2. Bad Excitement #2
Her heart beat faster when she said his name.
She really missed him. Not that she wanted him to be here with her in this great danger but he was such a soothing, anchoring presence.
With him here, she would have been able to still her hamster-wheel-like thoughts and would know what to do or rather how to make the gates work.
But Daemon had sent him on some super secret mission.
He wasn’t even speaking regularly to Balthazar.
She hoped he was all right. She was sure he was.
He was the most capable of people that she knew.
“I can see you thinking of the old chap right now,” Charlie beamed at her.
“But you know all that you just said is bunkum, right? That’s not how people see you at all.
And it seems to me that you’ve gotten right close to Ryder, Grayson, Balthazar, Caemorn and Seeyr already.
Not to mention Christian and Julian. And now Joanna!
Those types of quality people aren’t friends with people out of pity.
They’ve got too much on their plates for that. ”
She nodded. “I know. Balthazar keeps telling me that. He gives me this look every time I have a thought like that. But it’s hard.
It’s the story I’ve been telling myself for a very long time.
I understand why Caemorn looks a little shell shocked all the time.
He can’t believe his good fortune. He doesn’t believe he deserves it. Yet there it is. I feel the same.”
Charlie regarded her with great seriousness, which was rare, because he clearly liked to keep things light. “You do deserve good things, Wyvern. Whatever happened in the past is in the past. I truly do agree with Daemon’s decision to let us all work things out and not get involved.”
“Is that what he’s doing?” She lifted an eyebrow.
“Of course! He hasn’t even bollocks anyone and he’d have more than a right to.
He could Armageddon us all and make us pay for a few mortal lifetimes,” Charlie pointed out.
“But instead he takes us into his arms, hugs us, and tells us how sorry he is.” Charlie sighed.
“Guilt is so much more effective than punishment. Letting him down really digs deep, you know?”
“I do.” She nodded. That had her draining another glass, but not to forget but for energy. “And we can’t let him down any more. He’s agreed to let me turn Joanna. I have to be there for her. And our Bloodlines need us, too. We matter, Charlie.”
“Yes, we do. Even if it is just Charlie and Fiona.” He smiled fondly at her.
“Then let’s find Eyros and get to the gate to Nightvallen. No more sitting around,” she said as she rose. “By the way, does your Bloodline know that you’re you?”
“Ah, I would like to say no, but I’m not altogether sure. When you’re the head of a Bloodline of people who can appear like anything, well, finding out what they really know and think can be damned difficult,” he answered.
“Are you going to tell them?” she asked as they both headed to the door.
“I suppose I must. Daemon wants all of our palaces lit up. I do think he likes pretty fires. And it’s only fair that I add the glory of the Mirryr Palace to the rest,” Charlie mused.
Even before they were halfway to the door, there were light steps on the landing outside and a knock on the door. It was Eyros. She smelled his cologne. Weirdly or maybe not, Balthazar had a similar favorite scent. Warm, woodsy with a hint of spice and cinnamon.
She opened the door, smiling at Eyros, “Oh, good, you’re here, Eyros. We were just about to go looking for you.”
She saw how he froze at her smile. He stared at her lips, not as if he wanted to kiss them, but as if memorizing them with their upturned corners. His eyes skittered to hers and he put on a smile of his own, but it was a little stiff.
“Not that anyone would recognize the two of you as you, but best not to let many see you, I’m guessing. Might cause some kind of time paradox or something,” he said. “I’m already going to have a hell of a time erasing Elgar’s memories of you all.”
He was shutting the door as he said that last piece, which had her responding, “Are you sure? Knowing that there’s a future might make what he goes through…” She stopped and swallowed. “I don’t know if it would make it easier. But he would know that you would return and find one another.”
“Who knows how long it will be–and I intend for it to be a very long time–before that happens? While I guard my thoughts assiduously against everyone, he is very close to me,” Eyros said.
“And of everyone, he would look into my mind to help me and he would see it all. Then he would suffer for however long it was until we reached that terrible moment.”
“But won’t he do that even if he doesn’t remember us?” Charlie pointed out. “You’ll still know what you learned from us and the future.”
