Page 67 of Dark Fae's Destiny

It’s the madness of countless Descendant Revenants—locked away forever and left to rot.

As my last grip on sanity loosens from the pain and terror of the Gold Eyes’ Music ripping everything in my reality to pieces, I understand that myself, Lucca, and all our allies have been thrust into the still-point where those insane Descendant Revenants were.

They’re all over us now, swamping us, devouring whatever myself, Lucca, and our allies have left. Even our enemies have not been spared in the Gold Eyes’ terrible wrath; everyone from the battle is being eaten by the Descendant Revenants now as our reality parts, ripped open to theirs.

Only Ariana stands alone, in a clear space next to the Gold Eyes, as the rest of us are devoured. We are beyond pain, we are beyond undoing, as even our very souls are drained now, to un-make us. I can feel everything I am unraveling.

And only the Gold Eyes can stop it, as he turns to Ariana—giving her a choice.

“Choose, little one,” Staphylogenes says in the worst voice I’ve ever heard, the part of me that can still hear through all this screaming, roaring madness. “Stay, and watch them all die, drained into a nothingness even their souls cannot survive; or make right what you and your trio have so vastly wronged for me this day. Come into me; join me in my vast, Revenant state. Give me your heart to replace the one I have lost. And I shall give your beloveds, and your people, a chance at life this day.”

I feel Ariana’s moment of truth as she stands in anguish before the beast. I feel her very soul torn apart through our bonds, the parts of our bonds that remain, at least.

She knows that to go with the Gold Eyes is to die; to our people, to her own self, and to Lucca and me, who love her. But to stay is to die of a broken heart, as she watches us all be consumed by a force we are not strong enough to match and never will be.

Indecision fills her now, as she faces the Gold Eyes.

It’s then that I scream, unable to hold back anymore as something deep inside me is wrenched apart from the Descendant Revenants’ draining. Something in Lucca is, too, as he gives the most horrible, heart-crushing scream I’ve ever heard.

And then Ariana is choosing; I feel it as she does. She’s blazing with power now as she hears our screams, knowing there is only one choice for her to make this day.

To sacrifice herself and go with the Gold Eyes, whatever he wants.

To save us—and save her own heart from breaking, endlessly.

She does. Some part of me sees her step to the Gold Eyes and place her hand in his. I feel it as she sends one last, infinitely loving goodbye through our connections, saying, I’ll come back to you, I swear it, her very soul blazing like a true spire of Light in the dawn. And then those soul-bonds are being ripped apart, shredded by the Gold Eyes.

As he takes her into his swirling vortex of midnight—and departs.

Ariana and the Gold Eyes are gone. As they disappear, the thousand rents in the sky, the earth, and the very cosmos itself are sucked closed. As if they were only being ripped open by the Gold Eyes’ most terrible Music, those tears in the fabric of space vanish the moment it disappears.

The terrible Descendant Revenants go with it, as if tethered to their endless still-point, unable to escape. We’re left on the ruined battlefield, friend and foe alike, as the last shriekings of the Descendant Revenants depart.

Our own shrieks slowly die, as those that yet live gradually return to themselves upon the ruined grass. I find enough of my strength to crawl to Lucca. We hold each other, heaving hard breaths as we marvel we are still whole and in our bodies, not shredded across the entire universe from what just happened.

But though we still feel our connection to each other, our connection to Ariana is gone.

Empty—just like the void of Staphylogenes’ heart.

“She’s gone! She’s gone, Quinn…!” Lucca gasps as he grips his heart with one hand now, sobbing against my chest as we hold each other naked on the grass. “What is he going to do to her?”

“I don’t know, Lucca.” I breathe hard, gathering my wits back together as I process the worst, most terrible pain I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.

As I gaze around, I see our allies and enemies recuperating. Taking deep breaths, I raise my auric wings to the dawn, though they are shaky things, devoid of life.

But I use my Dark Fae power now to revel in the beautiful sunrise, that we’re nearly all alive, and that the night has passed. I revel harder than I ever have in my entire life, though my heart is breaking for losing Ariana to our foe.

Gradually, my revelry works. I feel it stabilize me, then Lucca, then everyone bonded to us. The Summer Fae are not ours, but they take our cue and spread their own exhausted wings wide, reveling in the dawning day even far more than I can.

Slowly, we survive. Gradually, we come back. Achingly, we process what has just happened to all of us on this battlefield right now.

As a representative from the Council makes her way to us.

Mistress of Romania, Elena Iliescu.

“The Vampire Council has surrendered to you, Quinn.” Mistress Elena kneels by me now, shaky on her bare feet in her ripped and half-burned pantsuit, her stilettos gone. Her platinum hair is in disarray, but her demeanor is fierce, and viciously celebratory, as she regards me. “We have won this day.”

“You have won. The Dark Fae have won. Vampires, Fae, and Dark Fae everywhere have all won today, for the equality and open communication that we sought,” I say with an aching, empty heart now as I push up from the grass and Lucca and I both help each other stand. “But I have not won. I have lost. So, so much.”

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