Somehow Kara didn’t question it. She knew it was true—she was from Sanor and this woman was her mother.
Kara spoke the first thought that came to her lips. “You abandoned me.”
“Yes, and no, child.” T’ni Lael gave a pained expression. “I did leave you, but it was to save you.”
Fire burned in Kara’s gut. She had spent her life being passed from one foster home to the next, never truly feeling like she was wanted. Never knowing what it was like to have a family.
Her fury boiled over, and her words came out harsh and fast. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to think your parents didn’t want you and to be shuffled from one family to another? Do you have any idea what my life has been like?”
“I have questioned my decision every day.” T’ni Lael sighed and her green eyes glistened as if with unshed tears. “I did what was necessary to protect the crystal and you.”
Anger burned hot and bright within Kara and she grabbed the crystal in her hand, wanting to yank it off and throw it across the room. “So you figured it was perfectly fine to abandon me. Well, maybe I was better off growing up a nobody than having a mother who cares more about this damn crystal than me.”
The Cwen’s shoulders drooped and she seemed saddened by Kara’s outburst. “You do not know how important the L’sen Crystal is, Kara. You do not know how important you are to us. Both you and the crystal will change all our lives for the better.”
“Fuck you.” Kara whirled on her bare heel and marched out of the room, past the two guards. She clenched her fists at her side and gritted her teeth so hard she thought they’d crack.
She heard Adan’s boots thump against the wooden flooring, but she didn’t slow down.
Adan, of course, caught up in mere strides, and grasped her elbow. He didn’t say anything, simply walked with her through the halls and to their chambers.
There she went again, thinking their chambers, like they were a permanent couple.
Kara wasn’t sure she wanted Adan’s company right now. She felt used by everyone around her, and she wasn’t sure what to think.
Nothing was as it seemed. From the time she’d met Adan until the moment she’d learned the Cwen was her mother, her world had been continuously stirred, flipped, shaken, and mashed. Her pendant hadn’t been some kind of benign piece of glass, and Adan had been searching for that pendant when he found her. Now, she’d just found out that she had been sent from this world and abandoned on Earth, and her mother was still alive. What else could happen?
When they reached the bedchamber Adan placed his hand to the ID screen. The door slid up and allowed them entrance, then closed behind them.
Before Kara could turn on Adan and yell at him, he had her in his arms and held her tight so that her cheek was to his chest, her body firmly against his.
“I had no idea, love.” He kissed the top of her hair and Kara felt herself begin to melt. “Yet, I cannot say I would have done any different. You belong here, in my arms.”
“Do I?” She tilted her head to look at him. “I don’t know anything for certain right now. My whole life has been turned upside down over the past weeks and I just don’t know how to deal with it.”
Adan pressed her head against his chest again and squeezed her tighter. “You can count on one thing for certain. And that is my love.” He moved away and hooked his finger under her chin and tilted her head up so that she was looking at him. “I love you, Kara. I do not care about the damned powercrystal. We could put it in the time-arch and send it far, far away, to another galaxy, another place and time. To a sun where it might burn to ash. As long as I have you, that is all that matters.”
With all her heart, Kara knew Adan spoke the truth. He was an honest man, a good man. She had seen it in his day-to-day dealings with his people, and in how they responded to him. Even though he had a gruff exterior, it was obvious he loved his Clan members and that they loved him.
And she had seen it in how he treated her. As if she was a princess, someone he cherished and loved.
At that very moment, as she stared up into his dark eyes, Kara realized she was in love with Adan. There was no doubt about it now. She loved everything about him.
But she wasn’t sure what that meant yet. She needed time to sort everything out.
Adan brought his head down and brushed his lips over hers. Kara sighed, some of her frustration and hurt easing out of her body as she turned her focus completely over to Adan. At this moment, he was all that mattered in this world. She’d worry about everything else later.
Right now she wanted him more than anything. And she didn’t want slow lovemaking. She wanted sex, hard and fierce.
