DREAM

Chapter Two

The skin of her arms were smooth and unblemished again. Only minutes had passed since she had pulled the glass from them and already they had healed. Now if only her heart could heal so quickly.

She sat before her vanity, pulling a brush through long hair and trying not to think too much about her decisions… lest she develop doubts. Her face was no longer red and she had been out of the bathroom's heat long enough for the swelling of her eyes to decrease. The brush clicked softly as she set it down, closing her eyes and breathing deeply.

She could do this.

Her Summer Girls entered at her beckoning and with glassy, far away eyes she let them dress her and make her up like a doll. Painted and dazzling, looking everything like the perfect immortal she was. Perfect Immortal Queen.

Aislinn reached for the mirror, fingers ghosting over the contours of her reflection. Down a powdered cheek, across plump, painted lips, down the column of her neck, collarbones - hand falling away as her eyes followed the rest. This… stunning, alien woman dressed in an evening gown that wouldn't have suited her at all before…

Before.

She turned, Summer Girls opening the door for her as she walked out and slowly made her way to where her King was. Her King, their Revelry, their Court. Her fate.

The full moon hung low and heavy in a cloudless navy sky. Keenan stood in the middle of their faeries, waiting for her - always waiting - a smile on his handsome face. She couldn't make herself smile back.

Before him now, he bowed to her and she curtsied to him. The moment his arm was about her waist the music started. As if from nowhere a symphony burst to life and they were all dancing; one hand at his shoulder, the other in his.

There were supernovas in his eyes and she stared, riveted, into them. They were her grounding - her beautiful anchor that made her heart clench painfully and made her weak in the knees at the same time. As always, she was swept away by him. By him and by their dancing. Fast, dizzying, overwhelming. They spun and moved to music with no particular rhythm and somehow she knew exactly where to put her feet. He dipped her, leaned with her, warm breath ghosting her throat - her heart threatening to burst through her ribs - and then they were up again and moving.

They paused only to drink the Summer Wine and to spread sunlight onto the blossoming flowers and plant life. It was only when the drink had made her warm (or was that Keenan? She couldn't tell anymore.) and when she was spinning about with Keenan, wrapped in his arms, that she finally smiled. Always, always… he made her feel better. Made her feel --

He drew her closer; both his arms about her waist and both hers at his shoulders. Pressed together like this, swaying to the music that sounded fuzzy and far from her now, she closed her eyes and lost herself in him. The circuit of flowing sunlight between them calming. He was calming. He was --

Distantly she wondered why this was easier than she thought it would be. This decision of hers.

Sadly she wondered… why Seth was being so easy to forget. How her heart could be so traitorous.

At least for now. In this wonderful, dizzying moment.

"Ash…"

Her eyes slid open and his face was closer than she had expected it to be. She kept his gaze, saying nothing and remaining unflinching when he moved closer. Her lips parted just slightly and she tilted her chin up just slightly to meet him halfway.

It was different. So very, very different. Sweet and sour - passion, frivolity - it was the taste of summer. Warm air, cool lapping water, the smell of the world after a storm. Keenan. It tasted like Keenan. She found that it was oh so very wrong, but oh so very right.

There was hurt in his eyes now - those eyes that always watched her - and she realized she had forgotten to kiss back.

Aislinn sank into him, chasing after his mouth that had begun to pull away. This time, when their lips met, she made sure to kiss back.

Now there was surprise in those eyes. Surprise and hope. She felt an awesome amount of relief when he closed them the very next moment, though hers remained open. She had decided to do this, but she couldn't honestly tell herself that if she closed her eyes she wouldn't pretend he was someone else.

So she kissed her King with open eyes.