As Devina’s voice drifted off, Ariana heard sadness in it, as if she cared for Quinn deeply. But it was clear that even to his most trusted, Quinn was distant because of things he’d experienced at the hands of his old Master.
Keeping people at arm’s length now even when he was kind.
This new information about Quinn made Ariana’s magic churn inside, wondering if that was part of why he had walked away from her earlier, when she and Devi arrived at a particularly ornate tomb in the darkness. This one had but a single bier, the entire alcove carved in friezes that told the life of some ancient Vampire like a blessed saint. The tomb they’d arrived at seemed almost Fae in its ornate details; curls of wind and water, beautiful flowering trees, and more flowed across the ornamented alcove. As Devi moved forward, touching a flower in a stylized vine, a shimmer of magic wavered the rear of the alcove. Suddenly, Ariana blinked to see a dark staircase spiraling up through the ornate carvings at the back. As Devi stepped behind the bier, gesturing to the stone stairs, her full lips turned up in a smile.
“Here we are, darling. Watch your step as you ascend.”
As Ariana moved forward, ascending the tight, corkscrewing staircase behind the supermodel Vampiress, she felt a strange pang, as if already missing the quiet of the tombs. But after a number of turns inside the cramped staircase, they were pushing out into a vaulted mausoleum nearly as ornate as the one below. As Devi opened the mausoleum’s wrought-iron door with a click of a hidden latch, they emerged into the dim light of early dawn, aboveground at last.
Ariana hadn’t realized how much being confined even for a few days was bothering her until she was finally outside. Breathing deep of the early morning air, she closed her eyes, reveling in the first sun’s rays on her face as the trees swayed in an early breeze with the chittering of waking birds. The cemetery of ancient mausoleums was quiet except for the sounds of nature. And even though dawn hardly breathed through the sky yet, it seemed somehow perfect as Ariana reveled in it. As she breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if her entire soul had somehow become lighter, she felt strength brighten inside her.
And she set a hand to her heart, feeling that strength increase as she focused on it.
“Ariana? Are you all right?” Devina’s voice cut into Ariana’s reverie, though it was gentle as the trees sighed all around them.
“Yes.” Opening her eyes, Ariana smiled at the supermodel Vampiress now sitting upon an ornate tomb with gryphons on it. “Thank you for this. I didn’t even know how much I needed it.”
“You’re welcome.” Devi smiled now with true pleasure; in her gaze, Ariana saw how kind she could be when she wanted to. But even though the Vampiress could be out in the early dawn, Ariana saw how she had selected a spot in the shadows of a towering cherry laurel tree, as if even the slanting early light was too much for her pale Vampire complexion. Quinn it seemed, had more daywalking ability than those he Sired, even though Devi could be outside in direct daylight. But Ariana reveled in the light now, stepping into a stronger beam between the trees to enjoy it as Devi gave her an amused smile.
“You really are a Summer Fae – reveling in the sun like that.”
A man’s elegant tenor-baritone voice interrupted the cemetery’s quiet suddenly; as Ariana spun on her heel with her hands up, ready to fight, Devi was up in a flash also – her long fingers and crimson nails sharpened into vicious red talons like a Manchurian empress, her fierce blood-red aura seething around her. As Devi snarled and stepped in front of Ariana with her fighting posture, protecting Ariana with her vicious magical aura, her eyes drowned to a bloody crimson, their whites and pupils gone. Sharper, her cheekbones were cutting as she snarled with delicate fangs bared at their intruder, her ears lengthened to a vicious point like a Fae mixed with a demon.
As Devi and Ariana bristled in their fighting-stances, though Ariana’s magic hadn’t risen like Devi’s, a man sauntered from the shadows of a towering cork oak. Moving quietly, he raised both hands in a gesture of surrender, keeping his hands aloft. But as he came fully out of the shadows, stepping into a shaft of sunlight that sliced through the trees, Ariana’s breath caught.
