The vibrations were growing stronger and a loud crack rent the air as the altar split in a few places around the circular hollow, beams of light shooting in every direction, dazzling the dark interior of the Cathedral in a riot of colour.
“Hurry, Quinn,” Braddon urged. Liam had already started backing away, but her father would not leave her side and neither would Daniel. They pressed up against her, shielding her with their bodies as she scooped up the Hawkstone and placed it in its rightful place in the centre of the formation.
For a second, the entire Cathedral rumbled, shaking as though the earth beneath it had awoken from a deep sleep. Quinn got to her feet, stumbling as the ground shuddered and heaved.
“It worked!” Daniel roared, trying to be heard above the noise, but in the instant that his words reverberated around the hallowed hall, everything went completely still. The silence was deafening. The tremors stopped and the light radiating from the altar went out.
Chapter 29
Aleksei stumbled as the ground beneath his feet trembled. He had been woken by the yells of the vampires downstairs, his personal guard while he slept. Their cries of alarm filtered up to him, and he took the stairs two at a time as he thundered down toward them.
“What the hell is going on?” he roared. Nobody answered as the ground gave another buck beneath their feet, sending Dimitri hurtling toward him. Aleksei grabbed the vampire around the throat as he skidded past. Dimitri’s face had healed, but his eyes were permanently red-tinged since his encounter with the Cliffdale water.
“I’m not certain, my Lord,” Dimitri replied, wheezing slightly beneath Aleksei’s death-like grip, “but it’s coming from the Cathedral.” His bleeding eyes bulged in his face as Aleksei’s hand convulsed automatically.
Casting him aside, Aleksei stalked to the window that faced the fountain. Yanking open the curtain he caught a glimpse of the Cathedral beyond it. The sunlight streaming through the window burnt his face and he dropped the curtain back into place, his blood thundering in his veins. He had only glimpsed it for a second, but the light spraying from the glassless windows of the Cathedral had been impossible to miss.
“The Gate!” he roared, “the Guardians are opening the Gate! We have to stop them, you fools!” he screeched, spittle flying from his lips. Nobody moved, but of course they couldn’t do anything. The sun contained them in this house. Aleksei gave another shriek of rage as he realised that the Guardians were here, opening the Temple and there was not a damn thing he could do about it. “How did you not find the Gate?” he hissed at the guards around him. “We’ve been here for weeks and none of you noticed anything?”
“To be fair, my lord, we didn’t know what we were looking for,” an older vampire with long black hair replied. “And you said that the Gate wouldn’t be here...” he trailed off observing the look on Aleksei’s face. A second later, his black hair fanned out on the ground, his head ripped clean from his shoulders. Aleksei growled menacingly, daring anyone else to defy him. It was true – he had believed that the Gate would be somewhere far from here. He hadn’t believed Eldon would be stupid enough to have the gate inside the City itself, because it would make it inaccessible if the City was overrun. He had overestimated Eldon and now he was paying the price.
“What about our people inside?” he roared, his mind racing frantically to come up with a solution. He had left dozens of vampires scouring the records inside the Cathedral.
“We can only assume the Guardians have overpowered them, my Lord!” Dimitri yelled to be heard above the noise of the rumbling coming from the Cathedral, but he needn’t have worried. As quickly as it had started, the trembling stopped and a deathly hush descended upon them.
Aleksei narrowed his eyes in confusion. He listened intently but heard nothing. He wondered if the Guardians had been successful. A high-pitched moaning sound caught his attention and he found one of the many nubile young women they kept in droves for feeding purposes cowering beneath the window-sill. No doubt she was meant to be his waking snack. Aleksei seized hold of her hair, her whimpering pleas falling on deaf ears.
“Tell me what you see!” he demanded, indicating the window.
“Please,” she begged, her terrified face streaked with tears, “please let me go.” Aleksei hit her hard across the face and she gave a wail of pure, unadulterated terror.
“I gave you an order, you stupid bitch!” Aleksei pushed her toward the window. “Now open that curtain and tell me what you see.”
The woman complied, her shoulders heaving with shock and fear. Aleksei stepped back, away from the light as she pulled the curtain open.
“Well?” he demanded a second later. “What do you see?”
“No... nothing,” she gulped. “I don’t see anything.”
“The Cathedral... do you see it?”
“Yes.”
“What does it look like?”
“It... it looks like it did before.”
“No light?”
“Light?” Her confusion only fuelled her terror and she began to cry again. “You mean the sunlight?” she asked desperately.
“No, you fool!” Aleksei flung out his arm and sent her flying backward, away from the window. Gritting his teeth, he lifted the curtain for only an instant before letting it fall back into place. It was only a brief glimpse, but it was all he needed. The light he had seen before had vanished. Wondering what it meant, Aleksei could only wait to see if the Fae magic had returned.
“Give her to me,” he hissed. He needed to replenish his strength. Dimitri hauled the young woman up off the floor and shoved her forward, into Aleksei’s outstretched arms. Her final scream of terror was abruptly cut off as he sank his fangs into her neck.
Chapter 30
In the silence that followed the eruption of sound, Quinn glanced dazedly around.
“What happened?” she blinked, her eyes narrowing in confusion.
“It didn’t work,” Braddon’s voice was leaden, defeated.
“No,” Quinn shook her head, “it had to. We did everything we were supposed to do. We did everything right!” She turned to Daniel for affirmation, but he was standing frozen, staring at the altar with a look of utter desolation on his face. “Daniel!” Quinn screamed into his ear. “We did everything we were supposed to?” Still, he didn’t answer her.
“No!” Quinn screamed, rushing at the altar and crouching beneath it. “We’ll do it again. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe there’s an order to the...” She tried to prise the crystals free, but they were stuck fast. It appeared as though they had melded into the stone itself.
“Quinn,” Braddon placed his hand gently on her shoulder. “You did everything right. There’s nothing else we can do.” He heaved a sigh as he vocalised the inevitable. “It’s time for us to run.”
“No,” Quinn sobbed and she tasted the salty tang of tears on her tongue. She hadn’t even realised she was crying. Still she scrabbled at the stone, ripping her fingernails in the process, but the crystals couldn’t be removed.
“Quinn,” Drake called from the doorway. Such was her desolation; she barely felt the pain of his presence. The agony of her failure overrode everything else, including the bond. She turned to him, her eyes haunted and hopeless. “We need to go now,” Drake echoed her father. “There’s nothing left for you to do.”
“It’s my responsibility!” Quinn insisted. “I’m supposed to do this! I’m supposed to open the Rose Gate, release Wintyr and give our people a fighting chance!”
“You are supposed to make a choice,” Drake corrected gently. “Perhaps this is it. You can choose to stay here, attempting to open that gate or you can flee and try to protect your people.”
“No,” Quinn mewled, still clawing at the altar. “It was working. We saw it!” she looked to Braddon and Daniel for confirmation, but neither would meet her eyes. “The light... the earthquake... it was working!”
“Listen to me sweetheart,” Braddon crouched next to her, pushing her swea
t-drenched hair out of her face. “This is not your fault. We must have misread the Book. Maybe we got something wrong. We can come back one day, we can try again, but first we need to find the answers we’re looking for.” As he spoke Quinn watched Liam gathering up the scrolls and documents on the Guardian table in preparation for their departure.
“That won’t be necessary,” a high voice interrupted and all eyes turned to the doorway. Three members of the Fae stood on the threshold, their bows drawn. Quinn’s heart sank as she recognised Kellan and Freya. They weren’t supposed to be here. It was Evangeline, standing between them, who had spoken. Her milky eyes fixed on Quinn and a sympathetic compassion radiated from her.
“What are you three doing here?” Quinn heard the horror in Daniel’s voice, but Kellan replied calmly.
“We were needed.”
“There are some things even you don’t understand, Daniel,” Evangeline added. Keeping her eyes on Quinn, she crossed the space between them her head held high. Such was the power of her presence that Braddon backed away as she approached.
“I brought them down,” Quinn heard Monique telling Daniel, but she didn’t turn her head. “When Evangeline explained what she needed to do I brought them down. The Orochian is just outside,” Monique continued. “I can get them out quickly if need be.”
Quinn’s misery threatened to consume her. “I failed,” she croaked, staring up at Evangeline, “I failed you all.”
To her surprise, Evangeline laid a leathery hand on her cheek, warming her skin. “No you didn’t.” Evangeline corrected gently. “You did everything perfectly, Quinn. Eldon was right to choose you.”
“But the gate didn’t open.” Quinn’s tears still streamed down her face, pooling into Evangeline’s palm.
“That’s because you were missing one very crucial element,” Evangeline murmured. She lifted her hand, wiping away Quinn’s tears and Quinn noticed with a bolt of shock that Evangeline’s hand was glowing. It was subtle at first, but slowly the light spread, encompassing her entire hand and then streaking down her arm. As Quinn watched, mesmerised, Evangeline’s entire body began to glow from within.
“What...?” Quinn could only gasp as the faery’s eyes lit up, the opaque white transforming into a molten gold.
“I have carried this magic for over a thousand years,” Evangeline explained. “Magic is not meant to be checked. It is meant to be harnessed, to be used. It grows in power over time. My body has taken its toll keeping it in for so long, but this was my burden to carry, Quinn, just as yours was to travel this path.”
“You... you’ve had magic all this time?” It made sense now – why Evangeline had aged when no other faery had, why she seemed to possess unearthly skills and abilities despite her frail body. All this time, it had been magic that she contained within her.
“It was an honour Eldon bestowed upon me. He hid it within me,” Evangeline lifted her chin proudly. “It is a special magic. It serves only one purpose. To open this gate.”
All the hope that had drained from Quinn’s heart flooded back into her, overwhelming her senses.
“You can open it?” she could barely get the words out.
“I can.” Evangeline smiled. “And when I do, I hope that you finish this, for once and for all. You were chosen, Quinn. I have been waiting for you for a very long time and you are everything I could have expected and more.”
“What if I fail?” Quinn asked in small voice. “The prophecy says I could destroy us all.”
