Page 60 of Light Fae's Love
“Dark Fae come in three varieties, Lucca.” Alleno cuts in again as his serious green eyes pierce me, truth shining in them. “Cuorante, Mentale, and Animante. The first kind, Cuorante, has a majority of the Light within them; if they are careful, they may pass among Fae society and be one of them. I am this kind of Dark Fae.”
“The second kind, Mentale, has a majority of the Night inside them, and may pass as Vampire if they are careful enough,” Eiseth says, frank now as she gestures to Devi. “Myself, Devi, and Curio are of this variety. We work hard to control the small amount of Fae Light we still have within us, so we may be considered among Vampire society as nothing but slightly odd in our magics, thanks to our old Fae bloodlines.”
“The third kind, Animante, are balanced in their Light and Night,” Devi says as her dark chocolate gaze flicks to me. “They are by far the most powerful kind of Dark Fae, the ones who give our kind the reputation of being able to sway minds and hearts and topple tyrants. This is Ariana’s type. She is stronger than all of us, though she has yet to understand what her magic can truly do, or balance it properly. She is well on her way to getting there, however, now that she has bonded you and Quinn by the ancient Dark Fae ritual Eiseth gave you. Because an Animante is balanced in her opening powers by bonding two of her own kind from opposite ends of the power. One a Mentale of the Night—Quinn—and the other a Cuorante of the Light. You.”
I take a moment.
And then I get it.
“I’m Dark Fae. And Quinn is, too.”
Though it’s a shocking admission, something about it seems so right as the words drop from my mouth. Like an explosion of power in the night, a bolt of energy sears through me; though I had been feeling drained all day after I helped Quinn recover from his near-assassination, not to mention everything I surrendered to Ariana to take to Rome, I suddenly feel hale.
A sensation like dark suns explodes inside me—a bright-darkness so powerful it’s like suns going supernova. Those suns create black holes that make me rock now, as a diamond-bright wave of magic surges through me.
Bright—and oh, so decadently dark.
That massive wave of light is tinged with a darkness I’ve somehow always had, I know now. Ever since Quinn and I went hunting Dark Fae, my energy has been dark around the edges in a way I thought was simply from my ancient bond to him, before he was turned Vampire.
What I’m feeling right now, however, is not Quinn’s power flowing through me, or Ariana’s. Though I’m still bound to them, it’s my own magic flooding me.
As everything suddenly makes sense—for the first time in my life.
“That strange sickness that took me after I was rescued from the Revenant catacomb,” I say now as I turn to Alleno, emotions cascading through me. “The way my magic seemed darker, as if I had a new element to it I could never quite shake. The way I was suddenly able to use Vampire Bloodsigns and make sense of their magic, to some extent. How I became more powerful, more convincing, more well-spoken in the Court when I was simply just a good fighter before. I thought it was Quinn’s influence effecting me, through our bond…”
“It was your own magic, Lucca,” Alleno says, his voice quiet as he sets a hand on my shoulder. “It was your Dark Fae power, making you so much more than you were before. It is time to learn what you are now. Because Quinn and Ariana need your help—all our help—if they are going to survive the next few days. With everything the Vampire Council has stacked against them.”
“Quinn thinks he’s a Vampire.” A horrible feeling takes me now as I blink. “He thinks he’s beholden to the Vampire Council, if he wants to keep his Dark Haven and win a seat among them.”
“Quinn is in a precarious position and it puts all of us Dark Fae at risk if he is not successful in Rome,” Eiseth says. She is careful now as her mist-grey eyes pin me. “Not just his Dark Haven, or his aims to be on the Council.”
