17. Revelation

17

REVELATION

A riana, Quinn, and I rest for the remainder of the day. Adicus and Illyria are gracious hosts; they neither disrupt us, nor push us to interact with them, as we take downtime to recuperate. In our rooms, we eat lunch in the central area and have afternoon coffee out on the balcony. After Quinn’s release and how it catapulted him into some strange vision about how the Music works in the Ascendant Realm, Quinn mostly sleeps.

Between naps, he wakes to devour food in a way I haven’t seen him eat since he was Summer Fae. After stealing a few kisses, he falls back to sleep again; I don’t blame him, as Ariana and I are similarly exhausted, though we haven’t been through nearly as much as Quinn in the past week.

Though I’ve ignored it most of the day to be present with my beloveds, my own situation weighs on me now. I linger at the open balcony door as the sun lowers over the trees by the house, on its way to setting.

And stew, as I churn with a frustrated darkness.

“Lucca? I felt you churning while I was in the shower. What are you thinking about?” Ariana cuddles to my back now, wrapping her arms around me.

I turn, moving her to my side and tucking her under my arm so we can be closer as we cuddle. Dressed in a forest green silk bathrobe with her wet red hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, being clean and somewhat disheveled is a winsome look on her. We kiss decadently for a moment, before my heart twists from everything I’m worrying about and I sigh, setting my forehead against hers.

“I think I need to go take a walk and clear my head a little.” I look out over the forested grounds of the Summers estate. “Care to join me?”

“I actually want to have a conversation with my parents tonight during dinner, since Quinn’s still sleeping,” Ariana nods at the bed, then looks back at me apologetically. “I haven’t seen them in a long while, or talked with them much. And there’s so much we need to talk about.”

“Of course.” I nod, nuzzling her nose. “Would you like company for dinner with your parents?”

“I think I’d… like to talk to them alone, actually.” A slight flush steals over her face, making her lovely jade eyes vivid. “Are you alright to walk alone?”

“I’m fine.” I smile as I kiss her lips. “Besides, I have a feeling I won’t be alone for long.”

“Alleno’s probably itching to accost you the moment you leave this room.” Ariana cocks her head at me. “Are you ready to talk with him, about everything with the Summer Fae?”

“I’m always ready to talk with my cousin.” I am honest, knowing it’s true. “He’s always been a good sounding board for me, when I need to hash things out.”

“Things concerning your rebellion, and your father.” Ariana gazes up at me, understanding. “Do you know what you’re going to do about all that yet?”

“No clue.” I shake my head as my moodiness envelops me again. “ Which is why I should probably take a walk and let nature soothe me… before my Darkwatch shadow finds me.”

“I’ll be here.” Ariana steps to my front, wrapping her arms around me. “Either downstairs talking to my parents, which you are welcome to interrupt at any point, or back upstairs here with Quinn. Sleeping.”

“I think we’ll all need a lot of sleep in the coming days. If we can get it,” I say wryly now, though it’s also honest.

Ariana lifts to her toes and kisses me, lingering this time at the open balcony door. Then she squeezes my hand, giving me a caring smile as she goes back towards the bathroom to finish cleaning up for dinner with her family.

I want to be at that dinner. Some part of me wants to prove to Adicus and Illyria that I’m a good match for their daughter, and how much I care for her.

But Ariana asked to speak with her parents alone, at least for a while, and I need to go clear my head tonight. Springing up to the wrought-iron balcony rail rather than head back inside and bother Ariana’s family, I jump lightly down to a first-floor balcony, then land on the wide stone porch.

It’s evening already, the golden late-summer hues here on the human side of Florence gradually dying to cool blues and deeper greens as autumn arrives to claim the land. As I leave the manor, I skirt the horse barn and hound-house, heading out along a field of lavender bushes and purple echinacea as I ruminate.

The fresh evening wind stirs me and I revel in it as I walk in my human clothes, courtesy of the Summers household. One of Adicus’ tan, summer-weight slacks and vest combos fits me well with a crisp white shirt beneath, stylish russet men’s shoes on my feet.

It’s similar to outfits I’ve worn myself whenever I’ve come to the human world against my father’s edicts. Though I went on those sojourns dozens of times, it never fails to amaze me how beautifully simple a world without magic is .

Even as my heart twists in knots, missing my true home.

The wind gusts across the fields; I inhale deeply now as I revel in the late summer scent, filled with Illyria’s healing herbs and flowers. I always knew our First Spear had a talent for battle salves and healing draughts, while Adicus was always the consummate friend to animals of all kinds in the Darkwatch.

I smile now, thinking about how both have repurposed their lives, helping the Dark Fae instead of being commanders for war. Adicus helped me train my own owl, Altenni, when I found her as a chick.

I miss her now with a pang that makes my heart clench.

