Page 50 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

Then she felt it, the hardening beneath her, and they both stilled.

He let go of her lips and looked at her with eyes that glowed with inner light.

"Khiann," she breathed.

"I know."

A grin spread across her face. "This is incredible." She shifted just a little, and when he hardened even more, she laughed with joy. "You are healing, my love. I am so happy." She cupped his face and kissed him back, and beneath her, his manhood swelled and twitched.

It did not last, though, and when his arms fell away from her and the hardness beneath her deflated, she let go of his mouth and leaned back.

"What is the matter?"

He smiled shyly and lowered his eyes. "The burst of energy was spent. I am sorry, but this is all I had."

"This was more than I dared to hope for. This was your body telling us that it is coming back." She put her hand over his chest and felt his pulse under her palm. "You need to tell Bridget. She would say it is an excellent sign."

His mouth twitched. "Do you really want me to share this with the healer?"

"Why not? She should know that her care for you is paying off."

He chuckled. "I do not think she will be interested in hearing about my erection while she is about to give birth."

"You would be surprised." Annani kissed Khiann again, then remembered she was still in his lap and that he was growing tired. "You should get dressed."

She got up, and as she walked over to the row of shirts, her heart was still racing with happiness and excitement.

She took down two. "This one, or this one?"

He looked from the blue to the black, and back. "Who is going to be there?"

"Just the family. Kian, Syssi, and Allegra, of course. Amanda and Dalhu and their daughter Evie, Alena and Orion with little Evander Tellesious, and tonight, Toven and Mia. Toven has waited patiently to see you, and I thought tonight was a good opportunity."

She said the name lightly and watched to see what it did to him, but it did nothing. He was looking at the shirts.

"The blue," he said. "Who are Toven and Mia?"

Annani's heart sank. Khiann was once again forgetting things she had just told him.

She schooled her expression to hide her disappointment. "Toven is my cousin. I told you about him yesterday. He is Mortdh's brother, but he is nothing like him. Toven is an explorer and a creator. He is also richer than King Midas, but that is a story for another time."

She was probably confusing him with too much information and references that meant nothing to him. She should go back to rationing and simplifying it.

"I remember that you told me about Mortdh's brother, but I forgot his name, and I do not remember anything about a king named Midas."

Annani laughed, relieved. "King Midas is a fictional character who turned everything he touched to gold, and I did not tell you about him." She held out the two shirts. "I think the blue one will look amazing on you."

He smiled. "Then blue it is."

She handed him the shirt and stepped back to let him put it on, while pretending to be interested in the selection of slacks on the other side of the closet.

His chest was still very bony, and she knew he did not want her to see him unclothed.

"You knew Toven," she said. "Not well. He was always away, exploring, and even when he was back, he was not a frequent visitor to the palace. He is not much of a people person. Still, he met you and talked with you, and I think the two of you liked each other."

"How did he travel?" Khiann fumbled with the buttons, and she had to force herself not to offer her assistance. "By ship or by caravan?"

"He had his own flyer. Those were rare because the equipment the gods brought with them from their home planet could not be repaired, as no new parts were being delivered. Contact had been severed. Most of them stopped working, but Ekin, the father of Mortdh, was a gifted engineer, and he assembled two working flyers for his sons from parts of the broken ones. Mortdh took his flyer to his stronghold in the north, and Toven used his to explore the other side of the world. I did not know it back then, but the lands he had been exploring are now called the Americas, and this is where we are now. Anyway, that was how Toven survived. He got bored with the Assembly proceedings, snuck out the same as I did, and flew away, same as I did."