Page 49 of Dark Fae's Destiny

“Quinn. Do you know who this tomb is for? Or who made it?” I ask now, to verify what we’re all feeling—though we already know in our deepest hearts, minds, and souls, it’s true.

“No.” Quinn glances at me, then looks back at the beautiful white stone tomb. “It has been a great mystery all my life, wondering who put this tomb here and who must lie inside it. The tombs surrounding it in this area are ancient Masters of the Florentine bloodline—some of our oldest, though only those of great renown were entombed in this region. But this most ornate one… it has been lost to time whose tomb it is. It was never mentioned in any of our annals, though this spot beneath Florence has always been sacred to us. Now, we know why.”

“Staphylogenes was the origin of the Florentine Vampires’ bloodline,” Lucca says now as we all stare at the tomb inside its incredible alcove. “Before he went insane into his Revenant state, but after he tore out his heart, he must have Sired the first Vampire of your bloodline, Quinn.”

“Not my bloodline,” Quinn counters as he glances at me and Lucca, “for I was never Emiliana’s progeny. But to the Florentine Vampires, this is a sacred space. And I suppose we are all Staphylogenes’ bloodline, as we were Made Dark Fae by him.”

“Which is why this magic feels so potent for us, too,” I say now as I peruse the tomb. Walking around it, I almost feel it singing to me; as if whatever is in there, or whatever start to Staphylogenes’ maze it contains, calls to my Night magic. Though we’re no longer tethered to his taint, the Night he gave us will always linger in our veins. Quinn, Lucca, and I all seem to know that, as we circle the tomb now.

Wondering how to get in.

“Do we just raise the Music and do our open sesame thing again?” Lucca chuckles as we walk around it, perusing its every ornate facet and beautiful, unknown sigil-phrases.

“That worked once to find the origin of our quest, but I do not believe it will work again.” Quinn’s alert gaze roves over the tomb. “I imagine Staphylogenes would have set not just a physical maze for those seeking his heart, but a mental one, as well. I think we shall find it a magical one above all else… to use the Music in ever more creative ways to get what we want.”

“Diabolical. To the end.” Lucca snorts, then looks at Quinn. “What do you suggest?”

Strangely enough, Quinn looks at me. “Ariana? You have been quiet. What do you think?”

Moving around the tomb, I brush my fingertips over it. I feel that singing sensation rise inside me again, stronger now that I’m touching it. It makes something deep inside my original magic, my power from the House of Shadow Truth, rise high inside my veins. My wings of rainbow-dark magic shoot from me now as I close my eyes.

Touching the tomb and listening to that vast harmonic.

At last, it comes to me, as I open my eyes and look at Quinn, then at Lucca.

“Blood,” I whisper as I watch them. “To open this tomb, we must give a symbolic sacrifice of death. We have to bleed out, each of us, just a little. And then this tomb will open… and we will find our way to the start of the labyrinth.”

“Blood.” Lucca snorts. “Why is everything with Vampires blood?”

“Because blood is ancient, and to lose blood is death,” Quinn says quietly as he lengthens his fangs. Piercing his thumb, he gestures to each of us and we do the same. As we all hold our hands out over that stunning tomb now, letting our blood drip upon its startling white surface, I see that our blood is sucked into the gleaming stone. As if the tomb itself was a Vampire, it drinks us.

Then grinds open, emitting a deep groan and a blast of light.

“And to take blood is life…” Quinn says, as we stare at the dark space within. Though the outside of the tomb is stunningly white, the inside is nothing but black, with steps that go down.

A black hole we must enter, if we want to get the heart of our ancient Florentine Master.

“After you,” Lucca says, teasing, as he gestures at Quinn. But there is no humor at all in Lucca’s eyes as he nods at Quinn and Quinn nods back.

I understand Lucca’s reasoning; if anything down there is going to accost us, we’d better send down our best fighter of the Night to waylay it before Lucca can blast it with his Light.

I’m to go last, as protecting me is somehow most important right now. Though I sense the sleeping knight I am will have to awaken before this is all said and done. And protect everyone else from whatever the Gold Eyes has in store for us.

Unknown, as we enter its void.

18

LABYRINTH

Entering the tomb of Staphylogenes’ heart, we head down only six steps before we’re whisked away—sucked through a portal to some place else. The place we arrive is as mystifying as it is astounding; as if someone built a Nexus Realm, then abandoned it before it was finished, the space contains nothing but a strange, grey-blue mist in every direction.

There is some sort of ground; we stumble on it as we arrive, heaving hard breaths after being startled by that portal. The portal itself was not unpleasant, however. Indeed, a strange radiance lingers here, as if this place remembers the Ascendant power that once made it.

As unfinished archways, doors, even pieces of stone fountains, drift slowly past through the mist.

Then disappear.

“Where the hell are we?” I ask, as Quinn and Ariana stare around with as much confusion as me and just as much awe.

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