Page 7 of Dark Master's Redemption

“Do you think it’s a lost cause, trying to get him back?” I need to hear it from Lucca if he thinks we don’t have any chance of saving Quinn.

Lucca pauses a long moment, and it doesn’t bode well as he answers.

“I think we’re in the right place.” Lucca stares into an ornate fireplace before us in the living area, blazing with white-blue fire as it gives off a delicious heat, without melting the ice of the surrounding hearth. “If anyone knows how to get Quinn back, it seems like it’s Master Ilyov. The man sets all my alarms blazing, but everyone else seems to have confidence in his abilities. I have to trust it…and trust he knows what he’s doing to help us reclaim Quinn.”

“Could we try using the Music of the Spheres to get Quinn back?” It’s a thought I’ve had a hundred times since we lost Quinn to his mad Revenant state at the Colosseum in Rome.

As I wonder if we could even hope to wield the Music without him.

“Quinn is the one who tames the Music for us.” Lucca frowns now, though I can feel him wonder the same thing. “He’s the conductor of our orchestra, Ariana—the man has metaphysical abilities you and I can only dream of, and he experiments endlessly with his powers to get things right. I’m the heart of our magic, and you’re the soul of our power. Quinn’s the mastermind, though. Without him, we will lose control of it?—”

“And face disaster. Or worse.”

The voice that answered Lucca isn’t mine, as we both lunge off the chaise in a heartbeat. As we turn towards the sudden interruption, I see the owner of that gravelly, ancient voice.

Master Vasily Ilyov swirls into being inside our apartment from a whirl of ice and snow. He wears the same forbidding outfit he greeted us in at the fortress entrance as he stands before us now, commanding and ancient.

His pale blue eyes pierce us with disdain as he moves into the space, summoning a glass of ice into his hand from nothing. He makes a winter wind lift the alcohol bottle off the tray and bring it to him, pouring him a cup.

Sans invitation, Master Ilyov takes a seat in a sleek mink fur chair opposite Lucca and me. We reclaim our seats as Ilyov sips his drink, staring at the fire. It’s a long while before he sets his glass aside, pinning Lucca and me with his wintery gaze. His stare is beyond intense as he crosses his legs, folding his long hands in his lap. He laces his fingers as he stares at us.

“You two are beyond reckless.”

Master Ilyov’s statement makes my eyebrows lift.

Beside me, Lucca clears his throat.

“Excuse me?” Lucca says, as we both fight to not wither under Master Ilyov’s utter disdain.

“Three hearts, born of the same rash temperament. Love.” Ilyov snorts now as he says the word love like it’s a curse. “You three are quite lucky you didn’t come out of that gods-awful showing you did before the Vampire Council with anything worse than what Quinn got. The Music is nothing to trifle with, and certainly not anything to rush off and perform half-cocked when you know nothing about it. Not how it works, not what it is, and not how to shape and wield it. Performing miracles that get you cocky… until you crash and burn, caught in the Music’s tremendous backlash.”

“What do you know about the Music?” Lucca challenges now, as I fight to understand the subtext of Master Ilyov’s words, rather than let his berating chastisement undermine me.

Which it’s already doing, in my exhausted, broken-hearted state, as a void of blackness churns inside me.

“Much.” Master Ilyov snorts as he pins Lucca with his frigid stare. “I have been studying and performing feats of creationary magic with the Music for twenty thousand years, boy. I think I know what I’m doing…and you do not.”

“Can you help us?” I ask as I put my ego aside now to focus on what can be done for Quinn.

“Perhaps.” Master Ilyov gives me a considering gaze now, rather than just a look of dire contempt. “The question is: can you be helped?”

“What do you mean, can we be helped?” Lucca is almost hostile now, as Ilyov’s start to this conversation was so invasive and unforgiving.

“I mean,” Vasily Ilyov’s wintery gaze pins Lucca, “can you three allow yourselves to be helped? Or are you such rash idiots that you think you know everything about the world and how it works? And then blindly rush off to remake it without thinking about the consequences of your actions.”

“Believe me, we think about consequences.” Lucca bristles as he sits up straighter on the couch, seething with anger. “Quinn and I are the progeny of royalty; we’ve been commanders in war and leaders of our people for centuries. I think we know how to consider the repercussions of our actions.”

“You know about earthly consequences.” Master Ilyov is frigid as an ice cold aura boils off him now, full of glittering ice crystals. “To wield the Music of the Spheres, you need to understand celestial consequences, boy. And face those… and all the sublime or dire repercussions they bring.”

“What do you mean, celestial consequences?” I lean in, lacing my hands with my elbows on my knees as I fight to stay focused. I’m so deeply exhausted right now. This is too important, though, what we might learn about the Music of the Spheres.

And how we might control it to get Quinn back.

“Let us start at the beginning. You are ants.” Master Ilyov is abrupt, his voice disdainful.

“Ants?!” Lucca huffs before I set a hand to his knee, restraining his furious affront.

“Explain.” I nod for Master Ilyov to continue.

---