“What would my parents be running from?” Ariana scowled now as she twisted her glass upon the polished stained glass table, that dark unease still churning inside her though she needed to hear the truth. If her parents hadn’t given it to her, she would grill Quinn for it, as he seemed to be forthcoming about the subject, though Ariana still didn’t know to what end.
“I do not know what your parents might have been running from, Ariana, or still are. That is a tale only you can get from them.” Quinn answered kindly now as he leaned in across the table. “What I do know is that Dark Fae are hunted by your King, wherever they are. Even if your parents are not being hunted, if they knew you were Dark Fae… that would be an excellent reason for hiding you in the human world and obscuring your magic to the point you thought you had none. However they managed it.”
“Do you know how they did it? Either hid my magics this long or prevented them from opening? Or what triggered them to open finally?” Ariana asked, piercing Quinn with her gaze as something inside her sharpened, needing to know.
“I do not. Magic like that is beyond my ability.” He answered her quietly, his dark eyes honest. “But it is a mystery to be solved, Ariana, and I believe you need to. From what I saw at the Pitti Palace, your magic is powerful, even if it is still young and wild. Few creatures can manifest a rift between worlds, and fewer still can scream the power of pure sound at a Revenant to hammer them back. They are talents I have only seen in Archangels and Dragons. The strongest of the Twilight Lineages.”
“But you fought that Revenant back at the palace, along with the Summer Fae Prince.” Ariana cocked her head as she frowned at him now.
“Yes, but I am a decently strong Master among my kind.” He spoke back as he watched her. “As Prince Lucca Bellari is also among his people. Because you were able to scream back a Revenant like that, I know you are more than you think you are. And I believe your parents knew it, too. Because they taught you far more about fighting with magic than you think they did.”
“They trained me in magical fight-maneuvers even without magic.” Ariana understood, from what Quinn had observed about her fencing earlier. “So that if my power opened someday… I could learn quickly how to fight with it.”
“So that youwouldlearn quickly how to fight with it. And protect yourself.” Quinn spoke levelly now, his onyx eyes deep. “That flash of light you blinded me with for your last riposte was far more than you know, Ariana. Though you did it on instinct, it was your previous maneuvers that allowed you to gather that much energy and blast me with it – by the execution of a single, perfect strike. In Summer Fae culture, that particular strike is called the Sun Blaze. It is devastating against Vampires, when used right. Yours was still weak because you do not know how to use it correctly yet; but still, my eyes did not clear and my head did not cease ringing for some time, though I am able to work around such magical obfuscation.” Gesturing to his slow aura still curling around their table, Quinn lifted an eyebrow at Ariana. “You arepowerful, Ariana. And if your parents knew you were a Dark Fae with that much magic… they would have hidden you from your King. So the question becomes: did they know how and when you were attacked by a Vampire to turn you Dark? And further… why did they never tell you the truth?”
Sitting across from Quinn, Ariana truly stewed now as she thought about his questions. Suddenly, her entire childhood was turned upside-down as she thought about everything from a vastly new perspective, and considered every detail in a different light. Her mother had been lying to her about not having magic, Ariana now knew; but now she also knew that something had been done to both her mother and herself so that Ariana had never even noticed or felt magic from her mother or herself growing up.
As Ariana simmered, she suddenly felt that dark sensation open up inside her again. Flowing out, it was as if it wanted to consume her with its darkness, as that enormous sensation chilled her to her core. As she inhaled, shocked and setting a hand to her chest trying to push that immense wave back, she felt how it wouldn’t go. As Quinn watched her with a very alert look now, deceptively casual though Ariana felt how his smoke-dark energy sharpened upon her, she felt that wrathful dark sensation pour out of her.
Like oilslick on a midnight lake, a terrible color of dark rainbows shimmered out from Ariana suddenly where she sat upon the bench. Watching it, Quinn’s eyebrows slowly rose as he lifted a hand, moving it gently through that dark, almost horribly beautiful aura. As Ariana stared at it also, feeling an ancient wrath coil deep inside her, she swallowed hard. She had never felt this way towards anyone before, least of all her parents.
And as Quinn stared at her now, she knew something deep was happening to her – changing her, from her newly awakening magics.
“The power of the Night.” He spoke quietly, understanding what it was. “The Vampire side of your Dark Fae powers are rising, Ariana, and they are not pleased by what your parents have done. I will not push you on these subjects, but it is imperative that you face them, with deep honesty and a good, hard look. For the magic of the Night can become uncontrollable if the issues that make it obsessive are not addressed. I should know. I have weathered its power and pitfalls for many a long year.”
