Page 14 of Eternal Surrender

“Jadeon,” I answered for him. “Alex, it was you who resurrected me?”

“Sunaria persuaded me to pour my blood over the ashes,” he answered. “And then she did the same.”

“He didn’t know,” Jacob said in Alex’s defense.

“Sunaria thought the ashes belonged to Orpheus?” I made it a question, though I knew the answer. “I thought she was dead.”

“Just as you were resurrected from ash,” Jacob said, “so was she.”

The sheer impossibility of it—my death, giving rise to her rebirth, a Shakespearean, tragedy, intertwined, and torturous. We had been so close to reunion, close enough to feel it breathe between us. Now I was no longer myself, not fully and yet. . . Something in me still reached for her.

Within the dungeon, I had pushed her away, when all I had yearned for centuries was her.

Someone would pay for this.

I focused on Jacob. “You knew where she was all this time?”

“Yes,” he replied calmly.

I loosened my collar, needing more air. “Alex, open the window.” Memories were flooding in and making my head foggy.

Alex twisted the lock and gave the window a shove to open it. The summer breeze was just as stifling.

“I was revived here in the dungeons,” I said, remembering the faces I’d looked upon. “And then I ran from you all.” They’d chased me down to the water where I had almost drowned.

“You were in shock.” Jacob shifted his position as though thinking twice about coming any closer. “You still are.”

I ignored Jacob’s remark. “Catherine’s here?” I felt relief to sense this.

Jacob broke my gaze.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this, ever,” I muttered.

“Jadeon,” Alex lowered his voice. “You gave your life to save Ingrid.”

“Where’s she now?” I ignored the name he’d just called me, remembering the intimacy I shared with Ingrid, the love affair that burned too brightly and should never have happened.

“I took her to the hospital,” Alex said. “She wouldn’t recognize you now anyway.”

“Do I look like a monster?” I feared the answer.

“No.” Alex came closer. “When you rose, you shifted for the first hour between Orpheus and Jadeon.”

The painful transition still lingered in the very marrow of my bones. “And now?” I barely said.

“You have Jadeon’s eyes,” Alex paused. “Orpheus’s dark locks, his jaw. . .”

“More like Orpheus, then?” I glanced over at Jacob for confirmation.

Jacob gave a slow, deliberate nod.

It was a curious, blend of pride and dread, twisting together in a single, uneasy pulse.

“No wonder you’re so wary of me.” I sighed. “Why call me William?”

“William Artimas was Jadeon’s father,” Alex said. “My father.”

“You chose it to get back at me?” I asked. “Because Orpheus killed Lord William Artimas?”