Page 3 of Accidentally Ever After
Chapter 1
I woke up in sheets so soft they felt like sleeping inside a cloud. For one blissful moment, I thought maybe I’d dreamed the whole fairy wedding disaster. Maybe I’d splurged on nice bedding with my catering payment.
Then I opened my eyes to a ceiling that appeared to be made of mother-of-pearl and reality came crashing back.
“Fuck me,” I groaned, pulling the impossibly soft pillow over my face.
“Is that a request or an expression of dismay?” came a smooth voice from across the room.
I yelped and sat bolt upright. Prince Caelen—my husband, apparently—stood by a set of towering windows, silhouetted against what looked like the actual Aurora Borealis. He wore only a pair of loose silk pants that hung low on his hips, leaving his chiseled torso bare. His wings were partially extended, catching the light in hypnotic patterns.
“Expression of dismay,” I croaked, clutching the sheet to my chest despite being fully clothed in the t-shirt and boxers I’d worn to bed. “Definitely dismay.”
Caelen’s mouth quirked. “Understandable. You’ve had quite the transition.” He moved toward the bed with that ethereal grace all fairies seemed to possess, like gravity was more of a suggestion than a law. “Did you sleep well?”
“I was unconscious as soon as I walked through that fairy circle thing,” I admitted. “What did you people do to me?”
“Realm transfer can be taxing on humans,” he said, perching at the edge of the massive four-poster bed. “Your body needed to adjust to the magical saturation of our atmosphere.”
Up close, I could see that what I’d initially taken for unusual paleness was actually a subtle pattern on his skin—swirls and whorls that caught the light like mother-of-pearl. His eyes were even more startling in daylight (if that was indeed daylight outside and not some fairy light show)—violet with flecks of silver.
“So,” I said, trying to sound casual, “about this whole marriage thing. There’s got to be a way to undo it, right? No offense.”
His wings twitched slightly. “You wish to dissolve our union before it has even begun?”
“I didn’t even know it had begun! I thought I was signing a catering invoice!”
Caelen’s expression softened. “My father’s methods were… unorthodox. For that, I apologize.” He ran a hand through his loose platinum hair, and I definitely did not notice how the movement made his arm muscles flex. “However, the magical binding cannot be easily undone. The Seelie matchmakers identified you as my ideal consort, and the magic accepted our match.”
“But we don’t even know each other,” I protested.
“A circumstance we now have ample time to remedy,” he said reasonably.
I took a deep breath. “Look, I have a business. Clients. Bills. I can’t just vanish into fairyland—”
“The Autumn Court of the Seelie Realm,” he corrected again.
“Whatever! The point is, I have a life!”
“Had,” Caelen said mildly. “Your new life is here, as my consort.”
I glared at him. “And if I refuse?”
“As was explained, breaking the contract would result in your transformation into a rather unappealing amphibian. Additionally, once bound to the realm, humans cannot survive long periods in the mortal world without magical intervention.”
“So I’m trapped.”
His wings drooped slightly. “I had hoped you might come to see it as an opportunity rather than a prison sentence.”
I flopped back against the pillows. “An opportunity to what? Be eye candy for a fairy prince?”
His eyebrows rose. “You think I find you decorative?”
“Don’t you?” I snapped. “Isn’t that why your dad tricked me into signing that contract? To get his son a pretty human pet?”
Caelen’s wings flared out suddenly, nearly spanning the width of the massive bedroom. The effect was startlingly intimidating, and I instinctively pressed back against the headboard.
“I am not my father,” he said, voice low and intense. “The matchmakers identified you as compatible with me in spirit, mind, and body. Not as a pet or a plaything, but as a partner. A consort is a position of high honor in our realm.”