“It would be harder to grasp the initial link of the chain,” Eyros answered with a shrug as if that made sense to anyone who was not an Eyros Vampire. “Besides, unless the dear boy has become the most formidable liar and hider of truths, he has no memories of you all in the future, does he?”
“No,” Fiona shook her head. “Even if he might keep it from us, he wouldn’t be able to keep it from you, Eyros.”
“No, he wouldn’t and I wouldn’t let him. So he doesn’t know. And if he doesn’t know, that’s because I’ve taken the memories from him,” Eyros said with a certain sharpness in his tone.
He wasn’t angry at them, she realized. But he didn’t want to do this to Elgar. Yet he felt he was being forced to.
“I see, yes, I suppose you’re right,” she answered.
“If anyone needs to bear this burden, it will be me and me alone,” he said with a wave as if such a burden weren’t crushing him beneath its weight even now.
“I’m so sorry, Eyros,” she said. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
His eyes were on her again. “Please don’t, Wyvern… I mean, Fiona.”
“Don’t what?” she asked.
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” Eyros said with a bitter laugh. “I really don’t deserve it, especially coming from you. Trust me on that.”
Her eyes shifted to Charlie and then back to Eyros. Charlie just looked sad.
“Well, I–I shall try not to add to your burden even if I don’t agree with what you just said there,” she said as she brought her hands together in front of her body.
“Now, if you show can show me where the gate to Nightvallen is from the balcony I can just teleport there and we won’t have to worry about anyone in the city seeing me. ”
“Or me! I’m going with you,” Charlie said, all eager smiles and beaming. “It’s so exciting seeing you do this, Fifi. It’s history making.”
“Ah, right, yes, of course, it is.” She cleared her throat and looked expectantly at Eyros. “Now, can we see the gate from the balcony?”
“Yes. Here, let me show you,” he said as he took the lead and brought them back out on the balcony.
The raven and the falcon were still flying together. They both dove down and grabbed some poor helpless creature–maybe a mouse or muskrat or whatever the Ever Dark had in the way of small rodents–in their claws before rising back up into the air again.
A successful hunt! She found herself grinning.
Eyros’ gaze followed hers. “Oh, I see that things are going apace for Ashyr and Weryn. Ashyr really does have the Weryn gift. Shifted already, too. Overachiever.”
“Wait, what? That’s–that’s–” She pointed at the two birds.
“Yes, it’s them. I can’t read their minds exactly. There’s some interference from the shift, but the raven is Ashyr and the falcon is Weryn. Oh, I’m sorry, Grayson and Ryder. I do so not understand these other names,” Eyros groused.
“It’s about not being ruled by the past, Balky,” Charlie said and then quickly, “I mean, Eyros.”
“Very funny, Charlie. I don’t think Balthazar has ever been a popular name.” Eyros’ eyes were narrowed, but then he went over to the very edge of the balcony and pointed to the far left. “The gate to Nightvallen is right there on top of that hill–”
“What about that one?” She pointed to another gate that was half hidden by trees.
“Which one, Fifi?” Charlie asked as he craned his neck. “I don’t see another gate–oh, yes, now I do!”
“It’s glowing with a bright, white light. How could you not see it?” she asked them both.
They stared at her with incomprehension written large on their faces. She was the one to blink this time and look between them.
“You don’t… you don’t see the glow? I mean it’s so vivid. It’s lighting up the trees around it,” she said awkwardly.
“No, no, it just looks like a normal gate to me. No glow,” Charlie answered with a shrug. But then he appeared animated. “What do you suppose the glow means? Maybe it has something to do with your ability to time travel–”
“No, it can’t be,” Eyros said sharply. “It absolutely has nothing to do with anything.”
Charlie blinked. “But, Eyros, this is Fifi’s power. We don’t know–”
“I do know one thing and that is that you will not be doing anything with that particular gate,” Eyros said in a tone so arctic that the skin on the back of Fiona’s neck rose.
“But I don’t understand, Eyros–”
Fiona stopped Charlie from saying anything more. Instead she asked, “Where does that gate lead, Eyros?”
But she already knew what he was going to say. And he didn’t disappoint her.
He gave her a sharp, bitter smile. “Solace.”