Spirits and vines and creatures of the Deep—I’d let this man ruin me.
She swallowed, mouth dry. “If social protocol allowed it, I’d tear off your clothes and use you as a plate.”
“We could go back to your room…”
“Later,” she said, and stood up abruptly. “But notmuchlater.”
“Where are you going?”
“I need a drink. Stay here.”
She needed a drink. A drink, and a cold bath. And him. Oh, vines, she needed him. Needed to take him back with her to Acanthia and whisper mortal lies in his ear, promises she could not make. She needed him to warm her bed and hold her heart and stay beside her because the rest of the world felt like the Deep without him—her future a dark cavern of monsters.
I can’t leave him I can’t leave him I can’t.
Her gaze drifted once more to Mabel, sitting by the corner of the room, near to the windows stretching onto the balcony. Mabel who knew more about magic than her, and who sat quite alone right now. Minerva had not yet returned with Venus.
It was worth a shot.
“I should like to ask you something, if I may,” she said, approaching her again.
Mabel did not look up from her goblet. “Go on.”
“Are there items that can dampen magical powers?”
“You know there are, dearie.”
“What about more than dampen? More… bind entirely?”
Mabel looked up. “You are thinking of the prince.”
It did not surprise Aislinn in the least that Mabel knew about him. He was probably quite the talk of the town, and even if he wasn’t… Mabel would know. She always did.
“Yes.”
Mabel nodded, chewing her lip. “I could create a charm to dampen most people’s abilities, given the right ingredients. To put a block on them entirely… difficult, but not impossible.”
“Then—”
Maybe shook her head. “Not his, though. It’s taking an entire palace to contain him as it is, and still, they press against the barriers… I could not press that into an object. I do not think anyone could. His powers are too much, too powerful. Too… dark.”
Aislinn shook her head, her heart plummeting. “No. Caer isgood.”
“He is, his powers aren’t. His powers were never supposed to exist.”
“He isnothis powers.”
“No,” Mabel agreed. “He is not, from what I can see. I suppose we ought to be thankful for that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you imagine what might happen if anyoneelsehad got their hands on such a power? The damage they could have wrought—the armies they could have raised? And yet these powers came to a boy who didn’t want them, who tried everything to avoid using them—who only ever willingly used them for good.”
