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Perfect, and exactly as she should. But there was still confusion in her eyes. “Tell me of your Rajni . Mara’s father.”
    “He was Lupoiux. I left my people to go with him. I had no choice.” Raejel lifted her chin. “My dhar …his words were damning to my heart. I was to deny the mate our goddess gave me. How was I to do that? Even my parents…they chose to back him. They did not want half-Lupoiux children, especially considering the Druidic blood I inherited from my mother’s mother.”
    “Your parents, my grandparents, are still alive?”
    “I do not know. I have yet to find them in this place. I do not know where they have gone. And the few times I have asked, I have been denied that knowledge. I am sorry, Mara. I thought it was better to think them dead, than to know they did not welcome you as much as your father and I.” Rion watched the mother reach out for her daughter. Mara hesitated, the gesture showing her true confusion and pain at her mother’s actions.
    Then she was in her mother’s arms and weeping. Raejel rocked her daughter for several long moments. When she pulled away, Rion was there with a tissue. For both women.
    “I don’t know what to do next,” Mara said. “I don’t know anything about this world, or what it means. Any of it.”
    Raejel looked at Rion. “Can I have a moment or two alone with my daughter? My sons are exploring the grotto behind this place. I’d like you to meet them soon.”
    “I’ll head on out there. Give you all the time you need.” He wanted to kiss his Rajni but refrained. She wasn’t ready for that at all.
    He would force himself to be a friend first, and not a lover. That would come with time. He did not doubt that. It was the Goddess’s way. Rion had never been an impatient man.
    He would have to remember that. He settled for a brush of his hand over her cheek. “I will return to you soon.”
    Her cheeks flushed, and a small smile touched her lips. “I would like that. I think. And…thank you.”

    Chapter Twenty-Six
     
    Mara watched him leave, and felt a tugging in her heart when he was out of sight.
    She looked back at her mother. “I…I don’t really understand anything about him.”
    “But you’re drawn to him, feel like you need him whenever you can’t see him? It is the Rajni way.”
    “Does it ever go away?” Mara sank into the nearest chair. She took a quick look around the suite. Their belongings were piled precariously on a small blue couch. “What are our plans?”
    Her mother was quiet for a long moment. “You should stay with him.”
    Not what she had expected, that was for sure. “Why?”
    “You were meant for him. I thought you would be older when you found your Rajni . Thought there would be a better way or time to teach of what you are. I am sorry I have been so wrong.”
    “ Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “There never seemed to be a good time. And after your father…how could I tell you that you would hurt like I do? I miss your father every single day. I am not sure why I am still alive.”
    “Mama?” Fear, hurt, bitterness, longing, all were in her mother’s voice. Mara held out her hands toward the woman who’d raised her. “I know you miss him.”
    “It is different for a Dardaptoan, Mara. It hurts so much more to lose your mate. Most Dardaptoans die after they do. I’m not sure why I didn’t. If it’s the fact that I have the healing gift, or because I am half-Druid, or what. But I should have died when your father did.”
    “And you feel guilty over that? If you’d died what would have happened to me? Would the boys have even been born?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Mara stood, then sank down on the couch by her mother. “You did what you had to do. I know that. I remember what it was like before he died. Remember how happy you were. And I miss him, too. But we’re here now. We can’t keep going on like we have been these past five months.”
    “I have known that, I’ve seen it every single time