14. Zenith

14

ZENITH

I hear it as King Archivolio Bellari’s heart pops inside his chest. I feel it, as a towering light of the Summer Fae goes out, tainted though it had become. As the Gold Eyes bursts the King’s heart with his power, then coalesces into a man-shape before us, smiling with a terrible pleasure, King Bellari gasps his last. He goes down, clutching his heart.

Which I can feel with my Night magic has ceased to beat.

Lucca roars, lunging for the Gold Eyes. Ariana and I are quicker than Lucca, however, as we surge in and haul him back from getting to Staphylogenes. We’ve learned that lesson already; those who try to kill this fiend prematurely wind up dead—and we can’t have that if we hope to have any chance of fighting him at a later date.

It leaves us in a seething standoff now as everyone upon the dais surges anew with furious power, menacing our foe. Staphylogenes only stands before us, however, swirling calmly in his tall man-shape within his inky winds.

As the fiend reveals himself to all, at last.

It stops the massive orgy that had been careening around the hall, as our Music dies into shattered shards in the air, then disappears. Ariana, Lucca, myself, and the rest of our allies have no hope of sustaining that most tremendous magic in Staphylogenes’ presence; the nature of his ancient magic nullifies our Music instantly, just like his Bloodsigns inside Archivolio Bellari could do.

Though I thought we’d made incredible strides today with our Music, with what Lucca proved it’s now able to do, I see that’s still nothing compared to Staphylogenes’ might. It was a creature of endless power back when the stars were new; I see that knowledge glittering in its golden orbs now as it regards us, its head cocked as if amused at our rebelliousness.

But there is also something else in that gleaming, ancient gaze as Ariana and I hold Lucca back from rushing in and getting himself killed for his father’s death; wrath, as it stares us down.

Cold, hard—and utterly unamused with what we three have been up to.

“ You have freed yourselves from my power. ” As the Gold Eyes regards us, its smooth voice pummels into my ears and mind. Its words make everything inside me celebrate, however, as a surge of the Music pulses from me, Ariana, and Lucca. Because we know for certain now that we are free of the Gold Eyes’ ancient magic.

It regards us with barely veiled hatred, unimpressed.

“ You should not have done that, ” it says, as I step forward to parlay with the creature. Alleno and Ariana’s parents help her restrain Lucca now, though he throws them all off but Ariana as he heaves hard breaths, finally getting himself together upon the high dais.

“What we should or should not have done is immaterial.” I face the Gold Eyes, addressing it. “We did it. It is done. Now, we shall find a way to end you.”

“ Impudent cur. Ant beneath my boots. ” The Gold Eyes’ words are furious now, arrogant as it draws up to its full, towering height in its man-shape. Its inky winds seethe through the hall as its golden orbs pin me and only me, staring me down at my bold words. “ You three are as nothing to me. I will end your lives and find others to aid me as the years go by. ”

As it raises its dark hand now, I feel its winds of the void rise. I see them swirl with a thousand empty colors, there but not there, hollow in their vast depths as they devour the dais and surge far up into the highest vaults of the throne hall.

I know, as the creature’s power intensifies, that it’s going to kill us. Though we stand proudly upon the high dais of the Summer Fae, we have nothing to counter it yet.

Nothing at all—except, perhaps, our wits.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I say now as I examine my nails, like I don’t particularly care.

“ Do what? Kill you? ” It sneers in its man-shape, though it pauses. “ Whyever not? ”

“It took you a god’s age to assemble a trio like ours, strong enough to be your instruments like we are, and growing stronger by the day.” I am making a serious gamble with our lives now as the Gold Eyes pauses from ending us and all our opposition to it.

Barely.

“ I can wait a god’s age to find others. I have that time, ” it counters, as it raises its hand again.

“Yes, but I have a feeling patience isn’t your strong suit,” I say with a wicked smile now. “Besides, your once-beloved Iris has already helped us in our quest. Or don’t you want your heart back from where you stashed it beneath Florence, to forever beautify our fair city while you went on to rot?”

It pauses. As its golden orbs search mine, I feel it flash a lance of power right through me, just like Master Ilyov, ferreting out the truth of my words. It pauses more deeply now, however, as it discovers I tell it no lies. I feel it invade Lucca, then Ariana in quick succession, though it finds out from all three of us I’m telling the truth.

“ What do you want? ” it asks then, as it realizes a time for bargaining has come, rather than smiting. And I know for certain now what it wants—its heart, returned from its ancient resting-place beneath Florence.

The one thing it can never get.

