A Court of Tears and Starlight

Reading between the lines

I was flying again. Strong arms held me and tightly pressed me up against a muscular torso. I looked up into deep set violet eyes, spirally into them. And then his sensual voice caressed all of me.

Forever mine.

I smiled and stretched out in my big comfortable bed. I reached out for his warm body and felt only the cold empty sheets. Oh... I recalled where I was. I was in the Spring Court... and Rhysand didn't share my bed anyway. Who knows who did, with that handsome perfection he could hardly lack offers and willing partners. I scowled at that thought, bitter with envy for everyone who had ever touched him that way.

There was a gentle knock at the door and Alis entered. She greeted me with a warm smile. Since I had come back from under the mountain things had changed between us. I wasn't sure if it was my sacrifice or the constant energetic presence of her nephews, but something had thawed that tough exterior. She laughed often and freely these days and was always more than happy to give me a piece of her mind. She fixed me with a disapproving stare.

"Do you plan on sleeping away the entire day?"

"Hmmm.. I haven't decided yet" I gathered up the blankets around me.

"We'll see about that" Alis tugged the blankets off me and shooed me out of bed. I was laughing too much for her to take my protests seriously.

I was quiet while her sure hand brushed my hair and wound it up in to the latest Spring style.

"Promise me that you will teach me how to do that when I have a daughter or my own."

Her eyes softened. "Well you won't meet your mate if you lay in bed all day like a boogworm."

"What's a boogworm?"

"Big fat sluggish creatures that lay in the mud all day. They keep their mouths open incase an unsuspecting creature walks right into it. Most die of pure laziness when they can't be bothered to get moving and find food". She swatted me playfully with the hair brush and I laughed.

"Well we both know that that will never happen. I'd know my way to the kitchen in the dark with a blindfold on."

She chuckled and nodded. Within a week of returning to Spring I had been blacklisted by the kitchen staff for all their supplies that went "missing" on my midnight wanderings.

"I'm not yet use to light and dark" I whined defensively. "Being confused is hungry work."

She had finished and she turned my head sideways so that I could see the intricate pattern of braids and woven curls. She some how managed to conjure a different masterpiece each morning.

"Alis..." I hesitated, not knowing if I was about to cross into improper ground. That was the trouble with having been born a human. There was so much I didn't know and so many things that the Fae themselves were hesitant to talk about.

"How often do High Fae actually find their mate?"

She paused and rubbed her forehead pensively.

"Not often. Once it was a normal thing. We don't know what changed. Whether the contact with humans altered our magic or if we offended the great cauldron. These days it is rare but not unheard of. Probably only one in every fifty find their mate. Most don't even search and are happy just to find another worth marrying."

She looked at me quizzically and I blushed. I felt like every feeling I had every felt towards Rhysand was written all over my face. I flushed an even deeper shade of scarlet, sabotaged by my own traitorous thoughts.

Alis smiled gently at me. She seemed so young in appearance. It was so easy to forget that she was hundreds of years my senior. To her I must seem like a very naive youth.
Her hand patted my shoulder. "When I was your age I dreamed of finding my mate too. Don't be shy lass. It is ok to dreams such dreams when you are as young as you are. By Fae years you are still in your infancy." As she said dream her eyes took on a curious look, but it was fleeting and she shook her head as if dismissing whatever suspicion had sprung to mind.