Page 30 of Dark Master's Redemption

Brushing grass off my rear.

“Quinn! The risks you take…!” Devi is on us as her irate voice slices the dawn air. The statuesque Dark Scarlet Fae briskly examines Quinn, Lucca, and me for any damage after we vaulted through a collapsing portal like that, though I see the tiniest smile haunting her lips, knowing that everyone was saved tonight.

“The portal is no more.” Quinn is succinct but gentle as he brushes Devi’s fastidious hands away, nodding that he’s alright. “The structure Bello linked it to is burned. And all the Council’s vampires along with it.”

“Still.” Devi purses her lips to hold back her smile; as her dark chocolate eyes twinkle in the rising light, I see we have an audience.

We’ve emerged near an ancient barn on my parent’s property; a massive thing with a stone foundation and stout beams above, the white stucco and stone walls are collapsing into ruin. It’s not a place my parents ever allowed me to explore. They always told me it was dangerous, that some calamity of magic had destroyed it long ago, which lingered inside.

I never questioned their story; the barn was three miles from the house and generally too far for me to visit. Even when I was out on a country ride with my horse, my mare never liked the building, so I never pushed it. I lift my eyebrows now to see the weather-worn wooden doors thrown wide.

A very different space inside than I thought.

As I gaze into the barn, I’m shocked to see a brightly lit building full of Dark Fae moving around and getting medical attention. Though the place looks ruined on the outside, I recognize Fae magic upon it now as it shimmers in my vision with the rising light.

It’s only now I realize it’s had a serious glamour on it the entire time I was growing up—and I never saw it, probably due to my parent’s fastidiousness hiding it, and because my magic never fully opened until I met Quinn and Lucca. I note now that the inside of the barn is not a barn at all, however, but a sprawling, well-provisioned Italian manor-house.

Which I can see now, showing through the glamour of the ancient ruin.

“You knew about this the entire time.” I turn to Devi; shock devours me as my past and present collide. “You knew about my family, and my parents, and this place. And me.”

“Correction: I knew Adicus and Illyria had an infant daughter they needed to get out of the Twilight Realm, for unknown reasons, and that they came here to protect her as she grew up,” Devi says with defiance. “I didn’t know you were from one of the Royal Houses of the Summer Fae, Ariana. Nor who you were—your parents kept that secret to themselves. I only guessed you were probably Dark Fae, which is why they brought you here. They kept you away from the safe house and we glamoured the fuck out of it, so you wouldn’t be exposed to our operations and could grow up normally, as per your parent’s wishes.”

“Normal like a human, even though I was Dark Fae.” Something simmers inside me then, as I try to come to terms with the full magnitude of all my parent’s lies, and now Devi’s, Curio’s, and Alleno’s, as well. Only Quinn and Lucca told me the full, honest truth when they met me.

I glance at them both now—watching them simmer as much as me, that they’ve been lied to.

“We should head to the main house.” Alleno clears his throat now, as Quinn, Lucca, and I stew. “I’m sure Ariana would like to see her parents, as they’re not here at the safe house right now.”

“My mother’s probably in her herb garden, gathering herbs for the day’s preparations,” I say at once, as all my parent’s habits come rushing back. “My father likes to start his day with his pipe and a book in his library, as he enjoys his coffee and a biscotto. Before going out to work with the horses and hounds, taking different ones into the forest for training. Which… was him checking up on the Dark Fae at the safe house all this time, and I never knew it.”

I blink then, feeling like this is all too surreal. Quinn reaches out, taking my hand as Lucca steps to my back, smoothing his hands down my shoulders to steady me.

“Curio and I will stay here and help Arturos and Bello heal the wounded,” Devi says as Curio nods. Both of them glance at the open doors of the manor house where Arturos glimpses at us, before heading inside to heal someone.

“Besides, Bello will probably make his infamous breakfast pizzas, and I’m not missing that after everything we went through last night.” Curio chuckles, though even I can tell he’s exhausted now as he smiles at us.

“Are you all right to have Alleno escort you to the house, Quinn?” Devi asks, her alert gaze piercing Quinn, as if asking him a far deeper question than I know.

“We’ll be fine, Devi. Thank you.” Quinn nods, as he assuages whatever she’s concerned about.

As a morning wind blows, warming already, it shakes the trees at the edge of the field. Sunlight hits me, and it’s only then I realize Quinn, Lucca, and I are still wearing our sleek, warm furs and brocaded silks from Novakitsk.

As the late summer day rises, I’ve started to sweat from the swaddling elegance of the ice citadel’s fabrics. As Lucca clears his throat, he tugs the fur collar of his jerkin open at his neck, though none of it seems to bother Quinn. His temperature has ceased to spike and plummet as he stands with me now, his hand cool in mine.

Quinn is a lance of dark intent as he stews, however. I feel wariness inside him; hesitation almost as big as mine at seeing my parents this morning. I remember then that they were both major figures in the reign of his father, King Aurelio Incendari—whom Quinn did not get along with.

My father, Adicus Briarwick, was Tempest of the Darkwatch at that time; my mother, Illyria Amati, had been the First Spear of the old King’s army, his top general in the War of Rome.

I don’t know what relationship Quinn had with my parents back then. But as Lucca frowns also, his energy churning as much as Quinn’s, I know Lucca would have known my parents as well. Lucca had been in the Darkwatch when my father was Tempest, and both Quinn and Lucca fought in the War of Rome under my mother as their First Spear.

It’s an angle to this story I never considered, as I watch them both now and feel their unrest. As Alleno nods us towards four waiting horses, steeds from my parent’s farm, however, I feel Quinn and Lucca firm their intent to go see my family.

Only I’m left standing in indecision, as everyone steps to the horses and mounts up. Lucca brings my horse to me, handing me the reins of a tall bay gelding my family named Chiassoso. Gazing down intently at me, Quinn nearly dismounts to speak with me when I hold a hand up. He sits back in the saddle with a nod. He understands what I’m feeling as he watches me mount up.

A feeling of being out-of-place in my home—now that so many things have changed.

Our ride through the early morning forest is silent. Birds chirrup and call in the new day; the yip of fox pups echoes through the towering silver forest as they play around their burrow, silenced by a bark from their mother as we ride through. I know that fox-hole and that downed cherry laurel; I played as a child on that large white boulder in the copse of white poplar with the honeybee hive buzzing nearby.

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