 by Evangeline Anderson.jpg)
Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Who ever heard of a fairy princess with no magic? Well, that happens to be my fate. I am Alira Shiningstar of the Royal house of the Seelie Court. I am descended from a long line of powerful Fae, and yet I have no power of my own.
I might be forgiven for having no magic, but I have no beauty, either. I am curvy where I should be thin and my hair is dark instead of blonde. I do not look like the other Fae maidens…so why is it that Liath Blackthorn, the Prince of our sworn enemy, the Unseelie Court, wishes to marry me?
Liath doesn’t look like a proper Fae either—he is tall and beastly with curving horns and blazing bronze eyes. He tells me that I do have magic—that it is buried inside me. And only he can bring it out.
But the things he wants to do to unlock my hidden power leave me hot and trembling. Surely it isn’t right to do such things, even with one’s husband…is it? I don’t know if it is or not—I only know that the touch of my new husband’s hands on my body makes me quiver with need. And inside me I feel a force growing…a shadow that is bigger than both of us.
What happens next? You’ll have to read this Enemies to Lovers, He Falls First, Praise K*nk, Who Did This To You, Sex Magic, Spicy Dark Fantasy Romance to find out!
Author's Spice note--this one gets spicy. Don't say I didn't warn you. : )
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
One does not often hear of an ugly fairy princess, but we do exist.
I am ugly—by the standards of my court.
I am Princess Alira of the Seelie Court—some call it the Summer Court, for it is always fair and bright in my father’s kingdom. And so are the inhabitants—High Fae all of them—with the palest skin, hair like spun gold, and eyes like jewels.
I am pale, all right, but I miss the mark in all other respects and thus I am ugly—at least according to my cousins, Asfaloth and Calista and my father, King Euberon, to whom I am a great disappointment.
I do not have the fair, golden hair or the jewel-toned eyes, so prized in the Seelie Court, that the other High Fae possess. Nor am I slender as a sapling, with tiny breasts no bigger than Spring buds.
This boyish beauty has eluded me all my life. I swear I came from the womb a chubby infant—so big in fact, that my passage took my mother’s life, for her hips were too narrow and her body too delicate to bear me. For this, my father has never forgiven me—for my ugliness killed her beauty and deprived the Seelie Court of its Shining Star.
As I grew, I never “leaned out” as my old nurse kept hopefully predicting I would. Instead, I developed unsightly curves—broad hips and a large behind. And worst of all, full, heavy breasts tipped with large nipples and wide areolas, obscenely dark against my pale skin.
I am a throw-back, they say. A mutation, with my long, midnight blue hair and dark gray eyes like a storm on the ocean, about which there is nothing jewel-like at all. My seamstress tries to hide my overfull curves in voluminous dresses—but such garments only makes me look bigger and even more unlovely.
Of course, even an ugly fairy princess is still a princess and might be tolerated if she has strong magic. But here again, I am caught out—for I have none. I cannot do the simplest thing for myself—I cannot heal a wound if I get cut, or clean a spot from my dress. I cannot bless or curse anyone—I cannot even turn cream into butter to spread on my toast.
Not that I am supposed to be eating toast. My maid is always trying to tempt me with thistle-down tea and rose petal stew. Such delicate fare is what most of the Court enjoys and also what is considered proper for a princess of royal blood. I think my father believes that if I subsist on nothing but moonbeams and stardust, I may in time grow slender and willowy as a Fae maiden is supposed to be.
Or that was his hope for many years. But now, it seems he has given up. For today I am leaving the Seelie Court forever and he will never have to see me again.
Today I am to be married.
“Here you are, my Lady.” My maid, Tansy, bustles into my room, a long white dress draped carefully over her twig-like arms. “Your wedding dress—just finished and fresh from the seamstress this moment,” she tells me.
Tansy is a brùnaidh, sometimes also known as a ‘hobgoblin’ by the ruder denizens of the Seelie Court. She has a small, thin body with rough, brown, bark-like skin and a large, round head that seems too big to be supported by her skinny neck. Her nose is long and crooked but her eyes are kind.
She is considered quite shockingly ugly in a Court obsessed with beauty and symmetry, but I don’t care. I chose her to be my maid because, of all those who applied for the position, she was the only one who didn’t sneer when she saw me.
I chose her from among a lot of fairies, their shimmering, gossamer wings flapping idly as they gossiped among themselves in their high, flute-like voices. Some creatures may straddle the line between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, but the fairies belong firmly in the Summer Realm. They are utter perfection with their tiny, symmetrical features and slender, androgynous bodies—my exact opposite. Maybe you can see why I didn’t want one for a maid.
“My wedding dress,” I say, echoing her words, but the thought brings me no joy. The man my father has agreed to give me to is from the Dark Realm—the Unseelie Court or the Winter Court, some call it—for it is always cold and barren there. Or so I have heard—I have never been to visit.
The Courts do not mix, as a general rule, except in battle, for there is a long-standing feud between the Seelie and Unseelie Realms. This is something my marriage is meant to fix—I am a peace offering—a sacrificial lamb being sent to the slaughter. The hope is that by marrying a princess of the Summer Court to a prince of the Winter Court, peace may be achieved.