16. Release

16

RELEASE

A s an Ascendant Sigil flares between Quinn, Lucca, and me in the otherworld from Quinn’s heartfelt tirade, that sigil is pure love. I’m moving to Quinn now in the bath, throwing aside all darkness as I kiss him; Lucca comes to us also, responding to that tremendous magic. Our morning becomes a tower of light as we come together; earth shattering harmonies pour through us as that sigil writes and re-writes itself between us in ecstatic delight.

It blazes throughout this world and every other, but then I feel something within me falter. Even as we kiss, creating this beautiful moment, a place of doubt opens up inside me. Lucca echoes it, as we both worry about what we’re doing. Despite his earlier certainty, Quinn doubts, as well.

Afraid of his Revenant taking him again, if this Music should go wrong.

“Stop!” Lucca breaks from our kissing in the tub with a gasp. Setting his hands to Quinn’s shoulders, Lucca keeps himself away, though I can feel how much he wants to give in as his heart thunders. “We just got you back, Quinn, for Levennia’s sake! Being rash with the Music got us into this whole mess. We need to stop and figure all this out.”

“It’s not rash now, Lucca. Don’t you see?” Quinn is insistent, despite his own fears and doubts. He moves close in the water, taking Lucca’s hand and pressing it to his heart. “The Gold Eyes’ influence inside our magic isn’t driving us right now; all our ambitions have already toppled. The only thing I wish for now is to liberate us from the Gold Eyes’ taint so we can live free, and save the people we love. Do you not?”

“I hate to say it, but I think Lucca’s right, Quinn.” I halt also now, pulling back to look at Quinn even though I’m sitting on his lap in the water with my arms up around his neck. “You don’t know what you’re asking of us, to go wild with the Music right now. After we lost you to your Revenant…we weren’t whole. We weren’t there in our hearts anymore, without you. It was the most horrible sensation, like we were missing a critical piece of ourselves—like we would never be the same. Like our hearts had been carved right out of our chests, the moment yours ceased to beat.”

I see all Quinn’s eagerness fall away now as he feels our fear. Though he doesn’t voice it, his similar fear floods up inside him also; in our raw, heartfelt place, he can’t hide it from us anymore.

He’s terrified something might go wrong with the Music again, no matter how much control we gain. He’s terrified that he might become truly lost in his Revenant state if he ever went there again, despite how much he might want to come back. Quinn closes his beautiful lips now as he finally feels what Lucca and I went through, losing him.

As much as he went through, losing himself.

As Lucca hitches a deep breath, tears fall from his eyes, shed by his tremendous heart. I reach through the water to hold his hand as my own heart clenches, feeling everything we went through without Quinn. The truth is, we all bonded far more than our magic when we came together in that Dark Fae ceremony weeks ago. We bonded our hopes, our hearts, and our very lives as we became one that night .

And have only drawn closer, ever since.

“How we have suffered…” Quinn says now as he takes my hand in the water, then Lucca’s. His dark eyes shine with unshed tears as he regards us, feeling his heart and ours as all his plots are forgotten.

“I don’t want to go through that again, Quinn.” Lucca squeezes Quinn’s hand hard in the water. “I can’t do that again…”

“Neither of us can do that again,” I say as a clench devours my heart, as well.

“I know. I know,” Quinn says now as he releases our hands, cupping Lucca’s cheek, and mine. “I’m sorry. Forgive me. I let my head run wild again without considering your beautiful heart, Lucca, or yours, Ariana. Let us forget plots and schemes for now. You’re right; now is the time to be together and heal from everything we’ve gone through. I’m sorry.”

I feel something shift then, as Quinn apologizes to Lucca and me. As if apologizing and baring his heart just cleared whatever had been churning inside our trio, I feel energy return to us now as we sit together in the tub.

The Music chimes once more between us all as Quinn smoothes his hand down my neck now, and Lucca’s. As the beautiful sound fills the air, I feel us revel in the fact that we are still alive and hale in all the tumult we’ve experienced, rather than focus on the rising Music and what it could mean for our lives.

The bath water is cooling, our breakfast forgotten nearby; but our energy is scorching inside the tub as we ignore what the Music’s doing completely, and just focus on each other.

Quinn gives us a hot look now, reaching up to take silk robes down from a wrought-iron rack beside the tub, as we all step out. I feel his thought—that it’s time to revel in each other and forget dire things until later.

We make it to the large four poster bed in the central room of the suite, but only just. As Quinn lays me down upon the bed in my silk robe, Lucca sliding onto the bed beside us with a lithe energy like a tiger, I feel how we’re finally whole again.

With Quinn returned to us, and the Music rising between us now with no hesitation any longer, or bloodshed, or even a single thought as to what it’s doing, I feel a deep rightness in our trio. Even though we’ve lost so very much, bliss moves between us all now as Quinn crawls over me and we kiss.

He moves his head aside to kiss Lucca now; then Lucca slips his lips past Quinn’s, kissing me. We’re all together, safe, despite how much has happened recently and how our hearts are aching for our people.

