“What else would you call that blaze of light and darkness that cascaded from you at the palace, Ms. Summers?” Her host Quindici spoke soberly as he sat back in his chair, his gaze dire now as it pinned her like an eagle’s talons. “Whatever your Fae parents told you about your magic – for I assume you’ve been hiding in the human realm all your life, judging by how deeply ingrained your human attitude is – you must understand you do indeed have magic. You have it, I have it, and you are currently sitting in a world of it, though you are still recuperating in bed from overusing yours.”
“Tell me you’re joking.” Ariana spoke softly, holding the Barone’s gaze as a terrible faintness sluiced all through her. Deep inside, a strange sensation sparked within her like a dark-bright fire as she watched him.
“Do I look like I’m joking?” Quindici spoke quietly now as he raised one cutting dark eyebrow at her. “Hear my words and know them as true.You are a creature of magic. And nothing you do will ever change that.”
This last was said to Ariana with a strange lilt to his voice, as if the Barone had sung the phrase of a song into her mind. Suddenly, his dark onyx eyes seemed drowning as she stared into them, the red intensely bright like summer fields on fire as the room around him seemed to darken with a shadowy nimbus. All at once, his pale skin seemed luminous where he sat in the flickers of late afternoon sun coming through the windows, his wavy hair a luscious combination of deep chestnut with copper highlights and dark ebony shadows. His beauty was overwhelming as Ariana stared at him.
As his words pressed into her mind.
“I have magic.” Ariana breathed again as she tried to process what he was telling her. But even though his mind-messages told her to absorb his words calmly, her heart suddenly gripped, her breath frozen as she stared at him. “And I used my magic back at the Pitti Palace? But—”
“But nothing.” He chuckled now, smooth and elegant though his eyebrows knit, his gaze curious as if feeling her battle against his suggestions. “You are a Summer Fae, Ariana, and your magic is hale despite what you may have been told. But your tremendously dark-bright power is far more than a regular Summer Fae. Which is why the Summer King now wishes you dead… now that he knows about you.”
“Wait. Hold on.” Ariana spoke tensely now as she reached up, rubbing her temples and trying to process. “You’re saying… that even though I just got to the Twilight Realm and opened suddenly to my power for unknown reasons, my Fae King – whom I’ve never even met – wants me dead?”
“Essentially.” The Barone spoke with elegant wit now, though he watched her closely. “But I see from your lack of reaction to most of my words that you are well-versed in the Twilight Realm and its ways. Your parents told you something about this place your people originally come from, and the creatures of magic that live here. Tell me, what have you heard?”
“Some.” Ariana heaved a hard breath now as she frowned, trying to process though her head was whirling with all the revelations. “My parents are full-blood Summer Fae, even though my mother doesn’t have her magic anymore, and I never had any. They raised me in the human world so we’d be safe from a war happening in the Twilight Realm with the Summer Fae – the War of Rome. They wanted me to know about my heritage, though I had to keep it quiet all my life. Horseback riding, fencing, fighting, herbalism, Faeanic calligraphy and dance, Twilight Realm history… they taught all of it to me as a child so I would be aware of my roots. Though they said I could never come here to the Twilight Realm without magic, because I wouldn’t be able to defend myself. Because of the war.”
“Interesting.” Quindici DaPonti spoke with deep attention now as he watched her. “But the War of Rome that plagued the Summer Fae six hundred years ago is long over. Did your parents not tell you that?”
“I… no.” Ariana frowned deeply now, a dark unease moving inside her as she suddenly wondered why her parents would have lied about something as big as a war in their homeland being over. It should have made the Twilight Realm safe for them to return to, but Ariana’s parents never had – settling deeply into their cover-up human lives instead. Thinking about it now, something dark and uneasy shifted inside Ariana, knowing that one lie could easily lead to another. And she wondered suddenly, if her parents had been lying to her all her life.
About her having magic – and about other details of their family’s past.
“Do you know who your current Summer Fae King is?” The Barone pushed suddenly, his onyx eyes piercing as he waited for Ariana’s answer, as if it were somehow important.
“My parents say it’s King Archivolio Bellari, of Royal House Bellari. His high seat is here in Florence, in the Twilight Realm.” Ariana frowned now as she watched Quinn.
