Page 62 of Light Fae's Love
“Ariana…!” Quinn’s word is a mere breath as he reaches up, cupping my hand to his heart. He stays that way for a long time; Arturos continues rubbing his back and at last he peers around, registering his longtime friend on his knees beside us.
“Arturos…” A light of understanding fills Quinn’s eyes. He sets his hand to his heart, feeling it beat for a long moment. Then, something inside him brightens like a blazing star. Crimson and gold fire flares around Quinn now, without a trace of darkness. It’s incredible as I see his true Summer Fae fire roar in him.
Like suns going supernova—just like what I felt from Lucca before.
“Lucca…” Quinn says now, as that massive fire of Light surges around us. As I feel an echo of Lucca’s love beam through our faraway bond, something lights in Quinn’s eyes. Where they were just stunned before, they look beautifully determined now as he rubs his chest, then glances at me. “Lucca did this for us. He returned me with your power. He loves me. Still.”
“Still.” I nod, giving him a smile so wide now I feel like it’s going to fly right off my face. Quinn feels my love beam inside him. He smiles the most beautifully sad smile as he pulls me in.
To kiss me like it’s his very last breath.
It goes on for a long while. The Revenant’s caught, the danger’s over—and Quinn and I revel in it now as we come together, kissing without a care for anything else. We’re alive, and we outlasted the strongest Revenant we’ve ever faced, besides fighting Gold Eyes once before we knew what it was. I’m almost entirely sure it was playing us back then, just to make us come together in our power before it left us to get acquainted.
I wonder now, as Quinn and I kiss, whether Gold Eyes had anything to do with this episode tonight and the mad Revenant that all but destroyed us. It’s clear Quinn hadn’t planned on capturing anything quite this strong, as he breaks from our kiss and turns, gazing at the Revenant in its box. Thoughtful, Quinn scowls at it.
It roils slowly in the cage, watching him right back.
“That was quite a lot more than we bargained for.” A bite is in Quinn’s voice now, as his crimson and gold fire settles around us. It hasn’t burned anything, though, as I play my hand through that beautiful magic now, wondering how Quinn can still manifest it. It’s so pure, with none of his darkness in the mix, at least not that I can see. He turns to me, as if feeling my wonder. Then, Quinn admires his magic too, as if this is the first time he’s noticed what it’s doing, stroking a few fingers through that heavenly fire.
Marveling at it, as his dark eyes light.
“My Fae fire…” I feel deep inside how stunned Quinn is by its pure manifestation.
“I’ve never seen it like this, Quinn. What does it mean?” His fire curls around my fingertips with a luminous heat rather than burning, then dissipates.
“I don’t know.” As he frowns, a shimmer of his auric darkness returns, swirling through the fiery colors of his old Light. “Maybe it’s surging like this because of Lucca, and how he poured his love inside us just now during our emergency.”
“Maybe.” I am frowning also now, because something about that doesn’t feel right. With the deepest truth-reading part of my Dark Fae ability, I know it’s something else. But I can’t put my finger on it as Arturos runs a hand through that flickering Fae magic as well.
And hisses as it sizzles him—burning his fingertips from the power of its Light.
“A Fae’s fire does not burn himself or true mates,” Quinn says as Arturos retracts his hand, shaking it and manifesting water at his fingertips to heal himself.
“Forgive me.” Arturos glances at Quinn. “I couldn’t help myself. I know I’m not a true mate to you or Ariana, but I simply… felt compelled to touch it. I don’t know why.”
“It is beautiful.” I play my hand through Quinn’s old power again, entranced by it. “Even if I wasn’t bound to Quinn, I’d want to touch this. It’s like… watching the ancient dance of the cosmos, like suns being born from galaxies of stellar gasses. I love it.”
“Your power is no less impressive, Ariana, with its darkfire rainbows and flashes of silver and gold Light.” Quinn gives a chuckle now as I see some of his regular personality return, though he’s still sober. As he looks back to the Revenant in its cage, I feel something utterly black flash through him. It’s like a temptation to return to wherever he went as a Revenant.
And I know it’s not gone from him, even though we got him back tonight.
I have a feeling that temptation to go Revenant may never be gone from Quinn, as he at last pushes up to standing, albeit with my help. I’m still leaking blood from where Arturos bit me; Quinn lifts an eyebrow at it, holding out a hand to Arturos and receives a vial of the Hotel’s Vampire bite unguent. He dabs it liberally on my wounds with his fingertips, and the bites begin to close.
Quinn’s eyes are serious now, however, as he tucks me under his arm, then gazes around the catacomb.
Then glances at Arturos—fire in his eyes.
“We need to take this thing home and regroup. Then decide what we are going to do before the Council, with our power as vastly weak as it is now, thanks to tonight.”
I understand what Quinn means, feeling both his and Lucca’s powers disastrously low inside me now. I’m not even feeling like I burn anymore from the power Lucca stored inside me, since we used all of our collective might to bring Quinn back from going Revenant. The Music of the Spheres possessed us as we unleashed our trio’s magics. It used all our power up, however, on Quinn—rather than on the Revenant we captured to demonstrate our might before the Council.
I wouldn’t have it any other way, though, as I wrap my arms around Quinn.
Never wanting to let him go.
“Ariana. I need to use our amulet to shrink the box.” Quinn gives a light chuckle, as his soft lips brush my forehead; for the first time, I notice he still has that glowing silver and amethyst Fae-amulet hanging around his neck, though the rest of his clothes and gear evaporated during his Revenant state.
“Right.” I squeeze him one last time, then reluctantly let go. With a solemn but amused chuckle, Quinn kisses my forehead once more, then lifts the amulet in his fingertips and faces the box. As he sets his intention, the amulet flashes bright, and the box shrinks down. As Quinn expected, the Revenant shrinks with it.