As Quinn gazed at Ariana from across the table now, his demeanor was gentle even though it was stern. And watching the seething beauty of her dark aura as it slowly dissipated, Ariana felt how it could turn ugly if she wasn’t careful.
Deeply so – if she didn’t address the issues that were pushing it.
CHAPTER 7 – DECISIONS
As Ariana and Quindici DaPonti gazed at each other across the glass table in the sky-lounge, she suddenly felt his dark energy roil. As it curled around their table and eased over to her upon her silk bench, she felt a dark tendril stroke her wrist gently. At his ephemeral touch, Ariana felt the silver-dark sensation of her power flow up through her once more, as if their magics pulled together in the oncoming night or shared something kindred. A shimmer of oilslick rainbows curled through the air, as if her Dark Fae energy were somehow like his Vampiric smoke.
Before Quinn smiled wryly and pulled his power back – Ariana’s quieting also.
“I would like to offer you a history lesson, if I may.” Quinn spoke quietly then as he watched her in the deepening night. “About Vampires, Fae, and Dark Fae. Which it seems your parents neglected when they educated you about the Twilight Realm.”
“Ok, shoot.” Ariana spoke directly now, though part of her was still stewing about her parent’s lies, in addition to feeling strangely aroused now by Quinn’s dark decadence sitting across from her. As if thinking about him brought it back up, she could almost feel his magic’s touch slip over her wrist again, and something inside her surged before she focused once more.
“Dark Fae, you must understand,” Quinn spoke levelly now as he watched her from across the table, “are considered a pure form of magic by some people in the Twilight Realm… but a bastardization of magic by others.”
“A bastardization of magic?” Ariana blinked, twisting her Boulevardier glass upon the table before having another sip. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that far back down our Lineages, both Vampires and Fae share a common ancestor.” Quinn spoke with a deep thoughtfulness now as his dark eyes penetrated her. “We came from Archangels who fell to earth long ago, then split into two different modes of magic over the course of living in the physical realms. The Light, and the Night. Fae are descended from that brighter stream of magic – the Light – while Vampires are descendants of the darker mode – the Night.”
“And Dark Fae are a bastard blend of both magics. The Light and the Night.” Ariana understood from what Devi had told her earlier. As Quinn nodded, a shine of pleasure in his eyes that she understood, he continued.
“But Dark Fae are not just a blend of the two magics, Ariana.” He spoke with a darkly decadent panache now as he watched her. “They are a blend of the twostrongestvariations of those magics. For a Dark Fae is only created when the Fae child that was attacked by a Vampire survives the process.”
“Which Devi told me is like one in five hundred.” Ariana frowned as she sipped her drink.
“Indeed.” Quinn smiled, though it was hard. “When you are attacked as a Fae by a Master Vampire who aims to turn you, your Fae powers have to be unnaturally strong to keep you alive after that Vampire drains you nearly to death, but hasn’t completed the Siring by replenishing you with his blood. In addition, the Vampire’s powers have to be exceptionally strong to turn a Fae in the first place, not to mention battle your powers so a balance is reached without the Master’s blood. It is one reason Fae hate Vampires – because there have been Vampires in the past who were obsessed with creating Dark Fae and wrecking ruin with them, on both sides. Natural Summer Fae powers of being able to wield sunlight, heat, and fire as weapons are terribly dangerous to most Vampires. And Fae are terrified of their Dark cousins because most Dark Fae can bend normal Fae to their will with mesmerization abilities like a Vampire.”
“Are you saying I’ll be able to do those things?” Ariana’s eyebrows rose now as she blinked at Quinn, astounded.
“Perhaps.” He inclined his head noncommittally as he lifted his dirty martini and had a sip. “For now, your powers are wild, unpredictable as they open, and untrained. Though the Vampire Revenant attacking you at the Pitti Palace provoked strong magic from you, it may be a long time yet before you can replicate that feat, or wield your powers intentionally. Dark Fae, you see, are volatile in their powers as they open, since they contain inside them a push-pull between the powers of Light and Night. Which is another reason they are feared in the Twilight Realm by both Vampires and regular Fae.”
“Because I’m like a time bomb waiting to go off.” Ariana breathed quietly now as she blinked. Deep inside, that tiny star of magic within her pulsed dark-bright, as if just waiting for a chance to grow bigger and blaze out of control if she let it. With a shiver, Ariana frowned deeply now as she set her hand to her chest.
