by Amy Sumida
My thighs went wide from the demand of Slate's hips but instead of wrapping my legs around his waist, I pushed my feet back against the crystal rails and used the leverage to angle my hips up to his. Then I slid my hand between us and guided him home.
Slate moaned, “Fuck, baby, you feel amazing.”
I grabbed his broad shoulders and leaned back further, giving him an even better angle. Slate growled and surged deeper. Pleasure spiraled up and down from where we were joined, curling my toes and fingers. I cried out as he ground his pelvis at just the right spot, ratcheting up my rapture. Slate's arm slid up and across my back so he could support me with one forearm while his other hand came forward. He palmed my breast and started an ardent kneading.
“Your skin shines like a pearl in this light,” he murmured before lowering his head to suck my nipple into his mouth.
I arched up against Slate, one hand going to the back of his head and my fingers threading through his hair.
“Sing for me,” he growled against my breast.
“Oh, I will.”
“No.” Slate lifted his face to meet my stare. “I mean actually sing. I want to hear your voice and feel your magic while I make love to you.”
Kyanite, I called in my mind. Do you mind?
“Magic Man” by Heart; an inspired choice, Kyanite said approvingly.
And, Ky?
Yes?
I love you too, Magic Jewel.
A shiver of joy fluttered through me; profound happiness that brought tears to my eyes. You might think that love between a woman and an incorporeal entity is silly at best, but this being knew me better than any other. He had supported me and saved my life time and time again. He was my partner in so many ways. If anyone deserved my love, it was Kyanite. And, if that love could bring him pleasure, then all the better.
The whine of an electric guitar split the night then a jagged grating joined it, shivering over my skin. I called up the magic and tossed back my head as it exploded out of my throat with lyrics and pleasure and love. I sang about a young girl seduced by an older man, one with such expertise that his touch was like magic. I took those lyrics and made them ours, putting my love for Slate in every word; singing it to him and his domain as he showed me how much he loved me.
Slate ground into me along with the pound of the music and our sex became something magical. Beyond its usual magic, that is. The music seemed to lift us into another realm; elevate us into our own private heaven where only we existed. Sweet stones, why hadn't I thought of this before? Ecstasy filled my voice and added power to the magic, detonating it over our skin like ripples of rapture. I could feel Slate everywhere; the song carried him through my skin and into my blood. I straightened up in the interlude and kissed him savagely, holding him pressed against me as the music whined and screeched around us like wild beasts.
Slate lifted me then took us to the balcony floor. He laid back and I sprawled over him and started to grind. His silver eyes caught the moonlight and flashed as his hands grabbed my waist and pulled me down. The music crested, and I began to sing again, belting out my love for this magic man and his magic hands, spiraling us upward together. I could suddenly feel Slate's desire as if I held it in my hands; a pulsing, electric thing. My song seeped into it and magnified it, matching it to my pleasure. Riding him hard, I finally threw my head back and shrieked out the final words, which weren't words at all but a diving, groaning sound that was perfect for my release. Slate came with me, his roaring shout a perfect complement to mine. Then I fell forward to lay panting across his chest as the magic withdrew and the music echoed into silence.
Slate's hand went to my head to hold me against him. “That was the most incredible experience of my entire life.”
I mumbled something against his skin.
“What was that?” He asked with a smile in his voice.
I lifted my head and looked down at him adoringly. “I said; I love you so damn much, Zone Lord.”
Slate's smile faded into grateful awe as he stroked my cheek. “Then marry me.”
“Always so demanding,” I teased but I did so breathlessly.
“What's your answer, Spellsinger?”
“What happened to not needing to be married?”
“Elaria,” Slate growled and rolled us so that he loomed above me.
“Yes, I'll marry you.” I rolled my eyes. “As if that were ever in doubt. Now, shut up and kiss me, Gargoyle.” I pulled his grinning face down to mine. “Now that we're back in tune with each other, I feel another song coming on.”
A Sneak Peek
Keep reading for a special look into the next book in the Spellsinger Series:
Singing the Scales
Chapter One
I stood on my private stretch of beach, staring at the Pacific without seeing it. I'd gone to Hawaii for refuge. Not that there was anything wrong in my relationship with my husbands... and fiancé. Yes, fiancé. Slate had proposed and I'd accepted. We were in the midst of planning a wedding but were taking our time with it. It would likely be held in his zone, the underground Beneather sanctuary run by Slate and policed by his team of Gargoyles. But I couldn't be there right now. Nor could I be anywhere my men were. Because another man would be coming to see me at any moment.
King Verin.
By some strange stroke of fate, we'd wound up together. The spell that bound my men to me and unified us in power and love—the Rooster Spell or RS for short—had been gaining strength and when she gained strength, she needed more fuel. More fuel meant more men. We'd scrambled to find a way to stop her growth, and the Witches came up with a solution. But by the time we undertook the spell that would quell the one inside me, it was too late. I'd been weakened by the loss of Slate—he'd been possessed at the time; long story—and didn't have the strength to survive the exacting spell the Witch Leaders were casting upon me.
