Page 42 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 3
“You’re thinking that it couldn’t have been anticipated or stopped,” Grayson told him. He shook his head. “I was to anticipate and head off problems while Daemon was gone. But I didn’t.” He looked at Seeyr, who sat very still on her chair. “Why didn’t I, Seeyr? You were there. You would remember.”
She fluttered one hand. “There was nothing you could do. It always had to go this way.”
“Yes, but I did fail in some way that allowed it to happen,” Grayson insisted. “Just because it had to that doesn’t mean I had no role–”
“You were in love,” she said simply.
Grayson swallowed hard even as Ryder pulled him closer. “So I was inattentive–”
“No, actually, no, not like you’re thinking.” She sighed. “We aren’t… Well, you all aren’t the people you were. But back then, we were very separate. That kept things equal.”
“Ashyr and Weryn joining your forces together threatened that separateness where separateness meant equal power amongst us all,” Caemorn said quietly. He drew one long finger over the top of his glass. There was a faint hum from the crystal. “The two of you joining forces threatened that equality.”
Grayson felt a tingling behind his eyes. He pinched the top of his nose for a moment. “You warned me that my relationship would cause instability. It would worry the others whether they would admit it or not.”
“No one knew how long Daemon would be gone except Seeyr.” Caemorn shrugged his shoulders as he stared into his wine glass. “Many thought to do things their way during that time.”
“I told you that my relationship with Weryn would increase our stability while we awaited Daemon’s,” Grayson recalled. The tingling grew. It was uncomfortable, but he pressed into it. “If one of the other Immortals thought to do something that would expose us or threaten Daemon’s reign then I would see it and Weryn could stop it.”
Grayson felt like a gigantic black hole was opening before his feet as he realized just how threatening that would seem to the other Immortals. Maybe it had even been threatening. He hadn’t intended it to.
Or did I?
“Ashyr, you have always been a natural born leader,” Seeyr said in her quiet, kind way. “You saw a vacuum and thought to fill it. Others saw a threat and tried to stop it. Were either of you right? Were either of you wrong? Regardless, it led to the War and that led us here. And here is what we focus on. What you wish to focus on, don’t you?”
Grayson felt the tingling recede. He dropped his hand down from his face and rolled his shoulders back as some of the tension bled from them. “You’re right, Seeyr. I didn’t actually come back here to debate these things, only to acknowledge them, and hope we can leave them behind–at least as far as each other–and go forward.”
“Because of those other enemies you mentioned?” Fiona clarified.
Grayson nodded. “Humanity, of course, is its own issue. But there is another player. What rumors, myths or otherwise have each of you heard about the Sect of Dawn?”
“Vampire hunters,” Fiona answered, “but with magic. That’s why I thought that they were a myth altogether, because humans–absent yourself, Grayson–don’t have magic. But Vampires working alongside them would account for that”
“And their goal was to protect humans from Vampires?” Grayson asked.
She nodded. “But more than that. They didn’t just fear individual humans being fed upon and killed, but Vampires taking over the world.”
“Which is now happening,” Ryder pointed out.
“Not you too, Ryder!” Balthazar shook his head. “I assure you that I wouldn’t be fielding as many reporters as I am now if we were in charge. I have to soothe them, calm them, give them little exclusives and–”
“You love it. The battle of wits is something you adore,” Caemorn cut him off smoothly.
Balthazar pursed his lips and then nodded. “Yes, yes, there’s some sport in it. But if we were in charge I could stop when it started annoying me, but I cannot!”
“The Order actually looked to find the Sect of Dawn,” Caemorn admitted with a slightly wry smile.
“You did?”
“Really?”
“Did you find them?”
All these questions seemed to come out of everyone’s mouth at once.
“Kaly… I was concerned about the other Immortals and Daemon’s return,” Caemorn explained. “I wanted to see what powers these beings had against us so that I could use them. Also, I wanted them under my control.”
“You do like controlling people even more than me,” Balthazar admitted.
