Staring up into the dark eyes of the Barone.
Inhaling swiftly, she backed away from him – even as something inside her screamed to be closer. Using the auction tables for support, she actually held out a hand to ward the Barone off as she backed towards the side door. She hadn’t meant to make such a rude gesture to a wealthy donor, but it was like she had to ward him away. A searing brightness she had never felt before still blazed inside Ariana and darkness surged around the Barone as she made it to the door. A vast aura of smoke and burning roiled from him as he stood watching her with his strangely knowing dark eyes.
But Ariana knew no one else in the room could see it as her back hit the door. Humans couldn’t see magic, and rarely felt it unless they were half-breeds somewhere back down their family line. But though Ariana had no magic, she was full-blooded Fae; and her heart thundered now from feeling the Barone’s terribly alluring power as she entered an unrestored royal suite with mildewing green velvet drapes and tarnished candelabra. A lush spread of food waited on tables in the room, but Ariana barely saw it as she untangled her wild red hair from her jewelry in a nervous twitch. She could still feel the Barone’s dark aura boiling all around her – not to mention this strangely searing light inside her since meeting him. Taking a door markedToilette, Ariana came into a new section of the palace.
And blinked, shocked by what she had stepped into.
The door she’d come through led into a long hall; and as Ariana gazed left, she saw the indoor marble colonnades of the Pitti Palace. But as she glanced right, that hall morphed, open to the sky with greenery all around and ornately gilded fountains spouting from the white marble walls. Past a glimmering seam of white right where Ariana stood, it all seemed intensely real – as if she had somehow stepped into two worlds at once. Past the Pitti’s hall, the new hall was insanely beautiful, ornate with details that existed nowhere else in the palace. And as Ariana stared at the new hall, astounded, she saw something materialize in a fountain grotto directly across from her.
Swirling in the deep shadows of the grotto, a mist of darkness suddenly surged up before Ariana. Like a demon, it writhed up into a menacing black smoke that darkened the midsummer evening; and a chill passed all through Ariana from that menacing black void. In all her twenty-eight years as a Fae, she had never seen anything like it; as she watched, it grew, filling the grotto as her entire body became riveted with fear. Eyes manifested inside that seething black mass.
Red eyes – that wanted her.
Ariana’s breath froze. Her heart wrenched in panic, thundering so hard she thought it might pound her apart as the creature stared at her. Terror rooted her to the marble beneath her stilettos as she fell into those vast red eyes. Never had she wished so much to have magic as she stared into that vicious gaze – and saw it was full of destruction. As Ariana saw her life reduced to nothing compared to its own ancient malevolence, it whirled, eager to have her fear it. And as it did, she felt something lance out from its mind with a surge of its terrible black smoke.
Thrusting deep into hers.
Come to me… and we shall raise your dark summer power, together…
As Ariana screamed, she felt something slam out from her in a tremendous wave – hammering the thing back out of her head. It was like a wave of silver and gold sunlight, starlight, and moonlight all at once as it seared the creature – and Ariana saw a massive blaze of light erupt from her entire body, seething with dark rainbows. Nothing like it had ever happened before; but as a scream boiled out of her at the creature now, it wasn’t a cry of terror but a sudden roar of power coming from her mouth. As she roared, blazing with magic now in a way she had never done, the thing roared back, screeching like nails on a blackboard all through her mind.
As its red eyes seared gold – insane.
As that scream left Ariana, two men suddenly rushed in at opposite ends of the colonnade. Skidding to a stop in the Pitti’s hall, the Barone Quindici DaPonti stared at her with an astonishment as she faced off with the creature. Just as intensely elegant, the other man rushed to a halt in the fae-side of the hall – beautiful as his lips fell open and he stared at Ariana in shock.
As searingly light as the Barone was dark, a blistering energy roared from the tall, ash-blond newcomer. But Ariana had no more time to see them as she suddenly clutched her head, blitzing with pain now from the power that had left her. If it had been magic that had surged up inside her just now, something was wrong with it; as Ariana collapsed to her knees, keening with pain in a vicious silver-gold maelstrom all through her, she vaguely saw the Barone and the unknown man rush all the way into the hall.
Coming together to block her off from the creature.
