13. Betray

13

BETRAY

A s the Summer Fae Brightwatch Commander Junius Alterri goes down on his knees before Quinn, casting away his bright helm and horrible spear, the King’s Brightwatch and Darkwatch go down on their knees, as well. At last, they recognize their former Prince Valerio Incendari, beloved amongst them. That recognition is luminous as the Music sings through us all now, banishing the Gold Eyes’ taint in Archivolio Bellari’s entire army. Our Music doesn’t die as that black void screams like we’ve burned it with the power of our love.

As Quinn reaches down, running his fingers through Junius’ hair.

“Valerio! Forgive me!” Junius gasps as he looks up. Tears are in his violet-green eyes as they are finally opened to the person trying to fight for the Summer Fae’s salvation.

And it is not their King, as Quinn extends a hand.

“You are not to blame for the Summer Fae’s current predicament, Junius.” Clasping forearms with the Brightwatch Commander, Quinn helps him rise. Quinn grips forearms hard with Junius, then glances around the entire Summer Fae army. They surround us now as our song quiets on the sprawling gravel promenade, so we can hear the former Prince of the Summer Fae speak.

“Friends! You have been betrayed!” A trick of Quinn’s magic carries his words to all ears now, to our allies and the Summer Fae army alike. Quinn’s aura blazes with white light and red-gold fire as he speaks, the Music surging with the power of his heart, unleashed.

“The Summer Fae King is not your ally, nor your protector!” Quinn says now as ferociousness takes him, his words scalding every ear. “King Archivolio Bellari has done a deal with a creature both ancient and monstrous, which has been maligning the Summer Fae for centuries. I know that creature, as does your current Summer Fae Prince, and the Dark Fae Ariana beside me. That creature is a demon of the ancient world, an Ascendant who fell and kept on falling into its deepest darkness, controlling you now with his ancient bonds through your king. Cast him off; be rid of him now, with me. Purify your hearts with love for each other—friend, foe, and the like. For we are all Summer Fae, though some have been given an added blessing of darkness. But we were one in the beginning, even the Vampires—all descended from those original Ascendants. We only split ourselves apart, with all our endless fighting…”

I feel Quinn’s words echo through every ear as he makes his speech and all listen. I feel hearts, minds, and souls become swayed now by the Music that still simmers through us, joining us as one though it has ceased to blaze with that towering sigil of love .

But that love is in our hearts now; I feel it, as all look around from friend to foe, from ally to enemy, and see that we are not so very different.

Indeed, we are simply different variations of hue, shade, darkness, and light. I see it now as thousands of Fae, Vampire, and Dark Fae wings around us flare. We’re all color, light, darkness, and song, as we simmer with this blessing Quinn’s words and the Music have given us.

As our unity floods now to every heart.

The Music tunes between us anew then, sealing us as one . I feel it as that new sigil expands, manifest inside our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls. It’s the strangest sensation, as I look around now and see everyone blinking to regard all those next to them as not friend or foe, but kin. It creates a massive confusion upon the sprawling promenade, but also a rightness.

As the Summer Fae army cast aside their weapons.

And our army does the same.

I don’t know when I threw away every blade upon my person, but it feels right, as the Music sings inside us with this new harmonic. I don’t understand it; I don’t know who’s making it, but it seems we all are, as I feel Quinn surrender to this new rightness of the Music, letting it weave between us all.

A call rises between us then, a song once more upon the lips of every heart. But it’s not a sad funeral song for Lucca that graces us as we sing again.

It’s an ancient Fae song known to us all.

I feel it as this towering song of celebration begins to march us into the Summer Fae palace. It’s not a war-song, but the song one would sing just after—when the army was victorious, and peace ruled the day.

Somehow, we all know it; Dark Fae, Summer Fae, and Vampires alike. Even the ancient once-Revenants know it and sing it now, the Spring Fae woman producing the most beautiful harmonies beside us.

It’s a song that transcends our separateness, as an ancient knowing fills me now. My deepest truth-power knows it, as I understand this song came from before we Fell and split into separate Lineages.

This song was ours before the divisions of Light and Night occurred, when we were still in our highest sublime state. For this, I know, is a song of the ancient Ascendants.

As a tirade of Ascendant Sigils comes through from the otherworld —forming a mighty pattern all around us.

I can’t read the swirling, complex movement of sigils in that pattern as it makes and remakes itself around us now. But it allows us to enter the Summer Fae Palace unaccosted as Junius waves his people to stand down inside the palace.

Our entire army, plus the surrendered Summer Fae, come with us. Throughout the mighty domes of gossamer and silk, marble and gold, that complex song of the ancients rings. It shakes us, it makes us; it has us beating our chests now and gripping our hair, crying for the pure ecstasy of our union as couples, trios, and more suddenly start throwing down all around us.

As we continue along the main hallway of the palace towards the King’s Throne Hall, Summer Fae, Dark Fae, even Vampires, are peeling off from our army as everyone is swept up by the incredible feeling of our oneness.

All have to celebrate, as those we pass by are also swept up by our power. Summer Fae nobles caught in the halls, other members of the army protecting the palace, even the guards on the doors of the King’s Throne Hall have to shake and kiss in a frenzy now as we devour them with our oneness .

