Page 47 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 3
“Your scent is in the room,” Ryder pointed out.
“Only you know it, my dear,” Fiona pointed out, “and you’ve been seen escorting Grayson about. Charlie will assume the smell comes from you.”
“Charlie notices visual things. Especially shiny things,” Balthazar assured him. “Grayson’s scent won’t even enter his mind.”
“That’s settled then,” Grayson said.
He gave Ryder’s hand a squeeze before he slipped into the small space. The bookcase slipped into place. At that moment, a man–no, a woman–no, a man… Ryder wasn’t sure what gender they were, came into the room. Their clothes, which had seemed plain when they had entered the room–gray slacks and a shapeless, long-sleeved shirt of the same color–now were as flamboyantly patterned as Balthazar’s suit. At first, it was an exact copy of Balthazar’s suit, but then shifted in color and tone to have more blues and browns before it finally settled down as a different, yet similar thing.
Mirrys. They can look like anyone or anything. If one of the students is chosen to join them, this time in the Ever Dark will likely be the last
They were tall and slender–no, short and fat–and greeted Balthazar effusively with a voice that changed octaves with every word. They spoke like a dandy from another age though.
“Balthazar! Are you excited about our party? You must be! No one gives as good a party as the Mirryrs! And this one is going to be exceptionally good!” Charlie enthused as he pumped Balthazar’s hands in a two-fisted grip.
“Yes, yes, I’m sure.” Balthazar smiled widely at them.
Charlie suddenly lifted up on their toes. “Oh! What on Earth–or I should say the Ever Dark!--was that? Someone gave me a squeeze! How very cheeky!”
Grayson says he’s clean of structures, Balthazar said in Ryder’s head and Ryder assumed in everyone else’s as well, passing along the good news.
“Well, your party is going to be even more exciting than you know, Charlie,” Balthazar told him dryly.
“I can’t imagine how! It’s a masked ball, you know! And there will be acrobats and knife throwers and flame eaters and–”
“There’s also going to an attempted murder, Charlie,” Fiona interrupted.
Charlie’s face–a seeming amalgamation of many faces–fell. “W-what? N-no, that’s not on the list of events! There will even be a bubble room! How will murder go with that?”
“We’re hoping it won’t, dear,” Seeyr said gently. “That’s why we need to put in a little more security than you had planned.”
“What do you mean? And who’s getting murdered? And who's doing the murdering? Surely you know, Seeyr!” Charlie flapped their arms rather like a rooster.
Seeyr put a finger to her temple as if she were about to see into the future, but then she smiled. “If I knew and could tell you, I would.”
It was the middle part of that which was always intriguing. Sometimes if Seeyr told what she knew the future to be, it wouldn’t happen that way. The very act of speaking her knowledge shifted things fundamentally. Even a hint could throw things off. But she had planned events through the millennia to bring Daemon back to a successful return to power, according to the rumors. So Ryder hoped she could help stop a simple murder.
A simple murder… There’s nothing simple about any of this.
“Oh, and to make it even more fun,” Balthazar said with another wry little grin, “we’re going to have to stop the murder without anyone knowing that it was ever going to take place! In front of the reporters.”
“W-what???” Charlie looked like he was about to swoon.
Fiona gave them her seat. Charlie sank down upon it. He gratefully accepted some blood wine and drank down half the glass.
“None of this sounds like fun, Balthazar! We’re not a violent Bloodline,” Charlie wailed. “Mostly we run away! And now you’re telling me that someone is going to kill someone at my beautiful party? Oh, the horror!”
“It’s going to be one of the students that gets killed,” Fiona said.
“A little student? Oh, no. Oh, no!” Charlie gobbled down the rest of the blood wine and sank back on the sofa looking blasted.
“Oh, we need you to keep this to yourself, Charlie,” Balthazar told the Mirryr Vampire.
“What? But I have to tell my people so that we can do something–”
“We’re going to be doing all of it,” Fiona said.
“The Immortals?” Charlie blinked brown then blue then gray then green eyes at them.
