Page 36 of Dark Master's Redemption

“He saw you as an enemy right from the moment you were born,” Illyria says to me now, her voice sad as her dark eyes hold mine. “Though Archivolio loved your mother—and she was a very good friend of mine—he never could stand that she bore him a son whom he could not control. He put you in the Darkwatch so he could command you. He made sure you were in the most challenging regiments in the war because he wanted to break you. He did not expect you to rise to every challenge he ever gave you and surpass them. And he did not expect you to fall in love with the Summer Fae Prince… potentially becoming the most powerful and influential person in the Realm, should the old King die. Which he did.”

“He wanted me dead that night. Quinn and me both,” I say now as ashes fill my mouth, finally knowing that truth of who my father really is.

Though some part of me has known all along.

“He did.” Adicus watches me. “He wanted you both out of the way and thought the Gold Eyes would do his will and kill you that night. It did its own will instead. I only discovered what Archivolio had intended when he went into a vicious rage that Lucca had been returned to the palace. He was only somewhat mollified by the news that Valerio had gone to the Vampires. Though the Gold Eyes told him the truth later—that you had both been Made Dark Fae. For reasons the Gold Eyes kept only to itself.”

“So if Archivolio Bellari could not kill us outright, he made sure to hamstring us from ever finding out we were Dark Fae, and connecting with the people who could teach us about our power and give us strength.” Quinn sits immaculately still beside Ariana as he speaks. “Did Archivolio have a relationship with Emiliana DiClario, do you know? Was she aware I was Dark Fae? Did he tell her?”

“That, we do not know.” Adicus and Illyria share a glance. “You’ll have to ask your man Curio, for the lair of the Florentine Vampires was not a place the King ever had us go. When we retired in protest from our positions over what he was doing to the Forbidden Lineages, and especially the Dark Fae, we were no longer a part of court life. Illyria and I focused our efforts on saving the Dark Fae, then. To right all the wrongs we had been a part of under Archivolio Bellari’s reign. Even under the old King’s, when he was so harsh with the Forbidden Lineages prior to the war.”

“So you began trafficking Dark Fae, getting them out of the Twilight Realm.” Ariana frowns, her own story finally coming into play.

“Getting them to their secret citadels, yes,” Adicus corrects gently as he smiles at his daughter. “Which are in the Twilight Realm, but heavily protected by ancient magic so that they are not quite of it. If that makes any sense.”

“Hidden in plain sight,” Ariana says. I feel her recall how the ice fortress of Novakitsk was protected by an outer magical barrier, and almost seemed to be in another Realm after we breached that barrier. “You mentioned there is one in Venice?”

“The Italian secret citadel, yes.” Illyria smiles at her daughter now as the conversation takes a brighter turn. “Some ten thousand Dark Fae strong. At last count.”

“Did Archivolio Bellari find out about that citadel?” Ariana digs for information from her parents now. “Was that why he sent the Gold Eyes to kill my original family, because he found out they were helping Dark Fae escape there?”

“Partly. Though he never found out about the citadel itself, and never will.” Adicus continues as he watches his daughter. “Archivolio Bellari sent the Gold Eyes to kill off Royal House Altvie that night, the House of Shadow Truth, because they were ever his opposition to the throne, Ariana. For centuries, your family had been the strongest supporters of our Dark Fae-saving operations, helping us get tens of thousands of Dark Fae safely to their secret citadels in Venice and elsewhere. Archivolio moved on them that night because he found out they were about to contact you, Lucca, and you, Valerio, to bring you into our operations. He couldn’t have you knowing what you were, lest you join forces at last to supplant him. So he sent the Gold-Eyed Revenant to kill off House Altvie and make it look like Vampires that night. Illyria and I got there just as the creature was about to slay its final victim—their tiny, newborn daughter. It already had its tentacles of darkness wrapped around you, draining you to death,” he says, as he looks at Ariana. “But a blast of light from you suddenly thrust it back. We were able to fight it, then… and it disappeared.”

“I fought off the Gold Eyes… as a baby?” Ariana blinks, as I feel shock flood her.

