Page 44 of Light Fae's Love
Who I’m sure is millennia older than anyone else on the Council, if she’s a day.
“Do I need a reason to Wander, my sweet water-dragon?” she says. The Wanderer smiles benevolently at him now, though something in it is also amused. She reaches out, stroking a hand over his wavy dark hair as he kneels before her, and I see Arturos shiver as she cups his face in her hands.
Then kisses his lips gently, taking his hand and helping him rise.
“Thank you, Mistress,” Arturos says as he shivers again, as if her very touch is orgasmic.
“Your thanks is not needed,” she says with perfect calm now as she turns towards me and Quinn once more. The subtlest smile curls her beautiful lips as she glances between us, like she just got a joke no one else did. Her smile widens as she reaches out, touching my heart with her palm.
A deep wave of the warmest, most pleasurable energy rolls through me. I sink to those incredible midnight flows as I am suddenly settling into a seat in the flowering vines that have sprung up all around me. Quinn goes down behind me, supporting me so I don’t fall over.
I feel high. A decadent sensation like drinking champagne beneath the full moon fills me, and I beam up at the Wanderer, amazed by her magic. Whatever it is, it rolled me in a moment, when I was doing pretty good so far, resisting subtle drives of power from all around the party, and Florian, trying to figure me out tonight and see if I had a weakness.
I am weak before the Wanderer’s magnificent power, though.
I don’t care, as I bask in her endless glory—feeling Quinn do the same behind me.
Everyone at the party is enrapt now, though this goddess of Vampires touches no one else, showing no others her favor. With a beatific smile at me, she turns back to her progeny.
“My Vampire-Siren. Walk with me. Invite your Master of Florence and the one who is a known Dark Fae. We shall speak.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Arturos is quick now as he beckons Quinn and me to rise and accompany him and his Master. He turns, leaving hushed instructions with a man in a black tux who is most likely his butler to continue the party in his absence. All is quickly done, and Arturos strides after his Master, who has danced her way back to the hedge maze’s entrance.
Though the maze is overgrown now with a riot of pale flowers and vines shining beneath the late-summer moon, the Wanderer enters the maze and we follow. I do not know what we’re in for, as I feel Quinn’s quick mind-missive to remain calm at all costs.
To listen to the Wanderer’s words, rather than speak.
We wind deep into the maze now, and the Wanderer stops to wave a hand at a solid section of topiary wall and the hedges part. As if everything in nature does her bidding, they just suddenly grow in a different orientation—almost like she’s Fae, rather than Vampire. I’m astounded by it as she waves again and a shimmering wave glimmers in the air between the hedges.
And where there was only more hedge, there is now a beautiful midnight glade.
That glade blossoms with night flowers, drowning in the scent of jasmine as the Wanderer steps through her spontaneous portal and beckons us to follow. We do. I know I’ve crossed through Realms as a shiver of power flows over my skin; it’s the gentlest crossing of Realms I’ve ever experienced, however, as enormous night-moths flutter up from the forest glade, startled by our arrival.
I wonder if we’re even in the Twilight Realm anymore, as I look up and see nothing but stars with no white nimbus on the horizon. It’s confirmed for me as I see three moons gracing the sky.
All full, as their blessed light beams down upon us.
It invigorates me beyond anything I’ve ever experienced as I revel in it. It stops me right in my tracks as I raise my chin to the sky and extend my arms, basking in that endless white glow that lights the glade.
The Wanderer stops her sojourn as she turns back to me, that I-know-a-joke-others-do-not smile gracing her full lips again. She closes the portal with another wave of her hand and moves into the center of the glade, trees surrounding us now as those big night-moths flutter up all around. Sinking down, she settles in the white flowers.
She is casual as she picks one and plucks its petals, her dark eyes shining.
Arturos, Quinn, and I move forward until we’re near her, but not too close, then settle into the grass and flowers with her. She says nothing for a long while, simply picks all the petals off her blossom like no one is there, then reaches out for another and does it all again. She’s halfway through her third blossom when she looks up.
And pins me with her endless dark eyes.
“So. My progeny desires you, Dark Fae.”
“Your progeny?” I blink, numb from her insane power, but also confused at her words.
“My sweet Siren loves you. Can you not feel his regard?” she says as she smiles beatifically at Arturos.
And all at once, I get it.
“I didn’t mean to! I mean, it’s just—” I blubber now, caught completely off-guard.
“I know. You have love for others.” Her gaze pins Quinn now. “Two others. One so beautifully bright. The other, so decadently dark.”