The Blood Mirror Never Lies novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Night Before

Cassian's POV

The bolt on her door slid back before I knocked.

She stood in the doorway in a plain nightgown with her hair down, and she looked at me for a long moment.

"You're standing in the corridor like a man waiting to be sentenced," Elspeth said.

"I didn't want to presume."

"Then stop presuming and come in."

I came in.

My mother was asleep three rooms down, with a guard I trusted outside her door and a bowl of oats on her table.

The Trial was at dusk tomorrow, and neither of us had said the word since the Hollow.

Elspeth shut the door and left the bolt open.

"Sit," she said.

I sat on the edge of her bed, because I couldn't find anywhere else to put myself.

She stood in front of me, close enough that I could smell the soap on her skin.

"Tell me something I don't know," she said.

"You know nothing. That narrows it."

"Tell me something about me that I'd have been glad to hear."

I looked at her.

"The first Sunday you polished the glass, you talked to it," I said. "You told it your name, in case it wanted to know who was cleaning it."

Her mouth twitched.

"Tobias heard you, and said nothing for a week. Then he told you that the glass was very pleased to meet you."

Her eyes had filled, and she was laughing at the same time.

"I don't remember that."

"I do," I said. "I'm sorry it's mine and not yours."

"Don't be sorry. Just tell me the next one."

I told her about the keeper's tower in winter, and the kitchen cat she fed against orders, and the lullaby she hummed over the rag without knowing she did it.

She sat down beside me while I talked, then lay back, then pulled me down by the front of my shirt.

"You can stop talking now," she said.

I kissed her.

It was nothing like the alcove.

There was a lamp lit, and a bed, and a whole night, and I took my time with her mouth.

She sighed into me.

Her hands slid under my shirt and over my ribs, over the old scar, and stopped there.

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend