Page 27 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“But all along it was always Kaly in charge. In their various incarnations,” Grayson said grimly.

“There’s still some dissonance for me finding out that I am one of the beings that I hated for so long.” Fiona shook her head. Though her beaded hair could not be seen, there were faint clicks. “And nothing was, of course, as clean and clear as I thought it was in any event even without that fact. Though I wasn’t wrong that the Immortals destroyed themselves in many ways.”

“Fifi,” Charlie said cautiously, “you said to Eyros that he killed you, but Kaly claimed it was… ah, Weryn.”

His eyes slid to Ryder. But Ryder didn’t react. He had given Wyvern her Second Death, but Eyros had given him an assist in a way.

She let out a long breath. “Both of them did it. Weryn caught us. We were holed up together. And in order to save himself, Eyros used his gift to freeze me in place. While Weryn killed me, Eyros had time to escape. I can still see the guilty look in his eyes as he fled.”

Ryder remembered this moment. He had discovered Eyros and Wyvern meeting in, of all places, an ancient abandoned town in the wilds outside of Ashyr’s city. The looks on their faces when they both realized he’d surrounded them and that it was over. At least for one of them.

They’d been terrified. He remembered Eyros’ cowardice all too well. Eyros could have stayed and tried to protect Wyvern, but Eyros had seen too many of his people ripped to shreds. He likely told himself that he’d given over Wyvern to him to save his own people, not just himself. One of them had to be a goner so it would be Wyvern.

“I always wondered why you met in person that time, Fiona,” Ryder said, keeping his voice carefully neutral. If she didn’t want to speak of it with him, he’d more than understand. But he was done avoiding the past.

She sighed. “With Eyros it wasn’t really necessary to do so if I had fully trusted him any longer. But I was starting to grow paranoid at giving him access to my mind. So I asked to meet in Ashyr’s territory. Neutral ground. Foolish.” She shook her head. “How did you find us?”

Grayson looked up at him from the face of a stranger, but he could still see his beloved in those silver eyes. It was hard to admit these things in front of him. To say how he betrayed everyone, especially Ashyr when he’d attacked the other Immortals. It was one thing to go after Kaly, but Wyvern and Eyros? That had been his growing madness.

“Every animal is my spy,” Ryder answered with a shrug. “Especially in Ashyr’s territory. I treated it like a… a shrine. So I knew the moment that you both arrived.”

Khos slid between him and Grayson, begging for pets, which both of them gave. Ryder knew that the Dire Wolf sensed his unhappiness and was offering himself up for affection to ease that somewhat. He was grateful. Grayson’s hand covered his for a moment as they both stroked Khos.

“So in my paranoia not to be given my Second Death I just ensured it happened!” Fiona let out a bark of laughter that wasn’t exactly bitter, but definitely darkly amused.

“It was only a matter of time,” Ryder told her. “I was relentless. You were trying to survive, but I didn’t care if I did. I just wanted to enact my revenge on everyone and everything. You cannot fight that kind of insanity.”

“So you met with Eyros in my territory, Fiona?” Grayson asked.

“Neutral ground,” she said. “I also had this idea that there would be some safety there. Some remnant of you, Grayson, that would keep Weryn at bay. But no. Quite the opposite.”

“How did Eyros not know you were coming, Ryder?” Grayson asked.

“I subsumed my consciousness as deep as it would go into various animal forms. I didn’t shift into just one of my forms, but many and spread my consciousness out amongst them. That way it would be less likely for Eyros to sense me,” Ryder admitted. “I almost lost myself, to be honest. Well, what was left of me in any event. I was terribly bestial at times even in my humanoid form so, in a way, some would say there was little difference.”

Grayson gripped his hand tightly even as he was fisting it in Khos’ thick, invisible fur. “I’m so sorry. For all of you. I wish I’d been there. I know I could not have stopped it, but…”

Grayson simply shook his head, unable to find words for what they all understood. He felt that he’d left them all alone in their terrible fate. But it was a fate that they’d each chosen. Eyros was still in the middle of that fate. Ryder felt pity for him. Truthfully, it would be better for Eyros when it was all over.

“You don’t seem that angry at Eyros, Fifi,” Charlie said tentatively. “Or Ryder either.”

She turned and smiled at him and Charlie both. Though she wore another face–a man with a massive white beard and long hair tied up on the top of her head–that smile was all hers. There were tears in her eyes, but they didn’t seem to be ones of grief or anger.

“No, I’m not. It was a terrible time. We all did things that are truly unspeakable,” she said. “I know in my heart that I betrayed many by teleporting away instead of staying and fighting. And, if truth be told, if Eyros hadn’t used his power on me, I would have abandoned him to Weryn. Even with all my strength, when Weryn had a hold of me, I knew that I had one shot to get out. I couldn’t teleport to Eyros and then away. It was just leave or die. And I was going to leave.”

“But Eyros froze you?” Grayson stated more than asked.

“Yes.” She nodded. “So he survived to fight another day and die another day. Somehow, as awful as my end was, I feel that his is infinitely worse, especially now that he knows what’s coming.”

“He didn’t buy himself a future so much as elongate his own suffering,” Ryder agreed.

“I wonder how he comes here,” Grayson muttered as he looked at the Spire with hands on his hips. “He’ll know the moment he steps in here that it will be his end. What could tempt him to come?”

Though Ryder didn’t say it, he had a feeling that it would be despair that sent the Eyros Vampire racing towards his death. The ever present pressure of knowing that terrible fate was awaiting him would propel him eventually from the safety of Destiny to, ironically, face his destiny.

“I’m just relieved that Elgar seems so at peace with his own fate. I do not think I could be.” Fiona shivered.

“He has more strength than I do,” Grayson agreed. Then with a shake, he said, “All right, we need to think carefully here about what we do next. There aren’t just Kaly Vampires here and there aren’t just slices here either, but plenty of Vampires of every Bloodline.”