Page 40 of Dark Fae's Destiny

“You want to strike a deal?” It seems eager now as it regards me. I know it’s asking if we’ll take its vicious taint inside ourselves again, so it can maneuver us like puppets to get its heart back, and do whatever it’s going to do next.

Lucca’s and Ariana’s hearts both jolt in deep fear now that I might strike a deal with Staphylogenes to aid us in getting its heart back. Through our renewed bonds, I flood a wave of peace through them.

Urging them to be patient—and just let me think.

“I need a map,” I say now. I know I must best it with my cunning, rather than force, which has failed so spectacularly in the past. And we don’t have our Music, which has also failed to the Gold Eyes’ vast, nullifying might.

“A map?” It blinks at me as it cocks its head again.

“A map to your heart’s resting place.” I nod as I regard it. “For you see, your most ancient Ascendant wife, Iris, only gave us part of the picture—the part she knew. She gave us a trail inside our minds of where she would go to find your heart. But she is a Fallen Ascendant; we are mortals. We’ve discovered it’s not on any map of which we know, or any ancient diagram of Florence we could dig up. The place where your heart lives seems to be… nowhere. If you want us to go find it for you… we need a map.”

The Gold Eyes watches me then for a very long moment. I know I’ve asked it for some deeply personal information, something it would never have divulged to anyone in front of a whole host of witnesses.

But having this conversation in public is critical to my plan. Now, the Gold Eyes either needs to smite us as insolent at our presumption, or help us—but he can’t do both.

I see his arrogance warring with his desire as his towering blackness swirls. His void-like winds are restless behind him as he thinks.

And I know from his pause that I have already won.

“You three are clever to have come so far. Further, perhaps, than I ever quite intended you to,” it says now as it regards our trio. Those golden orbs return to me. “I will not give you something so bold as a map in front of all these witnesses, but I can give you a key. My key is this: the path to my heart lies not in one world, but in many. Find the entrance-point with a phrase of the Music: find the way to the tomb of Staphylogenes’ heart. The Music shall reveal to you where to start. The trials you must face therein, you do alone… to claim my heart from its resting place.”

“Good enough.” I give a deep nod, knowing our survival is all I truly need today. Though this key our fiend has given us is indeed a tantalizing puzzle.

One I’m eager to figure out.

But as I nod at Ariana and Lucca, and to our allies, for us to take our leave from the high dais, the Gold Eyes stops me. “Valerio Incendari.”

“Yes?” I glance over my shoulder from where I was ushering Lucca and Ariana away, turning back.

“I require an assurance that you will give my heart to me once you find it.” The Gold Eyes’ ancient orbs penetrate me now, as its winds sharpen like knives of darkness all around me.

And all around every single soul in this hall right now.

“You shall have your heart after we find it. I swear it,” I say, inclining my head as I swear an oath to the fiend now, to forestall disaster.

Of him simply killing everyone in this hall right now, and moving on.

“You must know… my heart cannot kill me. It is a part of me. And will always be,” The Gold Eyes says then, and I know it’s understood the game we play. Though it darkens me to hear it confirmed again that the fiend’s heart beneath Florence does not have the power to kill it, I know it is important to me and my trio for other reasons.

I don’t know what those are just yet, but Iris seemed certain we would need the heart to bolster our Music, and allow us to control our power. If the heart could give us any additional strength against the Gold Eyes when it’s time for us to come for him, I’ll take it.

Even if I have to die for it.

“I blood-oath this day that you’ll have your heart from us, if we find it,” I say as I lengthen my fangs now, biting the tip of my finger and flicking a drop of blood to the dais, then reaching beneath my shirt and placing my bleeding hand to my heart. “With everything I am, I swear it.”

As my sudden blood-oath flares from me in a deep wind of power, mysterious and ancient in the vast hall, it makes our foe pause. He glances at my drop of blood shining on the vivid gold and white marble of the dais, before his gaze pins me again.

Unsure now, as if afraid.

“I accept your blood-oath. And will hold you to it,” it says to me, still swirling in a way that makes me think I’ve shocked it somehow with this ancient magic, though I don’t know why. It knows what a blood-oath is and is willing to wheel and deal now.

As I suddenly feel all our lives freed today, thanks to my oath.

“My blood will hold me to my oath.” I stare the fiend down. “Not you. The time for that has passed.”

As we watch each other, I feel its winds of Night whirl. It knows I’m right; we’ve broken free of its domineering magic by discovering our truest hearts. However strong it is, it can’t unmake that. Because it doesn’t have a heart anymore, and we do. We have the power of true love, unity, and forgiveness deep inside ourselves.

Something it lost when it tore out its heart long ago.

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