Page 79 of Light Fae's Love

Rainbows of bright gold and silver careen through the domed-in Colosseum now, coming from me. As Quinn’s last shred of protection between us finally breaks, the most horrible memories of Emiliana flood me, heinous with the terror of her innumerable crimes.

Quinn’s mind is being shredded by the Revenant, already broken by that horrible backfiring of the Music that Gold Eyes caused. His sanity disappears as his shrieks cascade out like a Revenant’s now.

And I feel my grip on sanity waver, too.

I lose control. Nothing is in my mind, nothing in my heart and soul except saving Quinn as the fullness of my magic is unleashed by my need. The Music has broken my mind, demolishing every last bit of my restraint.

Catastrophic power pours through me now—lighting everything up in a terrible dayfire all around. I channel Lucca’s diamond Light as that insane magic sears through me, along with Quinn’s unholy darkness with its scalding red and gold flame.

My own magic sears gold and silver in a maelstrom as the Music pours from me in a horrific splendor now. Where it took all three of us to create the Music previously, it’s just me this time—the power of the insane sound I’m creating deafening my ears as it shreds my consciousness.

Sigils of impossible varieties flash through that Otherworld, blazing into our world even as they blaze out again, chaotic and wild. As a sphere of massive daylight magic blooms out around me, it’s like plasma being born.

That liquid light explodes from me suddenly, scalding through the Colosseum in a terrible wave. My wave of plasma power flows out, and out, and out. A distant part of me is aware of the Council Masters shrieking.

As those on the lowest tier of the Colosseum are incinerated by my terrible magic.

Someone has released the dome around us; Council members are portaling out in flashes of dark magic as my massive wave of unhinged Light and Night seethes, rising through the Colosseum’s tiers like the world’s most implacable tide.

That energy is being channeled all through me by my terrible power exploding. It blazes even harder now as Lucca reacts beneath our feet, trying to stabilize me; Lucca’s power is simply more Light, though, as it scorches through me like a thousand suns.

Quinn shrieks and falls to the ground, released by the Revenant who has been incinerated by my sudden blast, though I feel how his sanity is broken. And without Quinn’s agile mind and deep control to stabilize this power, I feel his massive Night roar.

To fight with Lucca’s Light inside me—for dominance.

Our trio’s bound magic runs amok now, as everything sears so bright inside me I have to close my eyes. I fight for the last shreds of my sanity now as I fall to the ground, covering the shrieking Quinn with my body as I pray this Light doesn’t incinerate him, too.

As his and Lucca’s powers war inside our bond, I feel ripped apart to my very marrow, screaming and shrieking with my own cries now as my power explodes like a bomb. It pulverizes the lowest tier of the Colosseum as that shockwave hammers out; something about that discharge suddenly exhausts both Quinn’s and Lucca’s magics inside me, though.

As I cease to channel their tremendous Light and Night.

Everyone is gone; the decimated amphitheater around us is empty as that unfathomable surge of power dies from me, curling out. There is nothing now where that power was; a devastatingly dark void fills me as everything I am feels utterly spent.

My vision flickers; I’m a moment from passing out and going I don’t know where, when I feel Lucca rush to my side, portaled in to the center of the Colosseum somehow to where Quinn and I lay.

He pours a tirade of love and his remaining Light deep through my bones, keeping me from crossing over. It’s enough. I come back as I feel Lucca pour everything he has into Quinn as well.

Beside us on the ground, Quinn is flickering in and out of existence. Terrible curls of wraith-smoke seethe all around him, trying to take him as he lays there on the ground on his side, motionless.

His eyes are open, though—and I realize then what Lucca’s seeing as he fights to keep Quinn and I with him with his last remaining Light. Because Quinn’s eyes are seething red, then black, then vividly red again.

Red like a Revenant—with no Fae Light left in them.

“We have to get him back to the Hotel. Quickly!” Eiseth’s voice barely registers as I watch her shore up Quinn from the ground. As Alleno gets the exhausted Lucca, Arturos heaves me up to standing. I can’t find my feet; everything inside me trembles with a palsy now as I feel powerless.

I’m devoid of my Light; I spent it all on that massive, unconfined surge of power that just ripped through me and decimated the Colosseum. I’m missing Quinn’s Night, as well; close to passing out, I’m still slipping towards the brink of all that’s holy as I cry out softly.

Though Arturos heaves me into his powerful arms, I reach out for Quinn and Lucca—feeling their Light and Darkness both dim now as we are all separated, needing touch to restore it.

But that’s impossible now, as Council members pop back in through portals all around—disastrously close on the main floor of the Coliseum now that both the Revenant is gone and the threat of my unbalanced power has flashed out.

They’re coming for us, rushing towards us in terrible heaves of roiling Night as I hear Florian’s wrathful snarl, Catch them! Let them not escape! Eiseth, Alleno, and Arturos are raising their powers hard, flighting back with terrible drives of their own magnificent magics. Our allies summon their own portals now, popping out through them.

To get us the hell out of there.

I don’t know where Arturos and I are, as we re-materialize somewhere far away, in a dark, musty-smelling catacomb. I only know someone’s chasing us as Arturos pops through another portal, then another, and even another, playing a terrible cat-and-mouse game with the Council member—or members—chasing us.

At last, he seems to have outrun them. As he jerks to a breathless halt in a catacomb so dark I can see nothing, he shudders like he’s just sprinted ten miles. Arturos lights a watery blue globe of magic in the air so we have something to see by, letting me slide down his body as he pools to the ground inside a dark catacomb gods-know-where.

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