Kara flung her arms around Adan’s neck and kissed him with all her pent up passion. His body tensed and his cock grew rigid against her belly. With a low growl of approval, his tongue plunged in and out of her mouth, mating with hers, as rough and hard as she wanted him to fuck her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and climbed him, never breaking the kiss.
He carried her to the table and placed Kara upon it, next to the star sculpture. She tore his mouth from his and gasped for air. “Damn, Adan. I need you.”
“I always need you.” He held her with one hand while his other found the shoulder clasp on her sarong. He fumbled with it, then ripped it off and flung it away. Two ruined sarongs now, but she really didn’t care. The gauzy material slipped over her breasts, the silken feel a contrast to the rough man before her.
Kara moaned with pleasure as his mouth found her nipples and she cried out as he nipped each one. Damn that felt so, so good. While he sucked her tight nubs, he pressed her legs apart and ground his cloth-covered cock against her pussy.
He released her long enough to unfasten his pants and push her sarong up over her hips, palming her ass. “I have been dying to fuck you all day, love,” he said, rubbing the head of his erection over her folds.
He slid in a fraction and she tried to slide closer to him, but he held her too tightly. “You are always so hot, wet, and ready for me.”
“Dammit, Adan!” she cried out, but he only guided her down, so that she was flat on her back on the table.
He plunged his cock into her pussy. She cried out at the feel of his incredible length inside of her. His obsidian gaze remained locked on her face as he began to fuck her hard. There was no taking it slow now; he was taking her with wild, possessive strokes.
The table rubbed against her back, her breasts bouncing up and down. Adan’s pants rubbed against her pussy while he thrust into her, stimulating her even more. He slammed into her harder and harder and vaguely she felt the star sculpture tumble over, heard a crash, and the sound of glass breaking.
Sweat rolled down his face and the smell of his male musk amplified her desire. Kara felt her orgasm building and building, until she couldn’t hold back any longer. Her thighs began to tremble around Adan’s waist and she tried to rise up. He placed his hand on her belly, pushing her harder against the table and drove into her even faster.
“Tell me you’ll stay Kara,” he demanded.
“Adan!” Kara shouted as her climax burned her like lava bursting from a volcano. Heat flushed over her from her pendant, sending fire from her head to her toes. Her orgasm continued in multiple aftershocks while Adan fucked her.
With a savage growl, Adan came. She felt his cock throb within her pussy, felt the heat of him spilling inside her.
Her body went limp as she collapsed, her arms and legs still wrapped around him, his cock still inside her.
“Okay,” she murmured. “I’ll stay…at least a while longer.”
Chapter Thirteen
The spybug zipped from a snowtree, closer to the tower where Echna and her ice-ghost commanders were meeting yet again. They had been spending a great deal of time there over the past three weeks, ever since Adan and Kara had escaped.
Adan frowned while he focused on the view screen, as the Ice-Witch strode across her courtyard and vanished in
to the tower. What was she up to now? He had no doubt she would retaliate for the loss of the crystal and for the loss of the warriors that had been in the ship that his men had destroyed. He would be doing the same, preparing his own knights for attack and retribution.
However the Ice-Witch’s warriors far outnumbered Adan’s knights. It would take great cunning and skill to fight off an invasion by the ice-ghosts. His knights were prepared, their swords sharpened for hand-to-hand combat, their laser weapons primed for battle. The numerous Clans’ ships were at the ready, and guardcraft continually monitored the borders.
Yet the ice-ghosts had not attacked. Adan rubbed his stubbled jaw as his gaze sought out any clue that might be hidden in the snowbound landscape.
Nothing.
He had no doubt Echna would attack before the sun filtered through the planet’s natural shield, on L’sen, when the sun was at its strongest. It was the one day every two decades that snow would actually melt, and sunlight would glint off the Mirror Mountains as if they were made of countless diamonds.
