“Well, maybe it wouldn’t have happened if you had told me I had magic, or that I was Dark Fae!” Ariana erupted now, furious at her mother’s response to the man who had offered her so much.
As she burned inside suddenly, she felt a searing moon-dark sensation open up all through her, blitzing with silver and gold light. Expanding, her Dark Fae power shimmered in hot waves now, despite Ariana’s bond to Quinn. But it was like lava boiling through her veins as a sensation like a dark star opened up inside her. Cold with heat, she stared her parents down through the phone even though she couldn’t see them.
And was shocked when both of them inhaled like they’d been burned.
“Put your power away, Ariana.” Her father spoke slowly, as if controlling himself from getting furious. “Magic is not to be used as a weapon with family who love each other.”
“You felt that?” Ariana blinked, astounded as her power faltered. Suddenly, it was swirling far lower, without those flashes of quicksilver heat as she realized it could be felt across Realms.
“Sending magic over distance is a deep power and rarely seen, but it does happen.” Her mother spoke with the same calm as her father, as Ariana felt something brush her. “Be calm,figlia mia. And put your power away.”
It was like a hand stroking down her hair – her mother’s touch coming from far away, Ariana realized as she suddenly felt herself revel in the sensation. As her breath caught, tears came to her eyes, missing her parents so much even though they were technically just on the opposite side of Florence. But as if her mother stood before her now, brushing a kind hand down Ariana’s hair and cupping her cheek, Ariana caught a flash of her mother’s dark eyes gazing at her. Fiery and bright, there was so much of Illyria in that sending that Ariana gasped.
Before the sensation broke apart in the midsummer day.
“Forgive me.” Illyria spoke kindly into the phone. “I would have held you longer,figlia mia,but it has been a long while since I used my magic.”
“You have magic?” Ariana spoke with bated breath now as she pressed the phone to her ear. “You mean, you and I havebothhad magic this entire time?”
“My magic is too potent to be used much,cara mia, without discovery by the Summer Fae King.” Illyria spoke quietly now. “Once I was First Spear of the old King’s army, his top General in the War of Rome. My magical signature is well-known to the Summer Fae; if I had used my power in any significant way since your birth, the new King Archivolio Bellari could have found me and taken you. Your father’s magic is easier to disguise, as he was once part of the Darkwatch. But I had to pretend I had no power as you grew up, depending on a charm your father put on me to hide my magic and yours. We could not risk even hinting to you that you were Dark Fae, Ariana… not with Archivolio’s pogroms still smiting the Forbidden Lineages in the Twilight Realm. We escaped to the human world the very night you were attacked by a Vampire and turned Dark Fae. It was the only way we could give you a chance at life. And I regret none of that… even if it is upsetting to hear it for the first time now.”
Pausing, Ariana took in her mother’s words as she stared out over the city. The bright day seemed strange suddenly, as if everything had darkened as she’d listened to the tale she so desperately needed to hear. Questions poured through her as her aura churned, boiling with dark rainbows in the sunshine. As Quinn’s magic rose inside her again, soothing that wrathful sea back, Ariana was grateful.
“So you did escape the Twilight Realm because I was Dark Fae, and the King was after me.” She said at last.
“Archivolio Bellari does terrible things to Dark Fae, Ariana.” Her father spoke now, as Ariana felt a deep wrath she had never felt in him before. She could almost see his eyes as he watched her from afar, going from bright emerald to a furious malachite. “His vendetta against the Forbidden Lineages has been extreme these past centuries, but none were so brutally persecuted as the Dark Fae. He would torture them, bleed them, do anything he could to make them pay for what happened during the War. And so we left his service four hundred years ago – and started quietly saving all the Dark Fae we could over the next few centuries, spiriting them out of the Twilight Realm.”
“You saved Dark Fae?” Ariana blinked, inhaling in shock.
“We savedthousandsof Dark Fae,cara mia.” Her mother spoke now, sober. “And helped them get someplace safe… just as we did for you twenty-eight years ago.”
