Page 169 of Eternal Surrender

Ingrid looked away.

“You need to leave,” I said. “It’s time to go home.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m grateful for all that you’ve done.”

“William, please. . .”

“Being with me is too dangerous for you.”

She hesitated. “You and I, we’re working together, we’re making progress⁠—”

“I have to face this next part alone.”

“I’m not going.”

“There’s something else I’ve been keeping from you.” I offered her the glass.

She gestured she didn’t want it. “I’m not going to like it, am I?”

I put the glass down. “It’s about James.”

“Oh.”

“There were so many reasons I couldn’t tell you.”

“Is it about Lola?”

I waited for her to say it.

“I know,” she admitted.

“What gave it away, her name?”

She smiled but it quickly faded. “James was in the shower and his Blackberry went off. I glanced at the screen. I wasn’t spying or anything, just kind of did it on autopilot. The text was from Lola, and it was pretty obvious.” Ingrid gestured she wanted that drink now.

I handed her the glass. “He’s an idiot.”

She took a sip. “I can help you find the scrolls.”

Moisture on the Champagne bottle had formed into drips and was trailing over the label and down into the ice.

“You don’t think I’ll fight for you, is that it?” she asked. “I should have been stronger with Sunaria, but she was startlingly fast. . .”

I approached her and brushed a few stray auburn strands out of her eyes. “This is not about me not loving you enough.” I took her hand and kissed it. “I love you more than life itself.”

“But—”

My fingers pressed against her lips to hush her.

Her sigh was filled with hope for this moment, and for everything that it promised to be, as though those words of me leaving could be undone.

Although it wouldn’t be easy to leave her, the door was merely a few steps away and all I had to do was walk through it.

Simple and effective.

“William, I want to remember everything. I want my memory back,” she said it insistently, locking her gaze with mine.