31. Chance

31

CHANCE

A rturos takes me back to the Florence Hotel after the Descendant Staphylogenes departs the catacomb. There are no words between us as he silently bows to my unvoiced command and opens a watery portal with the last of his waning energy, taking us right back to Quinn’s rooms.

Quinn’s apartment is not as I remember it, however, as I see a plethora of terrible Bloodsigns scalding over every inch of the marble floor, and every vaulted column that supports his crystal cathedral far above. Even those beautiful, high vaults are marred with the most terrible Bloodsigns now, as a demon of Night goes shrieking around the space.

Contained by fifty Florentine Vampires, as they fight to keep Quinn home.

Magic is being worked as Arturos and I pop back, just inside the ebony doors of the space. All of Quinn’s strongest Vampires are involved, as Devi, Curio, and Lady Eiseth work a tremendous feat of magic—containing Quinn’s gargantuan Revenant and pushing it towards a new Florentine Box in the center of the space .

At last, they manage it. As Quinn’s heaving tentacles of Night are swamped by all his Vampires working in tandem, he’s hauled into the box. The ramp is shut, and our Master is locked inside as Eiseth seals wards in place to keep him from getting out.

Quinn roars, with a sound like a thousand shattering chandeliers in the night.

“Ariana!” Lucca is there, limping over to me as Arturos shores him up under one arm. As Lucca gets to me, I grip him in a terrible embrace. Arturos tries to help me from sinking in my exhaustion, but I shove him off, letting Curio help me instead. I hold Lucca as our allies keep us from falling over. Shakes devour us both, but we remain stubbornly on our feet with our allies’ help.

As Quinn roars in his box nearby—terrible in his unhinged might.

“He’s locked in there now,” Eiseth says with a deep fatigue as she moves to us. “It’ll hold, for a while at least. But the sigils and wards coating this backup box are Quinn’s design; with his sanity and his control over his power gone, they’ll break eventually. He needs to be in a safe place soon, before they do.”

“Thank you, Eiseth,” Lucca says, cuddling me and heaving a deep sigh. I feel his heart break for Quinn—such a terrible thing, as a scream passes through his very soul for the third of our bound trio, our Master.

And our friend.

“Do you know of a place that can hold him? What about here at the Hotel?” I ask as the exhausted Devi joins us, nodding at me before she glances at Quinn’s Revenant.

Devastation in her eyes.

“We have nothing here strong enough to hold a Master such as Quinn gone Revenant.” Devi’s voice is brisk now, though I can feel she’s just as exhausted as the rest of us. “All we have are warded rooms for new Vampires when their bloodlust goes on rampage—that are nowhere near as strong as what we need to hold Quinn. ”

“There is a place that is strong enough. Up at the Ice Citadel of Novakitsk. Master Vasily Ilyov’s domain,” Eiseth says now, even as she glances at Arturos with a frown, that I’ve pushed him away—not understanding anything that transpired in the catacombs when I was with him, or what was said.

“Siberia.” I fight to not sink into a terrible place with everything that’s happened. “Master Ilyov is a Vampire, though. Is it safe?”

“He’s Dark Fae, Ariana,” Eiseth says as she seals us in a misty enclosure, so none of our words reach the rest of Quinn’s Florentine Vampires. They’re ushering out now that disaster has been averted, giving tired nods to Devi and Curio. “Master Ilyov is one of the most ancient Dark Fae, and the strongest of us. He maintains our most stalwart secret Dark Fae stronghold—at Novakitsk, where all other Vampires don’t dare to tread. Lest the stories of Master Ilyov’s power come true. Which most of them certainly are. If anyone can help Quinn, it’s him. He has knowledge and ability the rest of us would kill to possess.”

“Or betray your nearest and dearest to get,” I say, glancing at Arturos. To out his betrayal is not the highest thing in my mind right now, however, as I fight to stay conscious and figure out what to do with Quinn.

Again, Eiseth glances between us.

This time, she speaks. “Arturos. What is going on between you and Ariana?”

“Too much.” Arturos heaves an awful sigh that I would have sympathy for, had I not known how disastrously he betrayed Quinn and everyone in this Dark Haven with his actions on behalf of Gold Eyes these past few weeks.

I let Arturos summarize how he misled all of us into our current outcome on behalf of the ancient Descendant Staphylogenes. He tells it in full, leaving nothing out though what’s left of his exhausted power churns in a dark sea all around us now, adding to Eiseth’s swirling barrier of mist. As the last Florentine Vampire leaves the room, shutting Quinn’s tall ebony doors, Eiseth lets her soundproof barrier swirl out.

She’s staring at Arturos now—as if she’s going to rip him apart, as he finishes.

Devi does it for her. She lunges at Arturos, seething with a thousand daggers of death in her swirling scarlet aura, though Curio hauls her back with his brisk, wintery winds. As he holds her, preventing the raging Devi from going completely amok, Eiseth turns to Arturos.

Death in her cold grey eyes.

