AN: So after much internal debate, and much pondering over Storm Queen reviews and your answers to my request, I decided to follow up on Shadow Heir. I thought over where I was taking Storm Queen, and realized that, other than the parentage of the twins, and the entire Pagiel thing, both the post-Shadow Heir and Storm Queen stories would end up in pretty much the same place, which meant that, as far as plots went, I really could only keep one of them going, because my idea for both of them was so similar. And anyway, the biggest problem we all seem to have was with the ending of Shadow Heir, and I want you all to forget Eugenie even thinking about not telling Dorian while reading this. My version of Eugenie isn't that thickheaded ;)

Thank you to everyone who commented, and thanks for all your patience; this time I promise to go right to the end, and am really excited about my plans for this story.

Enjoy!

I disentangled myself from Dorian when I felt our audience growing too happy. Just because I was happy in his arms didn't mean I wanted to make his entire court happy with a peep-show now. I might have finally accepted my gentry heritage, but there was still a long way to go before I ever – if I ever did, that is – got over my modesty over my own body.

Dorian chuckled slightly, as though reading my mind, and I smiled up at him. Looking up into his lovely eyes, so like Isaac's, I remembered the book that the Reeds had given me before I left, and my smile grew. Maybe I wouldn't tell him about the twins right now, but I could at least make him feel like he was a part of their world. I gently tugged on his hand, and started pulling him towards the castle, not wanting to show him the pictures with so many people looking. Safe they may be right now, but I was not going to risk our children's safety like that.

Misinterpreting my reasoning behind my pulling – although I wasn't, of course, entirely against his idea, either – Dorian gave me a sultry smile. Shaking my head, I poked at him.

"Get you mind out of the gutter. I want to show you something."

He looked confused. "And you can't show me here?" he asked, gesturing with his free hand.

I shook my head quickly. "I'd rather not, for… safety reasons."

He seemed to understand what I was getting at, and his eyes suddenly shone so brightly, it was almost painful to look into them and not blurt out the truth. I bit my tongue, though, and kept quiet. I was starting to think my resolution wouldn't last much longer, if things kept up at this rate.

"Is it… news?" he asked, sounding breathless, and suddenly, I wasn't the one pulling him along anymore; instead, he was all but dragging me to his chambers, and I had to smile at his enthusiasm to know more about our children.

"Of a kind," I said, he towed along the corridor leading to his room. Once safely inside, he locked the door, and I put my bag down, and pulled the photo album out of it, walking over to the bed, and patting the space next to me.

He came to sit beside me, eyeing the book curiously. "What is that?" he inquired.

"It's a photo album," I told him. He looked at me quizzically, and I sighed, trying to decide how to explain it. "It's like… a book full of small portraits. Only the portraits are taken with a small device, instead of painted by hand. The pictures are exact replicas of what the camera is pointed at, with no room for mistakes, like with paintings. It's much more exact."

He seemed satisfied by my explanation, so I opened the book, and passed it over to him. Watching him look through the book, I took out a Milky Way bar from my pocket and munched on it, settling back against his chest.

Dorian looked down at me and away from the book for a moment, amused. "Those things are like a drug to you, you know."

I shot him a look. "Don't pretend you didn't like them yourself; I remember when you first ate one, you know," I said smirking.

"Ah yes, when you refused, quite horridly, I might add, to eat any of the food I offered you."

I shrugged, a small smile tugging at my lips as I remembered that time when my biggest problem was trying to rescue an unwilling Jasmine. "I didn't know I was half gentry back then, and wasn't about to take any chances. Persephone made her mistake; I wasn't about to follow her example," I said, and then frowned. I might not have eaten anything then, but the end result had turned out to be the same for both of us: tied to a king in a world not entirely our own, and thus torn between two worlds; a queen in one, and a normal girl in the other. The similarities were enough to disturb me.

If Dorian noticed anything weird about my sudden thoughtfulness, he didn't mention it, going back to the photo album in his hands, and happily exclaiming over every new picture, for which I was glad, because I had also been thinking of the time I'd met Persephone. It wasn't something I thought of very often these days, as it seemed to have been so long ago. So much had happened between then and now, that I had almost forgotten what I'd gone to do when I met the goddess of the underworld. I'd gone to try and save Kiyo from death's clutches, and she'd finally relinquished him to me. I had been so desperate to save him, I'd agreed to die for him to live, but in the end, she'd let us both go. I remembered her parting words, as clear as though it had been only yesterday, though… "Go back. Go back to your dual existence. I will see you again someday, and then you will stay. Keep your love. I have no use for it anymore."

While I loved Dorian deeply, some part of me wondered how a love like the one I'd had for Kiyo could suddenly turn into distrust and even fear. I wondered if Persephone had somehow known Kiyo and I would end up separated, one way or another, and if that was why she hadn't insisted I stay away from him as she had at first.

Thinking of Kiyo, made me then remember I had a confession to make to Dorian. When he closed the book with a happy sigh, I crumpled the wrapping of the Milky Way in my hands, and sighed.

"What did you think?" I asked quietly.

I could hear the smile in his voice, though he sounded wistful. "They're beautiful, Eugenie, truly."

Leaning away from him a little, so I could see his face, I smiled up at him happily, knowing full well what I was about to give him. I'd just opened my mouth to speak, when there was a knock on the door, and Dorian made as if to get up, but I held him down, shaking my head.

"Not now," I told him softly. "I want to tell you something, and I want to say it now."

He looked at me, confusion written across his face, but told the servant to go away, and that we were not to be bothered. I heard footsteps moving down the hall, then turned back to look at the father of my children. I smiled brightly at him.

"What is it, Eugenie?"

"A few weeks ago, as I was shopping in Tucson before coming back here, Kiyo found me." I felt him tense behind me, and quickly laid a hand on his chest. He didn't relax, though, so I just went on. "He told me something very interesting."

Dorian lifted an eyebrow at that, as though doubting anything Kiyo had to say could be interesting, but I just smiled back at him, stroking him cheek tenderly.

"He said he'd had a vasectomy after Luisa was born," I said brightly, but my happiness faded a little at Dorian's confused expression.

"What's that?"

"It's a thing human men do so that they can't have kids."

He frowned at me. "Why would anyone want to do that?"

I simply shrugged. He was still looking puzzled, though, so I sighed. "Dorian, he had the vasectomy done soon after Luisa was born."

Dorian looked at me, a slight frown still on his face as he contemplated someone not wanting kids, but when he finally registered my words, a look of wonder spread over his face as he took in my giddy expression.

He looked back down at the book in his hands, and a beautiful smile took over his face, his expression hopeful as he turned to look back at me.

"Congratulations, Daddy."

AN: Whew! I'm so excited about the direction I want to take this in, so please let me know your thoughts, and I'll try to put a chapter per week. We'll see how that works...