Page 157 of Dark Fate

73

Iplunk down next to Dani in this extravagant-as-fuck dining hall of the Sun Court, still trying to make heads or tails of this new intel. She's damn near gleaming now, proudly wearing that Faerite Stone perched in her crown. Christ, the woman looks like a queen already.

I lean back as she talks about how the glittery rock allows her to talk to magical creatures and read emotions. Supposedly, the unicorn king, Calamari, or whatever his high-and-mighty name is, dropped some big-time gossip about me harboring hidden powers.

The suggestion throws me off, leaving me bewildered. I shake my head, emitting a chuckle. "Baby, you and that overgrown My Little Pony were huffing some serious fairy dust back in the hippie valley—I'm just a regular, badass vampire who can move shit with his mind. No special powers are hidden up my sleeves over here. You already know what I can do."

It isn't until Dani brings up lightning that my mind is catapulted back to that horrific day in the Whispering Woods—the agony of losing her. Her death fueled my anger, sent me spinning out of control, and unleashed the skies and elements in my fury.

"I don't know what that was… the Whispering Woods, after you…" I can't even say it, "When something…happened," I confess haltingly. I dismissively wave a hand, wrestling with the painful memory that stabs deep into my gut. Reliving the nightmare of watching Dani die right before my eyes is a torment I'd not wish on anyone.

"So let me get this straight," Dani says, eyeing me with that fiery look. "You can just whip up lightning storms now, and you didn't think to mention it?"

Mistaking her momentary distraction, I mention that she didn't spill the beans about her immortality upgrade or this Soul-Tie thing she still hasn't explained. "Looks like we're even, huh?" I say with bravado, instantly regretting the words as her expression shifts. Her eyes morph from bright and golden to molten gold, fiery and intense. And yet, despite her anger, I'm more than ready for a little battle with my feisty and most definitely fiery Angel.

Leave it to Lucian to take a tense situation and crank it up to eleven with his special brand of verbal diarrhea. The asshat's wearing a grin that practically screams, "I'm about to make everything worse," and I can already feel my blood pressure skyrocketing in anticipation of the impending shitstorm.

"Oh, man, you should've been there!" He crows, his voice dripping with gleeful schadenfreude. "It was like Armageddon had a baby with a Michael Bay movie—everything went up in flames faster than a fucking tiki torch at a frat party! By the time the smoke cleared, the place looked like it had gone ten rounds with Godzilla and lost. Spectacularly."

He laughs, the sound grating on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. Clearly, the concept of "read the fucking room" is about as foreign to him as quantum physics is to a goldfish. I swear, sometimes I wonder if he has a secret death wish or if he's just too damn stupid to realize when he's about to get his ass handed to him on a silver platter.

I shoot him a glare that could melt steel, my jaw clenched so tight I'm half-surprised my teeth haven't shattered. "Lucian, I swear to god, if you don't shut your fucking piehole, I'm going to shove my foot so far up your ass, you'll be tasting leather for a week," I growl, my voice low and dangerous.

Dani shoots me a triumphant glance like she's just kicked ass and taken names.

"Angel, whatever shit that went down was a one-time thing, okay?" I try to shrug it off like it's nothing. "I was deep in some dark-ass hole... And you, you were…" My words choke off, the grim thought too intense to put into words.

Dani crosses her arms, cocking her hip to the side. "Oh really? So you go all Storm from X-Men and summon lightning after I died, and it's no big deal to you?"

"Listen, it was a one-off, alright?" I rake a hand through my hair, pissed off. "Why the hell does it even matter?"

"Alright, get this—Meadow, our very own seer-in-residence, had one of her vision deals," Dani explains, fishing for clarity within the mystical forecast. "She saw you encased in lightning, Rhyland. That's gotta mean something, doesn't it? It feels like a clue, some prophetic nudge we shouldn't ignore."

I shake my head, cutting through the crap. Meadow's visions are like a fucked-up jigsaw puzzle. Me, with some special lightning powers? That's horseshit. But Dani's latched onto this idea like a stubborn hound with a bone.

I shoot her a steely glare, sidestepping those inquisitive eyes. "It was a damn fluke, alright? Who's to say I was even the one in control? I ain't no goddamn Thor… X-Men, or whatever with lightning powers."

"Oh, of course, how silly of us," Lucian drawls, rolling his eyes so hard I'm surprised they don't get stuck in the back of his thick skull. "Because obviously, every other fucker on that battlefield had the power to summon a lightning storm straight out of a high-budget disaster movie. My bad for not realizing that controlling the weather is a standard-issue superpower these days."

He fixes me with a look that's equal parts exasperation and 'Are you fucking kidding me?'

"I mean, it's not like you're the only one here with a direct line to the Force or anything, right? Oh, wait..." Lucian taps his chin in mock contemplation; his eyebrows raised so high they're practically merging with his hairline. "Wouldn't it make sense that the guy with the telekinetic mojo would pull the strings on that little light show? Or am I just talking out of my incredibly toned and perfect ass again, Obi-Wan?"

I'm grinding my damn teeth because this is batshit insane. I've never played puppet master with the skies, and since that one freak day, I haven't given it a second thought. My Gods have been radio silent for centuries, and this idea that sky-wrangling's a part of me is enough to make my head spin out of control.

"Seriously, though, who else could it have been? The tooth fairy? Santa Claus? The ghost of Christmas fuck-you? Come on, man, you're not fooling anyone with this whole 'who, me?' routine," Lucian finishes.

"It's not exactly a giant leap when you look at it with a smidgeon of common sense," Dani quips, a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

This woman is poking at my last nerve, and damn if my dick doesn't stand at attention at her defiance and sass—going on about this baseless shit that I possess some elemental control power.

My chest receives a prod from Dani's insistent finger. "Quit denying this like it's nothing," she retorts, her tone brimming with her signature sass. "Calimero's waving around the idea that you've got some serious juju bottled up. The sort of 'storm god ancestry' flair comes with it. Is that stirring any memories or shaking any family trees? Or do I need to knock harder?"

I never knew the bastard that contributed half my DNA. And it's not a memory I'm eager to dive into. Dani and I, we've got this crappy common ground with our mysterious parentage, and this crap is spiraling out of control. That day threw me in a loop just as much as it's messing with me now. My mother did the single-parent gig, spinning yarns about the Gods visiting her and giving her a gift—a blessing—which was me. As for my old man, the story always was he'd never show his face again. She filled my head with legends of my Gods in Valhalla, keeping an eye on me.

"No, it damn well doesn't," I snap at her. "Drop it, Dani."

Goddamn, she's not playing nice. I fight to keep my temper in check.

---