Inside the Throne Hall, a council is being held; the hall is full of Summer Fae Magistros, nobles, and highest-level military commanders as we arrive.

But as the doors are thrown open, blasted away now by our power, everyone within startles. Flooded with the powerful love of our oneness , they cast aside robes and silks as couples, trios, and more go down to fuck from our luminous, blazing power.

Summer Fae cast away weapons now as they seize each other in a beautiful frenzy, surrendering to the love that is our nature. Quinn and me, Devi, Curio, my parents, Alleno, and our closest allies are the core of that power as we hold strong—even though the desire to throw Quinn down on the ground and fuck him into oblivion makes me shake with ecstasy now as we walk right to the King’s dais.

We don’t stand below like petitioners but ascend the steps, as King Archivolio Bellari roars for the hall to be secured. But our force of love and oneness cannot be stopped; the day becomes a fantastic orgy now beneath the towering gilded vaults as the Summer Fae King roars for it to halt.

As we arrive before him now—myself, Quinn, my parents, Devi, Curio, Alleno, and the three returned Revenants—I see Junius is with us. Altenni has flown in with Bello Belissimo on her back; Luliana Ouros is here, too, whom I missed before as she swirls with a haunting, watery power upon the dais. We are all here, standing for unity as King Archivolio Bellari roars before us.

Maddened into a towering oblivion by our love.

As the King’s horrible golden wings spread wide, I see how they are run through by the Gold Eyes’ power. Black coils like the deepest leviathan of darkness seethe all through them; Bloodsigns imbued into him by the fiend itself, I even see them beneath Archivolio’s golden-tan skin as they feed from his power and his fury.

Because that deepest Night has no heart of its own; it needs the Summer Fae King’s wrathful heart to feed it, as it drains him to give its power.

It’s only then I see Lucca, naked and curled up on his side near his father’s feet. Chained to his blue and white dragonfly throne by the most horrible black and gold manacles, I know at once they’re the Gold Eyes’ handiwork, just like Junius’ spear.

Those manacles sap the last of Lucca’s power as he lies on his side, shivering. He does nothing at our arrival, does not even look up from his fetal ball to our beautiful, cascading love as it goes rushing through the throne hall.

I know then he’s nearly gone—lost to us forever, as I leave Quinn to face off with the wrathful Archivolio Bellari. A sudden terror floods me as I rush to Lucca, Quinn and the King beginning to battle upon the high dais.

I have no eyes for it; I only know my parents are fighting with him, Curio and Devi, Junius, and the Revenants, as Alleno, Bello, and Luliana hasten to my side .

Altenni is with us, fluffing down around Lucca now and extending a wing over his naked body as she puts her beak by his ear. She coos to him as I cuddle close to Lucca, Alleno and Bello touching his shoulders and back.

As Luliana sets her hands on him, none of us watch the battle happening nearby. It takes everything my father and mother have now to keep that raging maelstrom of magic from hitting us as we work to revive Lucca, but they do, and I’m grateful for it.

As Luliana begins some of her ancient Vampire-Siren magic to pull the Gold Eyes’ wretched taint out of Lucca’s veins, I feel him struggle deep inside. As Lucca tries to find us, our group sealed in now by my parent’s magic as the battle rages, I feel compelled by my deepest truth-power to restart the Ascendant’s celebration song.

The others around me echo it; as we sing from our deepest hearts to bring Lucca back now, I feel him awaken more. As our song comes into a deep unity again, making our Music surge anew, I feel it as Lucca finally notices us.

Something deep inside his darkness surfaces now, touched by our bodies, our power, and our song. As the beauty of the Music flows through it all, he begins to come back to us.

He feels the press of my body against him now; he tastes my lips as I kiss him. He senses Altenni fluffed over him and Alleno and Bello touching him, bolstering him with their healing magic.

I feel it as that terrible inky sludge in his veins is rolled back, and his inner brightness replaces it. As soon as Lucca remembers he has brightness, that’s all he needs; I feel his bright heart rush back in a tirade now, knowing it’s us who have come to liberate him from this terrible, darkest magic.

Lucca returns in a blaze now, as a firestorm from Quinn and King Bellari continues all around us. The King is a formidable fighter and holds his own against his many assailants, thanks to his deal with the Gold Eyes; I feel its power explode in massive concussions all around our barrier, as the King begins to heave and swirl with a towering darkness now, almost like a Revenant.

Thanks to the Gold Eyes’ Bloodsigns in his veins, the King is immune to our Music; as his Revenant darkness devours him, making him less bright gold with more swirls of terrible darkness and malevolence, I hear a terrible, cacophonous sound fill his power.

The sound of the Gold Eyes itself.

I can’t focus on that, however, only stay with Lucca as we bring him back to life. He’s here now; I feel his fighting spirit and bright heart in every breath he struggles for, harder and deeper as he does his own healing breathing now to foist off this terrible magic.

His heart is beating strong where before it was cold and weak. I feel it hammer into my hand as I press my palm to his chest, encouraging him with everything I have to make it back.

