But still keenly aware of how much he’d tried to use her.
“Your father’s a tyrant.” She spoke at last, squaring her shoulders as she conceded that point, though shivers of exhaustion wracked her as she kept a hand against the tunnel wall. “But just because you want me on your side doesn’t mean I’m yours to use, Lucca. Win me to your revolution, but don’t use me. Or I will expend every last ounce of energy I have to blast your ass. Even if it kills me.”
Taking a long, slow breath, Prince Lucca Bellari stared her down with his deeply blue eyes, quiet now as he took her in – as if seeing the truth of her for the very first time. “You would, wouldn’t you?” He spoke at last. “You would kill yourself to live free… rather than be used by anyone.”
“Don’t play games with me, and we’ll never have to find out.” Ariana spoke bluntly then, even though something inside her heart screamed to be so firm with Lucca. But like with Quinn, he had to know she wasn’t going to be a pawn in his game. Ariana would live a free life, even if it meant stepping out into the wilderness and taking her chances, she suddenly knew. And though it was a terrifying thought to just run off into the woods in the Twilight Realm where she knew no one and had no allies, she also knew she could. If things played badly with Quinn and Lucca, if neither could help her without manipulating her, she would take her chances on her own.
No matter how long that life might last.
“I will live free.” Ariana spoke quietly then, as she stared Lucca down in the dark tunnel. “And nothing you or Quinn could ever do will change that.”
Holding Lucca’s gaze, Ariana impressed her point before inhaling and pushing away from the wall. Prince Lucca was silent as she moved past, and then he and Alleno followed her down the endless tunnel. Though he sent his swirling Fae-orb ahead to light her way rather than have her stumble on in darkness, Lucca walked far back from her with his liege-man after her exclamation of sovereignty. He was so quiet now that Ariana’s heart yearned, screaming for her to turn around and apologize. She wanted so much to see his beautiful blue eyes light at hearing that she would help him. But he was six hundred years old, and a Fae Prince. He was used to people doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it.
And Ariana just wasn’t going to be one of them.
At last, they reached the tunnel’s end; a blank stone wall over which Lucca waved his hand as his magics shimmered. As the stone vanished, the way opened to the most beautiful ravine Ariana had ever seen. Catching her breath, she watched the sun wink out behind a high cliff to the west, a raging whitewater river below. The tunnel had emerged halfway up the ravine, and moving out onto a narrow path, Lucca’s blue eyes were somber in the fading day, dark as evening’s shadows fell.
It was a majestic sight, and Ariana’s heart stirred as she watched rainbows from the waterfall spray catch the last of the day’s sunlight high above. But with a hard sigh, Lucca sank to a seat on a large boulder at the edge of the ravine, staring out over the tumbling water below. As Alleno took up a bodyguard stance behind them with his hands upon his knife-hilts but a sad look on his face, Ariana moved to Lucca.
And sank to a seat beside him.
“I’m sorry.” Lucca spoke solemnly then as he watched the water. “You’re right, Ariana. I’ve been a bastard to you. I’m not used to… having a strong Fae stand up to me. Only Alleno and one other person have had the courage to slap me across the face when I’ve been idiotic these past six hundred years. And perhaps Alleno should be doing just that, right now.” Prince Lucca gave Alleno a wry smile then, one the Prince’s cousin returned before quietly going back to his bodyguard posture and scanning the ravine with his hooded, alert gaze.
“I want to support you, Lucca, I really do.” Ariana spoke softly now as she sat beside him. “I can see that what you’re doing is right for your people. But no one likes being manipulated; people like being treated honestly. Especially ones raised in the human world.”
“You’re right; no one likes being used, or having the full truth hidden from them. I should have learned that, long ago.” Lucca chuckled wryly now, almost as if speaking about something else as he stared out over the ravine. But as he glanced to Ariana, watching her deeply, a quiet fire lit in his dark blue eyes. “You’re fiercely independent, Ariana, I can see that now. It’s almost like my authority and power mean nothing to you and it’s… refreshing, really. I haven’t come across a Fae with such regal fortitude in a long time, not since… well. It makes me feel shoddy. Like I don’t measure up. To you.”
