Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight (The Fae of the Forest)

by Katherine Macdonald

“I’m dead, aren’t I?” Dillon continued, when he was met with nothing but silence. “I look dead. I look quite dead, actually, but feel very alive. How did that happen?” Aislinn pointed numbly towards Caer, still lying on the floor, wide-eyed. “He can bring back the dead,” she explained. “Not… not like that, though,” Caer mumbled. “Like what?” asked Dillon. “Um… sentient. You should be so, so…” “Oh,” said Dillon, like he was brought back from the dead every other day, “well, here I am!”

Dillon suddenly realised that they were all a bit naked right now. The water covered everyone up to the chest, but that was still… a lot of naked bodies in fairly close proximity. And Luna’s. He was very grateful he was no longer capable of blushing, even if that also meant he was incapable of other, considerably more fun things that required a rush of blood. “I had a dream like this once,” said Beau, who, unlike the others, was making no attempt to hide himself beneath the water. “My sister wasn’t in it, though.” Aislinn’s lip wrinkled. “Beau?” “Yes?” “Stop talking.” “Right. Yes. Very good.”

“It feeds your fearsome, cold-hearted reputation, my lamentable doom. I’m thinking of you.”