Lucca comes, his righteous energy flooding all through his body now as he begins to heave and shake. He’s shaking off the taint of the Gold Eyes; I can see the ropes of blackness dissipate all through his veins and skin now as he eliminates that power from his body, his soul, and his heart.

His mind is waking up, too, as his beautiful blue eyes fly open. I see his irises clear of ropes of black snakes; he gasps, then heaves forward.

Pressing my lips in a furious kiss.

As we kiss, I feel his indomitable magic wake up. I seize Lucca, grinding hard into him since he can’t yet do it himself, as tremendous wings of blue-white rainbow light blister from his back. They thrust everyone but me off his naked body as his blue-white dragonfly throne is vaulted away by his towering blast of magic. That blast sunders his chains.

And it shatters his cursed throne to pieces upon the high dais.

The magic that contained Lucca is broken as his dragonfly throne shatters. He rises with a roar as the diseased wound in his thigh suddenly heals. Seizing me, he hauls me hard against his naked chest, kissing me with abandon as the beautiful animal of his inner light-darkness awakens .

He roars as he kisses me, screaming with fury and rage, as he cries. He faces his father then, as Quinn and the others fight. Even though Archivolio’s terrible wings flood the entire hall now, nearly Revenant, Lucca reaches up, crashing the barrier of my parent’s power with a single swipe as he joins the game. His power sears like a thousand suns going supernova as he places me behind him.

And faces his father, at last.

Naked upon the high dais, Lucca is a sunburst of pure Light as he scorches with the hottest luminosity I’ve ever seen. As the Music pours from him in a new song, forming a pure Ascendant Sigil de novo with no one else contributing to it, he walks right up to his roaring, rageful father.

That Music burns the sky, screaming with a sound like a thousand suns being born as an Ascendant Sigil I cannot comprehend sears into our universe from the otherworld . It is beyond complex; that Sigil is a masterful phrase of the Ascendants themselves as Lucca sets his blazing, bright hand right on his father’s heart.

It’s like watching all darkness be consumed by Light, as Lucca’s power disarms his father. I see towering fractals of white and pure blue-gold sear all through King Archivolio Bellari’s darkness as the taint inside him from the Gold Eyes Bloodsigns is suddenly snuffed out.

The Music roars all around us, and through us, to let this one be released . As Lucca’s Music and complex Sigil burn away every bit of Staphylogenes’ power inside the King, I feel Archivolio Bellari become released from whatever deal he did with the Gold Eyes.

As all the magic inside him is extinguished.

King Archivolio Bellari falls to his knees, his massive aura of black and gold just gone as his wings flash out. His darkening aura held him up above the dais as he went Revenant; now he thuds to the ground, collapsing on hands and knees as his power flashes out.

As Lucca goes down to one knee before his father, Archivolio pants, his head hanging. But as his head comes up, all I see is hate in his burning golden orbs .

No love left for his son.

“I should have killed you long ago when I had the chance,” Archivolio snarls, only cruel words left to him now that Lucca just suddenly, and inexplicably, snuffed his power out.

With a complex phrase of the Music, called to him when he wanted it.

Something we’ve never done before.

“Maybe so.” Lucca looks at his father, no hate in him now that he’s finally found forgiveness and liberation in his heart. “But it was never meant to be; the Gold Eyes controlled you, and you had to do as it said. It wanted me alive, because it had plans for me. You were unable to kill me all this time, even if you wanted to.”

“Believe me, I wanted to. Cur.” Archivolio spits at Lucca, though in his blazingly powered-up state, Lucca easily avoids it. It just infuriates Archivolio Bellari further, however, as he stares with pure, unabashed hate at his only son.

Our tired allies surround them now, as Quinn comes to me, putting an arm around me. We stand witness as Lucca finally decides what should be done with his most heinous father.

I feel the weight of that decision now, as it darkens Lucca’s heart. Where he would have once given his father amnesty and sent him away somewhere to live out his life far from the Palace or the Court, he faces a deep indecision now.

He knows he should kill Archivolio Bellari to prevent him from ever doing another deal with our enemy and trying to retake the Summer Fae throne. But it’s not in Lucca’s nature to be so ruthless; distaste for it pauses him now.

As he hesitates, a sudden power rushes into the throne hall. I feel it all throughout the high hall as a fell wind sweeps in; fornicating couples are hammered to the stone all around as that tremendous wind rakes us.

Black like utter darkness, that power is like a million burned-out suns as it surges to us. It is nothing but emptiness, void of everything that makes someone human, or caring, as it sweeps through the hall and descends.

But it comes not to me, or Quinn, or even Lucca as that black storm rages. It hammers straight to Archivolio Bellari, on his knees before us now.

Smiting him with a terrible choke hold around his heart.

I see Archivolio Bellari go down, clutching his heart as he gasps like it’s being torn out. I see his eyes bulge; too late, Lucca reaches out with a cry towards his father, but the deed has been done.

Though the black taint of the Gold Eyes’ Bloodsigns had been removed from Archivolio by Lucca’s blazing brightness, the Summer Fae King was still tethered to the fiend. And Staphylogenes used that tether to find and smite Archivolio Bellari, his pawn.

Killing him right before his only son.