But then I hear a familiar ruffle of soft feathers and a low hoot from a large truffle oak nearby. I glance up as everything inside me brightens. Altenni wings her way down to me on silent tawny wings. Five times my size, she still lands soft as a feather upon the ground as she flaps her wings and hoots at me, eyeing me with her big dark eyes as if to ask where have you been?

Everything inside me sings with joy as I reach up; petting Altenni’s neck feathers, I give her a good scratch, which always makes one talon go like a dog getting a belly rub. Then turning her head, she nuzzles me affectionately, rucking my hair up into a glorious mess as she preens me with her beak. I feel it as Alleno steps from the shadows of the cypress trees that line the field.

Something inside me eases to have my Darkwatch Shadow at my back, once more.

“Lucca.” Alleno’s voice is quiet as he stands behind me, letting me have my reunion with Altenni for a moment.

“How did you get Altenni here?” I turn my head now, looking back to see my cousin waiting in his silvery-charcoal assassin’s leathers in the darkening shadows. It’s nearly night now, but the human world doesn’t have a ring of white around the margin of the sky like the Twilight Realm. It makes the nighttime seem deeper, darker, as stars pop out far above.

Swallowing the sky .

“She found her own way.” Alleno steps up beside me now, smoothing his hand down my owl’s big wing as she gives him an affectionate bump. “Probably a natural portal between worlds, or a portal someone else opened, and she darted through. She came to find you. Must have done it the moment she felt you leave the Twilight Realm.”

“Crazy owl.” I nuzzle her feathers with my face and get more preening to my hair. “Don’t you know humans would freak out to see something of your size here in their world?”

“She’s safe enough here on Summers lands,” Alleno says as he strokes my owl again, admiring her. “Even the humans who work here know something isn’t quite normal with the Summers household. They’re all intensely loyal, however, and don’t talk about the strange things they occasionally see and experience here. Although I think Adicus’ formidable wards on the whole place probably prevent it, somehow.”

“Our old Darkwatch master, the Tempest.” I heave a hard breath, feeling like everything is so known, yet so strange, in this new chapter of my life. “He trained us both to watch over our charges, Alleno. And here we are… me still watching over Quinn, and you tailing me to the ends of the Earth and back.”

“You know I would go to the deepest Realm of hell and back for you, Lucca.” Alleno’s green eyes burn in the twilight as he sets a hand upon my shoulder, gripping it. “When I found out your father knew you were Dark Fae this entire time, and has been treating you like hell all your life because of it, and now what he’s done recently… to say I want to rip him limb from limb is an understatement. That would be too kind.”

I see Alleno’s fierce care for me and wrathful hatred of my father boil in his green eyes now as he professes his stalwart support of me. I nod, feeling the same as I grip his shoulder, grateful.

But my heart still churns—wretched, with everything I’ve lost.

“How bad is it?” I ask Alleno now, because only he knows what I’m truly asking .

“Bad,” he says with honesty. “Your rebellion is dead, Lucca. Though there are many who still think of you fondly with everything you’ve done for the Summer Fae, most of your high-level supporters dried up the moment your father pronounced you cut from the King’s line. You’re still born to a Royal House, but you’re in exile now; your father’s even put a price on your head, for anyone who has information on your whereabouts, to bring you in. It doesn’t seem to matter to him that you’re his son. Only a Dark Fae.”

“He never treated me like his son. Only a rival.” It is a terrible understanding, now that I know the bitter truth. “He’ll hold on to that throne until the day he dies. Nothing, and no one, will ever convince him to give it up.”

“I wish I could tell you that you’re wrong… but we both know you’re not. However… I don’t think all is lost. Despite your rebellion having fallen apart.”

“How so?” I lift an eyebrow at my cousin, as I see a clever gleam in his eyes.

“You know that blue mushroom blight, which took a significant number of fields and farms on the western reaches of Florence a few weeks back?” Alleno watches me with his cunning gaze, and I know something interesting is coming.

“Were the Dark Elves ever able to find a cure for that?” I ask now, cursing myself that I forgot all about it in all my drama with Quinn, Ariana, the Gold Eyes, and the Vampire Council.

“Better.” A subtle smile curls his lips. “Not only did they find a cure for it, but it was a remedy for the blight mentioned in an arcane Dark Fae text that finally cleared it up. The Dark Elves got some of the hidden Dark Fae in Venice to create the remedy, though the Dark Elves added their own ingenious touches to potentize it for mass use. The Rock Giants and Dark Elves made sure to tell every farmer and field hand exactly where the cure came from, however, as they were dispensing it to put on the fields and orchards. Now, there is an additional Summer Fae rumor mill going… that perhaps the Dark Fae are a missing piece of our culture, which we could vastly benefit from. That faction, upon hearing their beloved Prince is Dark Fae—the person who sent them so much aid in their time of need, not to mention invaluable help from some of the Forbidden Lineages—well, it’s got them stirring in a slow tidal wave to find you. And listen to what else you have to say.”

