Page 13 of Eternal Surrender

If I wanted to leave now, I could.

“You blame Orpheus for this?” Alex asked Jacob.

Jacob formed his hands into a temple. “Jadeon would never have been there had it not been for Orpheus trying to turn Ingrid. And kill Catherine.”

The truth of his words stung deep. “But. . .” I shook my head, feeling the wrenching guilt building in my gut.

Jacob lowered his chin. “William, my concern is that you’ll start finding excuses not to revert.”

“You think I’d sabotage my way back?” I said.

“What will undoubtedly occur is a desire to stay like this,” Jacob said.

“Why would I want that?” My jaw tightened as his words sunk in

Jacob gave a careful pause, and then said, “Over the next few days, you’ll continue to evolve.”

“Into what?” Alex asked the question that was on my tortured mind.

Jacob appeared thoughtful. “You’ll settle into what you are.”

I clenched my fists but quickly relaxed them again. “Let’s make this happen.” I rose to my feet.

“We get the scrolls,” Alex said, “and interpret them.”

“Only then,” Jacob said, “can we attempt to restore Jadeon and Orpheus to their individual components.”

I pressed my hand against my chest, expressing my conviction. “What do I need to do?”

Jacob picked up Ingrid’s notebook. “Nothing.”

“You expect me to just pace these corridors waiting for you to find. . . Lucas?”

“Promise me one thing.” Jacob’s eyes widened. “You won’t leave these walls.”

My gaze slid beyond the windowpane, settling on the darkening horizon; grey clouds were gliding inland. When I looked back, Jacob was zeroing in on me again.

“Sunaria and I were lovers,” I said. “That’s how I know her?”

Alex grimaced. “Orpheus’s lover.”

“How did she know it was me?”

Alex looked away. “She was there when you transformed.”

Fragile thoughts drifted back to the dungeons and how I’d mishandled her, shoving Sunaria into the tunnel and sealing the stone door between us.

“She’s been asleep for over two hundred years. She can’t be allowed to wander around out there,” I said, weighed down with guilt from abandoning her.

I yearned to be near her once more, drawn by a fierce ache, yet beneath that pull lingered the unstable sting of danger, as if she were a beautiful venom.

“Sunaria’s capable of taking care of herself.” Jacob suppressed a cough. “She’s over one thousand years old after all.”

“I didn’t know that,” Alex’s voice cracked nervously.

“Catherine was also there when it happened,” I said.

“She warned me,” Alex said. “I didn’t listen to her. I believed the ashes were just you . . .”