“No. I want to depose him.” Prince Lucca corrected her now as his summer blue gaze sharpened. “There’s a difference in Fae culture. If someone with enough power rises to challenge a Fae King, it does not necessarily end in death, not like with Vampires. Oftentimes, a deposed Fae King is banished from their seat of power to a small estate away from the capitol. There, they may live the rest of their lives in peace, if they do not cause trouble. It is this I wish for my father, rather than death.”
“You know your father would fight you claw and fang, Lucca,” the Prince’s guardsman Alleno Massi suddenly spoke with a dark chuckle as he re-crossed his arms at his chest, the first time he’d spoken during the conversation. “He’d never go quietly into the sunset. And opening negotiations with a Dark Fae by lying to her is a bad start.”
“Hush, Alleno.” The Prince rebuked his man, though their gazes connected as if they were more on equal terms; as if Alleno was far more than a mere bodyguard.
“What do you mean?” Ariana asked, glancing to the Prince’s man now.
“I mean,” Alleno answered as he pushed up from his slouch against the tomb, his fierce emerald eyes pinning her, “that Summer Fae history is full of noblefae who tried to double-cross a Dark Fae and got burned. Badly. Dark Fae are passionate creatures… and let’s just say those passions have a way of running horribly wrong if they’re lied to or betrayed.”
“Who are you?” Ariana asked, cocking her head at him. “Are you even a guard?”
“I’malsoa guard.” Alleno chuckled with a flash of pleased viciousness in his eyes. “Suffice to say that our previous Summer Fae King, Aurelio Incendari, was a severe bigot. He was cruel to the Dark Fae and Scarlet Fae,” Alleno nodded to Devi now as if he knew what she had once been, “believing them inferior to Summer Fae, and provoked their siding with the Vampires during the War. Both the Scarlet Fae and Dark Fae fought viciously in the War, resulting in the old King’s death and Lucca’s father’s rise to the throne. After the Treaty happened and the dust settled, Lucca’s father continued the old King’s bigotry and launched intense pogroms against both Lineages, making them Forbidden to associate with and forcing any Summer Fae who tried to protect them to give them up. Scarlet Fae are intense warriors and have managed to foist off most of King Archivolio Bellari’s attacks, but Dark Fae are more like mystics than battle-mages.”
“So the Dark Fae are gone now, and the Scarlet Fae survive.” Ariana understood.
“And if killing off your people isn’t enough to convict Lucca’s father,” Lucca’s man Alleno held Ariana’s gaze with a caustic fire now, “then perhaps persecuting Summer Fae families with young Dark Fae children might convince you? Or does ripping babies from their mothers, or killing the entire family if they resist sound innocent to you?”
Shock devoured Ariana as she stared at Prince Lucca’s man and his awful words. As a terrible roil of horror surged all through her, she felt her rising magics flare hard inside her – righteously bright now rather than dark. “Is this true?” She breathed as she turned to Lucca.
“It is true.” Lucca spoke as he held her gaze with sadness now, though he was fierce also. “The Forbidden Lineages are Twilight Lineages who aided the Vampires in the overtaking of Rome six hundred years ago. By my father’s edicts, they are forbidden to be spoken of, their histories banished from Summer Fae annals, and they are hunted and put to death as mortal enemies of the Summer Fae Court. Summer Fae have long memories, Ariana, and my father does not forget those who sided with the Vampires when our homelands in Rome fell. We’ve been in on-and-off war for the past six hundred years, the Summer Fae and the Forbidden Lineages, over my father’s damnable edict. A situation I would change… and bring us back to peace.”
“Many Twilight Lineages in Italy joined the Vampires when they sought to bring the old King Aurelio Incendari down.” Strangely, it was Devi who spoke now, a thoughtful look upon her face as she watched Prince Lucca. “Many Lineages of Fae suffered terribly while he ruled. But we did not know of the Vampires’ plan to steal the Summer Fae homelands. Yet we have been punished for it by the new King, who is nearly as tyrannical as the old one.”
“Indeed.” The Prince spoke now as he held Devi’s gaze with an ancient sadness. “I would broker a peace between our peoples, if I could get my father to step aside. All of us could live in harmony if old wounds were healed.”
“I care not.” Devi snorted now as she drew up to her full supermodel height on her stiletto heels. Ariana suddenly realized just how tall Prince Bellari was, as even with that move, the statuesque Devi barely achieved his height. “I am Vampire now; I belong to the Life of the Night. I will not urge Ariana to side with you, no matter how noble your aspirations seem. Quinn is my Master. And I will not betray him.”
