Page 23 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 3

“I should test him before we reveal our plan,” Grayson said, but then he frowned.

“If he is one of them though I don’t want him to be alerted to what I can do or who I am.

I assume that imprisoning the acting leader the Mirryr would be a bad idea and you won’t be able to use your mind wipe on him, Balthazar, if he is one of them. ”

“True, but I can’t imagine Charlie being involved in the Sect.

Charlie’s goals in life are to figure out what the hottest looks of the new season are going to be.

Hardly overthrowing the Vampire rule.” Balthazar shrugged, but then he went to the wall and pressed a panel.

A section of bookshelf slid back to reveal a secret room.

His eyes sparkled. “I love these. Have them all around my palace. I can overhear intriguing conversations, learn possible subterfuge and glimpse dangerous liaisons!”

“Considering you can read people’s minds, why would you need rooms to overhear conversations?” Fiona’s eyebrows drew together.

“Well… because!” Balthazar blinked. “Because it’s cool! And it’s very handy for now, isn’t it?”

“Uh huh.” Fiona just grinned.

“I do need line of sight to use my gift,” Grayson said. He was frowning a little. “In the future, I’ll be able to do more, but not now.”

“There’s a peep hole. Will that do?” Balthazar asked.

Grayson nodded. “If they’re all right, I’ll let you know, Balthazar. But regardless, I think we should keep me out of things if possible.”

“Your scent is in the room,” Ryder pointed out.

“Only you know it, my dear,” Fiona pointed out, “and you’ve been seen escorting Grayson about. Charlie will assume the smell comes from you.”

“Charlie notices visual things. Especially shiny things,” Balthazar assured him. “Grayson’s scent won’t even enter his mind.”

“That’s settled then,” Grayson said.

He gave Ryder’s hand a squeeze before he slipped into the small space.

The bookcase slipped into place. At that moment, a man–no, a woman–no, a man…

Ryder wasn’t sure what gender they were, came into the room.

Their clothes, which had seemed plain when they had entered the room–gray slacks and a shapeless, long-sleeved shirt of the same color–now were as flamboyantly patterned as Balthazar’s suit.

At first, it was an exact copy of Balthazar’s suit, but then shifted in color and tone to have more blues and browns before it finally settled down as a different, yet similar thing.

Mirrys. They can look like anyone or anything. If one of the students is chosen to join them, this time in the Ever Dark will likely be the last

They were tall and slender–no, short and fat–and greeted Balthazar effusively with a voice that changed octaves with every word. They spoke like a dandy from another age though.

“Balthazar! Are you excited about our party? You must be! No one gives as good a party as the Mirryrs! And this one is going to be exceptionally good!” Charlie enthused as he pumped Balthazar’s hands in a two-fisted grip.

“Yes, yes, I’m sure.” Balthazar smiled widely at them.

Charlie suddenly lifted up on their toes. “Oh! What on Earth–or I should say the Ever Dark!--was that? Someone gave me a squeeze! How very cheeky!”

Grayson says he’s clean of structures, Balthazar said in Ryder’s head and Ryder assumed in everyone else’s as well, passing along the good news.

“Well, your party is going to be even more exciting than you know, Charlie,” Balthazar told him dryly.

“I can’t imagine how! It’s a masked ball, you know! And there will be acrobats and knife throwers and flame eaters and–”

“There’s also going to an attempted murder, Charlie,” Fiona interrupted.

Charlie’s face–a seeming amalgamation of many faces–fell. “W-what? N-no, that’s not on the list of events! There will even be a bubble room! How will murder go with that?”

“We’re hoping it won’t, dear,” Seeyr said gently. “That’s why we need to put in a little more security than you had planned.”

“What do you mean? And who’s getting murdered? And who's doing the murdering? Surely you know, Seeyr!” Charlie flapped their arms rather like a rooster.

Seeyr put a finger to her temple as if she were about to see into the future, but then she smiled. “If I knew and could tell you, I would.”

It was the middle part of that which was always intriguing.

Sometimes if Seeyr told what she knew the future to be, it wouldn’t happen that way.

The very act of speaking her knowledge shifted things fundamentally.

Even a hint could throw things off. But she had planned events through the millennia to bring Daemon back to a successful return to power, according to the rumors.

So Ryder hoped she could help stop a simple murder.

A simple murder… There’s nothing simple about any of this.

“Oh, and to make it even more fun,” Balthazar said with another wry little grin, “we’re going to have to stop the murder without anyone knowing that it was ever going to take place! In front of the reporters.”

“W-what???” Charlie looked like he was about to swoon.

Fiona gave them her seat. Charlie sank down upon it. He gratefully accepted some blood wine and drank down half the glass.

“None of this sounds like fun , Balthazar! We’re not a violent Bloodline,” Charlie wailed. “Mostly we run away! And now you’re telling me that someone is going to kill someone at my beautiful party? Oh, the horror!”

