21. Troy

21

TROY

I t’s late when I return to the upstairs guest suite after my talk with my parents, to think about everything they’ve said. I had thought I would open the door to see only Quinn slumbering in bed; as I get there, however, I’m surprised to find a gathering of people in our rooms.

I stop short now as I find Devi and Curio in the suite, plus Arturos, and one of the returned Revenants from the Bloodstone event, a Vampire-Siren woman named Luliana Ouros. Shocked into a standstill, I suddenly feel Quinn and Lucca again through our bonds. I had been so focused on my conversation with my parents, I’d almost entirely tuned them out.

Something big moves through Quinn’s energy, as he glances at me from where he stands near the bed in a maroon silk men’s robe. Something just as big moves through Lucca’s aura as he lands with a light jump on the balcony outside from his walk.

As Lucca pushes in through the balcony doors with Alleno behind him, I see a fluttering of enormous tawny wings outside. I’m stunned to realize Lucca’s barn owl Altenni is here somehow; as Lucca halts with the same shock I feel, however, quickly surveying how many of Quinn’s associates are in the room, his gaze finds mine.

We both step into the room; as I shut the suite’s main door behind me, Lucca does the same with the balcony doors. It’s a tense minute, as we both wonder if we should be on our guard right now with Arturos and the Vampire-Siren woman.

But as Quinn’s dark gaze pins mine, he nods at Lucca to stand down; a wave of his dark aura pours through both of us.

On fire with excitement.

I haven’t felt such eagerness from Quinn in a long while; I move to his side now, wondering what’s going on. It’s got him worked up, but in a good way.

As I arrive near the bed where Quinn’s standing, Lucca comes to stand at his other side. Devi and Curio make way for us, though I can tell it takes everything Devi has to leave Quinn’s side, even for the briefest moment.

Quinn seems on good terms with them again, however, as he kisses my lips. His dark eyes sparkle as he waves a hand at the Vampire-Siren woman standing before him with Arturos. “Luliana, please forgive the interruption. Now that the other two members of my bound trio are here, could you please elaborate on what you just told me?”

The Vampire-Siren woman’s eyes stray to me, holding me with her ancientness, before they go to Lucca. She watches him with the same gravitas before looking back at me.

“You,” she says to me now, curious. “I feel you… calling to me. Deep inside my soul.”

“Calling to you?” I ask, entranced by this woman’s deep, mystical manner. Like Arturos, she’s a Vampire, but holds a vast amount of her old Siren power within her. It makes her ten times more mesmerizing than either a Siren or a Vampire alone, as she stares me down again.

“I was lost for a long time in my Revenant state,” she says, as her eyes stray to Quinn now. “But you three called to me; you pulled me out of that place by the power of your love, and your Music. Returned to myself, I was freed from that dark emptiness I had been lost in. Yet I still felt your tremendous, loving Music; like it was a beacon for me to come home to. I have been feeling it ever since.”

“Luliana left the Red Letter Hotel Florence a few weeks ago, to dive back into the Twilight Realm’s oceans and find solace, so she could repair her mind and body after being returned from her Revenance.” Arturos explains now as he and the Vampire-Siren woman glance at each other. She nods for him to continue. “Even though she went far around the world, however, she kept feeling herself pulled back here, to Florence. So she came, only to discover the Red Letter Hotel and Dark Haven had been taken. She followed that beacon inside her and made her way here, through a lost portal in the ocean, just off Sicily. To find you three.”

“You call me; all of you.” She gazes at us, though I can’t tell if it’s perplexed or mystical, as her ancient eyes peruse us. “Your Music that returned me calls me still. I find myself… compelled to help you now. Though we share no proper Master’s Kiss or other mystical bond.”

“Compelled against your will?” Quinn asks pointedly as his brows furrow.

“No.” The slightest smile touches her lips now, like an echo of a dream. “Compelled like the hummingbird is compelled to follow the sun when the seasons change and winter comes, so she can live closer to the warmth. Thus do I travel, to be where it is warm. Where there is Music… and love.”

I blink at her powerful statement as Lucca inhales. Quinn stares at Luliana with a deep thoughtfulness, as his mind churns through myriad possibilities for what she’s just told us.

His heart celebrating.

“My trio and I are in great peril, from many avenues.” Quinn is serious as he watches her. “I do not wish you to involve yourself in something you do not wish to be involved in, helping us.”

“Your concern is a product of your love.” She waves a hand, dismissing him with gracious imperiousness. “I am not concerned. Arturos tells me your woes with the Vampire Council are deep. The Council is young and rash, believing their power is most formidable. There are greater things out there to fight, however, rather than warring amongst ourselves. Things I have encountered, when my eyes were red and I was lost in nightmares. Things with gold eyes… and empty hearts.”

