Excerpt:

Llewellyn silently cursed Glada and Fate. How the hell was he supposed to make a life-altering decision on less than half an hours’ meeting?! Every other woman he had considered showing the locket to he had known for weeks—months—even years in some cases.

Yet this woman alone, a $human for the Goddess’ sake, now held his locket, and claimed to feel it’s heat and hear it’s calling. No one, not even he, really knew how the locket worked. It seemed to differ slightly from couple to couple. All he knew, beyond a doubt, was the woman he and the locket jointly chose would be his Queen. Their hearts and soul’s would merge, and they would rule the Fey for the next three hundred years.

He also knew he had to choose wisely and well. Not just because the woman they decided on would rule beside him for the next three centuries, but also because the locket was an integral aspect of the sacred ritual, and if he had chosen purely by himself, and not with the locket’s approval, the ritual would not work, and then they would $both be in deep shit.

“Well?” Katie injected impatiently into his thoughts. Llewellyn smiled. She seemed as completely unlike any of this other chosen paramours as possible. No pale, creamy skin here. No tiny, petite women he could sneeze on and blow away. This woman had sun streaked, dark blond hair, a tanned and voluptuous body. She also seemed to speak her mind and have quite a sharp brain behind her beautiful eyes.

All good aspects in a woman—just completely unlike his normal choice of bedmates.

“Well, the legend surrounding that locket is that only a woman who can unlock its secrets can marry the…men…of my family. Usually when we’re ready to settle down and chose our life partner, when we’re ready to commit to them, we bestow the locket upon them.” Katie caught her breath as Llewellyn smiled charmingly. His handsome features brightened and he looked like an unbelievably sexy, alluring man. “We then pray diligently that they can unlock it’s secrets.”

Katie smiled back, completely lost in his handsome face. His cheeky grin charmed her, as he laughed at himself and the men of his line. She had to shake her head and concentrate as he continued.

“When the women prove to be able to unlock the secrets, the Priestesses consider them “worthy” and we can…uh…marry…and live happily ever after.”

Llewellyn couldn’t help the huge smile that crossed over his face. Katie looked absolutely adorable, torn somewhere between disbelief and outrage. He knew how she would react to his explanation, but he had made a calculated risk. Say a few words she would fume and concentrate on, and hopefully she wouldn’t pay attention to his other hesitations.

“Prove worthy?” she spluttered and Llewellyn had a hard time not laughing outright. The harder she tried to talk to him, the more she worked up her anger, the more incoherent her speech became.

“Unlock the secrets?! Let me tell you something, oh High and Mighty One!” Llewellyn felt his eyes narrow again. Even though she seemed to be speaking partly in an angry sort of jest, he could tell that in her outrage she seemed to be drawing on a power, drawing on something else that wasn’t purely her own internal strength. Only the Priestesses called him the “High” or “Mighty” One, as his station in life allowed. Yet Katie couldn’t possibly know anything about that, about who he really was or anything about his Royalty.

Unless she was channelling without realising it, she had to be drawing on the feminine power of the Fire in the Opal Locket. How else could he explain the specific wording she used?

He felt his heart sinking as he realised in her annoyance and temper with him, she unknowingly and unwittingly seemed to draw power, as well as the fire, from the locket, and it accepted her without a qualm.

She was his Queen, and he would have a hell of a time convincing her of her duty. Sure, it would make life incredibly interesting – but he had a feeling there were a number of things he would have to explain to her that would bring nothing but arguments. Like the Ceremony.

Llewellyn could feel his chest tighten as he realised he would have a very long road to travel ahead of him.

“You make it sound like some sort of honour to be $chosen by ‘the men of $my line’.”

Llewellyn could no more halt the laughter bubbling inside him than he could stop the wind. The utter contempt and scathing scorn positively dripped from her words. The comical face she wore, trying to imitate him also had him grinning.

Annoying she might prove to be, but he would get a million laughs from her.
If he could convince her he needed her.

“Let me tell you something else, My Liege, many women wouldn’t consider it the height of their life-purpose to be proposed to by you! Some women want their $own lives, want their $own destinies. Some of us do not wish to become Fairy Princesses, and rule a Kingdom. Some of us want to live on our own terms and find our own men who love us for being ourselves and not just because their prophesies would be fulfilled. I’ve always hated how the Cinderella and Snow White’s of the world never had anything better to do than bow and scrape to their princes. I sincerely hope once that ring was on their finger they gave them holy hell!”

Llewellyn opened his mouth to interject. Now that Katie had paused to take a deep breath, he hoped to calm her down a little. Yet the odd light in her eyes flickered, and he saw a dawning knowledge appear in their brown depths.

“Could you please explain to me,” she started very softly, “how the hell do I suddenly know you’re some Fey Prince looking for his Queen and trying to find a way to sweep me off to something completely alien to me? Should I be looking for the local loony bin to check myself into?”

Llewellyn took another deep breath.

“It’s the locket. I believe in your anger you unknowingly drew on its power, fire, and knowledge, and now some of each have entered your head. I am only assuming this, I couldn’t swear to it. Tell me though, does everyone here in your world have these same opinions as you?”

Llewellyn could tell she felt grateful for the momentary distraction.

“Don’t be stupid. I figure that, much like your world, most women here would give their right arm to be a Fairy Princess. Unlike most of the rest of the world, I learnt from Princess Di. I realise it’s more than hot baths and heaps of jewels. It’s politics and hard work and smiling till your face wants to crack. It also seems deadly dull and a hell of a lot of work for a few pretty gems and dresses. I’d rather stay here, thanks all the same.”

Llewellyn felt panic overtake him for the first time as she reached back to remove the necklace. She couldn’t refuse to come back with him. Sure, she wouldn’t have been his first, or even second choice in a companion, and certainly not as his Queen, but if Fate had chosen her to be his partner, he couldn’t really argue.

He needed to convince her to stay with him, to seduce her and introduce her into the better side of Fey Royal life. Llewellyn thought quickly as he reached forward to stop her hands from unclasping the locket.

“Don’t take it off!” he cried out, his feet throwing sand up everywhere as he lunged to stop her removing the necklace. He saw a moment’s worth of panic flicker through her eyes.

“Why?” she asked cautiously.

Llewellyn struggled to think for a moment.

“Now you’ve drawn on the powers you can’t take it off unless we do a ritual.”

Llewellyn nearly smiled as he saw panic be replaced by a calculating wariness. She mightn’t have been his own choice had he simply bumped into her in a meadow somewhere, but she had one hell of a sharp brain, and for that, he felt eternally grateful. Sharp enough to be cautious of the cock-and-bull story he had created in that instant. That sort of brains would serve her very well back at the court.

“What sort of ritual? I don’t do blood, pain, or anything weird.”

He chuckled and started folding up their rubbish. Screwing up the paper from the remains of their meal, he stood in the soft sand and held out his other hand. Smiling warily, she lifted up her hand and accepted it, accepted him. He felt his grin broaden.

“Who said anything about weird? Besides, you might find weird isn’t quite as bad as you imagine.”

“Llewellyn,” she said warningly, and he couldn’t help the laughter that spilled from him.

“Come for a walk,” he insisted, throwing the waste away in a bin up at the edge of the sand. “Let’s talk more before we decide to do anything rash.”

Enjoying her capitulation, even on this short acquaintance he knew it would not be repeated too often, he led them back to where the ocean hit the sand. Enjoying the sand and sea beneath his feet, they began to walk.

“Tell me more about your homeland,” Katie said shyly, looking out to the sea.

Surprised and touched, Llewellyn held her hand tighter and began to regale her with a loving description of his home world.

Hand in hand, they walked along the beach.