Page 206 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“Your heart is mine.”
“Titania’s thorny tits, do you ever stop—”
“I fear I may always love you.”
“You were mine, once.”
“You aren’t horrified, are you?”
“You talk a lot.”
Aislinn ran forward. From time to time, she thought she saw something—figures or shapes, swirling through the mist, but they were no more than phantoms made of shadow.
“Caer!” she called. “Where are you?”
But he couldn’t answer. Because even if he was alive, he was trapped inside that coffin.
Aislinn placed a hand to her chest. Hehadto be alive.
Something lurked in the fog, something dark and shapeless. It had no voice, no form. It was everywhere and nowhere. She could feel it rumbling, as surely as she felt magic in the air—but this was something else, somethingother.A cold, dark opposite.
“What are you?” she asked.
Her own voice echoed back.
What are you, what are you, what are you?
When you looked in a mirror, how deep did the reflection go? How long did this place go on for?
“You will let me find him,” Aislinn told the void. “Let me find him!”
When nothing happened, she started sweeping the clouds, slicing through shadow. She would not let this defeat her.
But how could she fight herself out of here?
Aislinn paused, taking a deep breath. This monster would not be defeated by steel or by force. It was a thing of magic. It would be defeated by magic.
And for however much it was never her strength, she couldn’t falter now.
I can bend the wind, make the leaves dance, shape the earth, command fire. You have no power over me.
She closed her eyes, imagining herself in a forest, imagining the feeling of the earth beneath her feet and the wind in her hair. Home. All of Faerie was.
And so was Caer.
“Give him to me.”
For the first time, the rumble thundered, and almost the shape of words came back, warning her that she could not do that.
“I am the future queen of Faerie,” said Aislinn, “and yes I can.”
The darkness flared against her, fighting back, making the fog howl and scream. Aislinn let it wail, flung herself into that force, soaked in it,revelledin it.
She had space enough for magic. She was a vessel of it. Maybe this was why she’d never been able to master it, because she was built to have space to take on more.
More, more, more!
She drank it, stored it, breathed it. It was hers to command, hers to wield. She heard her father say power was intoxicating before, but this was more than that. It was drowning and flooding the world. It was setting a forest on fire while you danced beneath a tree. She wanted to bathe in its glory, inhale it, sing to it.
