Page 7 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“I do.” She nodded. That had her draining another glass, but not to forget but for energy. “And we can’t let him down any more. He’s agreed to let me turn Joanna. I have to be there for her. And our Bloodlines need us, too. We matter, Charlie.”

“Yes, we do. Even if it is just Charlie and Fiona.” He smiled fondly at her.

“Then let’s find Eyros and get to the gate to Nightvallen. No more sitting around,” she said as she rose. “By the way, does your Bloodline know that you’re you?”

“Ah, I would like to say no, but I’m not altogether sure. When you’re the head of a Bloodline of people who can appear like anything, well, finding out what they really know and think can be damned difficult,” he answered.

“Are you going to tell them?” she asked as they both headed to the door.

“I suppose I must. Daemon wants all of our palaces lit up. I do think he likes pretty fires. And it’s only fair that I add the glory of the Mirryr Palace to the rest,” Charlie mused.

Even before they were halfway to the door, there were light steps on the landing outside and a knock on the door. It was Eyros. She smelled his cologne. Weirdly or maybe not, Balthazar had a similar favorite scent. Warm, woodsy with a hint of spice and cinnamon.

She opened the door, smiling at Eyros, “Oh, good, you’re here, Eyros. We were just about to go looking for you.”

She saw how he froze at her smile. He stared at her lips, not as if he wanted to kiss them, but as if memorizing them with their upturned corners. His eyes skittered to hers and he put on a smile of his own, but it was a little stiff.

“Not that anyone would recognize the two of you as you, but best not to let many see you, I’m guessing. Might cause some kind of time paradox or something,” he said. “I’m already going to have a hell of a time erasing Elgar’s memories of you all.”

He was shutting the door as he said that last piece, which had her responding, “Are you sure? Knowing that there’s a future might make what he goes through…” She stopped and swallowed. “I don’t know if it would make it easier. But he would know that you would return and find one another.”

“Who knows how long it will be–and I intend for it to be a very long time–before that happens? While I guard my thoughts assiduously against everyone, he is very close to me,” Eyros said. “And of everyone, he would look into my mind to help me and he would see it all. Then he would suffer for however long it was until we reached that terrible moment.”

“But won’t he do that even if he doesn’t remember us?” Charlie pointed out. “You’ll still know what you learned from us and the future.”

“It would be harder to grasp the initial link of the chain,” Eyros answered with a shrug as if that made sense to anyone who was not an Eyros Vampire. “Besides, unless the dear boy has become the most formidable liar and hider of truths, he has no memories of you all in the future, does he?”

“No,” Fiona shook her head. “Even if he might keep it from us, he wouldn’t be able to keep it from you, Eyros.”

“No, he wouldn’t and I wouldn’t let him. So he doesn’t know. And if he doesn’t know, that’s because I’ve taken the memories from him,” Eyros said with a certain sharpness in his tone.

He wasn’t angry at them, she realized. But he didn’t want to do this to Elgar. Yet he felt he was being forced to.

“I see, yes, I suppose you’re right,” she answered.

“If anyone needs to bear this burden, it will be me and me alone,” he said with a wave as if such a burden weren’t crushing him beneath its weight even now.

“I’m so sorry, Eyros,” she said. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

His eyes were on her again. “Please don’t, Wyvern… I mean, Fiona.”

“Don’t what?” she asked.

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” Eyros said with a bitter laugh. “I really don’t deserve it, especially coming from you. Trust me on that.”

Her eyes shifted to Charlie and then back to Eyros. Charlie just looked sad.

“Well, I–I shall try not to add to your burden even if I don’t agree with what you just said there,” she said as she brought her hands together in front of her body. “Now, if you show can show me where the gate to Nightvallen is from the balcony I can just teleport there and we won’t have to worry about anyone in the city seeing me.”

“Or me! I’m going with you,” Charlie said, all eager smiles and beaming. “It’s so exciting seeing you do this, Fifi. It’s history making.”

“Ah, right, yes, of course, it is.” She cleared her throat and looked expectantly at Eyros. “Now, can we see the gate from the balcony?”

“Yes. Here, let me show you,” he said as he took the lead and brought them back out on the balcony.

The raven and the falcon were still flying together. They both dove down and grabbed some poor helpless creature–maybe a mouse or muskrat or whatever the Ever Dark had in the way of small rodents–in their claws before rising back up into the air again.

A successful hunt! She found herself grinning.