Page 85 of Eternal Obsession

I shared Orpheus’s thoughts of Catherine. Unwilling to let her go, I grasped his wrist.

He revealed her to me through his blood . . . my Catherine.

Her youth, eternal and unspoiled, lingered like a specter through shifting seasons even as they withered, even as the walls crumbled around her to reflect her immortality. Time itself unraveled about her and still she stood, a fixed star in the chaos.

Eternal beauty, though her garments danced with time.

And I, helpless witness to her haunting grace, searched each expression, each fleeting glance, desperate to know if joy had ever touched her heart.

If you ever harmed her, I will find you and I will kill you, I conveyed to Orpheus.

Together we lay on the stone floor, panting as our hearts pounded.

I had stepped into his trap, blind with longing and fury, and he had triumphed by knowing I had followed him all around the world for this—this vision of her.

The cocaine’s unforgiving hold ravaged on and took me with it.

Chapter Thirty-Six

JADEON

I awoke in blackness.

Where the bloody hell am I?

The deafening noise of a television roused me, the channels changing frantically. I pried my eyes open and was startled to see Alex holding the remote control. I was back in my suite at the Savoy with no recollection how I had gotten there.

“I didn’t know you ordered takeout,” Alex said.

I pulled the sheet covers up and over my thumping head.

I had failed.

I had to go back.

Alex tugged on the bed sheet. “Oh good, you’re awake. Look. Jadeon, see how amazing this is.”

I peeked over the bed covers. Alex was mesmerized with the television. It was wise not to tell him what I’d seen just yet. I wondered how long before I would find the strength to return.

Pain everywhere, which settled in my head. “If you turn it off right now, we’ll get one for every room in the castle,” I said.

“You don’t look too good.”

“Alex, the TV.”

He turned it off. “What happened to you?”

“I drank bad blood.”

“How so?”

“Drugs,” I said simply.

“What kind?”

“Too many questions, Alex.”

“I read in Cosmopolitan that it’s easy to become addicted.”