“Want?! We want nothing from you!” Lucca rages forward then, menacing the Gold Eyes with his tremendous auric wings spread wide. With a hand, I forestall him; Lucca snarls at me in his bitter rage about his father. He stays put as Ariana holds him, though, cuddling into him as they both watch me.

Knowing it’s my game now with the Gold Eyes—until we either die or are released today.

“You want your heart, and we’re your best chance at getting it for you.” I step in again towards the Gold Eyes, gambling with it once more.

“ You want to strike a deal? ” It seems eager now as it regards me. I know it’s asking if we’ll take its vicious taint inside ourselves again, so it can maneuver us like puppets to get its heart back, and do whatever it’s going to do next.

Lucca’s and Ariana’s hearts both jolt in deep fear now that I might strike a deal with Staphylogenes to aid us in getting its heart back. Through our renewed bonds, I flood a wave of peace through them.

Urging them to be patient—and just let me think.

“I need a map,” I say now. I know I must best it with my cunning, rather than force, which has failed so spectacularly in the past. And we don’t have our Music, which has also failed to the Gold Eyes’ vast, nullifying might.

“ A map? ” It blinks at me as it cocks its head again.

“A map to your heart’s resting place.” I nod as I regard it. “For you see, your most ancient Ascendant wife, Iris, only gave us part of the picture—the part she knew. She gave us a trail inside our minds of where she would go to find your heart. But she is a Fallen Ascendant; we are mortals. We’ve discovered it’s not on any map of which we know, or any ancient diagram of Florence we could dig up. The place where your heart lives seems to be… nowhere . If you want us to go find it for you… we need a map.”

The Gold Eyes watches me then for a very long moment. I know I’ve asked it for some deeply personal information, something it would never have divulged to anyone in front of a whole host of witnesses.

But having this conversation in public is critical to my plan. Now, the Gold Eyes either needs to smite us as insolent at our presumption, or help us—but he can’t do both.

I see his arrogance warring with his desire as his towering blackness swirls. His void-like winds are restless behind him as he thinks.

And I know from his pause that I have already won.

“ You three are clever to have come so far. Further, perhaps, than I ever quite intended you to, ” it says now as it regards our trio. Those golden orbs return to me. “ I will not give you something so bold as a map in front of all these witnesses, but I can give you a key. My key is this: the path to my heart lies not in one world, but in many. Find the entrance-point with a phrase of the Music: find the way to the tomb of Staphylogenes’ heart. The Music shall reveal to you where to start. The trials you must face therein, you do alone… to claim my heart from its resting place. ”

“Good enough.” I give a deep nod, knowing our survival is all I truly need today. Though this key our fiend has given us is indeed a tantalizing puzzle.

One I’m eager to figure out.

But as I nod at Ariana and Lucca, and to our allies, for us to take our leave from the high dais, the Gold Eyes stops me. “ Valerio Incendari. ”

“Yes?” I glance over my shoulder from where I was ushering Lucca and Ariana away, turning back.

“ I require an assurance that you will give my heart to me once you find it. ” The Gold Eyes’ ancient orbs penetrate me now, as its winds sharpen like knives of darkness all around me.

And all around every single soul in this hall right now.

“You shall have your heart after we find it. I swear it,” I say, inclining my head as I swear an oath to the fiend now, to forestall disaster.

Of him simply killing everyone in this hall right now, and moving on .

“ You must know… my heart cannot kill me. It is a part of me. And will always be, ” The Gold Eyes says then, and I know it’s understood the game we play. Though it darkens me to hear it confirmed again that the fiend’s heart beneath Florence does not have the power to kill it, I know it is important to me and my trio for other reasons.

I don’t know what those are just yet, but Iris seemed certain we would need the heart to bolster our Music, and allow us to control our power. If the heart could give us any additional strength against the Gold Eyes when it’s time for us to come for him, I’ll take it.

Even if I have to die for it.

“I blood-oath this day that you’ll have your heart from us, if we find it,” I say as I lengthen my fangs now, biting the tip of my finger and flicking a drop of blood to the dais, then reaching beneath my shirt and placing my bleeding hand to my heart. “With everything I am, I swear it.”

As my sudden blood-oath flares from me in a deep wind of power, mysterious and ancient in the vast hall, it makes our foe pause. He glances at my drop of blood shining on the vivid gold and white marble of the dais, before his gaze pins me again.

Unsure now, as if afraid.

“ I accept your blood-oath. And will hold you to it, ” it says to me, still swirling in a way that makes me think I’ve shocked it somehow with this ancient magic, though I don’t know why. It knows what a blood-oath is and is willing to wheel and deal now.

