Page 49 of Dark Master's Redemption

“Ugh!” Devi throws up her hands now, rolling her eyes. “Get over it, Quinn! How much do Curio and I have to grovel to prove to you we only did what we did for the best interest of all parties involved?”

“I don’t want you to grovel.” My tone is beyond dark now, though, even for me. Something black churns inside me, empty like a void as I watch them.

Some part of me that wants them to suffer for lying to me.

“He’s not going to forgive us, Devi,” Curio says as he watches me with his ice-pale eyes. “Best give up. Time may heal our divide, but it won’t if you push it. Let’s leave off and allow Quinn to get some rest.”

“No.” Devi is firm as she stares me down. “I am not leaving this bedchamber until he forgives us.”

“Then we’re going to be here a very long while.” Curio chuckles as he pulls up a chair to my bedside. He sits, crossing his legs at the knees, lacing his long fingers around them.

I watch them, Devi so intent as she stares at me, desperate for my forgiveness, while Curio sits so elegantly aloof in his chair, though I can tell by his almost studied nonchalance that he feels the same. It’s killing both of them that I’m stewing, though a part of me still can’t outright forgive them for what they’ve done.

Curio saved my life by bringing me to his father’s secret citadel to rest and be healed, while Devi saved all the Dark Fae I had inadvertently Made over the years, getting them to safety before any fighting began at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, though she couldn’t save my Vampires.

And yet, some terrible part of me still wants them to suffer for keeping all this from me. Some part of me that got used to torturing people, and making them suffer under Emiliana.

Though I don’t want to do it now.

“It’s fine. I forgive you. Both of you,” I say at last, if only to end this standoff between us so everyone can rest.

“You don’t. You’re lying,” Devi says, always able to tell that about me, as well.

“What do you want from me, Devina?” I sigh now, as I scrub my hands over my face, exasperated. “I’m upset that the both of you lied to me, for centuries. I feel betrayed, even though the logical part of me understands why you did what you did. But thanks to Lucca and Ariana, I’m discovering my heart again. And it’s hurting. I feel like we’re not even friends.”

As I speak such a deep, heartfelt truth to the both of them now, the Music chimes around me. Devina sits bolt upright on the bed, as Curio comes to full attention in his chair. The Music is low, chiming like a somber chorus of tiny fae-bells as it issues from me. It moves my dark aura in a sea all around me now, flaring it with starbursts of gold, red, even rainbow-white fire now as Curio whistles and moves a hand gently through it.

It doesn’t burn him, because a Fae’s fire never burns the ones they love.

Even when we’re mad at them.

“Quinn…!” Curio breathes as he touches my slow-roiling power, and the Music fades. “How long have you been able to manifest the Music of the Spheres by yourself, without even bloodshed to summon it?”

“Since I came back from being a Revenant, perhaps. I’m not sure.” I am honest, still unable to hold anything back from my two most trusted, no matter how angry I feel.

“This is big, Quinn.” Devi stares at me, her dark chocolate eyes round. “Very few Dark Fae can manifest the Music, which was something we already knew made you, Lucca, and Ariana’s trio different, that you all could do it when you were resonating together. To raise the Music alone… only Royal Dark Fae with power akin to Master Ilyov can do that. Now you.”

“I still can’t control it, however.” A terrible feeling engulfs me. That void yawns inside me, awful as I feel it devour me. “Despite all I’ve been through, despite everything I’ve come to terms with now inside myself, I’m not one step closer to being able to wield the Music of the Spheres in any kind of coordinated fashion to achieve my aims. Now I have to abandon them, my Dark Haven taken, my political endeavors shattered, without even a home to go back to.”

“But you’re not giving up.” Curio watches me shrewdly, his pale blue eyes like fiery ice.

“No, Curio. I’m not giving up.” I am firm, staring him down. “I will march into my Dark Haven naked and alone, if that’s the only thing I can do against Florian Delano. And trade my life for my Vampires, to release them from his clutches.”

“Quinn! You can’t!” Devina is horrified as her lips fall open.

It’s Curio who stares me down now, however.

Knowing everything I went through with Florian, back when Emiliana was still in charge.

“He’ll kill you.” Curio’s voice is flat, his pale eyes terrible as they watch me. “You may not be dead in the flesh, not for eons, but Florian Delano will kill you just the same, with the things he can do to your spirit, Quinn, and your heart. He’ll laugh each and every day he controls you, and make you do it all over again, just for spite.”

“I know.” I feel dead already, even as I say it. “But I’m out of plans, and I’m out of options, Curio. Florian is already torturing his first batch of my Vampires into becoming his, and in a few days, he’ll execute them. Then he’ll do it all over again, and I have nothing against the Council’s might, who is still protecting his back. Not to mention Florian’s own devastating ways.”

“You have us, Quinn.” Devi reaches out and seizes my hand where it rests on the coverlet. “You have Curio, and me, and all the Dark Fae you’ve Made, safe here in the human world. Just say the word, and we will re-Kiss to you, blood-oathing ourselves back into your Dark Haven, wherever it may reside. We were a family once; we can be again. But not if you give up.”

“It’s not enough.” I shake my head, even as I grip her hand, my heart beating now as I’m touched by her fierce love. “A hundred Dark Fae against the Council’s might just isn’t enough, Devi. Dark Fae may be more powerful than most of Vampire-kind, or Fae, but the Council is ancient, their chosen warriors tremendous. Maybe if we had an army of ten thousand Dark Fae to go up against the Council. But a hundred? Doubtful.”

“Still. It’s a start,” Curio says as he eyeballs me. “The Quinn I knew would never give up when there was a possibility of creating a new plan. No matter how meagre it might seem, at first.”

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