Chapter 3 Know You #2
“Caemorn has taken more responsibility for himself than any of us,” Fiona answered bitterly. “The fact that he didn’t want to look deeply back at what a sadistic bastard Roan was is not something for him to be criticized for.”
“I agreed with you, but you know how he is.” Christian gripped the soul gems in his palm.
Grayson knew that at some level he understood Caemorn’s anger at himself.
Failing to look with cool reason at his slices had potentially caused this one to cause havoc now.
But even if he had looked carefully, would it have really changed anything?
Regardless of the existence of Roan, none of them had thought that they were in the clear.
Even if it had just been Legion and the other War Children, they had plenty of enemies out there.
Yet they hadn’t been able to stop them from attacking.
And Seeyr didn’t warn us of any of this. Not because she didn’t see it, but because this is how we’re supposed to handle it. I’m sure she told Daemon.
“The real question is why the Kaly slices are here and doing this. It’s likely a diversion for some other purpose,” Grayson murmured.
His eyes narrowed as he thought of the many potential reasons that the Kaly slices were in Nightvallen.
It wasn’t just to kill him. Though that had been a large part of it.
If the Ecthrois were released that meant one or more of the Kaly slices had gone to the palace.
“What do you think Roan wants in the Kaly Palace that he was willing to announce his presence like this?”
“It can’t be good,” Christian said simply.
“No, it can’t be.”
“But Caemorn will know what it is, won’t he?” Fiona’s arms were crossed over her chest.
“They’re in the passageway to the palace now,” Christian said. “Legion and Roan went that way. Hopefully, they’ll stop them.”
“Both of them are here and together?” Grayson lifted an eyebrow, but immediately stopped as his head ached from simply tightening the muscles on his face. “It must be something very important they are looking for. Or…”
“Or they were here all along,” Fiona suggested. “Up until recently, Nightvallen was the safest place to be if you didn’t want to be found. Julian and Ryder found that dead human in the outskirts so they’ve clearly been living here for some time.”
“Could they have been beneath the city? Even somewhere underneath the Kaly Palace all this time?” Christian asked.
“Unnerving, but I suppose they could be. Roan is Kaly. The palace wouldn’t reject him. It would serve him just as readily as it would Caemorn,” Grayson agreed.
“And it wouldn’t rat him out to Caemorn either. The palace would have to serve them both equally, in a way,” Fiona said and shivered. “I’m going to go through every inch of mine after this. I was taking my time, assuming I had it, but now…”
“Caemorn isn’t staying at the Kaly Palace,” Christian pointed out. “He stays at the Eyros Palace, only going over to his own palace to gather things he needs to continue his work at the lab that Balthazar set up for him.”
“He wasn’t exactly a favorite as Caemorn with the Bloodline,” Fiona said with a faint grimace. “I don’t think he truly likes any of his descendants terribly well so I don’t blame him for keeping his distance from them.”
“You seemed really close to the Wyvern you brought with you,” Christian pointed out.
She nodded and smiled genuinely. “I didn’t mean that about my own.
Just the Kaly I’ve known are very individualistic.
They don’t want to be liked. Keeping secrets is what a Kaly does from each other and from us.
That’s why I know that it’s not that Caemorn has purposefully hidden some world-ending device in his palace, but… ” Her voice dropped.
“He might not just lay out everything he has there?” Grayson finished for her.
“Right,” she nodded.
“Then he’ll know where to look first,” Christian said loyally.
“Yes, he will,” Grayson agreed.
The window was suddenly filled by the face and chest of an Ecthrois.
It slammed its four fists against the glass, but there was no sound.
The protection offered by the dorm kept it from getting inside.
Still, all three of them jumped. Grayson saw the creature try to phase through the glass.
There was an electric spat of energy and the Ecthrois was thrown clean away from the building. It lay smoking on the ground.
“I wish the rest of the students were as safe,” Grayson breathed when it finally swung away, looking for another way in. “Now that we know anyone in the building is safe, perhaps you would reconsider going to get my roommates and the others students–”
“No.” That was said in unison by them both.
“I was just going to say–”
“No.” Again, Christian and Fiona spoke as one and they turned to him, smiling.
“Very good try, Grayson, but we have been asked to protect you. My people are already out there helping in the Ecthrois hunt,” Fiona said.
Christian suddenly stiffened. His silver eyes widened. They glowed like far stars.
“Christian?” Fiona went to his side and put a hand on his shoulder.
He let out a breath and shook his head as if to clear it. He lifted his right hand to his temple. “There was a trap.”
“What? Where?” Grayson asked.