That was when she had attacked two decades ago, forcing the people of Sanor to abandon their attempt at change. They had barely kept the pendant and the babe—Kara—from Echna’s hands by sending them through the time-arch.
At least the Ice-Witch would be unable to use her magical powers to travel directly into the village—the Clans’ powershield saw to that. But attacking via the borders was another story. No matter how keenly his knights patrolled the borders, the ice-ghosts would be able to attack.
According to the Cwen and her meticulous records, this second decade was the one time that the power of the L’sen Crystal would merge with the power of the Tower of Light and the sun, and change all their fortunes.
What the Ice-Witch wanted with the crystal, Adan wasn’t certain. He knew only what T’ni Lael had explained—that the witch would wield incredible power that would destroy Adan’s Clans.
Adan slammed his fist on the desk then commanded the view screen off. He would do whatever it took to protect his people, even if it meant outright war with the Ice-Witch.
He pushed himself out of the chair and strode toward the travel chamber where he was to meet with Dane and Dominik. But instead of focusing on the meeting ahead, Adan’s thoughts returned to Kara and their lovemaking of the night before. The tightness in his belly dissipated at the memory and a smile curved the corner of his mouth. She hadn’t promised to stay for long, but nevertheless, he didn’t plan to let her go.
* * * * *
Forcing herself to sit still, Kara perched on the edge of her seat in the guarded travel chamber. The time-arch hummed in the corner, its symbols glowing in tandem with the swirling of her pendant.
Kara sat at the wooden meeting table, facing the Cwen, T’ni Lael.
Her mother.
The woman who’d abandoned her on Earth just to protect a stupid crystal. Kara kept trying to ignore the fact that the Cwen said it was to protect her, too.
Kara clenched her teeth as the pale beauty folded her hands on top of the table. The only reason she was meeting T’ni Lael was because Adan had asked her to, as a favor to him. And where he was concerned, Kara couldn’t say no. Except for staying on this planet—she wasn’t sure she could spend her life away from all that she had known since she had been abandoned on a family’s doorstep as a toddler.
T’ni Lael—Kara refused to truly think of her as “Mother”—gave a serene smile as her green eyes met Kara’s.
“You have become a fine young woman,” the Cwen said in her thickly accented voice. When Kara didn’t respond, the woman added, “I am most proud of you.”
Kara’s pendant burned hot against her chest and her gaze narrowed. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to you. I’m not going to pretend everything is all right, because it’s not. So why don’t we just get this over with and you tell me whatever it is you have to tell me.”
T’ni Lael sighed, a long drawn-out sound that hinted at sadness. “I had hoped this meeting would be a joyous one.”
Kara folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her seat. “You thought wrong.”
With a slow nod, T’ni Lael said, “I am sorry to hear this.” The woman pushed back her chair, stood, and began pacing the wooden flooring, her long emerald green robes trailing behind her. She offered no more apologies, only seemed to accept that Kara didn’t wish to form any kind of relationship with her “mother”.
That pissed Kara off even more.
“The crystal you wear is very powerful,” the Cwen said, her hands steepled as she paced.
“I gathered that.” Anger boiling up inside her, Kara folded her arms tighter across her chest. She felt the heat of her pendant grow stronger through her sarong and a flash of concern replaced her anger. She might not like this woman, but she didn’t want to burn a hole through her. She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax.
T’ni Lael eyed the crystal as if she was aware of Kara’s anger and the stirring of its power. “The crystal was a gift to the Sanor realm from a far advanced people of another world, the Bellen. We were dying even then in this fierce climate, and the crystal was to save our people by changing this world that we call ‘Y’chi’, but you know as Blackstar. It would have taken Y’chi back to what it once was, countless centuries ago.”
Kara frowned, but concentrated on T’ni Lael’s words.
“The Bellen also left us the Tower of Light.” The woman gestured to the window and Kara’s eyes followed to where the monolith stood, glinting in what little true sunlight pierced Blackstar’s natural shield.
