“My brother who spoke the words of Terah’s Shadow Queen,” Zagiri snapped.

“Kaliq, release me!” Lara said angrily. “Will you allow me to remain here, and be insulted by this viper I spawned?”

“I am not a viper!” Zagiri cried. “I am your daughter. Born of the great love my father had for you, and of the love you had for him.”

“I wanted the best for you!” Lara said to her daughter. “I did not want you to wed a man almost three times your age, Zagiri! A man of such incredible ambition that he stole another’s wife, and then stole a throne. He wed you so that Terah would be forced to come to his aid if he needed us. When you are no longer of use to him what will happen to you, Zagiri? What will happen to my child?”

“He loves me, Mother. He really does. When he is with me he is different,” Zagiri said. “There is light in him. I know it!”

“I hope for your sake you are right, Zagiri,” Lara told her daughter.

“Forgive me, Mother, for hurting you,” Zagiri said softly.

Lara shook her head.

“Have you stopped loving me, then, Mother?” the young woman asked.

“I will always love you,” Lara said and her green eyes filled with tears.

“Then forgive me,” Zagiri begged, and she knelt before her mother, her golden head bowed.

She didn’t want to, but Lara could not help it. Reaching out, she caressed her daughter’s head. Lips pressed tightly together, she attempted to keep the words back, but finally she could not. Bending, she kissed Zagiri’s head. “I forgive you for running off, but I cannot forgive you for marrying that man,” she said.

Rising, Zagiri hugged her mother. “You will get used to him eventually,” she said mischievously.

Unable to help herself, Lara laughed. “No, I won’t!” she replied firmly. “But I do love you, Zagiri, and we shall not be parted again.”

“Oh, thank you, Mother!” Zagiri cried happily.

Kaliq smiled from the shadows where he had retreated while mother and daughter had settled their differences. Zagiri would never understand the deep hurt she had inflicted upon her mother, but it had been unintentional, and at last they were reconciled.

“Now,” Lara said, “this matter of the Hierarch. I could lie to you, Zagiri, and you would believe me. But I will not lie to you. The Hierarch is my nephew Cam.” Then Lara explained to her daughter how the Darking Ciarda had ensorcelled Cam for her own purposes. And of how the magic world that championed the light had foiled the Darkling, but in doing so had left the Hierarch the mere mortal he was and helpless.

“Hetar needs to face its weaknesses, and then rebuild itself again. We might do it for them, but they would learn nothing from their mistakes then, and expect the magic kingdoms to help them whenever they failed. Instead we speak through the Hierarch, telling them what it is they need to do to rebuild their own kingdom. Their legend says the Hierarch will come in their time of trouble, and lead them back into the light. We have seen to it that happens, Zagiri. Had we left Cam to be discovered for the fraud he is the magnates and the Merchants Guild would have kept on squeezing every last drop of profit from the people.

“And, too, Hetar and its peoples would have resented any open interference from the magic worlds. This way the Hierarch gives them a direction, and a plan to follow. In doing so Hetar feels a sense of national pride and accomplishment, Zagiri. This is the way it should be in the mortal world. Mortals are eager to succeed. It makes them unique among the different races of beings. You cannot tell your husband the truth about the Hierarch,” Lara finished.

“I know,” Zagiri replied. “He would not understand, Mother, but I do. I will keep the secret. Tell me one thing, though. What happened to the Darkling?”

“The Twilight Lord decided she would make him a good mate,” Lara said. “As such she is not permitted to leave the Dark Lands without him.”

“Oh,” Zagiri replied. “Then she will not bother Hetar again.”

“It is unlikely,” Lara told her daughter.

Kaliq now stepped from the shadows, smiling. “I must put Zagiri back in her own privy chamber before she is discovered missing. I am happy to see that you two are reconciled once more.”

“Mother?”

“Yes, Zagiri?”

“Give Taj, Marzina and Anoush my love,” the young woman said, and she hugged her mother.

“I will arrange for you to visit soon,” Lara replied. “Your husband will find he owes me many favors, and I will certainly want to collect from him.”

Zagiri giggled, which made her mother smile.

“I will send you back,” Kaliq said.

“Thank you, my lord,” Zagiri responded, and, impulsively, she kissed his cheek, blushing as she did so at her own daring.

With a wave of his hand and a chuckle, Kaliq returned Zagiri to her own world.

