Down on the soft pale sand, under a blue-and-white-striped umbrella, Riker was buried in the shade, his lips sunk against the neck of a lanky golden-haired human.
Damion let out a menacing growl and took a step forward, but she threw her arm out in front of him.
“You should not allow—”
“He’s not mine, Damion,” she said. “He’s free to do as he likes.”
“What are you talking about?” Damion squared off with her. She glared back at him. The longer they lingered on the boardwalk, the more attention they would draw, especially if they continued to argue.
“You are a Rae. He is a Prince. You are living together—”
“Yes.”
“And have you slept with him?”
“How could I not? You know how it is.”
“Then what—?” He flung his arm out towards Riker and the blonde, almost smacking a passing older woman in the face. She yipped, clutching her purse to her chest.
“We’re sorry,” Magda said, smiling as sweetly as she could with her teeth clenched. The woman hurried off down the boardwalk without another squeak.
Magda seized Damion’s shirt and tugged him off the boardwalk onto the congested beach.
“You listen to me,” she said, lowering her voice. “I haven’t performed the claiming ritual with him.”
“Why not?”
“He doesn’t know what it means. And there’s no need, besides...” She folded her arms and gave the blue-and-white umbrella, which was all they could see now, a dark look. “We’re happier this way. He would despise me if I claimed him fully. He wouldn’t understand and what would be the point? I don’t want children. I can barely afford to feed myself. And if I had any, they too would become targets. It’s better this way. And also, I promised my mother that I would not claim a Prince until after I became Radiant. And obviously, that’s never going to happen, so...” She shrugged.
“You allow him to sleep with... humans?” Damion said, as if she’d told him that Riker was sleeping with dead squids.
“I don’t allow him anything. He does as he likes and so do I. I have no intention of returning home or fighting to be Radiant.”
“Unless another Rae discovers there’s a Prince here,” he said.
“And how would that happen?” she asked.
“I found out. That troll truck driver who brought me here told me as much. What’s to keep him from telling someone else? Does he realize what could happen?”
She ground her teeth. “I told you. Riker doesn’t understand the way it is back home. He only knows what his parents and I have told him. They don’t want him to go back.”
“And they have not told you to claim him? For his own safety?”
“Claiming him wouldn’t make him safer,” she said. “It would only get him killed if anyone came after me. He doesn’t know how to fight. He was born here. He was raised here, as a human. His parents left everything behind. They weren’t happy when he found me. But they know there’s nothing they can do to stop it. He’s a Prince and I’m a Rae. We’re drawn to each other, even in this world, but that doesn’t mean—”
“The disrespect—”
“Mags?” Riker appeared with his arm wrapped tight around the blonde’s straight and narrow waist. “I thought I smelled... saw you. Who’s your friend?”
“Who’s yours?” Damion asked, emanating tension.
Riker stepped back. He, like so many of their Princes, was achingly beautiful. Lean and broad in the shoulders, he was tall, with a messy swath of dark hair, a fine square jaw, and full lips. He modeled, when he remembered to show up for the shoots. Magda did her best to remind him and get him there, because they needed the money. Working as a lifeguard didn’t earn her very much. All the gold and silver she’d brought with her had been put towards buying the house and paying off the conductors who had escorted her safely from Alfheim to this world.
“Why don’t you take off, Sophia?” Riker said, extricating himself from her.
The girl shot Magda a dirty look and then wrapped her arms around Riker’s neck, murmuring in his ear and pressing her barely-clothed-in-a-bikini tanned-golden-brown body against his.
“I hate this world,” Damion snarled, turning away as Riker half-heartedly attempted to coax Sophia to leave.
