Page 118 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“Oof!”
She stopped, startled. Tiberius was standing in front of her.
“We really must stop meeting like this,” he said, smiling at her.
Aislinn couldn’t return that smile. Frustration pinged against her insides. Frustration, and… heat.
She swallowed. Tiberius had a lovely face, chiselled like marble, and his shoulders were strong and broad…
His smile dropped. “Are you all right?”
“I, um… I can’t really…”
“The mortal prince hasn’t done anything to upset you, has he? I saw the two of you heading out earlier—”
“He hasn’t… no,” she said firmly. “Caer is a perfect… Caer isperfect.” She was amazed at her capacity for truth, that such a thing could even be considered true. No one was perfect.
It’s not a lie if you believe it.
“Right,” said Tiberius, still looking very confused. Aislinn sniffed some more. “Let’s get you into your room,” he said, opening the door. He steered Aislinn towards the bed and sat her down, turning to the dresser to fetch her a goblet of wine and leaving the door ajar.
Tiberius pressed the goblet into her hand and sat down beside her. He offered her his handkerchief, a silky black scrap of fabric embroidered with a pattern of gemstones.
“Can I fetch someone for you?”
“I just want to be…” She stopped, realising shedidn’twant to be alone, that actually, yes, she did want someone with her.Caer, Caer, Caer.She wanted him.
And he wasn’t here.
But he was coming. He said he was. She just needed to calm down before he got here.
She tried to focus on the taste of the wine, rich and fruity, like cherries and velvet. It was soft. Warm.
Like Tiberius, whose body was next to hers, radiating heat, with his muscled shoulders and soft-looking lips and stubbled chin…
“Princess Aislinn?” Tiberius prompted, “are you all right? You and the prince—”
“Please,” Aislinn told him, “I don’t want to talk about him.”
Don’t want to talk and don’t want to think… I might explode if I do.
“Is there anything I can do?”
Aislinn’s eyes stayed fixed on his lips. “Yes,” she said, swallowing.Help me, help me, free me, free me. Make this stop!
Her lips came within a fraction of his before she jerked herself away, cursing under her breath and leaping to the other side of the room.
Tiberius stared at her, still rooted on the bed. “I am exceptionally confused right now.”
“I’m in heat!” she wailed. “Faeries—oh, spirits, how do I explain—”
“I am, er, familiar with the concept,” Tiberius explained. “I’m quite well read—”
“You are?” Aislinn hid her face behind her hands. “I’m so sorry. I’m just not thinking clearly—”
“That’s fine!” Tiberius said. “But I really feel like perhaps I should just… go?”
“That would be best.”
