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shape drained her energies, so she decided to leave the prisoners and return to her studying. It would do her no good if her father learned she’d been visiting, especially when strict orders had been given to leave them alone.
    She floated back through the dark, damp hall toward the Light Cell. Once there she regained her mortal form and tried to draw what strength she could from the bright rays in the room.
    The light seemed to burn demon and devel alike, though Naria had never felt more than a comforting warmth basking in the glow. Carinna too suffered no ill effects, though she preferred the darkness if given a choice.
    Naria cautiously peeked around the door of the cell and, seeing no one about, entered the darkness of the prison corridors. She couldn’t help dwelling on the prisoners, and in particular, Jace. Would he leave without his men? She didn’t know enough about him to know the answer to that. As she walked, she reviewed what she knew, and something tickled at the back of her mind.
    Jace occupied a private cell. Her father wanted the man separated from the strengthening presence of his crewmates, anything to weaken Jace’s impressive mental abilities. Bayna currently tortured a Fenturi in another cell, leaving three remaining prisoners that Naria should have seen moments ago. Yet there had been only Koneru and Castor. Where was the fifth member of the crew?
    Puzzling over this new mystery, Naria didn’t hear her sister calling until she knocked into her.
    “ Oomph. ”
    “I’m sorry Carinna. I didn’t see you there.”
    “Obviously. So how did it go?”
    Naria described her encounter, leaving out her confusing fascination with Jace. “All in all, I think Father was pleased. I hope to revisit the prisoner later to see what more I can learn.”
    Carinna studied her. “So he really withstood Father’s power?”
    “Yes, at least until Father unleashed a physical wall of rage that knocked Jace unconscious. I’ve never seen anyone stand up to Father like that.” She wanted to talk to Carinna about what she really felt, except she didn’t know. And until she got a handle on her emotions, there was no sense embroiling her sister in the mess. “What have you been doing? Has Lord Feera been running you ragged again?”
    “Just doing my duty to Dark World, Naria.” Odd for Carinna not to react to a subtle jibe about Lord Feera, her less than subtle would-be suitor. “Did you see Bayna’s handiwork with the Fenturi?” What was that inflection in her voice?
    “I did see Bayna,” Naria admitted. “Our sister is quite adept at torture.”
    “Wasn’t my information about the Fenturi correct?”
    Naria couldn’t contain a blush. Untouched she might be, but a Dark Worlder’s knowledge of the carnal started at childhood, sexual awareness a way of life and a necessity for successful continuation of the planet. Since a demon could only reproduce every hundred cycles, sexual techniques to increase fertility and performance were practiced incessantly.
    Lordess Xeche hadn’t pushed Naria toward sexual relations, content that in Naria’s ignorance she would remain apart, ever the embarrassment to Lord Demise that Xeche’s three progeny could never be. For his part, Naria’s father ignored her virginity. Naria thought he gave her a choice over her first mating out of deference to her deceased mother. His lust for Zena was the stuff of legends, and for that reason she suspected he let her off easy when he’d have taken his other offspring to task.
    Carinna continued, “The Fenturi are legendary for their stamina and sexual prowess. All that energy they possess, the glow in their eyes, their skin, stems from an internal source. It’s apparently very erotic.”
    Her words turned to incomprehensible chatter as Naria’s thoughts turned to sex and Jace. Perhaps her response to the stranger stemmed more from his Offworld presence than his maleness. She had never before felt such attraction for a male, and