Page 162 of Eternal Obsession

The darkened room bore down, its shadows falling over them. The candlelight flickered as Alex’s shadow rocked against the wall. Catherine stared into space.

A presence in the castle startled them. They sprung up, wiping their tears. They listened. Whatever had penetrated their domain was now heading for them.

The door burst open.

“I am Sunaria.” She lingered, silhouetted in the doorway.

She stood leaning against the doorjamb, a trace of weariness in her posture, yet her beauty was otherworldly, a paranormal queen. Like a goddess carved from myth, she radiated a fierce, controlled power. Her eyes burned with intensity, bright, sharp, and knowing. And her mouth held the shape of passion, vengeance, and unspoken truths. She was a stark, dangerous beauty.

Alex drew toward her. “But how?”

“I have Jadeon’s ashes,” she said, ignoring his desire to know how she had risen.

Catherine neared Alex.

This was the youthful, innocent beauty who had captivated Orpheus in that strange, magnetic way only true opposites can.

“First, you tell us how you are . . . alive?” Catherine said warily.

“I am reborn. Jadeon persuaded Snowstrom to . . . revive me,” Sunaria said.

“Snowstrom is real?” Alex asked.

“Of course, and he bid me to bring these to you. Snowstrom told me I may have Orpheus’s ashes if I return Jadeon’s to you.”

It was a cruel lie, yet spoken with such tenderness, such deliberate care, that to disbelieve it was unimaginable. And in their hearts, they longed - desperately—to believe it.

“We will bury them,” Catherine said.

She pressed a hand to her chest to soothe the ache, tears pricking at her eyes, grief rising like a knot in her throat as she struggled to speak.

Sunaria sighed. “Perform the ritual and he will be with you again. Your beloved is not dead.” Sunaria placed the bound cape at their feet. She unraveled it, exposing the mound of dark cinders.

It was an impossible sight—the ashes of a beloved, the haunting remnants of what remains when the sun has done its worst. And yet, within that seeming nothingness, lingered the whisper of a soul once shaped from that very form.

“What are you saying?” Alex said.

“That your blood will bring him back,” Sunaria said.

“How do we know we can trust you?” Catherine asked.

Sunaria stepped toward the door. “I will go then.”

“Wait,” Alex said.

Sunaria hesitated, her expression serene.

Alex approached Sunaria. “Let us hear what she has to say, Catherine.”

“Oh, have you not performed this ritual before?” Sunaria feigned surprise. “Must I perform it for you?”

“How do we know that those aren’t the ashes of Orpheus?” Catherine asked.

She turned her gaze aside, denial coiled deep within her bones, even as she knew that, in this moment, they would be the ones to breathe life back into her love.

“No matter,” Sunaria said.

Alex leaned toward Catherine and pleaded. “I have to know.”