Page 23 of Ever Dark Academy: Volume 6

There was one lamp turned on in the corner. The windows’ curtains were drawn, but there was no daylight peeking through them. He shouldn’t have been surprised. Fiona would have known what time it was here and made sure it was dark. Fiona went over to the curtains, but didn’t part them.

“I’m glad you’re here, Charlie,” she said. “We’re not alone.”

Ryder tuned into the hearts and breathing of the humans outside. There were half a dozen, which was a surprising number to him. But then he remembered that the truth was that nothing was more exciting than Vampires and the students. Everyone’s eyes were upon them, which was easy to forget in the Ever Dark, but less easy to do so here.

“... the mysterious death of Steven Range took place here over fifteen years ago…” one female reporter was saying, practicing her lines for a broadcast.

Another reporter, a male one, said, “... Grayson Duke at just twelve-years-old disappeared from his family home on the same night…”

The female reporter clicked in again, “... there have been rumors that the two incidents are connected. Yet how could a twelve-year-old boy crush an adult man’s skull without any weapon?”

Ryder’s hands fisted at his sides. This had to be stopped. But until they got rid of the Sect of Dawn entirely, any work that Balthazar did to eliminate the attention to Grayson was countermanded by them. Because of the Blood Pact, no human police were allowed in the Ever Dark, but if any found Grayson here, they might take him in and question him. They definitely had to get back to the Ever Dark as quickly as possible.

And Grayson has to be turned into Ashyr just as quickly.

His head turned to find Grayson. The young man was standing in the room’s center, seemingly frozen. But why was this room having such an effect on him? Other than the lamp, there was a television, a comfortable, squashy sofa with a low coffee table made of wood and stone in front of it and a few over large chairs that Ryder imagined would envelop anyone that sat in them. There was an old game system tucked underneath the television that held Grayson’s attention. He stared at it as if it were a ghost. Despite its age, it wasn’t dusty, but completely clean. The whole room was spotless and well taken care of. Ryder touched his shoulder and Grayson jumped.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean–”

“No, it’s fine. I just… she hasn’t changed anything really.” Grayson was staring at that game system. His eyes moved over the furniture then to the shelves on the walls that were filled with well-thumbed paperbacks. He drifted over to one shelf and took a book down. The pages were yellowed and soft. There was a dog-eared page that Grayson opened the book to. “I was reading this the day before… I had to leave.”

Grayson swayed a little. Ryder clasped his shoulder to hold him up. Grayson firmed his legs and shook his head as if to clear it. He gazed through the open arched entry to the room into a darkened dining room. Ryder wondered if that was where Grayson had killed his stepfather. Grayson made no move to leave this room. He stared into the darkness and swallowed, but nothing more. The whole first floor was dark as if no one was here. Or perhaps the hour was late and Grayson’s mother was already in bed. With the constant surveillance by reporters, Ryder wouldn’t have blamed her for seeking comfort in her bed and

“Ah, is she here? Can you guys hear her?” Grayson asked and wiped his palms on the front of his pants.

He’s nervous to see her. Understandable. I’m sorry we can’t see his father or Sam any longer. That might help him.

Ryder’s hearing focused on a lone heartbeat on the second floor. “She’s upstairs.”

He pointed to where the heartbeat was, but then it began to move in a straight line. Soft footfalls accompanied it. Stairs groaned and creaked as she came down them. Grayson watched his finger move. His eyes were huge and he was breathing more rapidly. Fiona drew near while Charlie looked on with interest. This was the woman he was to look like and play for the next few hours.

Out of the darkness came a woman with ash-colored hair and Grayson’s topaz eyes. She was lean, almost rangy with quick, sure movements. She wore jeans, a white waffle shirt that hung loose down to her thighs. She stared right at Grayson, but didn’t seem surprised at finding him and the rest of them standing in her living room. She stopped just beyond the threshold, in the room where Grayson had defended them both.

“Mom?” Grayson asked, his voice sounding hollow, but then he was shaking his head. “No… no…”

It was her smell that told Ryder something wasn’t right. She smelled human, but… but…

“Who are you?” Grayson demanded. “Where’s my Mom?”

Duty

It was his mother’s face and his mother’s body and his mother’s clothes, but it wasn’t her. It was almost like it had been with the Mirryr who had pretended to be Ryder. The face was right. Even the movements were sort of right. But the person behind the eyes was not right.

“Who are you?” Grayson growled even as Fiona teleported behind the woman and Ryder and Charlie approached her from either side.

He felt Ryder’s desire to protect him yet he knew that Ryder was worried that this was his mother. That protecting him might mean hurting her and that was a no-win situation.

“She’s not a Mirryr,” Charlie said. “I can tell. That’s a real body.”

“She’s not altogether human either though,” Ryder added. “The smell… I almost know it.”

Almost? Does that mean he’s met this person–this thing–before?

“Who I am is not the question,” she said in his mother’s voice, but not with her inflections. Even after so long, he could remember them. And her face, though older and more lined with worry and fears, bore none of her personality. “The real question is who are you?”

Grayson’s heart lurched in his chest. He felt exposed. He’d assumed whoever had come here and done this was trying to get to Ryder through him, but maybe he was wrong about that. Maybe they were here because of him alone.

“I’m Grayson Duke. You know that. It’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Grayson asked.