Page 78 of Light Fae's Love
But before Quinn can start our demonstration, a voice suddenly whispers inside my mind.
Prove your Master’s flame-born Light, little belladonna of the Fae.
I turn in shock as I hear that smooth, ancient voice—to see the Gold Eyes swirling at the far end of the Colosseum floor. Shrouded in darkness, it flickers in and out of this dimension as I watch it seethe in its impenetrable Night.
It’s as if it’s there, but not, as I watch it swirl into that same tall spearman where it lingers in a patch of darkness by one ancient vault. The sorcerous flames of the Vampire torches don’t touch it, or the patch of darkness it hides in, as its brilliant gold eyes penetrate me. Utterly mad, those eyes shine in the darkness as I somehow feel it smile.
A diabolical smile of utter delight—like it’s excited for the show.
Quinn! I say mind-to-mind, urgently, as I move close to him. I keep my mind-chatter as low as possible, hoping none of the Masters of the Council can hear. Quinn sees me nod to where the Gold Eyes waits. His gaze flicks to it; I hear him draw the smallest breath as shock riots all through him.
I know what he does in that moment; it’s here to see us rise like kings tonight, or make us fall so deep into darkness that nothing will ever save us. For the Gold Eyes only appears to those destined to leave a very great legacy—or crash into stunning misfortune. It’s been watching us all this time, pushing us to do something with our trio’s magics that I still don’t understand.
Only that it’s interested in us.
And provides stunningly wild results when it gets involved in our exploits.
Its presence shivers me to my bones now, as I feel Quinn steady himself beside me. He’s shaken, too; knowing the creature is here right now and likely to make things with the Revenant go awry, as we try what we came here to do tonight. We’re in the best possible position we could be in, however, with our trio’s powers restored and our bond stronger than ever. With a deep breath, Quinn puts aside his worry.
And makes himself firm as stone—to do or die tonight.
I feel Quinn draw the immense power of his darkness, his ancient Vampire Night, all around him now. It’s like drawing the void of the cosmos down from the brightest stars, as Quinn raises the full power of his Vampire magic all around us in a seething tirade of Night.
The evening is alive with fire now from Quinn’s vivid red and gold flames; I feel him work hard to keep them to a minimum so the Vampire Council doesn’t suspect what he is. As I raise my magic also, Quinn foregoing biting me tonight thanks to the new unity of connection we’re all sharing, my dark oilslick rainbows vibrate hard into Quinn’s darkfire flames.
Far beneath our feet, Lucca senses our power rise. He lifts his magic also in a shining splendor, timing it perfectly with ours. As Quinn opens his lips, humming and then singing the Music like he did before, shaping it to his intention, for a moment, that incredible Music shimmers through the darkness. Alive with splendor, everything inside me lights as I listen to Quinn’s harmonies and feel myself moved now to sing it with him, just as I did before.
I see the Music form a shimmering sigil now in the Otherworld, ready for Lucca and me to work our magic to complete it. But as I open my mouth, prepared to work our fullest Music on the Revenant and return it, feeling Lucca do the same, the black creature suddenly gives a tremendous heave inside its box. It’s strong; so viciously strong, as if it had been saving up everything it had for this one moment.
To test its confines right at the worst possible time.
As the Revenant slams the bars of its cage, the Gold Eyes suddenly gives a surge of energy. As the Revenant heaves inside its prison, the Gold Eyes sends a diabolical wave of power through the night—and the Music wrenches into a cacophony the likes of which I’ve never heard.
The sigil we were forming suddenly wrenches also, into an entirely new shape. Dark and terrible, that sigil is pure hell as I scream, hammered to my knees with both hands over my ears. Quinn falls as I do, and I feel Lucca fall also, all of us screaming to the vast insanity of that new sigil now, and the diabolical Music that accompanies it. Our trio’s scream is echoed by the entire Vampire Council as the Music shatters in the night.
Silver exploding as the Vampire Bloodsigns and Faeanic sigils upon the Florentine Box break.
A concussion hammers the night; shreds of the cage’s silver bars hurtle at us in a thousand spears as Quinn roars in shock and pain. He slams up a dome of fiery Night all around himself and me to protect us from those sudden projectiles.
But my mind is gone, blasted by that terrible, clamoring wreckage of the Music as the Revenant rises from the melted silver of its cage, torn velvet drapes cascading off of it. I can’t get my bearings as it whirls in a maelstrom of power, like a thunderstorm come alive. I can’t raise my magic to fight or even lengthen my Faeanic spear as I watch in horror, thinking the Revenant’s going to turn towards the Council and go rampaging through them.
As that terrible, jangled Music pummels me, devastating Quinn’s, Lucca’s, and my minds and paralyzing our bodies as it roars unhinged all around us, the Revenant doesn’t attack the Council. Quinn and I are incapacitated now. He can barely hold his dome of Night around us as he heaves a terrible cry and falls to his hands and knees with me on the Coliseum floor, the Revenant’s awful red eyes fixing on him.
It has a score to settle, as those horrible red eyes burn. It comes to us, blasting through the remnants of Quinn’s barrier like a bomb as it wraps its seething tentacles of Night all around him.
With a screech like a thousand nails scratching down a blackboard, it raises its ungodly power, triggering every last memory of Emiliana DiClario Quinn has.
And then it feeds from the person who trapped it here tonight.
The tastiest person, with all the terrible torture Quinn endured over the years.
30
DISASTER
As Quinn is attacked by the Vampire Revenant when the Music of the Spheres breaks, I lose it. Released from the Music’s diabolical grip as it finally jangles out to nothing in the Colosseum, my mind is gone as I hear Quinn’s horrible screams. My Dark Fae power rises in a maelstrom as those screams turn to shrieks, just like before; Quinn is being devoured by the Vampire Revenant, and I don’t even care what my power does, as it seethes through the night with a thousand impossible harmonies.
To save him.