That pain colors our tender intimacy now as we take our time, though there’s a strong temptation to go fast. Like he usually does, Quinn takes the reins of our lovemaking, keeping things slow and intense, even when they at last become urgent.

I’m throbbing now, wet, as everything inside me aches for them. They feel it, as Quinn pulls back and gazes deep into my eyes with his onyx irises ablaze, Lucca pulling close and stroking my neck with his fingertips.

We’ve got nothing left but each other; nothing left but our skins and our love and our hearts, singing through this moment as the Music flows between us. It hasn’t hit any kind of pinnacle to do anything, or to write another Ascendant Sigil in the air. It’s just there, sweetly singing ephemeral harmonies as we touch each other now, gliding our hands over each other’s wet skin and beneath robes.

As we slide our silk off, everything is shed to the bed. We’re all deliciously naked now as our bodies move against each other, and intertwine.

I’ve got a leg up over Quinn’s hip as he lays down upon me, my back to the bed, while Lucca has twined one leg up over both of ours as he pulls close on his side and kisses us both. Hands glide over bodies everywhere; someone has slid a hand in my hip crease and down, their fingers delving sweetly inside me now as Quinn moves to the side so I can open my legs, and arch, and stretch.

I know it’s Lucca who’s touching me, as his cunning, long fingers dive in and out, spreading out my wetness over everything as he circles my nether lips and gently rubs my clit, then dives in again. I gasp, arching as he does it, though I’m trapped to the bed by Quinn. He uses his strength now, pinning my arms above my head and eating his decadent kisses into my lips with just the barest touch of fang.

Exciting me, and making my heart beat hard as he licks his tongue over my lips and Lucca plays me down below.

“Everything I have…” Quinn says as he breathes at my lips. He moves atop me in a slow rhythm, grinding Lucca’s fingers and hand deeper into me as they both move with me now, rolling our hips like we’re fucking. “I would give everything I have for just one more day of this; of being together, the three of us, like we are right now.”

“You don’t have to give anything, Quinn,” Lucca says as he delves his fingers deep inside me, matching the strong, undulating rhythm of Quinn’s hips. “You just have to be you, baring your deepest feelings and finding your true heart as Ariana and I do the same. Being here with us, not hiding who you really are… not anymore.”

“Lucca’s right,” I say against Quinn’s lips as he sets his forehead against mine. Lucca sits up, seizing Quinn’s neck with his free hand and stroking Quinn with his fingers, making a small sigh escape Quinn’s lips. “The Music rose and created that Ascendant Sigil between all of us when you bared your innermost truth to us just now. You didn’t hold back, either your dark side or your light… and the Music responded, resonating with your truest heart.”

“Ever wise, beyond your years…” Quinn sighs against my lips, before kissing me again, long and slow. He sucks my lower lip with a brush of fang now. Slipping his fingers out of me, Lucca gives me one last parting rub before moving his hand in and up to Quinn. Quinn gives a short exhalation as Lucca grips him—and then I feel Lucca begin to work Quinn with the same expert skill he afforded me.

Decadently accomplished with his hands, whether he’s with a woman or a man .

“What are you doing to me, Lucca Bellari?” Quinn asks as he moves atop me in a different rhythm now, more forceful with pleasure, as he responds to Lucca’s grip.

“I’m going to make you come.” Lucca scoots in closer to get a better angle. He holds Quinn by the nape of his neck, working him harder now. “I’m going to make you lose that incredible restraint of yours and blaze for me, Valerio, like you did of old. You’re going to love it, and I’m going to be the Master. And make you sing with that beautiful, diabolical Music you can create… and love it to the ends of the Earth and back.”

“My prince.” Quinn’s smile is wry, but there’s no ire in it as he breathes harder. Feeling how hot it makes everything ramp up between us now, I scooch out from beneath Quinn as Lucca uses his hands to pull our dark Master into his lap by the throat and by the cock.

Quinn goes without protest, a dark smile of enjoyment on his face. Because Lucca’s suddenly changed the game and Quinn likes it very much, as he gets to be the receiver and not the doer.

And just enjoy this—with two people he actually trusts.

I feel that trust pour through Quinn now as I move in before him, cradling one hand around his balls as Lucca strokes his cock. Quinn is long and hard, like iron-wrapped silk where he juts up pale and perfect from a well-trimmed curling of dark hair below. Nuzzling his nose, I give him a slow kiss… then go down, laying out flat on the bed on my belly now as I move into position.

Quinn gets what I’m doing; as Lucca holds him by the throat and works him, Quinn opens his legs wide so I can get in. I move forward until my nose meets my hand, still cradling and gently rubbing his balls.

Then Lucca grips him hard, as I lick—and Quinn shudders to the core of his being.

The Music rages around us, as Quinn loses all his hard-won control to what Lucca and I are doing. I hear a gasp escape him, like somebody just punched him in the gut, but in the best way, as I lick him again.

Quinn shudders, deep into his fundament, as I swirl my tongue over his balls now, licking everything in a slow, languid delight. He’s trembling, shaking like he has a palsy as he reaches down, caressing my hair, though I can feel what he really wants to do is trap my head to him.

And make me lick and lick until my tongue is raw from it.

