“It is the darkness,” Lara said suddenly and with perfect clarity, and she shivered.
“Then certainly your son is preparing an assault against the light once more,” Kaliq said, nodding.
Lara no longer denied her maternity where Kolgrim, the Twilight Lord, was concerned. Her mortal children had never known, of course, nor did Marzina. But the son she and Kaliq shared knew of his half brother. Lara was glad that Dillon ruled the kingdom of Belmair, that bright distant star that shone down on the world of Hetar.
She need only worry about her youngest child, her daughter Marzina.
Kolgrim’s father had forced his seed upon Lara while she was visiting the Dream Plain. For this outrage he had been imprisoned for all eternity in a windowless dungeon deep within his own castle. No one knew he was there now except his successor-who had entrapped his twin brother with their father-Lara, Kaliq and several other members of the magical community. Lara had been pregnant at the time with Magnus Hauk’s son.
When Lara birthed twins, a son and a daughter, her mother had remarked how like a faerie ancestress the infant girl looked. Marzina was pale of skin, with black hair and eyes that eventually became the color of violets, while her brother was a golden child like their father, and his older sister, Zagiri. Everyone had accepted the word of the Queen of the Forest Faeries, and nothing was ever thought of how different Marzina looked from all of her other siblings. And Lara had never told her daughter the truth of her birth.
“What wickedness is he now up to,” Lara wondered aloud. “Has he not enough to do ruling his own turbulent kingdom? Certainly Ciarda gave him his son, and he is kept busy teaching the little devil all manner of wickedness.”
“Ciarda failed. She was not the chosen bride,” Kaliq said. “He killed her.”
“What? Why did you not tell me, Kaliq?” Lara wanted to know.
“I did not consider it important,” he replied.
“Oh, but it is! It is very important,” Lara exclaimed. “Kolgrim is preparing to take his chosen bride, my love. That is the change I have felt. He has consulted the Book of Rule and learned where to find the girl. If we can find her first, prevent him from mating with her, there will be no new Twilight Lord. We can defeat the darkness for good! If I had known that Ciarda was dead, I should have thought of this sooner.”
“We cannot defeat the darkness entirely,” Kaliq said. “There must always be a balance between the light and the dark, Lara.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because there has always been a balance,” he replied.
“That is not an answer, my lord. Would not a world without avarice and cruelty be good? A world whose inhabitants actually cared for each other rather than were jealous of one another, and sought to do harm to each other.”
“Mortals have not yet reached that strata, nor have those of us in the magic kingdoms, though we are much further along,” Kaliq said. “If there were no temptations, no reasons for striving or improvement, what would be the point of it all, Lara? Even the magical kingdoms must have a balance of dark and light.”
“Are you saying we shouldn’t prevent Kolgrim from siring a son?” she asked him.
“Your son has kept the peace for more than a century, Lara, and yet do you see an improvement in either Hetar or Terah?” Kaliq queried cleverly. “Have the mortals inhabiting those kingdoms grown kinder or more thoughtful of each other?”
Lara shook her head in the negative. “I despair,” she said.
He laughed, wrapping an arm about her. “You are too serious, my love,” Kaliq told her, and then he pulled her close, his mouth taking hers in a soft and sensuous kiss. He smiled against her lips as his kiss drew the tension from her body, and with a sigh she relaxed against him. Pressing her back against the colorful pillows the Shadow Prince undid the row of tiny pearl buttons that held her caftan closed. His lips wandered down her slender pale throat to bury themselves in the valley between her breasts. His tongue plunged between the twin orbs, licking slowly as he inhaled the fragrance of freesia, which she now favored. He adored her. He always had.
Lara actually purred with delight as he began to make love to her. She had not been with him in several months, and she could not now remember why that was. Reaching out, she caressed his neck with her fingers, encouraging his rising passions. She had loved other men in her lifetime both physically and emotionally, but none was like the great Shadow Prince. Kaliq’s love for her was pure, and burned with an unquenchable fire as did her love for him.
He lifted his head, and his clear bright blue eyes starred into her green ones. “I could be with you like this forever and a day,” Kaliq told her.
Lara smiled. “I wish it also, but it seems we have mortals to look after, and the darkness is seeking to escape the bounds of Kol’s kingdom.”
“There is time,” he told her, smiling back.
“No, there isn’t,” she said. Then adding, “Well, perhaps a little time. Cadi?”
“Is quite busy grooming Dasras, and afterward will fall asleep by the waterfall, my love,” Kaliq murmured as his dark head bent to find the tempting nipple he wished to nuzzle and savor. He began to suckle upon her, and as he did Lara realized that they were both quite naked for he had divested them of their garments. She stretched herself to her full length beneath him. The tug of his lips on her nipple was translating itself into a ripple of excitement that spread down her torso, culminating in a tingling deep between her nether lips. His teeth nipped at the very sensitive tip of the nipple, and Lara shuddered with relish, anticipating more delights to come.
A hand kneaded her other breast strongly, pinching its nipple hard, and she squirmed slightly beneath him as the action sent a jolt of enjoyment through her. Her fingers insinuated themselves into the thick dark thatch of his black hair, digging into his scalp. His mouth found hers again, kissing her deeply, their tongues fencing with one another until she sucked hard on the fleshy organ. Pulling away, he began to trail a path of kisses down her torso while her fingers traced a delicate pattern across the warm flesh of his smooth back with gentle nails.
He shivered when her finger sensuously stroked the dimple that lay above the crease separating his buttocks. His tongue encircled her navel, dipping into it briefly. Then Kaliq’s dark head moved lower, positioning itself between her milky-white thighs. His tongue ran slowly again and again along the shadowed slash between her plump nether lips. She hissed softly when it poked between the soft flesh, now glistening with new moisture, to find the tempting nucleus of her sex. Slowly he encircled it, then his tongue flicked it back and forth until she was squirming with her excitement. He held her hips in an iron grip until she was whimpering with her need for him.
Raising his head he knelt between her legs. Taking his massive love rod in his hand he ran up and down her wet slit, pushing it between the flesh to touch her already-quivering and swollen love bud. He pressed the tip of his cock against it hard, watching the fierce desire filling her beautiful face. Beg! he commanded her in the silent magic language. You have kept me waiting for months, my faerie witch. I have a need to punish you for it, Lara, my love.
You might have eased your lust on another, she told him.
Never! he swore to her. From the moment I pledged myself to you, I have not given any part of myself to another. There is no pleasure without you, my darling faerie wife, he declared passionately.
She was surprised. Nay, she was astounded by his use of the word wife. Aye, they had pledged themselves to each other a century ago, but Shadow Princes rarely gave the title of wife to a lover. “Oh, Kaliq!” she exclaimed aloud to him. “Yes! Yes! Love me, my dearest lord, my magical husband and mate! Love me!”