Page 170 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“How do you know all that?”
“I hear things, Princess, and my ears travel far.”
Aislinn wondered at the power Mabel had that she was able to sense Caer’s powers even underneath the barrier, to know what she did without any examination, but she knew better than to press it. Mabel was not fae, she was capable of lying, and it did not do to piss her off. She’d once cursed Beau with donkey ears for a perceived slight when he was eight years old. They’d both learnt from that experience.
She thanked the witch for her time, and went to find something to drink. The ale was far too weak for her. Her gaze sought out Venus again, but she was still nowhere to be seen.
She has to let me stay. She has to.
Aislinn sighed, taking two tankards, and returned to Caer, half-tossing them aside and leaping on him instead.
“Well, hello,” Caer said when she pulled back, grinning from ear to ear, “did you miss me?”
“No,” she replied.But I will. I will, I will, I will! I’ll miss you so much I fear I will break from it.She tugged at his hands. “Come with me.”
Caer’s eyes gleamed. “Anywhere,” he replied. “Always.”
Liar.
She led him by the hands out onto the balcony. It was quieter here, not as raucous. Something was amassing on the lawns below—a demonstration for later, perhaps—but she paid it no heed. She was with Caer, after all. Nothing else seemed to matter.
Dropping away from him, Aislinn leant against the stone railing, fingers trailing above the gardens. She felt a glimmer of where the barrier ended and her magic flickered back, just for a second.
“Ais?” Caer asked, his fingers gracing the skin of her back.
She turned around, pulling him against her, bringing her mouth to his. The slow, languid glide of his lips set tiny ripples of heat down to her bones. She didn’t want to stop, or open her eyes, or face the next second without him.
But she needed to breathe. She needed to move.
She pressed away from him, standing up on the baluster.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I want to try something.”
She scooted back until the heels of her soft slippers almost trod air. Caer’s eyes widened, and he flinched forward.
“Relax,” she said. “You know I have the balance of a cat.”
“I know I’m terrified of you getting hurt.”
Aislinn bent down and kissed him. “I am very hard to break.”
In bones, at least. The rest of her broke fairly easily.Hecould break her easily.
She straightened up again and held up her arms, letting waves of glamour twirl across her torso, down her legs, dusting the gown in jewels and gold until it twinkled like dusk—sunset and starlight forged in fabric. It made her hair shine, reddened her lips, made her eyes glitter and her skin glow.
Caer stared, mesmerised.
“Come back down,” he whispered.
“The glamour will fade.”
“You won’t.”
Aislinn smiled, leaping into his outstretched arms. His broad shoulders wrapped around her as the glamour sloughed from her body. She stared down at his eyes. “I should give you truesight.”
Caer lowered her to the ground. “Will you still be able to conjure pretty glamours for me?”