Before that moment, Verin and I had shared a rare attraction and I had no doubt that it could turn into love if we gave it the chance, but neither of us had wanted that. So, we stayed away from each other. Life had other plans though and brought us back together. He was present at that deadly casting. When Verin saw me dying, he valiantly offered himself to my spell as fuel. Except there was one problem; we didn't love each other. The RS feeds on love and without it, she couldn't add Verin to our family.
I started to slip away despite his efforts, but Vivian, the Witch Leader of Water, used Verin's affiliation with water to connect with him and then with me. She cast a love spell on us. It was slapdash, to say the least, and Vivian assured us that it would be temporary. She meant that temporary status as a comfort, and it would have been if Verin and I weren't so deeply under her spell. My other men accepted that Verin had joined their number but only because it was temporary, and they asked us to stay apart until the spell wore off. They didn't want us forming an attachment that we wouldn't be able to break; one that made the lie of the spell into truth. My mind told me they were right but my heart violently disagreed.
Reason and love for my other men won out in the end, and I sent Verin away with the promise that if our love proved to be real, if somehow we had truly fallen in love during all of that insanity, then I would insist that he be accepted into the family. Even as I hoped for it, I knew it wouldn't happen. Before the spell, Verin had baldly stated that despite his attraction to me, he had no wish to share me with six other men. And who could blame him? Plus, his father had kept a harem, one his mother had been forced into, and that had—also understandably—left him with a distaste for any polyamorous lifestyle. We just wouldn't work.
But there I was; wringing my fingers and watching the waves—trying to see beneath them—as I waited for him to appear. Verin had vowed that he'd give the spell three months to wear off and then he'd come for me. Whether it had worn off or not.
It had not.
I took a shaky breath and swallowed past the dryness in my throat. I'd spoken to Vivian only that morning and she said what I'd expecte
d her to say; that magic is unpredictable. The spell would wear off, but she had no idea when. In fact, she was shocked that it hadn't done so already. A love spell goes against the will of its target and in this instance, it had two, strong-willed targets. That should have stretched the spell even thinner. In other words, it should have broken long ago.
After I spoke to Vivian, I called Verin using the piece of enchanted blue coral he'd given me. I'd given him a Shining One contact charm which does the same thing. I did so mainly so I wouldn't have to carry another contact charm around with me but I'd used his coral this afternoon because it seemed appropriate. Verin had answered near-instantaneously and said only two words.
“One hour.”
“I'm in Hawaii,” I told him.
“I know where you are,” Verin growled. “I can feel you through the coral.”
That was one function I hadn't been aware of. Leave it to a Dragon to give me a contact charm that doubled as a tracking device.
Oh, yeah. Did I forget to mention that Verin is the King of an undersea Dragon Court? It's just another reason we'd be a bad fit. I love the ocean—my mother is a Siren, I was practically born to love it—but I don't want to live in it. I can't; I have too many responsibilities on land, not the least of which were my commitments to my men; a Griffin, a Gargoyle, a Blooder (aka vampire), two Shining One kings, and a God (also a Shining One king). In other words, I was already connected to extremely powerful Beneathers, none of whom wanted to live underwater.
“Okay,” I had whispered to Verin.
He'd grunted and hung up. It was kind of his thing.
Now, I stood in the shallows, toes curling anxiously in the sand as I waited for a Sea Dragon to rise from the water like fucking Aphrodite.
He didn't disappoint.
Along with the tide, something a deeper blue than the waters of the Pacific crested. It lifted its massive head above the waves, trailing vivid orange whiskers in its wake. Reptilian lips pulled back to reveal teeth as long as my forearms and turquoise eyes with slit pupils flashed with magic. The beast dove, crimson fins cutting the water as its tail undulated up. One movement was all it took to bring him to shore. I watched the Blue Dragon shoot toward me like a missile, his body condensing and blurring through the lens of the water. By the time Verin reached me, he was in his human form.
And in only his human skin.
Verin rose from the sea; a glorious, god-like creature too beautiful and achingly exotic to call a man. His sleek muscles, narrow waist, and broad shoulders registered with me dimly. The indigo hair dripping down his sculpted chest also called for attention but even the thickening piece of flesh hardening between his corded thighs couldn't pull my gaze away from his.
Verin's turquoise eyes glowed and warmed to an even darker shade. Indigo. I had learned what that color indicated; a strong emotional response. Despite the powerful feelings riding him, Verin didn't speak, just made a satisfied sound as his arms closed around me. Our lips met and everything else ceased to exist. We lowered ourselves onto the sand. The waves lapped at our legs as Verin's body covered mine. I opened to him in every way, my arms drawing him closer.
“Get the fuck off my wife,” a voice growled furiously.
Grammar Giggles
And just for a little giggle, here are some grammar mistakes found during the editing of this book.
Correct Line: Slate eased up and grabbed my hip to pull me against him.
Giggle: Slate eased up and grabbed my hip to me me against him. (I read this out loud and couldn't stop laughing. It sounds like something kinky.)
