Page 60 of Ever Dark Academy: Volume 6

Charlie. Balthazar. Caemorn, Grayson. Ryder. Fiona. All of us with new names! New faces! We could all be Mirryrs, couldn’t we in a way? Eyros chuckled.

You are you. I am me. We all are different, but the same, Charlie answered.

Are you having an identity crisis, Mirryr? You are Mirryr, you know? Eyros’ voice was surprisingly kind.

I…

You really are. I know even if you don’t, Eyros assured him. It’s not a dream, Mirryr. You really are you.

We shall see. Charlie smoothed his hands down the front of his toga. Do any of these people know of a different way into the ziggurat than the front door?

Let me see–ah! Damn, we are running out of time. Like really running out, Eyros’ tone had changed and was rushed, worried.

What’s wrong? Charlie almost put a finger to his ear as if they were speaking through an earpiece. He dropped his hand. That was ridiculous and strange and people would notice. He was really out of practice.

Grayson is dying. Right now, Mirryr.

Charlie began to briskly walk towards the ziggurat. He passed by the two whose faces and forms he copied. With a brief twitch of his fingers and of his mind, he covered the other two with the glamour. Khos also had changed. Its rib cage was exposed and half its jaw missing. Or appeared to be.

Tell the others to come into the ziggurat through any other door than the front, Charlie commanded Eyros.

Wait! What are you going to do? Eyros asked.

I’m going to go in the front, Charlie said simply as he continued to walk in a brisk yet seemingly unhurried way to the ziggurat and the two Vampires who stood guard.

How did you change Fiona, Ryder and Khos’ forms without touching them? I thought you had to touch them at least! Eyros asked.

I might have misled you if I said that I had to touch them. I don’t, Charlie admitted.

Ah…

Don’t you remember when I obscured our whole army in the swamp as reeds? You think I cannot make three people look different a few blocks away? Charlie heard a proud tone enter his voice. A tone of command.

I… yes, of course, you did, but I thought… I don’t know what I thought.

You thought what Daemon had you think. What I asked him to make you think, Charlie answered.

What? Wait–

Eyros, I am the true Spy. What I can and cannot do must be kept secret. Now you know more of it than you ever have. Be satisfied with that, Charlie insisted.

You’re afraid of me, Eyros said after a long moment. Afraid of all of us.

Only a fool wouldn’t be, Charle admitted. But saving Grayson is all that matters. I won’t have him harmed again if I can help it. Now I must concentrate. And I will need you to concentrate.

I cannot help you once you pass within those walls, Mirryr, Eyros warned.

Hopefully, I will not need your help, Charlie answered.

The two guards had seemed unconcerned as he had approached. At first, at any event. But when he continued to move towards them with that half smile on his lips and his chin lifted just so, they had begun to shift uncomfortably. The one to the right was the first to move. He stepped forward, one hand extended, rather like that of a crossing guard.

“You cannot enter here. Go back–”

The guard got no further than that as Charlie shattered into three images of the Kaly Vampire. The guard’s eyes widened, but then they glossed over as Charlie snapped his neck then crushed his head under foot with one of his forms while the other two turned to the guard to the left. He drew power from the touch, transforming into the guard he’d killed, adding to his Kaly power. The other guard opened his mouth to shout, but Charlie had one of his forms grab the man’s head. Another pinned his arms. The final form had his legs. He was taken down and silenced, bones broken, head a smashed pumpkin against the ground. He now had two forms. He looked like both guards.

Good gods, Mirryr, Eyros breathed. I had no idea…

There were cries of surprise from down the street. He spilled handfuls of soul gems onto the ground behind him, releasing the creatures within. While they would, undoubtedly, be captured in time, they would cause havoc before then.