Page 80 of Fallen Mate

As I watched Aria laugh, her cheeks flushed and joy on her face, I realized that as long as I was here, she could safely enjoy herself.

It took them rising to join the dancing fae for me to notice that my brother was also sober.

“You don’t want to dance?” I asked, eyeing him as he eyed Lucia, who, despite my earlier assumptions, was in fact enjoying the party.

“Too anxious,” he answered, turning towards me. “You?”

“Too anxious,” I echoed.

“I’ve got a real bad feeling, Sariel,” he said seriously. “My angel is ready to claw his way out.”

Very relatable, considering there was a dull throbbing starting behind my eyes from where my angel was trying to slam his way out.

“Me too,” I said quietly. “But I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Mikey was quiet for a moment. He turned back to watch the others, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.

“I know, Sariel. You’ll keep us safe.”

24

THE MATTER OF REPRODUCTION

Aria

“We should have asked if we needed to bring a gift,” I whispered to Sariel.

“What gift could we have gotten on such short notice? And where? Plus, you don’t know enough about them not to unknowingly insult them with your gift,” he explained calmly.

How he could be calm at a time like this was beyond me.

After the party I could inexplicably remember very little about, Sariel told me we’d been taken to our rooms—unlike the others who lived in a small town less than a mile from the castle, we were apparently allowed to spend the night here.

And we’d been here ever since. Sariel claimed it had been three days, but I wasn’t sure. My head was foggy.

Lucia had given us a tour of the areas we were allowed to explore; she was surprisingly pleasant outside of the throne room.

My curiosity had hounded me to ask how it was possible for her to be the Queen’s sister and look like she did while the Queen herself looked like a decaying tree’s corpse, but Sariel had held my tongue by gently reminding me that prying questions about the rulers of this entire continent could get us killed. That sobered me enough to keep my curiosity about their parentage under wraps.

Lucia had also informed us about the dress code, because Marilyn had asked why she couldn’t wear her usual pants and boots. We’d each been given a small collection of items to wear.

The men had been provided with linen pants and sleeveless, vest-like shirts that dipped in a V at the neck, exposing some of their chest. Johnny had been slathered in some sort of makeup cream that covered his tattoos, too.

We, the women, had been given long-sleeved, light cotton dresses to wear, and that was it. No bras or panties included.

In fact, the men hadn’t been given any underwear, either. I wondered if these people realized that we were inRomania? Did they understand how cold it was outside? Even as I thought that, though, I noted that I hadn’t felt a chill since we’d landed at the Citadel.

As usual, I had forgotten to factor in the most important thing: magic.

Lucia had explained that the fae preferred pure, unmarred skin, unless you were a warrior fae. They were the only ones granted permission to mark their bodies up with tattoos. It was why Johnny’s tattoos had needed to be covered up.

The reason for the lack of underwear had made Lucia flush scarlet. Neither Sariel nor I missed the way she subtly glanced at Michaelson when she explained that the Queen gave off pheromones that would trigger sexual urges, and most times, the fae simply took advantage of it. Regardless of where they were.

She’d also explained very quickly that all fae—the King and Queen aside—were non-monogamous. They had sex with whoever they wanted and procreated with whoever they happened to get pregnant with or impregnate, which wasn’t an issue because fae children were raised by the royal family until they were old enough to be integrated into fae society.

I had to clarify that this went only for fae of this region. It was. Despite the castle being massive, the number of fae scattered across Europe had to be in the millions. I couldn’t imagine the King and Queen raising that many kids.

Sariel had then proceeded to make it clear that he and I wereverymonogamous.

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