“Well they did not lie to you about that, at least.” Quinn spoke with a dark thoughtfulness now as he regarded her. “And did you know the Pitti Palace in the human world is the Summer Fae Palace of Light here in the Twilight Realm? Where the King has his high seat?”
“They neglected to mention it.” Ariana stewed now, realizing suddenly what that opulent Fae-hall had been after she’d come through the rift.
“And do you know who your Summer Fae Prince is?” Quinn spoke with a darker intrigue now as he watched Ariana with a piercing attention.
“Lucca Bellari.” She whispered, blinking suddenly as she stared at the Barone, incredulous. “You called him Lucca, that blond lord in the hall…! That’s who was with you when you fought that smoke-thing. My Summer Fae Prince was protecting me! With you.”
“He was.” Quindici DaPonti spoke with a darkly thoughtful and deeply intrigued gaze now as he watched her. “But the Summer Fae Prince aiding you against a Vampire Revenant who invaded his palace does not change the fact that if you leave these walls, you will be caught and put to death by the King his father. Prince Lucca Bellari had to tell his father about the battle in the palace, for the King’s guards had already become alert to a Dark Fae’s signature in the halls. Your Prince fought long and hard these past days to have you pardoned since your magic is new, but his father was against it. It seems the King wishes to make an example of you under Summer Court law. He’s already put an edict out that should you step foot outside this Hotel, any Summer Fae may hunt you. The King has set a guard of his elite Brightwatch soldiers all around my Hotel to watch for your escape. If you stray beyond these walls, you will be imprisoned and killed, though the King has agreed it may be a merciful death. Though you have amnesty here at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, for now. With me.”
“My King wants to kill me? Why?!” Ariana breathed incredulously, astonished as her heart gripped. “Can’t I just return to the human world?”
“Your King sees you as a threat, Ariana, because of your sudden blaze of power three days ago.” Her host spoke patiently now, compassion but directness in his dark onyx eyes. “And if you try to return to the human world, you will be caught by the Intercessoria, the Twilight Realm’s magical police force. And put to death by them, for endangering humans with your powerful new magics.”
“But why am I such a threat?” Ariana asked as a hot rage of tears prickled behind her eyes now, though she breathed deep and they didn’t fall. Her heart screamed with outrage, but she remained calm from long years of practice controlling her more passionate Fae emotions around humans. Darkly searing, however, that strange new star-like energy burned inside her chest once more, as if responding to their conversation and her upset.
“You must understand, Ariana,” her host Quindici spoke with gravitas now as he leaned forward in his seat and laced his long fingers over his knee. “Your magical imprint is tremendously unique. You are not just a Summer Fae, but that plusVampirepowers – a tremendously rare kind of Fae called an Unseelie, orDark Fae. As a Dark Fae, you are one of the strongest Fae-types out there, possessing the magics of both the Light and the Night. A young womanwith tremendous power… a power your King fears.”
“What do you mean, Dark Fae? And why is my King so afraid of power like mine?” Ariana asked him as a hot, furious tear did roll down her cheek now and she let it. She had never heard about Dark Fae, despite all the other Twilight and Fae Lineages her parents had told her about growing up. And she wondered now, why they had not told her about this other kind of Fae.
Especially if she was one – her magic somehow buried all these years.
“Because six hundred years ago during the War of Rome,” Quindici DaPonti spoke soberly now as he watched her, “the Dark Fae were on the opposite side of that war. They battled against the Summer Fae, in addition to a handful of other Lineages. Those Lineages are now known as the Forbidden Lineages, enemies of the Summer Fae, and are hunted when discovered. You must understand that though many Twilight Lineages live peacefully in Florence, much of the surrounding countryside is Summer Fae territory in the Twilight Realm. And your King does not suffer the Forbidden Lineages to live – not anywhere in the world, and most certainly not here where he keeps his high seat. You are safe in my care for the moment. But for the future… uncertain.”
“So I’m dead no matter where I go if I try to leave this hotel?” Ariana spoke, furious as that strange dark energy continued to churn inside her.
“Perhaps.” Her host nodded, watching her with frankness and also a searching curiosity now. “But perhaps I have a better path for you. A path aligned with myself and the Vampires who run this hotel. A path that might just give you… everything you want.”
And Ariana felt Quindici’s energy change subtly then, flaring with a dark, almost eager fire through the room as he watched her. Crimson seared in his onyx eyes as a deep intrigue shone in them.