“Something in your magic did, yes.” Illyria nods now as she leans across the table, taking her daughter’s hand. “Adicus and I knew right then and there that you were special, Ariana. We knew something about you might be the key to destroying the Gold Eyes’ power, and its support of King Bellari’s heinous reign, once and for all. So we got you out of the Twilight Realm that same night. We made a new home in the human world and I let Adicus chain my power to yours, to hide your Dark Fae magic so the creature would never discover you as you grew up—or King Bellari, for that matter. It worked until you met protectors who could help you. Two angels of Summer Fae Princes, one dark and one light… forever changed by what they had gone through. And the perfect balance to your own Dark Fae power, who could help you mature your magic, at last.”

Ariana sits back now, quiet at what her adopted mother has revealed. I feel her energy churn just as much as mine; I put an arm around her now, hugging her close as Quinn slips an arm behind her, stroking her waist with his fingertips.

She’s silent now, just as silent as us as we all take in what Adicus and Illyria have revealed about our lives. It’s almost too much to process, on the heels of us just getting Quinn back from going Revenant, to only yesterday discovering that he’d lost the Dark Haven of Florence to his utter nemesis, the Master of Monaco, Florian Delano.

All three of us are stewing now, as a dark energy churns through our bonds. Just then, a knock comes at the door. Adicus frowns as Illyria’s eyebrows rise and she looks around at it. I assume the house help don’t interrupt conferences like this unless something is urgent; as Adicus rises and goes to the door, opening it, my eyebrows lift to see Alleno standing in the doorway.

Opening the door, Adicus invites him in. Alleno waits for Adicus to close the door before he turns to me.

His energy churning in a dark thundercloud, the moment the door is shut.

“Lucca. I have news from the Palace of Light.” Wrath is in Alleno’s voice, and it bodes ill for whatever he has to tell me.

“Just tell me, whatever it is,” I say now, knowing my cousin won’t hold back when I command him to be blunt.

“It’s your father.” Alleno’s face is dark as his emerald eyes burn. “I’m sorry, Lucca… but your father has just made an announcement before all the Royal and High Houses, the Summer Fae Magistros, and the military leaders, that you have been discovered to be Dark Fae. He has… cut you from the line of succession and made a public pronouncement that anyone caught colluding with you, or supporting your rise to the Summer Fae throne, will be put to death as a traitor to the Realm and a sympathizer with the Forbidden Lineages. The Summer Fae rumor mill is already abuzz like wildfire. Word is spreading across the countryside… faster even than the mushroom blight.”

Everything goes cold inside me as Alleno gives me the news. Though some part of me knew, ever since I found out I was Dark Fae, something like this might happen, it’s like the final nail in the coffin of my rebellion.

That rebellion was so massively difficult to get started at all. I feel it as my support among the Summer Fae populace, in the court, and among the Magistros and the military breaks like a spider’s web in a hurricane. Something inside me goes dark, then, as that terrible void beneath my magic devours me.

Darker than all of Quinn’s Revenant changes, though I don’t shift shape.

“Thank you, Alleno,” I hear myself say, as I sit perfectly still on the couch.

“Lucca…” My cousin hesitates as something dire comes into his eyes, watching me go so still and cold. “Do you have any response for your supporters, that I could spread as a counter to everything your father is saying?”

“What counter could I give?” I feel like I’m a thousand leagues away now, hearing my voice escape my lips as something becomes empty, deep inside me. “I am Dark Fae. My father knows it, and has known ever since it happened. He was only waiting until the opportune moment to destroy me, and everything I’ve been trying so hard to accomplish. I have no counter to his argument, Alleno. I just… don’t.”

As Alleno watches me, I see something in him is shocked at the way I’m responding. I feel like my heart has gone empty inside me, devoured by that terrible void.

As Ariana and Quinn cuddle close, putting their arms around me at this terrible news, I barely feel it. Even Quinn’s chill body feels somehow warmer than mine, as my entire being feels cold to my very marrow, like I somehow went to my grave all those centuries ago.

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