“You knew the Gold Eyes while you were a Revenant?” Quinn asks, shocked as we all wait with bated breath for Luliana’s answer.

“It is a dark thing.” She scowls, and the look is like a warrior-queen of old, though she wears only a simple white cotton sundress. “A Revenant’s dreams are dark… but he makes them darker—empty, with his nearness. Beware him. For his ancient influence is great, with the things he orchestrates and knows. It was he who trapped me inside that statue, confined and writhing to get out. It was he who trapped me into my Revenant, long ago… because I would not acquiesce to his plans.”

“What were his plans?” I ask now, because this is a familiar story. We’ve heard it from Master Ilyov also that the Gold Eyes punishes those who refuse to obey him. He didn’t turn Ilyov into a Revenant, but killing Ilyov’s wife basically led to the same thing.

Just like Luliana.

“He wanted me to resurrect the Dark Haven of the Deeps for him.” Luliana has a snarl in her voice now, though the song-like sound of her voice makes it a beautiful, terrible harmony, like hurricane waves smashing against a rocky shore. “I was a Master of my kind, back then. I could take any Siren and Sire them into becoming Vampire like me, but keep most of their Siren talents. The Gold Eyes came when I was Queen of that Haven. He attacked us and devastated us—then captured me and tried to force me to take his Bloodsigns as a bond, so I would turn other Sirens and make him an army of my kind, imbued with his own heartless taint in my veins. I wouldn’t do it, and I was too powerful for him to compel me. So he overwhelmed me with my terrible memories of battle, and all the kin I had lost. Then I was gone to my Revenant, as he laughed—leaving to torture some other creature into his terrible sways. ”

“You can Sire other Vampire-Sirens? And the Gold Eyes couldn’t?” Arturos has gone ashen at Luliana’s words.

“Yes.” She turns to him, cocking her head curiously. “Why?”

“ Damn that bastard…!” Arturos’ growl is terrible, woebegone, as he risks a glance at Quinn. Quinn watches him, but I know what’s going on. Arturos betrayed Quinn, thanks to a promise the Gold Eyes said he could deliver on—to give Arturos the ability to Sire more Vampire-Sirens like himself, so he could rebuild the fabled Dark Haven of the Deeps.

Yet here we are, standing before the ancient Queen of that Dark Haven, telling us the Gold Eyes didn’t have the power to make more of her kind. Not only that, but Quinn’s, Lucca’s, and my magic had already freed her from the Bloodstone when Arturos rushed off to make a deal with the devil.

When all he needed to do was simply have a long talk with Luliana.

It’s a terrible revelation for Arturos, that not only did the Gold Eyes play him like a fiddle, promising him only lies, but that the solution to what Arturos wanted was right under his nose this whole time. I see him swallow hard, as he glances at me and Lucca.

Then looks back to Quinn, desperation in his eyes.

“Quinn, I?—”

“No.” Quinn pins Arturos with onyx eyes dark as black holes. “You made your choice. You made a deal with that creature rather than trusting your allies to hold you in your sorrows and find a solution with you. You betrayed not just me but all of us… and this is the outcome. I will not hear your regrets. I saved you from death by the Vampire Council when we were attacked in Florence because of the history we once shared. No more. As long as the Gold Eyes’ Bloodsigns live within you, you will always do its bidding, whether or not you want to. It is that exact problem Ariana, Lucca, and I delve into our deepest innermost darkness to solve now, because we were all taken unawares by the Gold Eyes’ bonds, and wish to break free of them. You took them on voluntarily, all because you were too ashamed you couldn’t Sire more of your unique bloodline to create a fa mily of your own. When a family that loved you was right before you—and you betrayed it. Utterly.”

Quinn’s chastisement is like the last nail in an iron coffin, as Arturos goes so white I think he might faint. As he gives a slow nod, I feel his power roil in a terrible agony—and a sudden defiance.

He says nothing, but his gaze strays to me, as if he feels me able to read his innermost power and emotions right now. Arturos drank my blood right after everything went down with Quinn and the Vampire Council—that act created some kind of bond between us, via my Dark Fae magic, letting me feel his torment now.

It’s not the same bond I have with Lucca and Quinn. It’s there, however, as Arturos’ dark blue gaze pins mine and I feel a sudden resonance between our magics.

I will make this right. I swear it. I hear Arturos’ clear voice in my mind. He gives Quinn one last nod before sweeping a low bow to the rest of us and making his exit.

He leaves Luliana behind. She turns back to our group with one eyebrow arched, as judgemental as the rest of us at what Arturos has done. As Quinn inhales a deep breath, sighing out hard, the rest of us echo it. He turns back to Luliana; one more question still unanswered.

“Queen Luliana Ouros of the Dark Haven of the Deeps. Have you any idea if the other Revenants we returned at the Bloodstone event feel as you do? Or have any history with the Gold Eyes, like yourself?”