As I suddenly feel all our lives freed today, thanks to my oath.

“My blood will hold me to my oath.” I stare the fiend down. “Not you. The time for that has passed.”

As we watch each other, I feel its winds of Night whirl. It knows I’m right; we’ve broken free of its domineering magic by discovering our truest hearts. However strong it is, it can’t unmake that. Because it doesn’t have a heart anymore, and we do. We have the power of true love, unity, and forgiveness deep inside ourselves.

Something it lost when it tore out its heart long ago .

I nod at the creature as it swirls in its unfathomable darkness; at last, it nods back. Though Lucca snarls, I tug him along by the wrist as Ariana cuddles under his arm, urging him to go as well. He doesn’t fight us now as we egress from the dais. As all our allies come with us, wary with wings still spread wide against our foe, Staphylogenes doesn’t attack us. He only lets us file down from the golden dais of the Summer Fae King.

Before swirling up into the highest vaults, disappearing into the noon sky.

A breath of relief leaves the entire hall as thousands of Summer Fae, Dark Fae, and Vampires are released from the Gold Eyes’ menace. But there is no cheering that we have won this day; it came at a hefty price, as Lucca breaks free of us now and rushes back up the dais, kneeling by his father.

Archivolio is cold and pale, his golden light put out. He went with only his own vast hatred in his veins, however, rather than the fiend’s; I suppose that is something, as I stand beside Lucca and let him grieve.

Lucca roars. He rages at his father and this so sudden death perpetrated by the Gold Eyes. As his wings spread wide, he pummels Archivolio’s golden dragonfly throne with his searing light and raging winds of magic—but then Lucca goes quiet as he spirals deep within.

I feel him come to some vast, inner peace now, as he places both hands on his chest and inhales a deep breath.

And then he blasts Archivolio’s golden throne apart—with a massive strike of the Music.

I had no idea Lucca could use the Music like that; shock fills us all as his strike and that ringing sound of the Music fades away, gone from the hall. The towering Ascendant Sigil he created with that booming sound fades from its searing brightness, but I know what that short phrase said.

No more , it said, in Lucca’s brief, yet decisive way.

No more , it said, for the tyranny of King Archivolio Bellari.

No more.

As Lucca’s Sigil fades into nothing, the Music going with it, something in me celebrates. Not just because Lucca sundered his father’s throne, toppling monarchy this day for the Summer Fae, but also because he showed us twice today that we have the power in our trio’s magic to create a complex phrase of Ascendant Sigils with the Music and our focused intent.

I see a vast field of potential inside my mind then, in the otherworld where the Ascendant’s Sigils live. They’re waiting for us; waiting on the other side of the universe for me to orchestrate their creation. Now, thanks to Lucca, we know we have the ability to do it.

And the key, the phrase we have to create, to get us everything we want as we liberate Staphylogenes’ heart.

Lucca turns to his people now, waiting below the high dais. Naked as the day he was born, their once-prince spreads truly gargantuan wings of Light from his body now, engulfing the dais and vaults far overhead. He’s a towering blaze of Light, as he seethes for the reign of his father. And as Lucca addresses his once-people, Ariana and I step to his sides.

As the Dark Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari finally has his moment.

“Friends, kin, allies,” Lucca says as his bright, clarion voice is brought to every ear now by the power of his magic. “We have been liberated of tyranny this day. It is not just my win, but a win for all, as we face a new era free of my father’s cruel reign. For he was a tyrant, occupied only with saving his own skin from ever being brought low. He has been vanquished, friends. And though I stand before you upon this golden dais before his shattered throne, I will not replace him. Because there will be no more monarchy for the Summer Fae. Starting now, we shall begin the process of electing a High Council, from which our governing body will reign. From now on, we will rule as we were meant to—as a people of equals, rather than dominance. We will be a people one in our love, our hearts, and our magic. As we were meant to be all along.”

As Lucca gives his speech, no one in the crowd refutes it. Everyone here feels that towering Music and oneness spread through us; I see it upon every face, as Summer Fae nobility, Magistros, and military understand we are a single people, Vampires, Fae, and Dark Fae.

The Summer Fae do not resist Lucca’s edict, but take it into their hearts, digesting it. And as someone claps now, the rest of the hall follows, approval for a new dawn of the Summer Fae spreading in a towering wave all around us.

The sun hits its zenith far above, flooding the hall with its brightest light. And Lucca Bellari, the Dark Summer Fae’s brightest son, stands victorious in it before all the people he has freed.

At last.