“Tell me one thing that will stop me from killing you, right here, right now. Betrayer.”

“Only that my heart is broken, at what I did,” Arturos says, holding Eiseth’s wrathful gaze. “I loved Quinn like a brother, and I delivered him to the wolves. Nothing can absolve me now. I did not know what it would do to me when I made that deal with the Gold Eyes. Now, I do. I am broken in my heart. No Dark Haven of the deepest ocean waves can repair it.”

Arturos is quiet as he sinks to one knee like a penitent before the furious Mistress of Britain.

A Dark Fae—which he is not.

“Leave this place.” Eiseth is snarling now as her grey eyes flash with a terrible Light, the rest of us seething with whatever we have left. “I will consider not hunting you down to the ends of the earth. And back.”

“I will make it right.” Looking at me, Arturos holds my gaze now. “I swear it.”

“Your promises mean nothing,” Lucca says for me, staring Arturos down with the most wrathful darkness I’ve ever seen in him. His aura boils with Night now, churning slowly around him.

No diamonds or Light anywhere in it, as his eyes go solid black.

I turn to him, taking his hand. Lucca looks down at it as I feel that deep void Quinn went to devour him like the deepest wrathful midnight. As my exhausted Light flows into him, however, it reminds him of what he is. The heart of our bound trio, the love beyond all darkness, Lucca comes back to himself as he startles.

And his blue eyes clear back to their normal color, if deeply shadowed.

“Don’t go there. Don’t slide into that endless darkness,” I say as I hold Lucca’s gaze. “We have to stay strong, for Quinn. Staphylogenes insinuated to me that there is a way to bring Quinn back. It said, When the time is right, and your trio’s power is finally ready, I shall come for you again . I can only assume it means there is a way to bring Quinn back from this endless Revenant darkness. And for us to become stronger for it, because of everything we’ve gone through.”

“To what end?” Lucca’s eyes go dark again, though not as dark as before. “What does it want from us, that it pushes us over and over to grow our power and bond closer as a group? What is it doing to us that it will use us for later, with all its diabolical schemes?”

“I don’t know.” I wish I had an answer. “It did say, though, the one thing it can’t do is return a Revenant. That is something we can do, Lucca, the three of us. I can only assume it needs this power from us, but that our power is not fully mature yet… for whatever it needs a bunch of Revenants returned in order to do.”

“With Quinn in his current state, we can’t do any of that, though.” Lucca gestures to the seething mass of darkness still swirling inside its massive box.

Even as it whirls, making that terrible chandelier-crashing sound again that’s so much stronger than other Revenants we’ve encountered—save the one that caused this entire calamity—I see a flash of light near its center. It’s the briefest thing, but that flicker of red-gold flame way down deep in the Revenant’s core lights my heart.

I beam with hope then, as I suddenly know all is not lost. Quinn is still in there, somewhere—and his Summer Fae Light is showing us, acting like a beacon to him now as it flickers harder to my hope.

Outlining the shape of a man inside all that heaving, malevolent darkness.

“Quinn!” Lucca gasps as he sees it, too.

“He’s still in there. We can get him back. I know it.” Hope lights throughout my soul now, even though I know the darkness we face is so very great.

As my hope sparks, I feel a sudden love beam all through Lucca. As he joins his powerful heart to our group, his vast love returning to us, that immeasurable love lights up Quinn’s Revenant like wildfire. A blaze of passionate heat and red-gold fire seethes through the creature, like a storm. It’s quickly gone; but for a moment, dark onyx eyes stare out at me where only furious, crimson-mad power was before.

As those dark eyes pierce me, sundering me to my core, I feel Quinn still there inside them. His mind reaches me as the briefest thought fills me.

Help.

We will. I send back with all my might, before our connection is lost and that furious, insane redness swirls into his eyes once more. But for a moment, it was Quinn.

And I know what we need to do now, as decision firms inside me.

“Take us to Novakitsk.” I turn to Lady Eiseth as power flows through me, back to my heart. I turn to Devi and Curio also, standing nearby with Alleno. “Devi, Curio, hold the Hotel strong in our absence. The Council will be coming for you now, with everything that happened tonight. I don’t know how many Council members I accidentally killed when my power destabilized… but it was enough for them to seek retribution. Of the worst kind.”

“We’re way ahead of you, little Fae,” Devi says with her fierce briskness, though a soft light shines from her eyes as her lips twitch into a smile. “The Hotel will stand strong against the Council, and our Dark Haven with it. We have surprises up our sleeves they won’t see coming. Especially since we have over a hundred Mentale Dark Fae in residence. Thanks to Quinn’s unknown Making of Dark Fae over the years when he thought he was merely Siring Vampires. Many of them don’t know what they are yet, but we’ll fill them in. And get them ready for battle.”

“A hundred?” My eyebrows rise at such a strong number. “Holy hells.”

“Just get Quinn some help.” Devi is fierce as she takes my hand. “Get him back for us, will you?”

“We’ll do our best.” I nod to her before she leans in and pecks my cheeks like a sister.