“The Kaly Palace. It wasn’t… I’m not sure what it was, but I thought I heard…” Christian shook his head again, wincing as if he too had a headache.
“Heard what?” Grayson pressed.
He was sitting up further against the pillows. His body hurt from simply doing this. He knew he didn’t have the energy to get up and go to Christian. His alarm was giving him the sole energy he had.
“Wolves howling,” Christian said. “And not just wolves, but loads of animals. From all over. It was like every creature howled for a moment in solidarity.”
Grayson felt a cold wash flow over him and he wasn’t sure why.
“Everyone seems okay. Ryder is stunned, but…” Christian shook his head again. “It was a soul gem that opened right as they tried to get into the room.”
“Who was in the soul gem?” Grayson asked.
Ryder being stunned was not good. It took a lot to take down his beloved.
Christian frowned. “It doesn’t make sense. The soul gem was empty. It burst when they opened the door and… oh.”
“Christian?” Fiona shook the young Vampire just like Grayson wanted him to.
Christian’s eyes focused on Grayson. “Something’s happened.”
“What?” he asked.
“Ryder’s…” Christian struggled to find the right words.
“What’s happened to him?” Grayson demanded.
“He’s gone.”
Those words washed over him and, before he could think or truly absorb them, Grayson was struggling off of the bed. He didn’t even move a step before he collapsed on the ground.
Ryder’s gone?
Ryder can’t be gone!
I would know!
I don’t feel…
“Grayson!” Fiona cried. “Stop fighting us. Stop fighting! You need to rest.”
“How can I rest if Ryder’s gone? I have to find him–”
“It’s Weryn!” Christian burst out as he, too, helped Fiona get Grayson back into bed. “I’m sorry! I didn’t have a chance to explain!”
“Explain now!” Grayson commanded.
“He’s just Weryn. Ryder… his memories aren’t there,” Christian explained. “He’s just Weryn! I don’t know! Balthazar and Caemorn are trying to figure it out”
Grayson’s head was pounding and he found himself lying down, trying to breathe around the pain in his head and in his body, even as some part of him tried to fathom this.
“Ryder can’t just disappear!” Grayson cried.
“The soul gem that burst… it was where Weryn was housed before he escaped and was reborn,” Christian got out, his fingers pressed against his temples as if to make sure he got the words as right as possible.
“They think that it wasn’t so much of a trap as an accident.
That soul gem breaking released a remnant of Weryn that… scoured away Ryder.”
Grayson boggled at this. But he also boggled at his own despair.
I loved Weryn. I loved him. I love him. Ryder is Weryn just with more memories so why–why do I feel like I’ve lost something, someone, everything? What is happening? What…
“Take me to him,” Grayson insisted.
“We can’t,” Fiona began.
“TAKE ME TO HIM!” Grayson cried. He shut his eyes as the pain rocketed about in his head. “Please, Fiona. Please.”
“No,” she said with an anguished edge. “You can’t be moved. But I can bring him to you.”
Tears were falling from his eyes. “Yes, yes, yes, please. I need him. Once he sees me, he’ll… he’ll be okay.”
Weryn is Ryder. Ryder is Weryn. It’ll be fine. Right? RIGHT? After all, Grayson is hardly important to me being me. So why… why…
Fiona disappeared even as Christian covered him with a blanket and helped arrange his useless body on the bed.
“Christian, this can be fixed, can’t it?” Grayson asked.
He sounded so small and young.
Christian’s eyes wouldn’t meet his. “Everything can be. But you and Weryn were–are–in love so even if the Ryder personality is gone that shouldn’t change anything, should it?”
“It shouldn’t,” Grayson agreed, but the lie tasted like ashes on his tongue.
Caemorn is and isn’t Kaly. Balthazar is and isn’t Eyros. Fiona is and isn’t Wyvern. Ryder is and isn’t Weryn. But now there’s only Weryn. Only Weryn…
“Why is it taking so long? She should be back,” Grayson said.
“They’re explaining to Weryn who you are. He–he’s coming. They’re coming,” Christian said.
And at that moment, Fiona and Ryder appeared before them at the foot of the bed.
“Ryder!” Grayson rocketed forward in bed, reaching for the other man.
He did not reach back. And something in Grayson curdled.
“I mean… Weryn!” Grayson tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace as the man who looked and didn’t look like Ryder stared at him without any expression.
“He’s Ashyr reborn,” Fiona said and gestured to him. “Just like I’m Wyvern reborn and–”
But Weryn was shaking his head. “He’s human. A boy. A weak boy. He’s not Ashyr. I don’t know him.”