Page 153 of Eternal Obsession

My mind raced and I sensed Fabian inside my head, weighing every rumination.

“You’re wondering if I have them.”

“Sunaria’s ashes?”

Fabian indicated for me to sit, positioning his own chair opposite mine. He took hold of my hands.

“I have so much to learn,” I sighed and gazed at him in admiration, enjoying the sensation of Fabian’s touch as he rubbed his thumb affectionately against the back of my hand. This, an unfamiliar, fatherly gesture, carried the warmth of a father’s affection and the quiet kindness I had never known.

“How is it that we are eternal? That we possess the power to endure, to exist forever? —”

“Longevity?” Fabian said. “A timeworn question for all of us. We can only surmise that it is the way our blood transforms. It is highly concentrated with oxygen, therefore durable. Our cells regenerate quickly at the molecular level. We have evolved into timeless beings that exist outside spatial realms. We are unaffected.”

“I want to feel that I am not an abomination.”

“Nothing is,” Fabian reassured me. “You are merely another facet of nature.”

I considered his words. “I have Jacob’s pendant, the one I found at the Mount.”

“He’ll be happy to have that back,” Fabian said.

“It belonged to Lilly, his wife?”

Fabian nodded.

I cringed. “It must have fallen from her neck when the Stone Masters took her . . .”

“They believed they were doing the right thing.”

“How did you come to be here, though, in this castle? I always believed there were no underground passageways beneath this château. No hidden vaults or secret dungeons.”

“Yes, I started that rumor myself.” He chuckled. “I designed these very rooms, furnished them with the help of my love—a mortal. However, that was many years ago. I fulfilled my promise and took her half sister’s life. She was dying, you understand. I just sped up the process. My lover then repaid her promise to me and secured a place for me beneath this castle where I could live in peace. Away from prying mortal eyes.”

“This woman you talk of⁠—”

“The very same. Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, crowned Queen of England in 1558. We met while she was imprisoned here, betrayed by her lover. I sheltered here one winter night and heard her cries. No longer able to ignore her supplications I visited her in the guise of a priest. I was a mysterious guest, no doubt, but soon my social calls grew more frequent. I saw to it that she was freed from prison. Elizabeth became a magnificent queen. She guarded her castle well, took care of her land by herself with no man to help her. We worshipped one another. She was a brilliant and radiant woman.”

Fabian’s face lit up.

“And you dress as a priest still?” I said.

“I am ordained.”

“By the Church?”

“The Church,” he said.

“Catholic?”

“Older.” Fabian smiled.

“Then I believe you are the right person to help me.”

“I am.”

“Fabian, help me to get Catherine back. I must return to Belshazzar’s and persuade Alex to leave.”

“What I am about to tell you will unsettle you,” Fabian said. “Orpheus has given you the greatest of all gifts.”