“Loyalty I would not deign to usurp.” The Summer Fae Prince nodded honorably to Devi. “This decision is Ariana’s, whether she will use her powers to aid a Vampire from the people who did her harm as an infant, or a Fae from the people she was born to.”
Turning to Ariana again, he pierced her with his summer blue eyes, luminous as he stood in the shadows. “Faeadonna. I would entreat you to speak with me again. I am an honorable man and wish to see you have a future among the Summer Fae, not just for my own endeavors but because you belong with the people you were born to. I would help your family solve any troubles they may have, and aid your magic as it develops so you remain bright. Though he and I have our differences, Quindici DaPonti is a decent Master; but if you blood-oath to him to escape Summer Fae law, you will have a Master all the same. I would see you live free… not bound to a darkness from which you may never escape. Please, consider my words. In the meantime, I will continue to work on your behalf, and will contact you as soon as I have secured a date for you to appear before the Magistros of the Summer Fae Court and plead your case. With my support, I’m sure we could create an exemption for you from my father’s ancient laws against Dark Fae.”
Pausing, Ariana considered his words, knowing that since she was not yet bound to Quinn, she still technically had a choice about her future. “Would I live free among the Summer Fae? Or be your puppet?”
“I would ensure you live free.” Prince Lucca Bellari spoke with gravitas now. “I would simply hope that you might support my aims… when the time is right.”
“I’ll think about it.” Ariana spoke at last.
There was suddenly nothing more to say as Ariana and the Summer Fae Prince watched each other. As he stared her down with his bright blue eyes, beautiful like the endless summer sky, Ariana felt their connection heighten. As a breeze whirled through the graveyard from the rising sun, it shook the trees, scattering sunlight over them both in the dappled shade. As Ariana felt a touch of heat, she watched Prince Lucca stand taller, reveling in the sunshine just as much as she.
A golden warmth filled Ariana as her breath caught – and Lucca’s did also, his blue eyes brightening two shades in an instant as the wind whirled around him. It was his magic rising to their connection, Ariana realized, as that wind of sunlit heat and glimmering rainbows surged around her and him both. In that beautiful wind were a thousand caresses, and Ariana felt how it swept her up, like it might carry her off.
Somewhere they could be alone together.
Prince Lucca Bellari’s lips fell open as his eyes blazed with gold-white magic. His wind whirled as their connection surged, shaking the trees so hard that a cascade of leaves shuddered down. Alarm took Alleno’s face; reaching out, he placed a hand upon his Prince’s arm, actually hauling him back a step from Ariana. As Ariana breathed hard, caught in the Prince’s sensual delight, he blinked his long ash-blond lashes as if startling from a dream. With a soft exhalation, he turned his face aside from Ariana, closing his eyes tightly.
Gradually, his storm of summer-hot power subsided. But Alleno gave a harsh growl as he kept a hand upon his liege, glaring at Ariana. Opening his eyes, the Summer Fae Prince took a deep breath as he found Ariana’s gaze, holding it with depth now though he kept his magics restrained.
“You are far more powerful than you know, Dark Fae.” He spoke quietly. “And if I have felt it, then so has Quinn. Beware. For his aims are ever selfish with those he binds close to him… and his heart is ever cold.”
With a deep bow and one hand over his heart, the Summer Fae Prince locked eyes with Ariana. And then he was gone, striding back through the shadows of the cemetery as his loyal guardsman trailed in his wake.
CHAPTER 16 – WRATH
As Ariana watched the Summer Fae Prince go, the cemetery fell to silence. Even the birds were hushed after the Prince’s scalding display of power, the rustling of leaves the only sound now as Lucca Bellari blended into the silver-grey shadows of the woods. Before long, Ariana could not see precisely where he’d gone, as if he and his servingman had simply disappeared into the trees. The entire episode left her shaken; as she shivered, she felt the scalding heat of Lucca’s wind again and recalled his sun-bright rush of power. It called to her; she could feel it cascading all over her, blazing and alive and free. Vastly different yet somehow similar to Quinn’s dark, seductive energy, Ariana could feel how the Summer Fae Prince and the Master Vampire were opposites born from the same enormous magic.
And she was the prize between them – as they both sought to make her theirs.
“Are you going to tell Quinn about this?” Ariana spoke suddenly, turning to Devina.
