Page 79 of Dark Fae's Destiny

“I like the sound of that.” I nuzzle his nose, Lucca lipping at my ear now, and kissing my neck. I reach a hand back, gathering him to me as I cinch closer to Quinn. “What are these oh-so-mysterious gifts?”

“You have to come outside.” Lucca grins at my ear. I feel him guarding his thoughts hard now through our bond, so he doesn’t spoil the surprise, just as Quinn is.

“Alright.” I square my shoulders, gesturing out the door. “Take me to this surprise.”

“This way.” Lucca takes my hand, Quinn following as Lucca tugs me out the towering front doors of my new manor, into the settling night.

The deepening evening is blue and purple, with the white Twilight nimbus around the margins of the sky. Vivid stars pop out high above, though there is no moon, a new-moon night.

As Lucca leads us around the side of the sprawling manor, through a beautiful topiary and rose garden burbling with fountains that I insisted not be overtaken by my mother’s herbs, we come to a spot on the far edge of the property that Lucca demanded be left wild.

I don’t know what he plans for it; once a sculpted waterfall garden on the property, it’s become overgrown in the most beautiful way now with night-blooming flowers.

Lucca leads me to a trio of waterfalls now, which reminds me of the waterfall glade where we once made love. As he leads me into the center of the overgrown grass there, of what once might have been a sprawling patio or even an outbuilding long gone, I see something in the grass.

Beautiful, it’s a tree; a lovely sapling slightly taller than Lucca, it glows silver-green in the night. Its branches are covered with luminous white flowers; with a start, I realize it’s the same kind of tree that was Lucca and Quinn’s Livingtree.

But that tree was brought down by the Summer Fae battle when Lucca was captured more than a week ago by his father. I’ve not been to the battle site, but Lucca has, and told me the old tree was dead.

Though I feel through him now that this brand-new tree was born.

“Lucca, is this…!?” I ask him as I reach out, touching the slender sapling. As I whisper my fingertips over its silver leaves, it sings, shimmering incredible sounds through the air.

The Music in its purest form, created by the plants, the trees, and by the earth itself.

“The parent tree died, but this sapling survived,” Lucca says with a sober demeanor now as he gazes upon the tree. “I thought I would move it here; give it a new life where our new life will be. The old tree gave its all into this single new sprout. I was thinking we could all grow it together, you, me, and Quinn… to be our Livingtree for the rest of our lives. And for our children, perhaps.”

“Every Fae needs a Livingtree, even if they have a more modern house. It would be prescient to regrow this one as ours, from the old one that was.” Quinn comments now as he looks upon the tree with something like awe in the night. He reaches out, touching the tree also, and it sings for him, as well.

Dark, luscious, and beautiful in the settling evening.

“I would be honored to grow this tree with you both,” I say now as something incredible fills me. Though outward manifestations of the Music are gone from our trio now, I feel that most ephemeral sound fill me up, deep inside, as I revel in my beloveds and this incredible gift Lucca is giving us.

“Stand close to the tree, and we’ll form a ring around it,” Lucca says quietly now as he smiles at me. “First, we generate our love for each other in our hearts. Then we touch the tree… filling it with our love and wishing it growth forevermore, as part of our family.”

“So beautiful…” I say now as Quinn, Lucca, and I move around the tree, ready. As we set our hands to our hearts, then decide holding hands is better and change position in the night, I feel us come together.

As we all raise our revelry together—for the beauty of the night, the closeness of our bodies, and the lovingness of our touch—it fills me up, deep inside. The Music that remains inside me sings a thousandfold now, surging throughout my entire body as I sway in the light wind with my mates.

They sway with me as we listen to that song in our hearts, and in our bodies, and inside each other. Even though we can’t manifest it in our outer world anymore, or even sing it via our voices, we reach out our left hands now. Touching the tree, we pour that most ephemeral and deeply loving Music deep into its limbs, roots, and bark.

Right to its heart from ours.

The tree shoots up in the night. I blink my eyes open to see it lengthen in a towering might, thirty feet high as it widens a hundredfold. From a slender sapling is born a real tree, sturdy and strong. Its roots delve deep into the cracked plain of the ancient foundations; pieces of gilded tile like an ancient veranda are thrust up as the tree widens and lengthens, its limbs heaving to the night sky.

All through its towering boughs, little white flowers burst, glowing in the deepening night with a thousand colors. A scintillating pollen scatters down, diamond-fine and glittering like stardust as it shimmers through the night.

Magical.

I beam up at the tree, then at my beloveds. We come together before the tree now rather than stand around it; as we hug each other, Lucca kisses me and we revel in the new tree’s growth. I have no words for him as I pull him to me and kiss him longer. Quinn cuddles to my back, pressing his cheek to mine as I kiss Lucca.

And then Quinn and Lucca are kissing, as I revel in their newfound togetherness.

There’s nothing more to say as we inhale the decadent aroma of the new tree in the night. Lucca’s gift is beyond precious; I wonder how Quinn’s going to top that as he turns now, retrieving a parcel from behind him I missed him grabbing when we left the house.

Covered in brown paper and of a moderate size, it’s tied with a silver-gold bow. From its dimensions, slender but rectangular, I know at once it’s a painting.

I beam at him now, wondering what in the world it is.

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