Page 36 of Fire in Stone

“The royal match selection is always a long and thorough process. The bride needs to come from an old, noble family with strong magic, which is usually one of the sixteen High Lord families. But the woman’s own magic is even more important than that of her bloodline. There have been cases of daughters of lower lords becoming queen because the magic manifested in them the strongest.”

“So, it’s all about the magic, then?” It sounded like some kind of genetic selection with the purpose of creating a superhuman…um, a super fae, in his case.

“Yes. Magic is power.”

“Does love have any meaning in Dakath at all?”

“Not in the royal household or those of the High Lords.” He shook his head. “Unless one is lucky enough to find their bonded mate, which is extremely rare. When it happens, however, the bonded love is more powerful than any magic.”

Maybe it was easier that way? The romantic feelings were either pre-determined by a magical bond or regulated by an arranged marriage.

Fae got it right. It was much simpler. Human love was often such a messy affair.

Nine

AMBER

As planned, we stopped at midday. Elex descended slowly, using the clouds for coverage to select a low-populated place for landing.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded, adjusting my grip on him.

“We’ll need to make this quick,” he said. “Fewer chances of someone noticing us.”

Folding his wings, he plummeted from the sky in a freefall.

The air rushed by us, robbing me of breath. I gasped in a lungful of it but couldn’t exhale. Burying my face in his shoulder, I braced for what seemed like an inevitably hard impact with the ground. But with a sharp sound of leather snapping, his wings unfurled. And he landed softly on both feet.

We were surrounded by trees. Elex had landed in a forest or a park, out of sight.

“Can you stand up?” he asked, gently setting me on the ground.

My legs wobbled after being held in the same position for hours. Elex supported me with his hands on my waist. I gripped his shoulders, shaking the numbness out of my legs and getting my blood flow going.

“I think I’m good.” I stepped back from him, and…was faced with all his naked glory.

His nudity had been much easier to ignore when I didn’t see it while pressed to his chest up in the air. Now, it literally stared me in the face. Thick, long, and hard.

“Um…” I felt my cheeks warming up again, but the warmth spread much lower down my body this time.

Elex shrugged, obviously unbothered by such trivial things as modesty or mortification.

“I haven’t felt a woman for years. And I’ve spent the last few hours holding you against me.” He casually gestured at his massive hard-on. “Thiscouldn’t be helped.”

“Right. Well…” I rubbed my forehead. “We should get you some clothes as soon as possible. Do you know where we are?”

“There appears to be a town that way.” He waved his hand to the right, then headed in that direction.

“Elex.” I hurried after him. “You’ll have to stay here. At least until I find some pants for you. Okay?”

His wings disappeared into his back. But even without them, he still presented quite a sight, butt-naked, with his obvious excitement on display.

“We’ll most likely get arrested the moment you march into the town like that…” I pointed at his tall, naked self.

He glanced down his body, pausing at his raging erection that seemed to “stare” straight back at him.

“What would you suggest we do about it?” The playful note in his voice implied that he might have a suggestion of his own.

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