Page 68 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“I know you won’t believe me. I didn’t believe all the naysayers either,” Fiona continued. “I was so loyal. Just like you. Certain of the rightness of the Order and what I was doing in it. But it’s all lies. Every single bit of it. And some of you, deep in your hearts, might know this. But you might think that giving over some of your freedoms is a worthy exchange for safety and peace. With the War still being so fresh in all of your minds, this must seem like paradise in comparison. A paradise worth protecting with everything you have.”

Charlie scanned the faces. He was very good at reading people’s emotions from every single bit of their body language and expressions. But he was getting very little from these people. There were a few micro-expressions. Fiona was not wrong in what she was saying. But there was no doubt in these people. Or maybe they knew it was all a lie and didn’t care.

“You will come to regret your role here just as you might have done already in the War,” Fiona told them. “But we are not here to harm you or stop you or even make you face that regret. You need to let us pass.”

There was faint confusion on their faces now. They believed she was telling them the truth. But they couldn’t understand who they could be if they didn’t mean them harm, let alone likely why they had to let them pass.

If only we had Balky here when we needed him! He could have these people dancing a jig and we could be outside already!

Fiona was just using her own earnestness and the strength of her character. It was impressive, but he doubted it would work.

“You won’t listen,” Fiona said with a small sigh. “Of course, you won’t. You’re so narrowed in on what you’ve told, but, more importantly, what you hope the Order will do that you aren’t looking at what it’s really doing or considering what comes next. There is a logical and terrible conclusion to where you’re going. Trust me. I’ve seen it.”

“You tried,” Charlie said. “But this can’t change. It won’t change.”

He felt the weight of leaving Seeyr down below to her fate again. At least when they had left Eyros, they were leaving him safe and sound back in Destiny. They wouldn’t see him and Elgar find their fate thankfully, but it all hit him then. They were in the maelstrom. What they did next was supposedly fixed or might be fixed or had to be fixed. He hoped it was, because wanted them to survive.

“Now who are you who speaks with such ill knowledge?” the child Vampire asked as she stared up at Fiona.

Fiona’s eyes narrowed and a flinty expression crossed her face as he hand tightened on Charlie’s forearm. “The one getting us out of here.”

And they teleported.

Charlie hated teleporting. It always felt like his stomach followed after the rest of his body arrived. Which, of course, caused his gorge to rise. But this time he was darn-right thrilled to feel that familiar nausea. Only to realize that Fiona had only managed to teleport them to the end of the hallway. Both of them looked over their shoulders at the crowd that was turning towards them.

“Time to run!” Fiona cried as she took off, dragging him and the dead Tanis behind her.

They were out of the dungeon’s hallway and into the main floor of the Spire. And they no longer looked as they had. He was no longer Tanis, but an elder male Vampire with golden skin and creases around his silver eyes. Tanis now looked like a rolled up carpet. Fiona had changed into a short, squat Vampire with a red curly beard.

More of the Order Vampires were all around them and, with his guidance, they melded into the crowd, as they headed towards the doors. Unlike the Order Vampires that were in the hallway itself, they seemed to not know exactly what was going on, but they were alarmed. Charlie saw plenty of people whispering rapidly to one another and looking around. Of course, when the slip of a girl Vampire raced out of the hallway, one arm thrust out as if to accuse someone of witchcraft, the whispering became raised voices.

“Where are they?! The ones that left here? We need to find them!” the girl Vampire cried.

He and Fiona kept walking, making their way as quickly and directly to the doors as possible, but they were having to keep within a group. Breaking off from one to go to the doors would draw attention.

“There was a red-haired Vampire and another carrying a carpet that just came out,” one of the Order Vampires, a man with sandy hair, said as he scanned the crowd.

But good luck finding that odd couple as Charlie had already changed their appearances. He was now over six feet tall and built like a bodybuilder. Tanis now appeared to be a small box that was carried in both hands. Fiona was now clean shaven with a voluptuous form barely contained in a leather Order dress. Fiona looked down at her large chest and gave him a pointed look.

“It was the farthest thing I could think of from what I'd made you before,” he hissed in explanation.

She shook her head, but a faint smile played on her face.

“I don’t know if we’re getting out the front doors. We need another route,” he whispered out of the side of his mouth as they both moved to the edge of the circular room where all the Order Vampires seemed to be clustering.

The child Vampire–whose name was Bianca if he’d overheard another call her right–stormed over to the dozen of guards there and demanded to know who had come through in the five minutes since they’d quit the hallway.

“You’re right. Let’s sidle over there. If I can get us to a quieter place, I should be able to, at least, teleport us outside into the rose garden,” Fiona whispered.

He gave a nod and the two of them threaded through the crowd, making appropriately concerned noises about how “enemies” could have breached the sanctity of the Spire! He followed Fiona’s lead as she spoke various greetings to the other Order members that sounded like nonsense to him, but were the traditional way to greet other members.

“Touch the center of your head with two fingers together of your right hand,” she instructed, “when you meet anyone of higher rank.”

“How do I know if they’re of higher rank?” he asked.

“They have red jewels on the collar of their outfits,” she said.

“ShouId I give us some of those?” he asked.