Page 18 of Dark Fae's Destiny

I absolve myself now of my inner self-hatred—and that’s the last thing I need to catapult me up. As the Music explodes from me suddenly, singing with trumpeting, clarion harmonies, I’m thrown out of the pit and hammered into a beautiful, endless night sky.

I reach that most ineffable Light. I thrust myself into it as I blaze like a sun going supernova, the Music celebrating all around and through me. I am a star; not just a dark star now, but a real one, searing with righteousness and love in the Light.

Light consumes me, and I rise with a gasp as all my senses, and my magic, and my connections to Lucca, Ariana, and my entire United Haven come roaring back.

A fire of pure, blazing white, red, and gold light sears from me, inundating the rotunda of the Dark Fae Sages as they all inhale a deep breath and nod. Lucca is awake; he seizes me now, holding me close to his pounding heart, as mine matches his. Because I’m living now, awake to my innermost Light in a way I never was before.

As I feel that dark inner void give up—and depart.

“The Gold Eyes! He’s gone,” I heave now as I cough, rubbing my chest, amazed by the sensation of freedom and lightness I feel.

“I know, Quinn! I know…” Lucca says. He is laughing that I’ve come back as he sets his forehead against mine. We kiss, hard and heavy, for a long moment until we part. Because the third of our trio is not back yet.

And some ancient sense from my Vampire days tells me the sun is nearly up.

“How long does she have?” I glance at Gideon now.

“Thirty-six minutes until sunrise,” Gideon says quietly. “If she has not found inner release by then… she will never rise again. I’m sorry.”

As his gaze flicks to Ariana, still laying inert upon the chaise bed, her head in Lucca’s lap, I can only guess what terrors she’s facing, deep within. Of all of us, I had thought she would wake first; fear devours me now, knowing she’s the last.

“What do we do?” Lucca asks me, as we share a worried glance.

“Wait with her,” I say, as I stroke her beloved curls, then place my hand on her beating heart. “Wait with her, and pray with every fiber of our being she can beat whatever it is she is going through. And make it back to us, at last.”

As Lucca nods, we both look back at Ariana. I feel us send every ounce of our love to her now through our bonds.

Though she cannot feel it, not one bit.

7

AWAKE

Iam torn from Quinn and Lucca, and I exist nowhere. It’s the strangest feeling, yet I don’t feel abandoned; somehow, I know both are still with me, waiting for the time when this trial is over and we can be reunited. Though I’m tempted to descend into the pit that lives within me, courtesy of the Gold Eyes and its terrible connection to my magic, I don’t. I see it there nearby, waiting.

I don’t fall into it, though—floating as I am, out in space.

Technically, I’m inside my inner space. I know that, yet it feels so peaceful here, as if everything we’ve been fighting for, everything that’s made my life so crazy and complicated these past few weeks and months, has disappeared. Some part of me wishes I could just stay here, calm, forever. Another part of me knows I can’t do that yet.

Because he is here—with me.

I feel him lingering in the darkness. The Gold Eyes Staphylogenes doesn’t make an appearance yet, but I can feel him, far out there in the void. Though the void is before me, it’s also inside me; I can’t explain it, but that vast empty sensation is at the core of my magic, at the core of my being.

Because I was Made into the creature he wanted me to be, as a one-day-old baby.

“What do you want with me?” I find myself asking the void now, as it faces me in the darkness. “What am I here for?”

The void does nothing for a long moment. I think perhaps the Dark Fae Sages have removed all ability of the Gold Eyes to infiltrate me, or contact me through my mind right now.

Then it speaks, as I see two bright gold orbs appear before me.

I have wanted one of your kind for eons, Ariana Altvie. Staphylogenes stares at me with those bright golden eyes. Though those orbs scald me from the darkness, they are haunted. As is its voice, as it sings to me through my endless Night.

Because it does sing. Somehow Staphylogenes’ voice is timbre and music, the very vibration and flow of the universe as it speaks to me now, unhindered. Though the Dark Fae Sages are great, even they cannot keep the Gold Eyes from contacting one it has Made, especially when that person was so young and malleable at the time.

I was its perfect choice, a one-day-old lump of flesh and magic it could court to its will, to change its destiny, somehow. Because only I have the House of Shadow Truth in my veins; only I have the power of truth-telling and truth-finding deep inside me. For some reason, that power is valuable to the Gold Eyes as it stares at me now.

Valuable when balanced with Quinn and Lucca in a trio beside me.

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