Dressed in a midnight blue hunting vest and grey breeches with tall russet boots, his garb had ornate vines of silver embroidered all through his vest, the same tooled upon his boots. His white silk shirt rippled in the wind, and above his vest’s high collar Ariana recognized his regal jaw, astonishing high cheekbones, and handsome features. Pinning her with summer blue eyes below straight ash-blond eyebrows, the man’s intense demeanor blazed in the early dawn. And as Ariana watched his short ash-blond hair catch the sun, she saw silver and gold shine through his thick waves.
The Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari – who had somehow found her the moment she set foot outside the Vampire’s halls.
CHAPTER 15 – TREASON
Watching Ariana with his bright blue eyes as he moved slowly forward with his hands raised, the Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari shone like a diamond in the dawn. As he passed through another beam of sunlight in the cemetery, Ariana watched how the sun lit his entire being up, as if his very aura was illuminated with gold, silver, and white in the early day. A bright nimbus swirled around the Prince, glimmering with rainbows as he passed back into the shade. Blinking, Ariana stared at what she had just seen, as the Prince’s lips lifted in a smile and he eased a half-step back again into the slanting sunbeam. His bright aura instantly showed around him once more, swirling in its own wind as it dazzled the early light. Like mist off a waterfall lit by the rising sun, his whole body seemed to blaze with light as Ariana stared at him.
Everything about him shimmering with rainbows, the longer he took in the sun.
With a quirk of his lips, the Summer Fae Prince moved forward again into the forest’s shadows so Ariana was no longer dazzled. She blinked, swallowing hard as he returned to being just a man.
But an almost impossibly beautiful man, as he stood before her.
“You’ve never seen a Royal Summer Fae before, have you?” He spoke quietly as he regarded her, his blue eyes intrigued.
“No.” Ariana breathed as she watched him back, amazed. Though her father had had magic growing up, Ariana had never seen an aura like that around him ever, and it astounded her now.
“I have quite a lot more power than most of our brethren, and it shows when the sun shines.” Prince Lucca spoke softly to Ariana now as they regarded each other. “Not all Summer Fae’s auras shine like mine, when the light of the sun touches them. My magic revels deeply in the sunlight when it hits me, and it produces this effect. But please know I am not here to harm you, Dark Fae, and I am not trying to raise my magic to either impress or threaten you. I simply wish to speak with you. And this seemed the best moment, since I haven’t been able to get through to you at the Florence Hotel, thanks to Quinn’s obsessiveness about security.”
Ariana blinked at the Summer Fae Prince using Quinn’s first name, someone she thought was his enemy. But as Prince Lucca spoke, another shadow suddenly drifted out from beneath the cork oak behind him. With chestnut-gold hair and perfect Fae features, though not as perfect as Lucca’s, the man’s fierce emerald eyes were weighing as he crossed his arms and leaned with deceptive nonchalance against a falcon tomb. Dressed in what looked like charcoal-grey assassin’s leathers and wearing a serious harness of knives and weapons, Ariana could practically feel the man’s calm alertness as he watched her.
His full lips frowning and emphasizing a scar that tore over his chin.
“If you’re just here to speak with Ariana, then why did you bring the Darkwatch, Lucca?” Devi snarled at the Summer Fae Prince now as she gestured irately to the man leaning against the tombs, still not relinquishing her fighting-posture between Ariana and the Prince.
“You know my man Alleno Massi, Devi. You know he is loyal to me and not my father. Neither he nor I will betray the Dark Fae’s whereabouts, I swear it.” Prince Lucca Bellari spoke calmly to Devi now as he slowly lowered his hands. As he did, Ariana noticed Prince Lucca wore no sword, only two longknives in his tall boots just like at the Pitti Palace. Looking back to Ariana, the Prince’s gaze softened. A strange shine took his eyes as he regarded her, something amazed in his intensely elegant demeanor.
Taking a breath, he spoke directly to Ariana. “Ariana, is it?”
“It is.” She nodded. “Ariana Summers.”
“Summers.” He chuckled, his full lips curling up in an amused look as he lifted one straight ash-blond eyebrow. “Someone had a sense of humor taking that name for a family of Summer Fae hiding in the human world.”