“The prophecy is what you make of it. You choose your own destiny.”
“How?”
Evangeline seemed to be glowing brighter by the second and Quinn blinked against the brightness of the light. Still, she heard the words. “Follow your heart, Quinn. Always follow your heart.”
Without any further warning Evangeline stepped up to the altar. She opened both her hands and with a small, final smile, she pressed both palms against the marble top. Instantly, the light burst from the altar and the Cathedral shuddered once more. A large piece of stone broke away from the wall nearby and landed dangerously close to where Quinn sat. Braddon darted forward, pulling Quinn to her feet and away from Evangeline. The faery’s body was engulfed in light and Quinn couldn’t look directly at her without shielding her eyes. A cry of pain emanated from the luminescence and it struck Quinn like an arrow to the heart that Evangeline would not survive. This would be her final sacrifice, just as Eldon had intended.
“Evangeline!” she screamed, and Evangeline’s head turned toward her.
“Do not fear for me, child. I will be rewarded.” The words were an echo of thought and consciousness, and Quinn realised that Evangeline was speaking directly to her mind, no doubt using the last of her magic to do so. It was different to the way Drake spoke to her through the bond. With him, the words were clear and defined. She heard them as though they were spoken directly to her. With Evangeline, it was different. It felt as though she was speaking to every single one of Quinn’s senses - her entire body feeling the words rather than hearing them. It was the first time Quinn had experienced even a fraction of the true magic of the Fae, and it filled her with song and beauty and light.
Thank you Quinn drove all the sincerity and emotion she could into those two little words. There was nothing she could say that would ever be enough.
Goodbye, Quinn. As she heard the words, the light burst from Evangeline’s body, engulfing both her and the altar. Evangeline’s body simply vanished, eviscerated by the magic she had released. Quinn gave a sob as the light slowly faded, revealing the marble altar and nothing else.
There were shouts of confusion behind her and then her father’s hand on her arm, pulling her back, but Quinn dug in her heels, her eyes never leaving the place where Evangeline had stood. Once again, there was silence, and, for the space of a single heartbeat Quinn feared the worst – that the gate hadn’t been opened after all. Then, a grinding sound rumbled from deep within the altar and a massive fissure appeared at the top, in the exact place where Evangeline had laid her hands. As Quinn watched, the crack widened and then started moving, zigzagging all the way down to the base. Braddon jerked Quinn back just in time as the altar split down the middle. It cleaved clean apart and the two heavy slabs of marble crashed to the ground, throwing up dust and stone.
At the same moment, the light returned, brighter than anything Quinn had ever seen. It burst from the floor beneath where the altar had stood and spread rapidly. The Guardians backed away, shielding their eyes as it moved in both directions, tracing a fiery path across the Cathedral floor. The fissure widened, more light spilling from the space, and then, unbelievably, a structure began to rise from the depths of the earth. A golden gate, wrought with flowers, more beautiful than Quinn could ever have imagined. She could only watch, mesmerised, as the Rose Gate grew from the earth. When it finally reached its zenith, it was as high as the ceiling and took up almost the entire width of the hall. It was as magnificent as it was surreal. Quinn couldn’t tear her eyes away, feasting on the sight of their salvation. It was only when the light finally faded that Quinn saw the shadowy figures standing behind it.
Chapter 31
Every person in the room, Guardian, vampire and faery alike, held their breaths as a pale hand reached out and pushed against the golden bars. The Rose Gate swung open with a gentle, melodious creak. Quinn’s heart seemed to have stuttered to a halt in her chest. Her skin prickled and gooseflesh rose on every inch of her body. Quinn dropped automatically to her knees and she heard the others do the same as Wintyr emerged from the Rose Temple. Quinn didn’t know what she had expected, but Wintyr exceeded even her wildest imaginings. He was magnificent, his waist length blond hair creating a halo around his head. His pale face radiated kindness and his green eyes were alight with wisdom and purity. He glowed with health and vibrancy, and it struck Quinn that he certainly didn’t look like someone who had spent the last millennium imprisoned in a temple.
Xander followed next a
nd Quinn’s heart filled to bursting as she gazed upon his features, so similar to his brother’s. It was then that she felt the warm breeze rush from the Rose Gate – a wind that carried immeasurable power - filling the Cathedral as the magic of the Fae was released. Quinn closed her eyes as it lifted the hair from her shoulders and bathed her in the exquisite wonder of that magic. Wintyr gazed down at them – the people who had freed him – with a small smile on his ethereal face. Quinn lowered her head as he fixed his eyes on her. She could only marvel at the fact that they had done it. They had achieved the impossible. The Rose Gate was open and the City could be restored if they managed to eradicate Aleksei. As these thoughts whirled around her head, combined by how mesmerised she was by the Fae princes, Quinn didn’t notice another figure emerging from the temple, until Braddon’s astonished gasp alerted her to the fact. The tiny form took her place on Wintyr’s other side, a look of eternal sadness marring her exquisite beauty. There was no denying who she was. Quinn had seen her likeness in the stained glass of the Cathedral for centuries. Princess Enah was alive.
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