“She called to you when I would not answer her?” Lara said to him, rather intrigued by her daughter’s foresight.

“Be glad she was clever enough to do so, and not run to Jonah,” Kaliq remarked.

“I cannot believe that she loves him,” Lara said. “I have never found anything lovable about Jonah. Still, I will admit that I have seen he loves her. Perhaps she can influence him to the good. Perhaps that is her destiny.”

“Perhaps,” he agreed, and his arm slipped about her waist. With a sigh Lara leaned against him, and, turning her heart-shaped face to his, kissed him softly, tenderly. “My brothers are correct when they say you are my weakness,” he told her.

Lara turned to face him, and took his handsome and ageless face between her two hands. “It would seem only fair since you are my weakness, my lord,” she told him, kissing him back, her lips warm against his.

He did not wait, but transported them to his bedchamber, smiling into her eyes as she magicked their garments away. Lifting her up, he buried his face between her breasts, tasting the salt of her slightly damp skin with his tongue.

Lara smiled down at him, hearing his thoughts as he touched her. My faerie woman. Mine! She twined her fingers through his dark hair as he slowly lowered her, walking as he did so, setting her upon his bed. Now it was he who cupped her face between his hands, smiling down into her green eyes. My Shadow Prince. Mine! Lara silently said to him.

They fell together onto the bed. Their lips met in a fierce and passionate embrace, one kiss blending into another and another and another until they were both dizzy with desire. He lay upon his back as she explored him with her lips and tongue. She nibbled on his nipples, pushed her tongue suggestively into his navel, licked the length of his torso with her hot little tongue. Her hand closed about his love rod, which needed little encouragement for his lust was high. Lara bent and kissed its tip. Then she mounted him, her shapely thighs pinning him, absorbing his length slowly, slowly, until she had completely sheathed him. Then, leaning forward, she offered him a breast.

Kaliq’s mouth closed over her nipple with a snap. He sucked hard on it as Lara began a gentle movement upon his rod. His tongue licked around the nipple over and over again. The movement increased the tiniest bit. He sucked her again, then, unable to help himself, bit down upon the tender flesh. Her sheath squeezed him tightly, and he groaned and their eyes met. His fingers caressed her breast, then, taking it in his hand, he squeezed it and all the while his mouth never left her nipple. Taking his other hand, he pushed two fingers into her mouth, and with tongue and lips she played with them.

Kaliq’s lust was near to boiling over. Enough, my love, he told her.

“No!” she said aloud and nipped at the fingers between her lips.

In answer to her, he quickly rolled her onto her back, pulling his fingers from her mouth as he did so. “Now, my faerie woman, I have you at my mercy,” he told her, laughing as her legs clamped about his torso. “The time for teasing is over, and the time for pleasures begins.” Lara’s arms slipped about him, and, pulling his head to her, she kissed him again as he began to move upon her.

She closed her eyes and concentrated upon the size and length of him as he plumbed her depths until she was dizzy again with the delight he was engendering in her whole body. She clutched his rod tightly within her sheath, sighing as he groaned. Her fingers dug into his muscled shoulders, and clawed down his long back. The pleasures he offered her were so intense that Lara found herself close to losing consciousness. Then the inner storm began as her sheath began to spasm and Lara cried out as the pleasures overwhelmed them both. She slid into a heated darkness that enfolded her, wrapping her in warmth and contentment as he cried her name aloud.

Afterward as they lay sated with each other Kaliq said, “I want you to make Shunnar your home, my love.”

“I cannot,” Lara answered him. “Not until Taj is grown and ruling on his own. You know that I cannot leave him now, Kaliq.”

“I know,” he admitted with a sigh. “But when you can, Shunnar should be your home, not Terah.

“We have much to do before that can happen, my lord. This business with Hetar needs to be finished. And Anoush must be awakened, Marzina taught self-discipline lest she become a danger to herself and others and my son grown and wise enough to govern without me. There will be time for us eventually, my dearest Kaliq, but neither you nor I are apt to neglect our duty, are we?”

“Nay, we are not,” he admitted. “Will you come to me when you can, my love?”

“Aye, I will. You are the only creature, mortal or magic, to truly understand me,” Lara said softly. “But you must remember always that I am faerie, for I would not hurt you deliberately, Kaliq.”

“I know that,” he told her, pulling her back into his embrace, and Lara sighed happily with the knowledge that whatever happened Kaliq would always be there for her.