It had taken him a while to realize she was just saying that.She’d brought them forhim.Her kindness had been almost paralyzing at the time.She’d truly wanted to help him.Which was why she started to ask him questions.Just a few at first.But they were incisive and he’d realized that shetrulywanted to help him.Which meant finding out his past to get him off the street… And he couldn’t have that.He needed to be invisible so he’d had to stop going to the library.He could still see her face in his mind though.He hoped she was well.
“Yes!It’s marvelous!There’s this brilliant librarian and two staff.They tuck you into a cozy corner by a fireplace and bring you tea, cake and books they think you’d like.I’ve already bought half a dozen,” she admitted with a blush.
“Sounds great,” Grayson said genuinely.
“I’d say let’s go there, but I’ll get distracted.So I hope you don’t mind if we go to the coffee shop,” she said.“I don’t think that many people will be there yet after last night’s festivities.”
She, of course, was bright eyed and bushy tailed.But Rachel was on a mission.While the rest of the reporters were there to get stories and report on the Ever Dark, the Vampires and the students, she was going to save a son for a mother.They walked in mostly silence to the coffee shop.He asked her about the lodgings for the reporters.
“They’re plush.Really!It’s like they picked something out of everyone’s head and created it.I didn’t know why my room felt so familiar until I realized it was from a book I’d read when I was like 12,” she answered.Then, more slowly, she added, “I suppose theycouldhave picked something out of my head.We had to go through a mind reading protocol.”
“It’s the Ever Dark actually,” Grayson told her offhandedly.
“What do you mean?”she blinked.
“While I’m sure that Balthazar could read your mind and pluck something that would suit you, that’s not what happened,” he told her.“The Ever Dark itself does it.”
“That’s–that’s amazing.How does it do that?”She stared at him intently.
He wondered if he had said too much, but then he realized that there was no harm in telling her this.It wasn’t a secret as the students knew it.
“I have no idea, but I had the same experience,” he admitted with a shrug.
His palace had come together much the same way.Unlike Weryn who had gone out and sought the materials to create his palace with his own bare hands, the Ashyr Palace had been totally a creation of his mind.But he didn’t tell her this.
The coffee shop was utterly charming like something out of a Hallmark movie where people seemed to always eat baked goods and have endless cups of coffee while they looked for true love and a way to save something in their sweet town.Baristas were busy steaming milk and pulling espressos when they came in.They did not have silver eyes, which meant they were human.
Acolytes maybe?
Regardless, they expertly created Rachel’s very specific drink which had oat milk and a vanilla shot and something else.He ordered a pot of the hot jasmine tea and an assortment of pastries for them to share.They then sat down at a small corner booth away from the front and talked aimlessly about their drinks and how good the monkey bread was.Grayson was in no hurry to discuss his mother and it was just as clear that Rachel wasn’t surehowto bring her up.
“Grayson…” She opened and shut her mouth.
“You brought your tablet,” he said suddenly.
It was in front of her.She was fiddling with the stylus.
“Oh, I–”
“This isn’t an interview, Rachel,” he told her sharply.
“N-no, of course not!It’s just a habit and I’m never sure when I’ll need it here as amazing things happen around every corner,” she said as she quickly stuck the stylus back into its holder and closed the tablet’s cover.She set it to the side of the booth seat beside her.“No notes.No reporter.Just Rachel here.”
Grayson realized then that he should have asked Balthazar to get all the news reports on this matter for him.He wasn’t sure what Rachel–or anyone knew–or what his mother had said.Well, he’d talk to her now and he’d have Balthazar follow up for him.
“Has my mother given any interviews?”he asked.
Rachel shook her head.“No, no, she would only speak to me and then off the record.”
“So how does anyone know what happened that night?”he asked.
“The p-police report,” she answered.
He grimaced.Of course.There was a police report.There had to be.She’d had to call the police after… Well, he couldn’t have expected her to bury his stepfather’s body and clean up the house and never speak of him again.
“I–I have a copy of it, if you’d like to see.”She gestured to the closed tablet.
He should look at it.But he found himself shaking his head.“What did it say?”