“Then try harder.” She spoke as she reached out, taking his hand and clasping it in hers.
But as she took his hand, Lucca startled at her gesture, his lovely lips falling open as his blue eyes blazed – and a fire of passion lit in Ariana’s heart to have him look at her that way. She startled to have the intense beauty of the Summer Fae Prince shining upon her; and as she reveled in him, so bright now in contrast to the deep blue shadows of night settling all around them, Ariana felt her body suddenly become stronger, her limbs no longer shaking and her fever-chills waning. As she stared into Lucca’s eyes, she felt some kind of blessing weave between them, a resonance similar to what she felt with Quinn but luminous. As Lucca reached up, cupping her face in his hand and gazing at her with his bright blue eyes, Ariana knew he felt it also.
Shining so bright against the darkness of the Night.
“You drink my energy like a Vampire,” Lucca breathed as he was pulled closer to her now by this resonance between them. “But you revel in me also, like a Fae. I can feel both… so deep inside you.”
“I feel it, too.” She breathed back, pulled close to him now by her magic’s deeply powerful movement. She could feel it reaching out towards Lucca with a swirling darkness like a Vampire, but with those silver-gold rainbows like a Fae. But the rainbows and light of her power were darker than Lucca’s; as if moonlight could create prismatic refractions from the spray surging up off the waterfalls, Ariana’s power had a deeper dark-bright beauty.
And that strange void-like darkness within – that Ariana still didn’t know how to address.
But as the blue shadows of night deepened, the golden rainbows of day snuffed out from the waterfalls, the colors in the ravine cooled to deep purple and violet. As the sun ebbed from the sky, Ariana suddenly felt a strengthening of her power; and Lucca seemed to feel it too as his full lips fell open. As Ariana’s magic whirled, cascading out from her now with dark rainbows despite her fatigue, alluring like standing beneath the moon and stars at midnight, Ariana saw Lucca drawn in. His lips were close as he gazed down upon her. Her heart pounded hard to feel him as he neared.
And then Alleno cleared his throat. “My Prince. The Brightwatch will be in pursuit. We should keep moving until we are at one of your safe havens.”
“Of course.” But though Lucca was startled from his moment with Ariana, his gaze was deep as he glanced back to her. Though he weighed her with a beautiful amazement now, the Summer Fae Prince knew his duty. With a wry smile, he rose from his boulder; offering his hand, he escorted Ariana up. Despite her fatigue, Ariana’s entire body thrilled to feel his sun-warm touch, a wave of her midnight-dark power flowing from her again as their hands connected. For his part, Lucca blazed as their hands touched.
Their fingers gently intertwining in the oncoming night.
CHAPTER 24 – HEIR
As Ariana, Lucca, and Alleno moved up a scree-laden path alongside the waterfall ravine, night-birds began to call in the forest above. Watching the sunset darken the sky, Ariana suddenly became fascinated by the colors in the Twilight Realm, uncanny at dusk. For a moment she simply gazed at the sky’s waning glow, reveling in how impossibly vivid everything seemed all around as the light settled out. As if the world was painted in colors so saturated they were almost touchable, she actually reached out with one hand, entranced.
Feeling like she was touching something gossamer in the air as she caressed the oncoming night.
Her caress left a softly-glowing Faeanic sigil in the air; but as it blew apart gently with the evening winds, Ariana didn’t recognize it. Halting, Prince Lucca watched her with a thoughtful gaze narrowing his ash-blond brows; as Alleno turned also, halting their progress up the ravine towards the forest above, they both stared at Ariana. Coming a few steps back down the path to her, Lucca was quiet as he reached out to touch the last of the quickly dissipating sigil. Like a spider’s threads, it wafted apart.
Leaving only a subtle moonlight shimmer in the air.
“Night.” Lucca spoke quietly as he watched her with awed intrigue.
