Page 33 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“Kaly may have some role in this. I’ll accept that. But we, Vampires, are guiding our own destiny. We are writing our own future.” Tanis placed her right hand over her heart.

They aren’t. Seeyr is the one controlling all of this. Or rather, she is using what has come to turn it into what we want. Things that have to happen to lead to a wondrous future, Grayson thought firmly.

He was more certain than ever that what they were building in the future was the right one. And he now had the power to keep it safe.

“Do you really think that? You know the truth, Tanis. Kaly is the one behind all of this and you are just dancing to their tune. Do you want to deny what you know and continue down this path?” Fiona insisted.

Tanis’ mouth opened and shut. “I… You’re asking me to throw away everything I fought so hard to establish!”

“I’m asking you to do the real hard work of restoring things to how they need to be.” Fiona pressed that clenched hand over her own heart similar to how Tanis had. “In the future, Daemon will return. He will have his fated fledgling. He will reveal our existence to the humans. The Immortals will come back to themselves with new understanding and humility. That is the true way forward. Not this!”

“How long is that from now? How long before you live again, Mistress?” Tanis’ eyes hunted for answers on Fiona’s face. “You said millennia for the Order’s existence. But when do you return?”

Fiona let out a shaky breath. “Millennia, too. I’m only a few hundred years old in my current life.”

Tanis’ shoulders slumped. “So you won’t return for thousands of years, but expect me to fight against all my friends until then? Alone?”

It was that last word that twisted Grayson’s heart. It was the cry of a Childe without her Mistress. No matter that Tanis and Wyvern had been together for more time than that. She still yearned for her Mistress. Still wanted her there. Grayson reached over to take Ryder’s nearest hand, but Ryder was already reaching for his.

“I…” Fiona’s gaze dropped.

Her grief had her shoulder shaking. Charlie lifted a hand and patted her shoulder. He knew what the next several thousands years would bring. He didn’t offer either Tanis or Fiona any soothing pablum about the years flying by or that they wouldn’t be hard or horrible or worse. He just patted her shoulder and squeezed it while looking sad.

“But,” Tanis lifted her head, “you’re here now, Mistress. So will you be staying to help in this fight that you want me to wage?”

Hope was written so large on her face that it hurt Grayson to see. He turned his head into Ryder’s shoulder and rested his forehead against Ryder’s bicep. Khos leaned heavily against his leg to comfort him too.

Fiona finally shook her head. “No, in fact, we are here merely to speak to Seeyr. I need her guidance in order to use the gates to take us back to the future.”

She gestured to all of them.

“So you’re just going to leave? You reveal yourself to me, give a speech and then leave?” Tanis’ voice cracked.

Fiona looked grim. “I wish I could stay with you. I would stay with you. I would undo all of this! Most especially, the damage that I did as Wyvern and later in my current life as a Confessor in this goddamned Order!” Fiona shook as she clenched her fists. “But that is not what fate has in store.”

No, it requires us to even leave Seeyr in a dungeon, knowing she’ll be losing her eyes, yet still having to walk away. How hard will that be?

“What has fate in store for me then? To be alone for millennia until you return with a new face and new form? Will you even know me?” Tanis questioned.

Grayson’s forehead furrowed. He mentally ticked through the Wyvern Vampires he knew, especially those close to Fiona, in the future and he didn’t recall Tanis being one of them or even there at all. His heart hammered as he looked over at Fiona. There were a lot of years between now and the future. A lot of years where a lot of terrible things could happen. And now Tanis knew the truth about Kaly, the Order, the War…

Kaly will never let her live. Even if she refuses to help us. Even if she reports us now, it won’t matter. Kaly cannot allow this truth to be out there, Grayson realized and his heart iced over.

Fiona covered her face with her hands for a moment, but then she dropped them and looked at Tanis head on. The strength it must have taken to truly confront Tanis knowing all of that. Because Grayson was certain that Fiona had already figured this out. She would remember that Tanis was not with them in the future. Tanis was not there…

“If you were there in the future, I have not met you again,” Fiona said. “If I met you before now in this life, I would not have known you. My mind… my memory is not… not all there. And I don’t know if I ever want it to be again. But if it means forgetting you then maybe it should be. Even if the pain is unbearable.”

Grayson’s eyes flickered between the two women. Maybe Tanis simply kept her distance from Fiona because she knew that they would meet in the past! That was a potential solution to why they hadn’t met Tanis.

Or she was given her Second Death, Grayson grimaced.

While it was understandable–if a miracle–that Charlie had survived all these years, could Tanis? No, Kaly would never give up hunting her. It was just not possible. And there would have been hints of her out there.

Maybe she is in the Sect of Dawn, but no, again, Kaly wouldn’t trust her to remain silent. And even if they did, an Eyros Vampire could read her mind and discover it. No, no, she must die.

“You want to go forward? Ever forward?” Tanis’ smile was sad. “Yes, that is the essence of my Mistress. Don’t look back. Just keep going. No matter who you leave behind.”

Fiona winced. “That might have once been true of me before, but no longer.”