Correct Line: “Your skin glows like a pearl in the night,” he murmured before lowering his head to suck my nipple into his mouth.
Giggle: “Your skin glows like a pearl in the night,” he murmured before lowering his head to suck my nipple into my mouth. (Now, that would be a trick, wouldn't it?)
Correct Line: A chance to see more of the surface world.
Giggle: A chance to sea more of the surface world. (This is funny because it's also punny.)
Correct Line: Verin's body was perfection.
Giggle: Verin's body body was perfection. (Hmm... I wonder what I was focused on.)
Editing is a rough job; our minds often fill in the correct word while we read and mistakes are difficult for even professional editors to spot. Please have mercy on all of us writers and editors and view errors with compassion and humor instead of derision. All we want to do is give you a wonderful reading experience, but we're only human.
Pronunciation Guide/ Character List
I'm trying to limit these to characters who appear in more than one book.
Aaro Devon: Gargoyle, Slate's older brother
Adam MacLaine: Human client
Aoide: E-da, Elaria's aunt and siren
Arnet: Are-net, Knight of Flourite
Ava: A-vah, Queen of Sapphire
Banning: Ban-ing, Gheara of the Kansas Gura
Barret: Bare-it, Commander of Chrysocolla Army
Binx Devon: Gargoyle, Slate's younger brother
Bran: Bran, King of Garnet
Branna: Bra-nah, Duchess of Jade
Carrick: Care-ick, Knight of Onyx
Cerberus: Ser-bur-us, Demi-god dog-shifter
Cyrus: King of Copper
Danyon: A leader of the Coral Court
Darcraxis: Dar-cracks-es Ex-God of Darkness, Water, and Earth.
Declan: Deck-lan, King of Alexandrite
Diana: Blooder of the Sofia Gura
Edmond: King of Jet
Eileen: I-lean, Queen of Copper
Elaria: Eh-lar-ee-ah, spellsinger
Finbar: Fin-bar, Duke of Sapphire
Gage Saeiqa: Gauge Sah-E-kah, griffin
Galen: Gay-lin, King of Sapphire
Garret: Gare-it, King of Topaz
Gerard: Jare-rod, Knight of Onyx
Giovanni Borgia: Blooder gheara
Hugh: Hew, Knight of Onyx
Isandra: I-san-dra, Queen of Diamond
Jack Armstrong: Loup
Jameson: Jay-meh-son, Knight of Fluorite
Janae: a mermaid
Jarlath: Jar-leth, King of Diamond
Jonah Malone: Human gangster
Kalliope: Kah-lie-oh-pee, Elaria's mother and a siren
Kean: Key-in, Knight of Howlite
Lorcan: Lore-can, King of Copper
Maeve: May-ve, Queen of Peridot
Moirin: Moy-rin, Queen of Tiger's Eye
Mrs Chadwick: Adam MacLaine's housekeeper
Niall, Nigh-all, King of Citrine
Odran: O-drawn, King of Howlite
Oonagh: Oooh-nah, Queen of Snowflake Obsidian
Parthalon: Par-tha-lawn, King of Jade
Quinlan: Kwin-lahn, Alchemist
Riona: Ree-oh-nah, Queen of Malachite
Sara: Sare-rah, pink tourmaline fey.
Shani: female sphinx
Shauna: Shah-na, Queen of Amethyst
Shevaun: Sheh-von, Queen of Chrysocolla
Slate Devon: Zone Lord of the Oregon Zone, gargoyle
Sorin Iliescu: Blooder King
Teagan: Tee-gan, Queen of Jet
Tell: Asrai of Sgáthan
Tír na nÓg: Tier-nah-n'awhg, Realm of the Fairies, the Land of Youth
Torin: Tore-in, King of Onyx
About the Author
Amy Sumida is the Internationally Acclaimed author of the Award-Winning Godhunter Series, the fantasy paranormal Twilight Court Series, the Beyond the Godhunter Series, the music-oriented paranormal Spellsinger Series, the superhero Spectra Series, and several short stories. Her books have been translated into several languages, have won numerous awards, and are bestsellers. She believes in empowering women through her writing as well as providing everyone with a great escape from reality. Her stories are full of strong women and hot gods, shapeshifters, vampires, dragons, fairies, gargoyles... pretty much any type of supernatural, breathtakingly gorgeous man you can think of. Because why have normal when
you could have paranormal?
Born and raised in Hawaii, Amy made a perilous journey across the ocean with six cats to settle in the beautiful state of Oregon which reminds her a lot of Hawaii but without the cockroaches or evil sand. When she isn't trying to type fast enough to get down everything the voices in her head are saying while her kitties try to sabotage her with cuteness, she enjoys painting on canvases, walls, and anything else that will sit still long enough for the paint to dry. She prefers antiques to modern furniture, tea to coffee, night to day, and Tom Hardy to Tom Hiddleston. No; Tom Hiddleston to Tom Hardy. No, wait... Tom Hardy and Tom Hiddleston to Tom Cruise. Yes, that's it.