“I do not.” She gives a sad smile now. “Revenants do not communicate with words, or with mortal thoughts any longer. They are instinctual things, and only communicate thusly, especially when there is a kill to be made. I did not speak with any of those who had been returned while I was at the Dark Haven of Florence. It was… too painful.”

“I understand.” Quinn is gracious as he nods, then executes a formal bow, his hand on his heart. Luliana smiles then; truly smiles as Quinn does her honor. Her radiance is unparalleled as she beams.

Then walks up to Quinn, kissing him gently on the lips .

She has a kiss for me, as well, then one for Lucca. As we all stand riveted by her sudden blessing, she places her hand on her own heart.

“Fear not.” She gazes around our group. “For I know a ceremony to pull the Gold Eyes’ Bloodsigns out of a Vampire who has made a deal with him; I did it many times when I was Queen of the Deeps. For the Gold Eyes tried many avenues then, to ensnare our people, before he came to me and started a war. Your sad-hearted Siren is not empty like that creature. He loves you and would redeem himself. If you care for him to be redeemed?”

“That is his choice, not mine,” Quinn says.

Though I feel a deep hope flash inside him, that Arturos might be freed of the Gold Eyes’ influence.

“I shall speak with him… and we shall see.” The Queen of the Deeps gives an acknowledging nod. With the tiniest flash of a smile, she turns, stepping out the door in a wave of grace. Her movement is so fluid, it’s like she’s not even walking away, but floating on the ocean as she departs. She’s gone, the door closed now, and I blink to realize I barely saw her go. As if her very presence is so mesmerizing it leaves the witness stunned, I shake my head now to clear it.

As Quinn turns back to us—his energy roaring with plans.

“Friends.” Quinn glances at each of us, pinning everyone with his formidable, excited gaze before he moves on to the next. “We have heard fascinating things tonight; things I believe may enable us to get the Dark Haven of Florence back. And indeed, perhaps even aid Lucca’s rebellion and the Dark Fae, as we fight the Gold Eyes himself.”

“How so, Quinn?” Lucca’s brows furrow, though he’s not angry, just thoughtful as he listens.

“I believe there may be… a resonance , happening between the Music we create and the Revenants who are returned by it,” Quinn says now. “You heard Luliana; she feels a strange pull to come help us in our hour of need. Not because of any bonds we hold over her, but because of the power of our love, which liberated her from her Revenance. It makes her feel… something beautiful, which she wishes to be near. Not only does she wish to be close to us, so she can feel that light, but she also feels compelled to help it thrive. I believe this may be the key to getting our people back. And helping everyone we care about along the way.”

“But we’re not able to control the Music much right now, Quinn,” Lucca says, as he frowns. “After everything that happened with the Gold Eyes and the Vampire Council, it’s been erratic at best, and only comes when we’re in a deeply vulnerable, heartfelt state. It’s not useful at the moment, to return more Revenants and build an army.”

“Not to mention what that might do for the Gold Eyes, if we do it in ambition and not in true love,” I add, knowing how deeply truthful and honest we have to be with each other now, to make our real Music flare, free of the Gold Eyes’ influence.

“I agree.” Quinn glances at me and Lucca. “It has, however, returned many Revenants already.”

“Seven of whom are trapped inside the Red Letter Hotel Florence,” Devina growls with fury, “Kissed to Florian Delano by now, thanks to his takeover. Those who did not go to our enemies’ Dark Havens, or to other places far around the globe, which we cannot summon at a moment’s notice.”

“The returned Revenants who remained at our Dark Haven may have Kissed to Florian… but perhaps they are not taken. Not entirely,” Quinn says with subtle cunning, as I feel his heart glow. As I feel it, Lucca gives him a deep look, feeling the same beautiful expansion from Quinn.

Because Quinn is hopeful about everything Luliana just told us. It’s given him not just an idea, but an entire plan, that I feel spinning through his mind now. It’s moving so fast through him, I can’t parcel out the details. But Quinn can, with his formidable mind back on track.

And that’s all that matters.

“Quinn.” I lift an eyebrow at him. “What are you planning?”

“Something vastly idiotic. And perhaps, truly remarkable,” Quinn says with a genuine smile on his face now. He wraps an arm around me, tucking me to his side. “Come, friends. Let us bother the house for some food, and invite Illyria and Adicus Summers into our conference, and Bello Bellissimo. I believe I have a plan that can get us everything we desire—to liberate those we love from tyranny, and perhaps even save ourselves. It starts with a tremendous gambit, however. Tell me… are you all familiar with the human story of the ancient city of Troy? And the tale of the Trojan horse?”

As Quinn leads us over to the living room in the main guest suite, I know he’s got one hell of a plan. And it’s going to take everything we have to accept it.

Though it might just get us everything we want.