Page 5 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

Ryder nodded. “Yes, Grayson. Of course. We shall fly together.”

He gently set Grayson down on the bed. Grayson flapped his wings and gazed on in wonder. He was not surprised when Ryder shifted into a falcon.

Show me how to fly? Grayson laughed. I’m not quite sure how.

I’ll show you everything, Grayson, Ryder promised. We’ll do it all together.

Bad Excitement

Fiona swallowed down the blood wine. Who was she kidding? She chugged it. It wasn’t because she was simply hungry–she was as turning back time had scraped her clean of energy–but also because she felt they had a limited time here in Destiny. She knew what happened to Eyros and Elgar. Eyros was besieged by Vampires who killed him and Elgar, in his never ending grief, grasped his Master’s body–or maybe just the head–and dug deep into the earth in Solace not to emerge for thousands upon thousands of years. And then he was only a shadow of himself.

She knew all that. Eyros also knew all that, because he couldn’t help himself from looking into their minds. What she feared was that somehow she was a part of why it happened. Was being here what would cause a breach in Eyros’ defenses and let Kaly in? She hoped not. Gods, she truly hoped not. So she needed to figure out a way to get them back to their appropriate time as fast as possible.

There was a light knock on the door. She called out, “Come!”

Charlie popped his head in and gave her an almost bashful smile. “Care for some company, Fifi? I brought some more wine.”

Charlie lifted up a decanter that was all the way full and sloshed it about a little as if to indicate just how much he was willing to share. She swallowed the last few drops of her own and gestured for him to come in.

“Thanks, Charlie. I’m not sure how much energy I’ll need to get us back home so best to be filled to the brim,” she said.

She was seated at a table out on the balcony. Her view was partially of the sea, but mostly of the vast forest that surrounded Destiny. She’d been watching two birds–a raven and a falcon, oddly–flying together nearly wingtip to wingtip. They looked to be having so much fun with one another. She wondered if such a pairing could work. She hoped it could for their sake.

“For certain.” Charlie shut the door behind him, sat down opposite her and filled up her glass before he gave himself about a quarter as much.

She lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t you need to be fully energized too? We don’t know if we’ll need you to glamourize us into–into furniture or something.”

Charlie let out a bark of laughter. “Oh, this is my second bottle. I charmed Elgar into giving me two. But as for furniture… I did that once! Glamourzied myself into an armchair. You should have seen Horys’ face when he sat down. He was so angry. Shot me in the ass with lightning. But it was worth it!”

Fiona grinned. She couldn’t help it. “I would have paid to see that. Ah, Horys isn’t around in our time, is he?”

Charlie shook his head. “No, no, that I know of anyways. He did pass.” He sighed and looked mournful, but then shook himself. “Mustn’t dwell! It doesn’t pay to. We have plenty of terrible things we have to deal with now. Might as well not get weighed down by the past.”

Fiona nodded, but found herself saying, “I’m not sure how you do it. Bear the weight of all that’s come before and still be… well, happy.”

“Drink a lot of blood wine.” Charlie grinned, but then said, “To be honest, I sort of made a habit of forgetting. I almost forgot who I was. I kept telling myself I was just Charlie until I believed it at times. It took me a tick to get back to myself back there in Lasting. Not exactly the time to be unclear about one’s powers.”

Fiona nodded again. “Yes, it was definitely not. I can’t believe we pulled it off.”

Charlie put a hand over hers. “You pulled it off, Fifi. When you needed to. When there was no time left. You did it. That’s why I’m sure you’re going to get us back to our time lickety split!”

Fiona grimaced. “Well, let’s hope.” She downed her wine and he refilled it for her. “I’m not really sure how I did that, Charlie.”

“It was all very exciting.”

“It was at that.”

She lifted her right hand. That was the one she had used to turn back time. She had literally turned the air like one would a dial. The air had seemed almost solid under her fingertips and she’d wrenched it back.

“Do you suppose I do it the same way to go forward? Like spinning a dial?” she asked him hopefully.

Charlie’s eyes went wide. He had no idea. She knew he had no idea. He smiled at her. “Maybe! If that’s what you feel you need to do then do it!”

“The thing was that pulling time back was really difficult and that was only a few minutes. To go forward we need to go thousands of years… well, maybe it’s easier to go forward than back.” She drained her glass and stuck it out again. He refilled it. “Or perhaps the gate itself will do the heavy lifting and I just need to do the fine tuning like picking a moment in time to take us back to, which is going to be difficult all in itself, because how will I know what the right time is exactly?”

Charlie blinked. “The Eyros gate to Nightvallen opens up on a hill just outside the city.”

“That’s something. Nightvallen will be empty until Daemon returns and the school starts so hopefully we’ll be able to see the lights on or movement or something like that.”