“Do it. Hold me close,” I say now as Quinn shudders. I feel how Lucca grips Quinn’s throat more firmly, holding him steady with a gentle choke.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Ariana, or make it so you can’t breathe.” Quinn is tentative, even as he writhes to my next lick and Lucca’s coordinated, deep stroke.

“I’ll tap out if I need to.” I lick him again, deep and slow, so it has him moving in a fluid wave as he arches back into Lucca now.

“Gods… just don’t stop.” Quinn is breathing hard now as he strokes his hand over my hair, then traps my head with his palm. For some reason, I love it, as I feel Lucca master Quinn and Quinn hold me.

But what I’m really doing, is Mastering Quinn along with Lucca as I lick Quinn deep and slow now as he writhes and gasps. He shakes as his legs grip and clench, and his butt grips now, along with his abs.

Fucking himself into Lucca’s hand as he fills my mouth with his balls.

I don’t stop licking now, as things really get going between us. As the Music ratchets up yet again, singing with even purer harmonies than before, I get my fingers in a lock around Quinn’s balls like a cock ring. Then I lick deep, and suck one of his balls into my mouth.

And suck and suck and suck.

Quinn cries out, as Lucca works him hard also now, making the most of what I’m doing. Lucca leaves off gripping Quinn’s throat to wrap a strong arm around his middle now, as Quinn jolts and bucks, and thrusts.

He’s losing it in the best possible way. We coordinate now, Lucca and I, through the bond as we suck, stroke, and touch Quinn.

Quinn heaves between us, crying out and then growling like an animal as he loses all control, thrusting and moving in a hard wave now between us. But we have him, and we’re not going to let go until he comes to our seduction, and comes hard. I feel that knowledge move through all three of us now as Quinn finally surrenders to what we’re doing.

Screaming out all of the pain and pleasure of his terrible, diabolical past now—as we work to release him.

It goes on a long while. At first, I feel fear at what Quinn’s doing, as he screams and screams to our fucking. But I know it’s what he needs, as I feel all the horror and pain of what Emiliana DiClario and others like her did to him wash away with each and every scream—being replaced by true love for us, as his heart opens at last.

Because Quinn has gone through hell and back, as our dark Master faces his redemption. As Lucca and I master him, working him, touching him, and loving him to our endless being, it’s like a terrible poison is pulled right out of Quinn’s heart and hurled into the ether to dissipate.

As it does, the Music thunders between us, a hundredfold.

Then blossoms into a pure sigil of Ascendant Music as Quinn comes hard, and roars.

Quinn loses it, sobbing in our arms as I sit up, cradling him as he falls forward on me, shaking. He’s screaming, roaring, gasping, even laughing, as Lucca cradles him close now from behind, holding him with me as Quinn finally finds true release.

As his beautiful dark-bright magic surges out in an endless wave from his spine, ringing into that Ascendant Sigil blazing in the air, I see how his magnificent wings of magic are curled all through with fire. His aura and the sigil blaze bright and dark, and all colors now as the gold and red in his sun’s corona shine like a simmering sunset.

Because Quinn’s not just expressing his power now, but all the beauty he hides deep within. The tender, deeply loving heart he always thought was a weakness.

But only because someone who was cruel taught him to think so.

As Quinn collapses in my arms, spent, the sigil flashes out with him. Lucca and I take him down to the bed and I cuddle close to his front as Lucca spoons his back. Breathing quietly, I might have thought Quinn was asleep from how deeply he released just now, except his eyes are open as he stares at me.

I’m not sure if he’s staring at me, or at the endless universe as he breathes softly in our cuddle. But then his eyes spark with fire like ancient suns as he takes a quick breath.

And watches something far beyond us in the otherworld .

“I see them, Ariana…” he says, as he stares not at me but beyond me, into space. “I see the Ascendant’s Sigils… waiting in the otherworld to be produced by the Music whenever we harmonize and create.”

“You see potential Sigils, not manifested yet?” Lucca asks as he lays behind Quinn. He moves up to one elbow, kissing Quinn’s ear sweetly, though his blue eyes pin mine.

Aware, and intense.

“What are they doing?” I ask, curious about what Quinn’s seeing but also amazed he can see such things in the otherworld . Even when I was trying my hardest with Master Ilyov’s teaching, all I could see was when a particular sigil began to manifest with our Music, and try to move through into the physical world.

“They’re… singing.” Quinn’s eyes trace movement, ancient stars in them. “They’re… calling to me.”

“How are they calling to you?” I reach to touch his face, trying to feel what he’s experiencing through our bond, though it’s muddled.

As if this is something for Quinn alone to experience.

“They’re telling me… to discover true love. And to come find them, to read them.” Quinn’s gaze suddenly fixes on me. “They want me to figure out how to orchestrate them, how to wield specific sigils, or in phrase-groups… to undo the Gold Eyes’ will in our world, at last.”

As Quinn gives this pronouncement of what he’s seeing and experiencing in the Ascendant’s Realm, Lucca and I inhale. I know something about our ability to create the Music and Ascendant’s Sigils just changed because of what Quinn’s experienced.

Though I have no idea what it is, just yet.