Curio comes forward next, embracing me lightly and refreshing me with his wintery winds. “I’ll come with you to Novakitsk, for a brief while, before I come back here. You’ll need a proper introduction to Master Ilyov and his ways, which I can give you. And Eiseth, for all her good intentions, can’t.”

“Why?” I ask him now, puzzled.

“Because I’m his progeny, of course,” Curio says now with an amused chuckle and a wink. “No one knows Ilyov better than I do. Since I’m his flesh and blood son, rather than Made by him.”

“You’re his son?” The deep resemblance between Curio and the horribly intimidating but strangely handsome elder Master of Siberia makes a huge amount of sense now.

“I was born a Dark Winter Fae, Ariana.” Curio nods at Devi now. “I believe Devi told you that. Vasily Ilyov is my father, though I took my mother’s surname, Silverfrost. Andromeda Silverfrost of the Italian Alps Winter Fae was a force of the ages, rest her soul. I never knew what she saw in my father. But she loved him, right until the moment of her death a thousand years ago. And despite all the rumors, there is good in him. I’ll get him to help you. You’ll see.”

“I hope so.” I heave a deep breath now, as something inside me lightens to know we’ll have Curio helping us up in Novakitsk, at least for a brief while .

Arturos cuts in. “I’ll stay here and help guard the Florence Hotel and Quinn’s Dark Haven.”

“You’ll get the fuck out. Now. Before I shred you, ocean fuckwad.” Devi seethes anew at Arturos, though Eiseth turns to her now.

“Do not so lightly turn down allies who could bolster your power, youngling,” Eiseth says, pinning the furious Devi with her hard grey gaze. “Arturos repents. I feel his heart with my abilities as a Dark Fae. Dig deep, Devina. Do you not?”

As Devi holds an intense standoff with Arturos now, still down on one knee in his penitent position, though he’s turned towards her, she snorts. Scarlet fury flashes in her eyes, but she’s not making daggers with her power anymore.

At least, not for the time being.

“Fine,” she says, snapping her fingers at him. “Make one wrong move , though, water-bastard, and I will stab you in the night. Don’t sleep. Don’t ever sleep. Even deep down in your ancient, watery grave.”

As Devi stares with pure hate towards Arturos now, I know she could do it. Though it might take everything she has, she would find a way to off Arturos some deep, dark night.

Even if it killed her.

I’m not sure I don’t want her to, as a dark, conflicted feeling churns inside me for the Vampire-Siren. I know what Arturos’ Sire the Wanderer was talking about now when she berated him for his choices. She wasn’t talking about him siding with Quinn and me against our enemies, but about siding with the Gold Eyes against the people he loved, as she chastised him that night in the moonlit field.

I see that knowledge in Arturos’ dark, oceanic eyes as they swirl with a terrible desperation now. I’m not the person he needs absolution from, however, as he nods to Devi’s fury and pushes back up to standing. It’s only Quinn who can absolve him—and Quinn isn’t absolving much of anything right now, swirling as he is inside his Revenant-trapping box.

“Come. Let us go,” Eiseth says, sighing tiredly as she glances at us all. “ I only have enough energy for one last trip by portal tonight, and then I believe we all must rest. Devi, Arturos—stand strong. Though you may be enemies right now, look for more allies among the Masters Quinn trusts, who were here for the Meeting of the Havens. Some will shun you; others will come to your call. Send that call out. Or stand alone in the battle that is coming—and fall.”

With that, the Mistress of Britain waves a hand, making her grey mist swirl in a condensing field and opening up a portal inside the room. On the other side of that portal is nothing but snow; blowing snow in hurricane-force winds, it’s incomprehensible to me that there could be anything on the other side of her portal but more snow.

I know the fortress citadel of Novakitsk must be somewhere beyond, though, as Eiseth turns to me, handing me Quinn’s Fae amulet, which she recovered somehow in all the madness. I slip the silver chain around my neck; holding it in my fingertips, I send a heartfelt wish that the Florentine Box Quinn’s in can be made ready to travel. As the amulet flares, the box shrinks down to the size of an apple. I move to it with Lucca’s support, bending down to retrieve the small, ornate cage from the glossy marble floor.

Quinn’s furious Revenant swirling inside it.

I hold the box in my palm. Lucca and I don’t even take a moment to change or take anything with us as he and Alleno embrace, Lucca leaving a few last instructions for his cousin to manage his ongoing rebellion while we are away.

But I feel fear move through us all now—that the Dark Haven of Florence will be attacked and fall while we are gone, and that Lucca’s father will discover he’s absent and send rumors to smash his rebellion, even as it’s being born.

None of that can be helped now, though, as I take a deep breath and follow Eiseth through the portal on Lucca’s arm. Curio comes after us, and I have one more look back at the Red Letter Hotel Florence before the portal flashes out.

There is nothing but snow all around us now, as we take Quinn to the one place that might save him. The one place that might save us all.

As we fight to save everything we love from annihilation.