“The lower classes of the Summer Fae haven’t abandoned the rebellion.” I blink, as something inside me brightens at what Alleno said. Though it’s a far cry from the support I was mustering in the military, among the Magistros, and in the Royal and High Houses previously, it’s something that gives me hope now.

Assets we have not even begun to explore yet . Quinn’s statement earlier today lances through my mind, like a portent of things to come.

“Let me be clear,” Alleno says. “The rebellion of the Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari is dead. But support for the Royal Dark Summer Fae Lucca Bellari… is churning. And growing, as it whispers throughout the countryside.”

“What does that mean?” My brows furrow now, as what Alleno’s talking about feels like a dead end.

“It means, that for the first time ever, the Summer Fae know one of their most prominent public figures is a Dark Fae.” Alleno lifts a pointed eyebrow now. “Like in Vampire culture, there are those of us Dark Fae who still hide in plain sight amongst the Summer Fae, Lucca. Or did you think I was the only one?”

“I hadn’t considered that.” My eyebrows rise. “I thought my father’s pogroms would have driven all the Cuorante Dark Fae to their safe citadels now.”

“Some of us are still holding strong in high places,” Alleno says with a dark gleam in his eyes now, “precisely so we can get others out safely, those who can’t disguise their magic well. I’m one, and Bello is another. Us Dark Summer Fae are particularly strong amongst the Darkwatch and the Magistros. Two ancient watchdog organizations of the Sumer Fae, meant to serve our people and protect them.”

“Could we court those Dark Summer Fae as alliances?” I ask now, my mind churning like Quinn’s at this news, though I don’t quite know what to do with it yet.

“I think what you need to ask yourself,” Alleno says as he stares at me with intention, “is what will you do with those alliances once you have them? Because those who might be your supporters will ask. Since your father has made it impossible for you ever to sit the Summer Fae throne now, as laws state it must always be sat by a pure-blood Summer Fae monarch, of which you are not, you must consider other options for a possible rebellion against him. Because I believe a rebellion could still happen. The question is: to what end?”

I stew now as I consider Alleno’s question. He’s right: there are ancient Summer Fae laws making it impossible for me to sit the throne now—laws laid down and codified long before my father ever came into the picture. Now that my secret’s out, there’s no way I would ever be able to sit on that throne.

“Unless there isn’t a throne anymore to sit,” I say, as an aha moment takes me.

Alleno nods at my sudden revelation. The way he smiles, so clever and glad I’ve finally gotten here in my train of thought, has me thinking he was considering this option all along.

Like Quinn, Alleno has an agile mind and is often ten steps ahead of me with everything. Case in point, how he was able to keep his relationship with Devina and their operations saving Dark Fae secret from me all these years, in addition to the fact that he is a Dark Fae himself, hiding in plain sight amongst the Darkwatch.

“Vampires have a Council that rules them,” Alleno says now as his emerald eyes glitter in the twilight. “So why couldn’t we? ”

“A Council that permits Dark Summer Fae to be a part of it.” My heart sears in my chest as I glance at him. “With elected members from all echelons of Summer Fae life, not just the nobility.”

“Permitting Dark Summer Fae to live freely amongst our brighter kin once more,” Alleno says with a sadder smile. “Rather than hide what we are on pain of death, or escape to safety… forever sundered from our beloved family and friends.”

I grip Alleno’s shoulder, as I realize now everything he’s had to do over the past centuries to hide what he is. As I do, the saddest smile claims him, as he stares at me in the night, and we finally get each other.

Though we’ve been family and comrades for years, him acting as my Darkwatch Shadow for most of that time, I feel like we finally understand each other as the twilight settles all around us. It’s like a veil that has always existed between us is lifted away.

And I see my true brother-in-arms, at last.

“Good to see you, cousin,” I say then, feeling something in my heart expand so bright at this new intimacy shared between Alleno and me.

“It’s good to be seen,” he says as I see him swallow. Alleno’s not a Fae who cries; but I see his eyes brighten with unshed tears now as he grips my shoulder hard. As he nods, I feel a breath of relief flow through Alleno, at last. He’s been in hiding so long, being so very careful to not out what he truly is, all this while.

It makes me angry now that he’s had to hide his entire life from other Summer Fae ever finding out who he really is. As something beautiful and terrible blazes inside me, my bright aura sweeps out in the night, shimmering through with searing, vivid rainbows.

But those rainbows are tinged with Quinn’s righteous fire now, and Ariana’s beautiful dark colors as I blaze. As my heart roars for the injustice Alleno and others like him have had to face, I know his suggestion is right.

It’s time for a regime change amongst the Summer Fae. But not just any regime change—a full restructuring of our way of life, and how we govern our Lineage and society .

Because the old model of monarchy is falling; not just here in the Twilight Realm, but in the human world as well. Kings and Queens just don’t work anymore, because it leaves most of any society woefully unrepresented.

It’s time to change that.

As I know now that I’m the one to make it happen.