Page 11 of Dark Master's Redemption

“Believing you are accomplishing your own agenda, yes.” Master Ilyov nods as a kind of approval comes into his gaze for us now. “So I ask you both this, and I ask of your dark Master Quinn, as well: are your goals yours? Are they what you wish for in the world? Or are the things you strive for only things the Gold Eyes wishes for you—and which makes your heart feel hollow?”

I have no answer, as Lucca and I frown, mulling it over. It seems our lesson is over now, however, as Master Ilyov pushes to his feet.

“I will leave these with you.” He gestures at the icicle wands on the table. “They are ancient Winter Fae magical adjuvants, so please be careful with them. I wish for you to practice all the sigils you know today, and work until you can feel the will behind your sigildry every time. Ask yourselves: is this what I want in the world? Or am I doing something someone else wishes for me? Something you thought you were born to do, perhaps, rather than what you would truly wish to be. Think about it. We will resume our practice at dawn tomorrow. Do not be late.”

With that, Master Ilyov nods to us and departs. As he goes, I have a feeling that his single, terse nod is far more acknowledgement than he gives most people. Though he still thinks Lucca and I are fools, and Quinn even more so, he at least knows we can learn.

As he leaves, however, the Revenant that is Quinn whirls up from where it had been roiling all this time near the floor, watching us with its malevolent red eyes. As it rushes up now, hammering its barrier right before Lucca and I, we startle. Lucca pulls me under his arm as we watch the Revenant-imprisoned Quinn.

Wondering what in all the worlds we’re going to do about it.

“Do you think we’re just doing the Gold Eyes’ will with everything we’ve accomplished, ever since we were Made?” Lucca says as he stares at Quinn, swirling in his cage. “I think of my agenda with the Summer Fae, and my plan to take over from my father. Do you think it’s all in vain? Only something the Gold Eyes wishes of me… so he can wield the entire Summer Fae through me, like some kind of diabolical weapon?”

“I don’t know,” I answer, though Lucca’s question has me frowning deeply now as I question all of Quinn’s, Lucca’s, and my aims in the world. “I think we can only assume that with everything we’ve been doing, everything we’ve been striving for so far, we’ve somehow been enslaved to its agenda. An agenda which we have no clue of.”

“Fuck. I thought you might say something like that.” Lucca sighs as he scrubs a hand through his hair. Pulling me to his front, he wraps his arms around me, his hands resting on my abdomen as we both watch Quinn now, swirling malevolently in his enclosure.

“What about Quinn’s agenda for his Vampires?” Lucca asks. “If the Gold Eyes is pushing that… then why does he want a greater unity and renaissance for Vampire kind? And the same thing for my Summer Fae?”

“And the Dark Fae,” I add, as Quinn’s darkness whirls, his seething red gaze pinned to us. “Because we all are striving for equality for our people, and for old systems to be thrown down. What does the Gold Eyes want from all of that? Will it keep pushing us until we overcome all odds to make our goals manifest?”

“And get it what it wants, whatever that is,” Lucca says with a dark scowl now. “I think we have to assume everything we’ve been doing is how the Gold Eyes wants things to go, Ariana. But the next question is: who are we if we abandon our ideals of a new age for our people? Could we live with ourselves if we said goodbye to all that and just walked away? I know I couldn’t. I love my people and I will fight for them until my very last breath. I can’t change that—even before I became Dark Fae, it was inside me. Always pushing me to do what’s right.”

“Maybe that part of you is yours, Lucca,” I say now as I think it through. “What I suppose we have to question is the way we think we have to go about doing what we believe is right. When did you feel you had to step in and become the Summer Fae King, for instance? When did that ideal replace whatever plan you had for your life? What was your plan before it? Do you remember?”

“I wanted to be a farmer.” Lucca chuckles then, as I feel something sad and beautiful fill him. “When Quinn and I were young, when we were first in love, I wanted to run away with him and forget our royal duties. I wanted to just live on a farm somewhere; a humble life, as we grew food for the Summer Fae and made delicious love by our Livingtree’s fire at night. That was my dream. But then Quinn and I got trapped in that catacomb and he became a Vampire—or we both became Dark Fae. Ever since, I felt I had to step into Quinn’s shoes. I felt I had to remove my father from power because I knew he wasn’t fit to lead the Summer Fae, just like Quinn’s father never was, either. I’ve been plotting against my King ever since.”

“But your first dream was to live in a way that supported your people, all while giving you what you wanted: Quinn, and a life with true love in it. It only lacked the way you thought you had to do it after the Gold Eyes made you Dark Fae,” I say now as I twist his arms, gazing up at him. Something in my power sings now, as I feel I’ve spoken the truth.

Something that is entirely mine, as it blazes all through me.

“My gods. You’re right.” Lucca stares at Quinn’s Revenant a long moment, before he blinks in astonishment. “But Ariana, how can I help my people if I don’t become the Summer Fae King?”

“I think you have to ask yourself that question.” I reach up, cupping his face in my palm. “The agenda you and Quinn must both question is whatever agenda arose in you after you were turned Dark Fae. Before that… whatever you wanted for your lives was yours.”

“What about you?” Lucca watches me now. “You were turned Dark Fae as a one-day-old infant. What agenda could you have wanted for your life before the Gold Eyes got hold of you?”

“I don’t know.” The singing sensation of my true power leaves me at Lucca’s question. Because it’s a question I’m asking myself now that we’ve spoken with Master Ilyov; my void-like inner darkness whirls now, as I have a sudden fundamental doubt.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to separate my own desires from whatever the Gold Eyes wishes for me. As that void-like darkness whirls deep inside, I know then that he’s watching me. The Gold Eyes is not with us, not inside the citadel, but he can somehow watch his progeny through his power.

Embedded inside each of us.

As I feel him sensing me now, feeling the emotional crisis I’m going through, I hate it. A vicious wrath seethes up inside me and I hammer my power against that vast void I feel inside, watching me.

It doesn’t go. It can’t go, because it’s part of me. I hear the Gold Eyes laugh, then, as I feel cold to my very marrow. With a flash of its golden orbs in my mind, it leaves.

But it’s never gone, as I feel that black emptiness inside my very soul.

Originated by its power.

5

SPARK

Though Lucca and I work with Master Ilyov six times in the next few days, our progress stalls. We discovered the Gold Eyes’ corruption in our magic, but seem at a standstill now as we practice, making sigils for Ilyov day and night.

This most recent session is late, and Lucca and I are exhausted. We’ve been working with Ilyov for eight hours straight, creating sigils to no avail. Though Lucca and I can identify the Gold Eyes’ influence in our magic now, we can’t stop it. Ilyov snarls at us to go yet again, but this time, Lucca snaps. Whirling, he pins Ilyov with a furious gaze as he throws down his icicle wand.

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