Page 6 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

Charlie bobbed his head. “And if you get it wrong, we can always just use the gate again. You know if we show up and it’s way too far in the future, we’ll just toddle back.”

“Right. Of course. It’ll be no big deal.” Fiona nodded along with Charlie.

They looked like two bobble-head dolls. Both of them stopped nodding and drank their wine. Would it be no big deal? Could Fiona just continue to make mistakes and take them over all creation until they found the right time? She couldn’t see why not unless they ended up some time very bad.

“Eyros said he’d come back to get me in a little while. He had to check some things,” Fiona said, resisting the urge to pace. She needed to conserve as much energy as possible.

“Yes, probably checking the gate to Solace to make sure that’s locked tight,” Charlie sighed.

“He knows how he’s going to die this time. I suppose since he knows that he’s going to come back that makes it a little better?” She made that sound like a question, because it most definitely was.

“Oh, I think if it weren’t for what happens to our dear Elgar, he wouldn’t be exactly all jolly about it, but the future is so much better than being imprisoned in Destiny so he might be a touch okay with it,” Charlie said. “And we’re all friends again. Daemon is back. Julian and Christian are there. Plus all the new potential Children. It’s very exciting in the future, but in a good way unlike here where it’s exciting in a bad way.”

Fiona cracked another smile. “Yes, I quite agree.” Shyly, she said, “You know… I might be taking on a fledgling myself.”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “Which one of the students has caught your eye?”

“It's not a student.” Upon seeing his confusion, she quickly explained, “It’s Joanna Harrow.”

“Fifi, that’s stupendous!” Charlie was boggling now. “The Prince’s mother! What a wonderful thing!”

“I know.” Fiona couldn’t help the beaming smile that filled her face and made her cheeks hurt. “She came to me a few months ago to learn more about my Bloodline and we just started to hang out. I had no idea she was interested in Wyvern really anymore than she was interested in any of the gifts. And I hadn’t given a thought myself to taking on a Childe. I…”

She hesitated. Why was it so hard to speak of this? Until Joanna, she’d felt almost an abhorrence at the idea of it. Even though she knew that growing her Bloodline was important. But she told herself she needed to grow it in the right way and her not turning anyone was prudent, not cowardly. She’d had to deal with her own rogue Mistress and then there was Arcius. Her beloved Arcius.

She hadn’t wanted him to feel in any way deprived of her by taking on a Childe. So no, she hadn’t been planning on it at all. But then Joanna had come and… well, the rest really was history. Yet, here she was: throat tight, words stuck there, feeling like she might cry and not necessarily happy tears even though Joanna made her feel unmitigated joy.

“You lost a lot of them in the War, Fifi. That leaves a mark.” Charlie patted her hand.

“You know, I can’t remember it, but I can. Like the echo of a scream? It’s so strange. You would think because I can at least remember the pain of it that I should want to remember the rest, but I can’t seem to make myself do it,” she admitted a little shamefacedly. “You must think we’re all such cowards in comparison to you.”

“What? Why would I think that?”

“You kept going, Charlie. We died and were reborn. We’re hiding from who we were because we have the luxury of doing so. But you… you have to live with it all,” she said.

“Didn’t you just hear me tell you how I forgot myself? Fifi, you have an excuse for not remembering! You died and were reborn. Your soul went into a human body. You lived a wholly other life while I–well, I just…” His voice died off. “I was just Charlie.”

It was her turn to take his hand. “Just Charlie? I’ll have you know that the Mirryr adore you. You kept them together. You took care of them. Everyone says so. In fact, I rather worried how you would take it when Mirryr did return.”

“Oh?” Charlie cough-laughed. “Would I feel replaced? Put out? The great Mirryr returns!”

“Yes, I rather did think that. You’d done all the hard work for your Bloodline and then Mirryr was going to take all the credit for it,” she explained.

He tilted his head to the side and looked at her fondly. “How kind of you to think that, Fifi. You thought I was just a little person after all, but you still cared.”

“I’m just a little person.” She shook her head. “I mean I still feel that. A singular Vampire. Not very well liked. Standoffish. I only had any standing or friends because of the Order. And the latter was really because of Arcius.”

Her heart beat faster when she said his name. She really missed him. Not that she wanted him to be here with her in this great danger but he was such a soothing, anchoring presence. With him here, she would have been able to still her hamster-wheel-like thoughts and would know what to do or rather how to make the gates work. But Daemon had sent him on some super secret mission. He wasn’t even speaking regularly to Balthazar. She hoped he was all right. She was sure he was. He was the most capable of people that she knew.

“I can see you thinking of the old chap right now,” Charlie beamed at her. “But you know all that you just said is bunkum, right? That’s not how people see you at all. And it seems to me that you’ve gotten right close to Ryder, Grayson, Balthazar, Caemorn and Seeyr already. Not to mention Christian and Julian. And now Joanna! Those types of quality people aren’t friends with people out of pity. They’ve got too much on their plates for that.”

She nodded. “I know. Balthazar keeps telling me that. He gives me this look every time I have a thought like that. But it’s hard. It’s the story I’ve been telling myself for a very long time. I understand why Caemorn looks a little shell shocked all the time. He can’t believe his good fortune. He doesn’t believe he deserves it. Yet there it is. I feel the same.”

Charlie regarded her with great seriousness, which was rare, because he clearly liked to keep things light. “You do deserve good things, Wyvern. Whatever happened in the past is in the past. I truly do agree with Daemon’s decision to let us all work things out and not get involved.”

“Is that what he’s doing?” She lifted an eyebrow.

“Of course! He hasn’t even bollocks anyone and he’d have more than a right to. He could Armageddon us all and make us pay for a few mortal lifetimes,” Charlie pointed out. “But instead he takes us into his arms, hugs us, and tells us how sorry he is.” Charlie sighed. “Guilt is so much more effective than punishment. Letting him down really digs deep, you know?”