Page 100 of Eternal Surrender

For centuries, discreet nightwalkers and privileged mortals had mingled here, enjoying the grandest refuge the city had to offer, placing aside their innermost fears and exploring the darkest recesses of their imaginations and crossing over, immersing themselves completely in the underworld.

Echoes of the past were fast fading.

Within Orpheus’s private domain in the deepest chambers of the club, I’d rolled up my trouser legs and was sitting on the far edge of the thirty-foot swimming pool, soaking my legs in the crystal blue water. Light reflected off the surface, shimmering along the walls and providing a relaxed aura to the low-ceilinged chamber.

But I found no peace here.

After losing Montague, I’d spent an entire evening searching for Paradom again, braving another attempt to see him in hope of finding the Stone Masters’ library. But the night had been wasted.

I sensed Ingrid’s presence, angry with her for defying me, and was in no mood to deal with anyone but myself.

With no bouncer to prevent her entrance, Ingrid strolled alone down the corridor leading to the main nightclub. The sweeping chandeliers that had lit this dramatic entrance were gone, leaving wires hanging from their sockets, the red carpet that had once guided visitors in was now ripped up, revealing bare wooden floorboards.

Perhaps, one day, everything would be made whole again. For now, the very qualities that made this place so unique, so profound—its multimillion-dollar splendor—would remain safeguarded and hidden from the world.

From the lowest depths of the club, I continued to psychically follow her every move.

She stepped up her pace and pulled on the handles to open the double doorway into the main club. Once inside, she turned round and around trying to process what she was seeing; no tables or chairs and the bar empty.

Belshazzar’s was deserted.

Ingrid approached the elevator and punched the down button.

I considered slipping away without being seen and heading out to rejoin Marcus and Alex, who were waiting for me back in the gallery. They’d promised they weren’t giving up and had tried to convince me I shouldn’t either.

Ingrid was standing in the doorway. “There’s no record of any funeral,” she called over to me.

“Orpheus was very private,” I said.

“And he liked swimming by the looks of things?” She headed in.

I leaned back using my hands to support me, leisurely kicking my legs and enjoying the sensation of the water.

She stepped in like a breath drawn from the world outside, auburn hair, catching what little light there was, both ethereal and unmistakably mortal. Fragile, and bearing a strength that seemed almost defiant, a living contradiction, breathtaking in every impossible way. And yet, the thought lingered, bitter and certain, she was such a beauty, such a force, she was never to be truly possessed by me.

“This is the last thing I’d have suspected to find down here.” She knelt and dipped her hand in. “What’s this, your last swim before it’s drained?”

“Something like that.”

She wore a figure-hugging suit with heeled boots, a quiet, declaration that she had dressed with care. Her makeup was flawless, and a faint trace of perfume, subtle yet understatedly fine, hinting at a small indulgence, a touch of something she had chosen for herself. It spoke more of thoughtfulness than display.

This was her armor, sensual, intoxicatingly sophisticated, every movement and glance radiating a dangerous intelligence.

She rose. “Where is he?”

“You do realize you’re trespassing again?” I asked.

With a wave of her hand, she dismissed my remark, strolling down the right side of the pool. “Did you close this place because of me?” Her cheeks were flushed from the cold. “Let me take a wild guess, if I was to bring in a team of forensic scientists they’d merely find traces of cleaning agents?”

“The underworld has existed long before you were born, and it will exist long after you’re dead.”

She stepped closer. “You’re destroying evidence.”

“Ingrid—”

“Two girls were murdered and those responsible have gone unpunished.”

“If I knew I could explore this subject more with you in confidence, you might just get the answers you want.”