Page 17 of Ever Dark Academy: Volume 6

“What? What won’t I want to do?” Grayson asked.

“We have an opportunity here,” it was Caemorn who spoke.

“Opportunity–”

“Yes, to track down more of the Roans,” Caemorn interrupted.

Grayson stopped. He should have thought of that. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Was he tired? Yes. But still. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Why was his throat tight at the very idea of using his mother as…

“You want to use my mother as bait?” Grayson asked.

Caemorn nodded. “While we have decimated the Sect of Dawn, there are still more Roans out there.”

“Not for long,” Grayson argued. “We’ll find them all. I mean you will find them all.”

He was hardly adding anything to the search for them.

“They are unstable at best,” Caemorn argued. “This is hardly the best of times for them. They may feel that they have nothing left to lose so they might as well cause as much damage as they can on their way out.”

“But to my mother?” Grayson asked. “Why her? Their only interest in me was because of Legion.”

“They still view Weryn as one of their biggest enemies,” Caemorn said. “Remember that the War was truly between him and I back then. Or more Roan and him. He won. For a time. He will be smarting from having lost this round. He’ll want to cause Weryn pain and you are the best method to do that.”

“By hurting Mom?” Grayson rubbed his eyes. “Or luring me to save her and then acting against me?”

“That’s assuming he hasn’t put two and two together about you,” Christian said. “Hearing how your stepfather died, especially getting it from the man’s own mouth, so to speak, might have revealed to him that you have the power of telekinesis.”

“Yeah, and I bet that bastard was eager to tell him everything if he thought it would get me in trouble,” Grayson said. “So I am not going.”

“That would seem best,” Caemorn agreed.

And he should have come to that conclusion himself. But he hadn’t because he wanted to jump into action. Likely it was partly because he was feeling so helpless and also… also… it was his mom. His throat felt tight as the memories of her wanted to break into his mind.

He kept seeing her smiling at him. There was a streak of paint on her cheek and another on the side of her nose as she said, “You really want your room to be this shade of purple, Grayson? It’s almost black.”

“I know,” his much younger voice had crowed back. “Isn’t it cool, Mom?”

Her mouth had quirked further into a bigger smile as she gazed around at the darkening walls. It was the bedroom in the last house they’d lived in. Right after they’d moved in. “Well, I guess you’re old enough to make your own decisions about what your room looks like.”

“You think so?” He sounded overly eager. “I mean… yeah, absolutely. Rachel asked her parents to paint her room blue, but her mom was like: white’s best.”

His mom shook her head. “It’s only paint. Easy enough to change for when you want your own white walls.”

“Never!”

“Okay! Okay!” She held her hands up.

He remembered then that he’d grabbed one of her hands, which was rare. He’d stopped letting her cuddle with him the year before because it was embarrassing. But at that moment he really wanted to touch her.

“What’s up?” she asked, confusion drawing her brows together.

“T-thanks, Mom, for doing this and–and everything. Most parents wouldn’t,” he said awkwardly.

Her expression went from confused to brilliantly happy in an instant. But she quickly tamped it down and said, “Yeah, well, you know, I am cool.”

“You’re not! Okay, okay, maybe a little,” he conceded at her outraged look.

She’d then grabbed him and pulled him in for a hug. It was brief, which was all he would allow, as she said, “Things are going to be great this year, kiddo. You just wait and see.”