CHAPTER 1 – ROYAL
Standing in the hot July sunshine, Ariana Summers listened to life move in the city of Florence. Lingering on her wrought-iron balcony at the Red Letter Hotel with her cell phone to hand, she gazed out over red clay rooftiles and elegant Italian stonework, feeling the energies of Vampires and Fae going about their business in the Twilight Realm city. Dressed in chic grey trousers and a white lace corset blouse, she reveled in the heat and sun with the Summer Fae side of her magic. But from the rising Vampire side of her new Dark Fae powers, every sound was jarring, every shadow sharp.
Every sensation intrusive in the bright summer day.
Frowning, Ariana inhaled as a breeze stirred her. Her long red hair was styled for work this morning at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, though she postponed her duties today as their new Art Curator as she pondered everyone going about their normal lives in the city. Ariana’s life was not normal anymore; she fiddled with a filigreed onyx and black diamond pendant now, gifts from the Master Vampire Barone Quindici DaPonti when she had been Kissed by him three weeks ago. Matched by earrings and a bracelet, the stones were representative of her belonging to the Dark Haven of Florence now and protected by it.
Protected by him, as she felt a curl of his dark power stir all around her.
As Ariana felt Quinn’s etheric smoke soothe her distress through their new connection, she knew it was time to make the phone call she dreaded. Heaving a short breath, she screwed her courage to the max and hit the dial icon on her phone. Waiting, she stared out over the city. But the call she had been postponing for weeks had started now and there was no going back.
As Ariana inhaled, shaking off another fugue from her opening magics.
“Ariana,figlia mia!We were wondering when you would call!”
Startling, Ariana had missed the click of her mother picking up the other end of the line. Inhaling, she focused even as guilt gripped her, making her Dark Fae energy surge. Oilslick-dark rainbows shimmered in the air, though it was far more controlled than her magical outbursts before bonding Quinn. But even as Ariana tensed, she reached up, touching Quinn’s pendant.
Feeling his energy soothe the furious darkness that rose inside her now at the conversation she needed to have with her parents.
“Ciao, mamma. Ispapàthere? If he is, he should be on this call, too.” Ariana spoke far more shortly than she intended. But she was stressed and no amount of magic was going to soothe it as she tucked her hair behind her ear in an anxious tic.
“Certo, figlia mia. I’ll get him.” Ariana’s mother Illyria Summers was an Italian Summer Fae and had a feisty temperament along with Ariana’s bright red hair; Ariana heard her mother yell,Adicus, it’s Ariana! Get to the phone!before returning. “Your father’s in his study, he’s on his way.”
“Thanks.” Ariana could practically picture her parents in their classic Italian villa outside Florence in the human world, taking up the landlines in the downstairs hall for her mother and the family parlor for her father. Adicus Summers didn’t keep a phone in his study as he said it distracted him; as part of an older generation of Fae using human technology, both parents had cell phones but generally left them in a basket by the front door. The landline had always been a more reliable way of reaching them; and as Ariana heard the click of her father picking up the pearl-handled 1950’s phone in the parlor now, her tension eased a little.
“Aria. Good to hear from you.” Ariana could almost feel her father Adicus’ peaceful energy as he came on the line, an American Summer Fae from San Francisco who never riled much. “We’d been wondering how your trip to Costa Rica was going. Your firm Robar, Fisk & Lund called to let us know you might be out of cell range for a while, but that you were enjoying a much-needed holiday. So, did you swim with dolphins or do any snorkeling?”
“No, dad. Actually…” Inhaling, Ariana knew there was no time like the present to come clean, so she simply blurted it out. “I’m here in Florence. But in the Twilight Realm.”
Silence smote the other end of the line. Ariana could still hear both parents breathing, though their current lack of words was deafening. Normally Illyria Summers was a chatterbox, her bright Summer Fae demeanor coming out with her rapid speech and native Italian with all the hand gestures to boot. But Ariana’s father had slow, thoughtful words for any occasion, and it struck her hard now that both were silent. Before she could say anything, however, her mother sighed.
“So you know.” Her father said.
“I know.” Ariana returned, understanding that he referred to the secret they’d kept from her all her life – that not only did she have Fae magic, but that it was Dark Fae magic, a combination of Fae and Vampire powers. It had made her hunted by the Summer Fae King when she’d arrived in the Twilight Realm just over three weeks ago, new to her magic and not knowing what in the hell was going on. As Ariana gazed to the cobbled street below, she was glad no Summer Fae Brightwatch soldiers hemmed her in anymore since her bond to Quinn. Technically, their Master’s Kiss had stabilized her magic, though there were new surprises daily.
One reason she was here in the Twilight Realm calling her parents – rather than traveling to the human world and hashing this conversation out in person today.
“How did you find out about your power?” Her mother spoke solemnly now, her bright voice the most subdued Ariana had ever heard it. She could almost hear her mother pause deeply on the other end of the line.
“I made a portal. Right into the Summer Fae Palace while I was supposed to be assessing a painting at an art auction.” Ariana’s words were blunt, but as her dark rainbows cascaded around her again in a tense whirl, she knew they had to be. Her parents had been lying to her for twenty-eight years about being Dark Fae and having magic, and it wasn’t something she could forgive just yet, even though she was certain they’d had their reasons.
But as she heard her mother huff, Ariana’s heart clenched. And as her father made a soothing hum, using his Fae magic to calm her, Ariana knew they were in for a deep talk.
“How are you alive, Aria?” Her father spoke now, Ariana practically seeing his grave emerald eyes on the other end of the line. “For if you portaled into the Summer Fae Palace, King Archivolio Bellari would have had your head.”
“Interesting story, actually.” Ariana spoke with irritation, even as she berated herself to do better. “I was saved by a Master Vampire. And a Prince.”
“WhichMaster Vampire?” Her father spoke alertly now.
“WhatPrince?” Her mother was right on his heels.
“The Master Vampire Barone Quindici DaPonti. And the Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari.” Ariana had thought her words would probably stop the conversation again, and they did as she waited through her parents’ shocked silence.
“Are you all right, Aria? Are you safe?” Her father’s words were intense now, though Ariana could feel the love behind them. Nodding, she tucked her red hair back behind her ear.
“I’m fine; I’m not harmed. It was touch and go for a while with King Archivolio Bellari after me, but I was given amnesty at the Red Letter Hotel Florence… and eventually decided to become Kissed to Barone DaPonti.”
“Dio mio!” Her mother’s shocked Italian was like gunfire as she inhaled, jostling the receiver. “You areboundto the Vampire Barone,figlia mia?”
