Page 68 of Light Fae's Love
“No. To allow all three cultures to live in harmony together.” Eiseth skewers me with her intense gaze. “We seek for all to be able to decide whether they wish to live in the Night, the Light, or both. For all three Lineages are not so very different, as you yourself have expounded for ages, Quinn. A truth you knew to your bones—long before you understood what you really are.”
“Equality. Harmony. Cooperative sovereignty,” I say, orating ideals I’ve long held in my deepest heart of hearts—that the Vampires, Fae, and Dark Fae could find a balance together and no longer be at each other’s throats like they have been for eons.
“Ever since we Fell.”
The words drop from my lips unbidden, but I know them suddenly as true. Something deep inside me yearns for all of us Fae, Dark Fae, and Vampires to return to our original, sublime state—the state the Ascendents were in just after they Fell to earth.
It was the power we had when our magic was complete, before it became fractured into the Light and the Night. I take a deep breath now, feeling my heart beat in my chest. I place my palm to it and Ariana comes to me, wrapping her arms around me and gazing up into my eyes as she places a hand atop mine.
We stand there a long moment before Lucca joins us. As he steps behind me, wrapping his arms around me and setting his chin to my shoulder, something deep inside me becomes complete.
I sigh, held by my lovers.
And know they balance the power inside me—both the Light and the Night, though I have far more of the latter.
“You are saying it’s not over, if I still want to have a place on the Vampire Council and fight for equality between our people.” I glance up now, meeting Eiseth’s gaze as I wrap an arm around Ariana.
My other hand slipping to my side, my fingers interlacing with Lucca’s.
“It’s not over, Quinn.” Eiseth’s magic rises and her grey mist whirls around her. “You have to understand, however, that whatever you choose right now will have deep repercussions on many people. Not just you, Ariana, Lucca, and your Dark Haven… but many whose lives you know nothing about yet.”
“All those Dark Fae hidden in plain sight, within Vampire and Fae culture.” I understand as I hold Eiseth’s gaze. “They are all at risk if something goes wrong before the Council tomorrow night when I try to return the Revenant we caught. If something becomes unstable… and I expose my Light.”
“Precisely.” Eiseth warns as she gives it to me straight. “If you suddenly lose touch with your Vampire power and channel Light too strongly, because of how much your Vampire magic has been drained recently… the Council would know you for what you are. You’ve gone under their radar for centuries without knowing it. But to suddenly discover that a Master with an entire Dark Haven is actually a Dark Fae… it would unleash a new pogrom upon us, and not just from the Summer Fae King anymore.”
“From the Vampire Council, trying to root out other Dark Fae in the leading ranks of their Dark Havens.” I know, as a horrible feeling engulfs me.
“It would be a bloodbath.” Arturos whistles, the only one among us who is not Dark Fae, though as a Vampire-Siren, he has a unique position of his own in Vampire society. “The Council would unleash hell on any Dark Haven knowingly or even unknowingly harboring Dark Fae. Especially if they’re led by any.” His gaze flicks to Eiseth, as they hold an understanding.
“How many of us lead Dark Havens?” I ask now, looking at Eiseth as well.
“Enough,” she says, though I understand I’m not high up enough yet in Dark Fae society to be party to that entire answer. “Quinn, you have a choice right now. You can either abandon your quest and leave Rome, failing to do your demonstration for the Council and take sanctuary in one of our Dark Fae’s hidden citadels?—”
“Or I can do the demonstration and hope I have enough Night left in me to keep my true nature a secret,” I know, finishing her thought. “And face disaster if I can’t.”
“Precisely.” Eiseth releases a breath. The bleakness of my choice is not lost on her, though I know which way she would have me choose.
A strong flow of energy passes into me from Ariana then, and another from Lucca—and I know I can’t run.
“We’re with you, Quinn,” Ariana says, gripping my waist, tucked to my side.
“Whatever you must do, in your heart,” Lucca says now from where he stands behind me, resting his head against mine. “For I have my own ambitions in Fae society, and I thought they were ruined also when Alleno and the rest told me the truth. Now I know they can still be… if we’re careful.”
“All our plans, however, hinge on me being able to control my Light with my Night tomorrow evening.” I glance at the window, seeing the white rim of the sky as the evening deepens to true twilight. “And we haven’t even talked about this urge I’m still feeling… to unleash it all and go Revenant.”
Silence envelops the room as I voice the one piece everyone seems to be missing. It’s a terrible silence, full of all our fates, as Lucca curls possessively around me from behind and Ariana grips me hard, squeezing my waist.
“That’s not going to happen, Quinn,” Lucca says. “Ariana and I are both here now. We’ll keep you from falling into that endless, dark place.”
“But you have it, too.” I twist to glance at Lucca, and he holds my gaze, frank.
“I do,” he says as he watches me. “I know I have that utterly black place inside me, just like you, and Ariana, as well. For how could I love you both so much if I didn’t? I know that place you want to fall into, Quinn. And I will keep you from going there. By reminding you every moment of every day that I love you. That my Light for you and Ariana both will never fail.”
Lucca’s admission of love brings tears to my eyes. I’m not a man who cries; but this is the second time in as many days, with everything that’s been heaped upon us. I’m not hysterical now from dire memories of Emiliana swamping me, though I feel them still on the edge of my mind, trying to push me into that black void from which there is no return.
The love holding me now, though, from both Lucca and Ariana, makes me return to the Light as I feel a deep blaze of my Summer Fae fire fill me. I know it’s not gone now; it will never be gone from me, and it never was. As I revel in it, I feel that revelry fill my Vampire powers as well.
Though not enough for what I need to return a Revenant tomorrow night.