The Barone’s dark intensity raged with night as he faced off with the seething creature, while the blond was as searingly vicious with sun-bright energy. As both men faced down the demon, the Barone’s hands flashed up – terrible with magic now as his fingers lengthened into massive black claws. As they did, the man with short ash-blond hair ripped enormous silver-gold longknives from sheaths in his boots as he roared – light and fire flaming all along those keen blades, terribly bright. Wearing an embroidered sky blue doublet and charcoal breeches tucked into tall grey boots tooled with vines, the newcomer looked like a warrior-prince as he snarled, facing off with the smoke-thing. And as battle erupted in the hall, the Barone and the blond lord rushing in to fight the thing, Ariana reeled, barely conscious from the pain ripping through her. As the black thing shot out thousands of smoke-tentacles to skewer them, the dark-light duo roared and whirled.
Fighting like banshees as they crashed through the bright Fae-hall, then back to the Pitti Palace’s marble colonnades.
Down on her knees at the seam of light between both halls, Ariana watched as terror and exhilaration filled her. Like fire and darkness, wind and light, both men careened into the creature over and over, blazing it with dark power and bright, raking it with blades and talons and hammering it with magic. As Ariana gasped, fighting to remain conscious, she realized the Barone roared with vicious fangs now as his eyes blazed with crimson-black darkness, massive wings of darkness and fire flaring from his spine and coiling all around him as he fought. Likewise, the blond had grown enormous wings of light from his back and shoulders, his eyes searing with gold-white menace as he and the Barone fought like twin stars now, one hot-bright and the other deadly-dark. The smoke creature was being beaten back; with one last heave of blades and a roaring slash of talons, the two men bested it, making it scream with a nails-on-a-chalkboard sound inside Ariana’s mind.
As it whirled out – disappearing from the hall.
But as the creature finally flashed out, the blond lord suddenly turned upon the Barone – menacing the Barone with his shining blades and tremendous wings of light. Snarling back, the Barone’s talons and long white hands were vicious as he swiped an irate Italianate gesture at the blond. Fangs pierced from his upper canines as his massive wings of night seethed. They seemed about to battle each other – until Ariana keened in the grips of her vicious pain where she’d collapsed at the white seam in the hall.
As both looked around, shock filled the Barone Quindici DaPonti and his fangs and claws were quickly retracted as he rushed to her, his black wings of magic swirled out. Likewise, the blond lord’s massive wings of light swirled out also as he blinked at Ariana and surged to her, collapsing to his knees beside her.
But as the bright lord touched her, light blazed all through Ariana again, her pain roaring like it might rip her apart. As she screamed, the Barone surged in, curling her into his strong arms and cradling her to his chest. Setting a cool palm to her forehead, the Barone poured magic into Ariana, his cool wind calming the vicious power inside her back. And as the blond lord touched her cheek hesitantly – both men now touching her at the same time – that power inside Ariana became tinged with gold and silver both. A beautiful dark blaze filled her like it had initially, like she languished beneath a midnight summer moon. As it did, a vision of a night full of endless stars spread all through her, and she heard both men gasp.
Because enormous wings of midnight rainbows had unfurled from her back, as Ariana blazed with silver-white and gold glory.
Lighting up the entire hall with magic.
CHAPTER 2 – MAGIC
As incredible dark-light power poured through Ariana in the merged human- and Fae-world Pitti Palace, both the Barone Quindici DaPonti and his bright, lordly rival stared at her in shock. As she breathed with an impossible ecstasy through her pain now, held by both men at the same time, she felt how they had curled around her at the blazing seam of white that joined the palace’s halls. Like they were hers and she theirs, they soothed her pain with their bright and dark magics as they touched her.
Both gazing down at her with a fierce protectiveness now – and a strangely deep regret.
“She’s Unseelie, a Dark Fae!” The blond lord spoke in a musical tenor-baritone as his bright blue eyes fixed upon Ariana, his touch at her cheek. “Sweet Levennia of the Woods, Quinn! Where in blazes did you find her?”
“I didn’t find her, Lucca; she’s an art authenticator in the human world. She was assessing a donation I had for auction at the Pitti Palace tonight.” The Barone returned, tender but perplexed as he gazed first in one of Ariana’s eyes, then the other. Still curled in his arms, Ariana gazed up at him, grateful for his cool palm on her forehead still pouring ease into her raging body. “I didn’t think she was anything other than human, until I saw her notice my magic. But then I felt her power surge as she ran from me… and I think she created this rift between worlds. Perhaps to escape.”
“Powerful magic.” The blond lord spoke with a darkness to his summer-blue eyes now as he caressed Ariana’s cheek, before glancing to the Barone in fury. “But letting one of your Vampire Revenant brethren into the Palace of Light isforbidden, Quinn! What were you thinking?”