“One day every second decade, the sun is at its strongest.” T’ni Lael’s restless pacing let Kara know that the Cwen wasn’t as serene as the expression on her face. “On that day, the crystal,” the woman continued, “will combine its power with the Tower of Light and turn this ice-planet into a paradise beyond imagination.”
Kara allowed the information to sink in. It sounded improbable, but hell, most of what she’d experienced over the last month since she’d met Adan was improbable.
“So you’re talking about this crystal having a sort of genesis effect,” Kara murmured, thinking of an old movie she saw long ago. She could easily imagine this ice-world as green and lush. Her eyes met T’ni Lael’s, eyes that were so like her own. “Wouldn’t the snow melt and cause floods?”
“This very same power was used on other ice-planets,” the Cwen said. “In each instance the water from the snow seeped into the ground forming reservoirs that continued to give life to the people and the planets’ vegetation.”
“What happened?” Despite herself, Kara was fascinated by what the Cwen was telling her. “Why wasn’t this done before now?”
“The pendant and tower were only gifted to us by the Bellen a little over two decades ago. Unbeknownst to us, the Bellen had kept a close eye on our planet and noted that the planet warmed once every twenty years, enough to use the L’sen Crystal and the Tower of Light.
“Before we had a chance to use them, the Ice-Witch attacked, wiping out most of our military and forcing the survivors into the caverns below.” T’ni Lael’s knuckles whitened, betraying her anger. “We have lived there since, waiting for the time when we could once again attempt to alter the course of our destinies. To bring this world back to what it once was.”
Kara narrowed her gaze. “This was once a green planet?”
“Yes,” T’ni Lael replied. “A meteor slammed into this world centuries ago, and over time our weather changed. Some of the plants, animals, and trees adapted. But most did not. We are left with ice and cold when once there was spring and beauty.”
Kara narrowed her brows in concentration. “How do you know this?”
“The people of Sanor have always kept meticulous records.” T’ni Lael’s feet barely made a sound as she paced back and forth. “We have kept these cherished items for time on end. They were among what little we saved from the invasion by Echna two decades ago, when
we were forced to abandon our lives above ground. We have lived in the caves beneath this village ever since, living on fish and roots.”
What a life that would be, to be forced to live underground. Kara could understand why they wanted the world to be what it once was. It truly didn’t seem possible, but she knew the technology of alien races could be amazingly advanced. “The sun won’t be any closer, so how will this change be sustained?”
“In truth, it will not bring the sun any closer to us, but it will be unnecessary.” The Cwen relaxed her hands and brushed one over the folds of her emerald cloak. “The heat generated from the L’sen will gather below the planet’s natural shield. The shield will hold the heat in, creating a tropical atmosphere that will neither be too warm or too cold.”
Kara pictured a mass transformation, something like a nuclear bomb spreading over thousands of miles. “Are you sure this process won’t hurt anyone?”
T’ni Lael shook her head. “According to the vids presented by the Bellen, the power of L’sen only affects atmosphere and vegetation. It will take months, years even, to fully develop into the world we wish it to be.”
“But that’s nothing compared to the normal workings of time,” Kara added softly.
“You understand now, why we need the crystal?” T’ni Lael asked.
“I suppose so.” Her mind wandered for a moment, and she asked the next question that popped into her mind. “What about dear old Dad? I assume I had a father.”
The woman nodded. “He was a fine man. He died during the Ice-Witch’s attack. It would please you to know that he would not have approved of sending you away.”
Kara fixed her gaze on T’ni Lael’s green eyes that were so similar to her own. “So you sent me with the crystal to protect it until you needed it again.”
“And to protect you,” she replied softly.
Kara waved off the woman’s response. “I’m sure anyone could use the damn thing. It just needs to be at the right place at the right time.”
Blackstar: Future Knight Page 13
