Page 34 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“But you’re leaving! You’re only here to find a way to leave!” Tanis’ voice cracked again.

“Not because I wish to! You’ve no idea…” Fiona’s jaw clenched as if a scream of frustration and bottled up rage was inside of her. “I cannot put my own desires above what needs to happen for Daemon to return and for the greater good of Vampire-kind.”

And that was the truth of it. Fiona could not do what she wanted. None of them could. Not if they wanted the future that had been planned and sacrificed so much for. They needed to return. And they would leave Seeyr.

Do we have to leave Tanis?

The thought was slightly stunning to Grayson. But it was the one solution he hadn’t considered for why Tanis wasn’t there in the future. His head jerked up and he parted his lips to say. At that moment, he drew in a deep breath before speaking and then he scented that rotten, familiar scent.

Legion!

Ryder’s head had already snapped towards the direction the smell was coming from. His fangs were bared. The smell was so much stronger than it had been when they were near the gate in the wilds.

“Legion is in Solace,” Ryder growled.

“Legion? No.” Tanis shook her head. “They are not allowed inside even if they wished to come.”

“I see, so some Order members are not as equal as others in this new future of yours?” Charlie asked softly.

Tanis flushed and ducked her head. “Legion is being allowed to live. That is enough. They are…” She gave Ryder a dark look. “They are an abomination.”

“I don’t disagree. And I end them in the future in the most humane way possible,” Ryder said even as his eyes tracked the night for that familiar shambling figure.

“They know to keep to the wilds. To come here would be madness,” Tanis said. “There are some who would kill Legion even now.”

“Nothing will keep Legion from me, Tanis,” Ryder said with a humorless laugh. “A Childe cannot stay away long from their Master. Legion most of all.”

“But they have you in a soul gem. I’ve seen them… playing with it.” Tanis had the goodness to look ill at that fact.

“That will just confuse them more and make them more determined to find out why they sense me here,” Ryder said.

“It will drive them into the city,” Grayson said with certainty and his fangs ached.

Legion had hurt Ryder abominably. But also, they thought they were the Childe of Ryder’s heart when he was. And though it was petty and small and ridiculous, Grayson wanted to be the one to protect Ryder from Legion. The pretender. The false Childe.

Yet the hair on the back of Grayson’s neck was standing on end. “Ryder, we can’t stay here. Legion will find us with Tanis.”

Tanis stiffened as she must have caught the scent as well as heard his words. “Already, I have risked much for what I’m not quite sure.”

“If you are caught, you may tell them I compelled you,” Fiona said.

“Tell them that Wyvern came back from the dead? No, they will not believe that.” Tanis shook her head.

“Still looking for simplistic explanations instead of the truth?” Charlie asked in that same soft, but insistent way of his.

Tanis winced. “You ran! You hid from all of this! You didn’t help pick up the pieces! So how dare you judge me?”

Charlie sighed. “I actually did play a role, dear Tanis. You just wouldn’t have noticed me. I needed that. But I will say, I didn’t do enough. I certainly didn’t do enough to undermine the Order. I just tried to work within its confines. It was a mistake. One of many I regret with hindsight. But you have that hindsight now, Tanis. You can choose differently.”

“You ask too much. Even if I believe everything you say, leaving the Order is the wrong choice. I must try to purify it from within,” Tanis said firmly, hands on hips.

“It won’t work, Childe,” Fiona murmured. “I thought as much as you do. But it never worked.”

“How do you know that the Order wouldn’t be much worse if I stop being a part of it?” Tanis asked, chin tipped up.

The truth was that they didn’t know. But the likelihood of that was very low.

“I will just say this, Tanis, I was a great scholar of Order history,” Fiona said quietly, “and your name never came up.”