Taking a deep breath, Devi looked at Ariana frankly. “I have to. Quinn is my Master, and this is important.” Glancing back to where the Summer Prince had vanished, a frown pinched Devi’s brows.
“Devi? Are you alright?” Ariana blinked, realizing that her statuesque companion was shaken by everything that had just happened.
“It’s not everyday someone as powerful as the Prince of the Summer Fae wishes to champion your cause, Ariana.” Devi spoke quietly now, something complex on her face as she stared off beneath the trees. “The Summer and Winter Fae are the two most powerful Fae Courts in the world. When I was young, if there had not been such bad blood between the Scarlet Fae and the Summer Fae, I might have been spared my torturous servitude by approaching the Summer Fae Magistros and seeking amnesty, as was available in olden times to Scarlet Fae slaves. But because of King Bellari’s Forbidden status upon my people these past six hundred years… I could not. And so I had to suffer and eventually escape to the Vampires.”
“When you would have rather been adopted by the Summer Fae.” Ariana understood.
“Something like that.” Inhaling a deep breath, Devi shook off her reverie, turning to Ariana. “Come. In light of these events, I must return and report to Quinn immediately. I’m afraid our walk will have to wait for another day.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me who I’m going to side with?” Ariana asked, cocking her head.
“I don’t think you know which master you’ll side with, since the Prince has yet to deliver on his promises.” Devi spoke back smartly, though her chocolate-brown eyes were penetrating. “But make no mistake, Ariana, if you choose to accept Prince Lucca’s offer, he will be your master just as much as Quinn might be. If you take his deal, Lucca will make you pay for any assistance he gives you. He is just as cunning as Quinn, just as political, and just as wrathful to those who don’t deliver on their promises. Though Prince Lucca is beloved among his people, he is known as a ruthless negotiator. People wind up dead when they cross him. The wrath in his heart burns hot just as much as Quinn’s viciously calculating nature keeps him cold.”
“If I accept the Summer Prince’s offer, will it make Quinn my enemy?” Ariana dug now, watching Devi carefully.
Inhaling a deep breath, Devi exhaled slowly. “I don’t precisely know. Quinn and Prince Lucca are not on good terms, but neither are they mortal enemies. There is some history between them that I do not know… nobody in our Dark Haven knows it. We only know that once upon a time when Quinn was still Summer Fae, he had the Prince’s ear – that, indeed, they were fast, if quite competitive, friends. But then Quinn became a Vampire… and they have been subtly at each other’s throats ever since.”
“Well, that’s something Quinn never mentioned.” Ariana blinked, wondering what history Florence’s Master Vampire had with the Summer Fae Prince.
“And he never will, as Quinn speaks little about his previous life as a Summer Fae.” Devi spoke brusquely now with a warning glance. “Come. I must report to my Master and then I need to make you ready, for he has an evening of music planned for us. Let us go.”
But as Devi turned away, gliding back towards the mausoleum that housed the staircase to the tunnels below, Ariana couldn’t follow. Indecision rooted her as she stewed over a life of servitude to a darker master or a lighter one, suddenly detesting both options. Ariana didn’t want a Master. She wanted to live free, to roam the woods and feel the touch of sunlight on her skin, and drink the flood of the moon on a hot summer night rather than be bound to anyone.
As she churned over her decision, Ariana’s budding power suddenly flared inside her again. Hot and cool all at once, it was tinged with silver and gold as that starburst sensation opened up through her body. Filling her veins and every space deep inside, that vast power suddenly blossomed out; as if it rushed through Ariana’s every pore, she felt a tremendous surge of hot-cold flow off her like camphor, stronger than ever before. She saw the air whirl as her power poured out of her. In her magic, Ariana saw dark shadows like Quinn’s as it hit the summer sunlight.
And a searingly bright cascade of rainbows now, shimmering with silver and gold light – not so very different from the Summer Fae Prince.
It was beautiful, as that strange conglomeration of Fae and Vampire powers flowed around Ariana in the rising dawn. As that massive nimbus finally dissipated to the summer breeze, both she and Devi stared with amazement in its wake. But Devi did not say anything as she suddenly tugged Ariana back to the mausoleum. Giving Ariana a severe eyeball, Devi maintained their silence as they returned by the light of her violet orb, walking back through the vast quiet of the underground tombs. But as they finally came to the spot where the catacombs met the Hotel’s underground and Devi raised Quinn’s powers to open the passage back, Devi took a deep breath and faced Ariana.