“Untrained Dark Fae have a problem with their power going wild when it’s not tethered to anything stable.” Devi fills me in, serious now as worry comes into her eyes. “Quinn has released his bond to the Dark Haven of Florence, which was stabilizing his Dark Fae energy from exposing too much of his Light and running amok. You are tethered to Alleno through the blood-ties you share, and the ancient magic that flows through the Darkwatch. Quinn doesn’t have that, though. Curio and I have helped balance him over the years via our bonds to him—but we are not nearly as strong a Royal Dark Fae as you are, Ariana is, and Quinn himself is. It puts him in danger now, to have none of those bonds holding him—except yours and Ariana’s.”
“Which are weak at the moment, since Quinn and I placed so much of our power in Ariana to use in Rome.” I understand as I feel Quinn and Ariana enter some dark catacomb beneath the city, far away. But though I know they’re hunting a Revenant, I can’t focus on that now as I try to digest this insane revelation.
That Quinn and I are both Dark Fae—and have been for centuries.
“But…” I scowl now, rubbing a hand over my stubble as I try to process it all. I glance at Devi. “How are you Dark Fae?”
“Quinn Sired me,” she says as a small smile lifts her lips. “He doesn’t know it, but he actually can make Dark Fae. I never quite died when I went through the Siring process with him. And when I woke, I knew I still had far too much of my old Scarlet Fae power within me to be entirely Vampire. I knew Curio was the same; when we talked about it, he told me about Eiseth. I recognized Alleno as Dark Fae the moment we first met. You as well.”
“What about Curio?” I frown, then glance at Alleno. “And you?”
“I was born a Dark Fae, Lucca,” Alleno says, watching me. “There are far more of us in the Summer Fae than you think, because both Fae and Vampire magics can pass through family blood. It is a great secret of our kind that Dark Fae can be born holding both life and death inside our magic. With no Vampire ever touching us, at all.”
“Curio is the same,” Devina says now. “He was born a Dark Winter Fae. He was sent to infiltrate Emiliana’s Dark Haven on purpose, putting himself in her way and making her infatuated with him so she’d Sire him, so he could protect Quinn. Curio’s Siring never took, of course, because he already carried an ancient Master’s Vampire bloodline within him. But Emiliana, in her arrogance, never knew the difference. She couldn’t make Dark Fae.”
“So Quinn and I were both bitten by someone the day we went seeking the Dark Fae and got trapped in that catacomb with those Revenants.” I understand now, as my entire world continues to shift beneath me. I glance at Alleno. “You found me that day. Do you know who turned Quinn and me Dark?”
“No.” Alleno shakes his head, a dangerous light coming into his eyes now. “I swear to you I found you in that copse of trees, Lucca. You had already been turned Dark by an unknown Vampire assailant, so I did my best protecting you and balancing your power as you healed back at the palace. Your Vampire Maker is unknown, but you and Quinn received powerful magic from that Vampire. Far more powerful than anyone here in this room. Power you don’t know how to wield yet—exponentially stronger now because of your bonds to Ariana.”
“You were the one who gave us that ceremony, though.” I glance at Eiseth.
“To save Ariana,” she says. “She is a wondrously powerful Animante Dark Fae. It would have torn her apart to remain unbalanced in her power as it opened. You and Quinn had the right strength in your magics to save her, though neither of you knew what you really were. Coincidence? Or fate?”
“Why did none of you ever tell us?” I say now, glaring around the group.
“We couldn’t, Lucca.” Alleno’s voice is soft as his gaze pins me. “If your father ever found out you were Dark Fae, he would have killed you. And if Quinn’s Vampire Council had found out about him, they would have come for him immediately, to kill him and take his Dark Haven. Dark Fae have led both Fae and Vampires in the past, though, on countless occasions. For we are One, the Light and the Night. So many think we are diametric opposites, different in a way that can never be bridged. But it can. And it’s strong Dark Fae like you, Quinn, and Ariana who can do it. Which is why we all need to head to Rome right now and save Quinn. He’s going to expose himself as Dark Fae before the Council if he goes to them as weak as he is and loses control of his Light. Or if worse happens, thanks to his connection to Ariana and you.”