Page 23 of Light Fae's Love
I know we’re in for a battle now, though, as I watch Lucca blaze.
“Stronzo!” Lucca stares me down, snarling. “Did you ever stop to think that sharing this information with me about the Summer Fae and my father might be important?!”
“Lucca, I just heard all of this two days ago.” I am patient, though I am also wary that Lucca thinks I was intentionally hiding this from him—an old piece of deep contention between us from when I used to do that regularly. “I didn’t want to say anything until I knew we’d be able to return a Revenant on purpose. Which was successful tonight.”
“You want to drag one of those things into the Palace of Light and run this little experiment in front of my father and the entire Summer Fae Court?” Lucca snarls again, though I see Ariana frown now, not knowing why he’s overreacting about this.
“Do you have a better way to convince King Bellari we can take back Rome?” Making my voice dangerously soft now, I feel my eyes flash crimson, not about to be cowed by Lucca’s anger. “I have no seat upon the Vampire Council yet; I have no influence with them. Your father’s insistence that we prove our power to him is premature, borne of your actions, Lucca. Yes, your people love you. Yes, many of them would probably follow you if you were to start your rebellion officially. Until you sit that throne in the Palace of Light, however, we need your father to provide Fae support for our aims. I can’t do it alone.”
“Not until you have an army of once-Revenants at your command.” Lucca snorts caustically. “Because I’m thinking that’s what this is all about. You see an opportunity to gain power by blood-oathing some of the strongest Vampires to walk this land to you. And using Ariana’s and my sanity and magic to get it done.”
“Blood-oathing powerful Vampires to my Dark Haven benefits us all, Lucca!” I finally lose my patience with his rash heat, feeling my dark eyes flash with vivid red fire. All around, my black aura boils like a vengeful sea, searing with copper and crimson light. “Bolstering my power adds to yours and Ariana’s! Every returned Revenant I bond by my Master’s Kiss means more power for all of us! It supports us—rather than giving only to me, like you suggest.”
“It’s power you don’t understand, Quinn!” Getting right up in my face now, Lucca pokes a finger in my chest. “You blaze ahead like always, rushing to show your might without taking any care at all! You push for this exceptionally dangerous demonstration that would expose me as being bound to not just a Dark Fae but a Vampire, and pretend like it won’t have repercussions! What will my people think, knowing their Prince is bound to two sources of Night rather than the Light?”
“What will your people think?!” I’m harsh now as I slap Lucca’s hand away, everything inside me going molten at his vast insult. “Your people will think you have power, Lucca! And power is currency, when you’re waging a war.”
“Well, you never stop waging war, do you?” Lucca blazes back, wrathful. “Always war, always machinations, never enjoyment or peace.”
“Life is war, Lucca.” An impeccable coldness settles all through me now as Lucca attacks me—the place I go when it’s too dangerous for the heat of my wrath to be unleashed. I stare Lucca down, feeling my body go still as the grave as my aura becomes ice cold, chilling the room. “Or hasn’t your father yet taught you that with how many times he’s beaten you over the centuries?”
“Bastardo.” My last barb was terrible; Lucca goes pale now, as if he’s been slapped. His curse was hardly a breath, but I’ve struck a deep pain in him he’s hidden for centuries.
His eyes go dark now, like the midnight sky. As he flushes hard, I feel the torrent of embarrassment, shame, and rage that floods him. Because I just skewered him with his deepest wound, something Lucca tells no one. As his energy roars like a comet hurtling through the sky, Ariana steps between us, raising her hands and pushing us a few steps apart with her power.
Lucca sears with dark-light fury now, his magic careening around the room as it topples floor lamps and candelabra. As an inhuman basso growl rolls from his lips, I watch his visage transform with frightening severity—a Fae ready to do battle.
His cheekbones are cutting lines now, his brow severe, his ears lengthened to a vicious point as his blue eyes burn. As Lucca’s lips curl up in disdain, fangs similar to a Vampire’s pierce down from his upper canines, smaller ones from his lower.
I’ve seen the show before, though. As Ariana gasps in shock, I let my energy darken to an unfathomable depth like a black hole. As I stand utterly still before Lucca’s rage, I know he feels me go cold. I stare Lucca down with a pure, black wrath devouring me now, something that lives so deeply inside me, I rarely let it out. Because it’s potent, this massive black hole of Night that lives within me.
And it feels too good to stand in it—devoid of all emotion now as I extend a hand, pointing at the door.
“Control yourself, bright Fae. Or get out. Because acting out of unhinged rage like your father endangers lives, and it is not needed here.”
“Gladly.”
Lucca lurches away, turning his back on Ariana and me. He doesn’t even look around as he hauls one of the ironbound ebony doors open with hurricane force. As he slams it behind him, the entire doorframe rattles from his preternaturally massive power.
His furious bright-dark magic swirling away as he leaves.
10
TEAR
As Lucca leaves Quinn and me in Quinn’s rooms, unhinged from his powerful storm of rage, a terrible sensation whirls inside me. Deep within, I feel our trio’s magic become jangled, cacophonous as Lucca’s and Quinn’s powers war in our bond. Their magics are wound deeply into me in order to control my opening Dark Fae power and keep me safe; I feel an awful tearing sensation devour me now that the two of them are fighting. I set a hand to my heart, shuddering from head to heels.
Feeling like I’m being torn apart by their contentious energies.
“Ariana. Are you alright?” Quinn faces me now, finally returning from his previous deathly cold state as he ordered Lucca out. As he sees me clutch my heart, I feel deep worry move through him now, with his and Lucca’s odious display.
Not knowing how to answer that, I glance up as I frown. My hand is still at my heart; I feel as if they’ve actually wounded me with their heinous fight as my heart gives a strange, lurching throb and then another. It’s like the precursor to a heart attack, as I worry about the state of my heart and whether their warring energies inside me could actually do physical damage.
I look at Quinn—and have no idea what to say.
“Ariana? Tell me what’s wrong.” Though everything inside Quinn pulls to soothe me, he doesn’t yet. I feel how he still needs to be passionless right now, not trusting himself to unleash his emotions after that blazingly awful fight with Lucca.
Lest he accidentally do me damage.