“I know that you do not yet know where you fit in this world,” she spoke, her chocolate eyes alert, “but I deeply encourage you to say nothing to anyone except Quinn and Prince Lucca himself about their negotiations with you. In our world, even the friendliest of faces reports to someone, and having a friend who is without a master of some sort is rare – tremendously so.”
“Are you saying that anyone I might entrust with this information might turn on me?” Ariana breathed, a shiver taking her suddenly to feel like she was friendless in a den of murderers.
“I’m saying that anyone you might entrust with this information could turn on Quinn, or the Summer Fae Prince.” Devi spoke with a gentler demeanor now as she watched Ariana. “If you care for either of them, you’ll keep quiet about the things they say. Because if I’m right… they may end up telling you far more than they had initially wanted to.”
“What do you mean?” Ariana asked as she cocked her head, a dark sensation churning inside her again from her new magic.
“Because your rising Dark Fae power is having an effect on both of them, darling.” Devi smiled wryly now as she pinned Ariana with her gaze. “Even a fool could see that Quinn never meant to unleash so much of his power last night at the Vampire gathering, or lose his control around you while you both were alone… and I’m certain Prince Lucca never meant to show so much of his magic today in that cemetery. Their magics are resonating with yours – strongly. And they are losing control in ways I believe they do not wish to.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Ariana asked, her heart opening suddenly for Devi, knowing the Vampiress gave her honest advice.
“Because I care for Quinn.” Devi spoke with a quiet passion then. “And despite all the rumors about him, I believe Prince Lucca is one of the best of the Fae. Like Quinn, he genuinely cares for his people and wants what’s right for them. I would be… sad, to see either of them fall.”
“Sad, or go on a midnight killing rampage against whoever hurt either of them?” Ariana blurted out before she could stop herself. But as Devi’s dark chocolate eyes fixed upon her, Ariana knew she wasn’t wrong. Devi wasn’t a warrior by day, but Ariana understood she had escaped her former life by being a knife in the night. As the Vampiress stared Ariana down from her statuesque supermodel height with her perfect poise, Ariana shivered.
“Take my words as you like them.” Devina spoke almost with Quinn’s dramatic flare now. But as she watched Ariana shiver again, Devi suddenly thawed. Reaching out, she took Ariana’s hand. “Do not worry over such things at the moment. For now, you need help in our world, and I am here to help you. We will worry about the twists and turns of fate later. Let’s get you back upstairs to your rooms and then I must go meet with Quinn. Come.”
Though Devi squeezed Ariana’s hands with a reassuring smile, Ariana still wasn’t sure if she might not wind up with a knife in her back some dark night from the viciously sculpted Vampiress. But Ariana merely nodded as Devi turned, leading the way back up to her suite. But as they stepped into her apartment from behind a nymph painting, she was surprised to suddenly hear Devi inhale in shock as she shut the painting quickly.
“Forgive me, Ariana,” Devi spoke as her eyes swirled with Quinn’s dark onyx color. Lifting a hand to her temple, Devi shook her head as if something hurt. “Quinn needs me. Something is wrong. I will return if I can. For now, your breakfast is there upon the table, and a gown is hanging on the back of the closet door for tonight, with all the appropriate accoutrement. Your time is your own today at the Hotel, but be ready by eight pm and someone will come escort you to this evening’s concert. I must go.”
Without so much as a final warning about Ariana not blabbing the morning’s events to anyone, Devi turned and whisked out the door, practically at a run on her stiletto heels. Her abrupt departure left Ariana wondering what kind of trouble Quinn had suddenly found himself in; though clearly it was something he needed backup for. Ariana found herself curious now, how many of Quinn’s Vampires were fighters in addition to staff at the Hotel.
But Devi’s abrupt departure left Ariana alone yet again, and she suddenly found herself thinking too much as she wandered over to the gabled windows and gazed down upon the cobbled street. Glancing below, she had thought only the Brightwatch guards would be there doing their regular idling waiting for her to come out.
But was surprised suddenly at what she saw.
Down on the wide marble steps of the Red Letter Hotel Florence, a Vampire couple were being detained by the Summer Fae Brightwatch. Dressed in thick layers of black silk three centuries out of date, both the man and woman held enormous black silk parasols to keep off the sun, their bodies and gloved hands swathed in black with the woman additionally draped in a luscious black lace veil that completely covered her hair and pale face. Neither were backing down from twenty Fae guards in silver-gold armor with long spears now surrounding them, as an arrogant-faced Brightwatch leader with gold decoration on the chest of his uniform argued with them.