“Every Dark Fae is innocent, Ariana.” Her father spoke plainly then, as Ariana practically felt his calm energy flow around her like a hug from afar. “No Fae child can prevent a Vampire from biting them and draining them practically to death. They are our sisters and brothers, our nieces and nephews… our children. They are Fae corrupted by the Night and left to fight or die – and then have to fight again when Archivolio Bellari comes after them.Neverbelieve that the Summer Fae King is your ally, Ariana. For he is a murderer. And a brutal one.”
A sick sensation filled Ariana then, like a void inside her heart. It was something that had happened before when her power knew something was utterly true, even though her father’s words were awful. But Ariana had met the Summer Fae King Archivolio Bellari; he was brutal, and she wouldn’t put it past him to do horrible things to innocents just because he was still furious about a war that hadn’t gone his way six hundred years ago.
Taking a deep breath, Ariana stared out through the scalding summer day. She could just see the white domes and butterfly-gossamer pinnacles of the Summer Fae Palace of Light shining in the distance across the Arno River, and understood now why her parents had left the Twilight Realm. She understood why they’d hidden that she was Dark Fae, and that they had been surreptitiously training her for when her magic would finally open, teaching her Fae fighting-arts and sigils of power in a way Ariana now used daily in the fencing halls beneath the Hotel. And they had taught her emotional calm also, because learning how to get calm was essential in a fight.
But heaving a sigh, Ariana felt her aura churn, still superheated as her dark-star energy blazed. She loved her parents and they had done their best raising her in the human world without magic, but none of these things entirely excused their lies.
As she set a hand to her balcony’s wrought-iron railing, gripping the black iron hard as her power flared, something inside her still wanted to roar, to blame someone for her predicament. But then Quinn’s dark energy eased up inside her, his magic pouring through their connection like soothing waterfalls. He didn’t take her wrath away, just took the edge off so she could think again. It wasn’t her parents’ fault she had to live this way now, embroiled in politics and bound to the Master Vampire of Florence.
But it was their responsibility to tell her everything, Ariana knew as she returned to herself at last.
“I want to have a conversation about all of this, soon.” She spoke into the phone. “For now, know that I’m safe and protected from King Archivolio Bellari under Vampire law. But I want to get the whole story, as soon as my magic is stable enough for me to cross Realms. I want you to tell it all, right from the beginning… right through to the very end. Do I make myself clear?”
“Of course, Aria.” Her father spoke promptly. “Anything you need.”
“Mamma?” Ariana prompted as she felt her mother hesitate.
“Ariana,cara mia, you will not enjoy hearing much of your father’s and my tale.” Illyria spoke directly now as Ariana saw her dark eyes flash again in the bright day. “But for your sake, we shall tell it. And then you can decide… if you want us to be your parents anymore. Or not.”
“What do you mean?” Ariana asked, frowning at her mother’s strange response – and feeling an even deeper secret hiding suddenly beneath their lies. As a dark void opened up inside her, swallowing her bright star-energy, Ariana gripped the railing.
Fearing what her mother would say next.
“You are a child of Royal House Altvie, darling – not born of either my loins or your father’s.” Her mother spoke sadly now into the phone. “Your father is from High House Briarwick and I am from High House Amati, and we saved you when a Vampire killed your entire family. The Altvies had helped us for years; they were sympathizers of the Dark Fae. But their main line of Royal inheritance was severed that night your mother Loriana Altvie was killed, along with all her children. We were coming to congratulate the family on your birth, and found you in the carnage. You had already been drained of your lifeblood, and blasted back the Vampire that had accosted you with your infant power, but it was gone when we arrived. We could not let King Bellari kill you – so we got you through to the human world that same night. But you are the last true heir of House Altvie, darling – one of the most powerful of the Thirteen Royal Houses of the Summer Fae.”
“I was born of Royal blood. Royal House Altvie…the House of Shadow Truth.” Ariana breathed, shocked as her power heaved like a shattering star inside her. As her energy whirled, she suddenly understood why her power had an affinity for making people tell her their deepest secrets.Shadow Truthwas an ancient Fae concept of a truth hidden from all – even the bearer of that truth – and Ariana saw now how that motto related to her power.