“It’s going to be one of the students that gets killed,” Fiona said.

“A little student? Oh, no. Oh, no!” Charlie gobbled down the rest of the blood wine and sank back on the sofa looking blasted.

“Oh, we need you to keep this to yourself, Charlie,” Balthazar told the Mirryr Vampire.

“What? But I have to tell my people so that we can do something–”

“We’re going to be doing all of it,” Fiona said.

“The Immortals?” Charlie blinked brown then blue then gray then green eyes at them.

“And Julian and Christian and a few trusted others,” Ryder added.

“I just don’t know how this will work! The entire Mirryr mansion is part of the party!

We designed it so that there will be all these little intimate, out of the way nooks for a few people to gather in,” Charlie explained, making little figures with his fingers.

“Choosing a fledgling requires knowing them intimately and since we can’t look in their brains like our rolodexes–”

“We don’t do that! And it doesn’t work that way? And really!” Balthazar shook his head. Then he grimaced and added, “But, point taken, that you need to speak with them. Out loud.”

Charlie sniffed. “Well, now you’re saying that these little nooks might lead to death instead and–”

“Though it would be wise not to have those, changing anything last minute would not work,” Ryder told him. “So you’ll have your nooks–”

“Of death!” Charlie wailed again.

“No one is going to die!” Ryder growled.

Balthazar tilted his head to the side and his eyes went unfocused. Ryder knew he was speaking telepathically with Grayson. Balthazar nodded and brought his hands together.

“All right now, Charlie! We didn’t bring you here without a plan,” Balthazar said with his usual grin on his face. “First things first!”

Balthazar began to rattle off what each Immortal would do plus Christian, Julian and other trusted individuals. It was a good plan as plans go when things could not be optimal.

Ashyr’s plan. The General, Weryn said with a kind of glee.

As Balthazar was winding down, Caemorn came over and lightly touched Ryder’s left forearm. He turned to look into the face of the lord of death.

“Would you speak with me outside for a moment?” Caemorn asked.

It was an unexpected request, but then Ryder thought of Caemorn’s observance of Grayson earlier.

He nodded and followed the Kaly Vampire out through a set of french doors into the night.

The scent of roses wrapped around them both.

There was a slight chill in the after leaving the warmth of the palace, but it was invigorating nonetheless.

Caemorn stopped walking over by a tree, leaning against its gracious trunk.

“What do you want to talk about, Caemorn?” Ryder asked, trying to keep the growl from his voice that Weryn wanted to add in there.

Is this truly Kaly? Weryn wondered. He is and is not how I remember.

He was sick back then. He’s not now, Ryder said.

Sick? Madness is the Lord of Death’s natural state, Weryn cautioned.

Caemorn brought his hands together in front of him. “I wanted to caution you about Ashyr.”

“Caution me? I can assure you that Grayson and–”

“ Ashyr ,” Caemorn softly corrected. His silver eyes burned in the dark. “He does not wish to be Grayson. He wishes to be himself unlike you and most of the others in that room.”

He tilted his head back towards the room they had just left. Ryder followed that tilt. He wondered if Grayson knew he had left to go outside. Of course, Grayson knew.

“I saw you and the others thinking that Ashyr was not serious when he said that the woman who gave birth to his current form should be removed if she was a danger to him or us,” Caemorn said quietly. Inexorably somehow.

“Yes, Grayson has conflicted feelings about his mother, but–”

“Ashyr doesn’t have a mother,” Caemorn repeated what Grayson had said.

“Yes, but Grayson –”

“Ashyr. Not Grayson. Ashyr is the one who was talking. Who is talking,” Caemorn corrected once more. “There was a reason I took out Ashyr first when I started my attack.”

Kaly… Weryn hissed.

Ryder’s shoulders drew back. “You should not discuss–”

“Because he was the one I knew that could stop me,” Caemorn continued, ignoring the warning. “Because he would do whatever it took in order to stop me. And he would not regret it.”

Ryder jerked back from the words.

“He can be warm, generous and kind. Too kind to even ones like me,” Caemorn said. “But make no mistake that while you believe you think of people as pack or not pack, Ashyr truly sees it as us against them. As the General, he must .”

“But this is Grayson’s mother. He has feelings for her that he needs to–”

“Ashyr will not allow such feelings to get in the way of what he feels he must do to protect the king,” Caemorn again interrupted, but so gently.

“Say you’re right and he… he eliminates her… why are you telling me this? I’m Weryn and I killed… killed so many,” Ryder said.

“You’re Ryder. I’m Caemorn,” Caemorn corrected again. “We do not wish to be who we were, but Ashyr does. I merely want you to know and accept that fact.”

“Why?”

Caemorn’s expression was grim. “Because you may be the only moderating influence on our General. And I fear, with all that is coming, that he will reach for the ruthless side of himself and abandon all else.”