Page 195 of Eternal Surrender

She pressed her lips to my forehead in a tender kiss and then stepped back.

I turned to Fabian. “Is this real?”

“It is.” Fabian said.

“How much do you remember?” Ingrid asked.

Caressing my temple, I reached for the memories, shocked with the clarity of all that had unfolded. “It feels like a dream. No, make that a nightmare.”

“You’re safe now,” Ingrid said. “It’s over.

“And you’re both alright?” I asked them.

Ingrid snuggled in, wrapping her hands around my waist and squeezing me tight. “Now that we know you’re okay.” She looked up at me and a tear fell.

I wiped it away.

Quiet ensued and I felt peace sweep over me, over all of us, a long awaited serenity that had always promised to find us.

Jacob stepped forward and offered Ingrid a rolled up parchment.

Ingrid accepted the scroll, holding it reverently. “Hornub’s scroll?”

“Lucas retrieved it from Bodiam Castle,” Jacob explained. “Hornub’s guide to the other side.”

“It belongs with Hornub,” Fabian agreed.

“I’ll see it’s returned to him,” Ingrid said. “What will happen to the other scrolls? The Book of Toth?”

“They’ll be kept safe,” Fabian said.

Catherine rubbed Ingrid’s arm with affection. “Jadeon, we’ll wait for you upstairs.” She slid her arm through Ingrid’s, and they headed out of the chamber.

It felt good to see them both safe.

I found Fabian’s gaze again. “I came to you. . . visited you at Leeds castle.”

“We talked at length,” Fabian coaxed me on.

“It’s still a little foggy. . .” I admitted.

“Come.” Fabian led me behind the standing stone, through the secret doorway behind it and down the stairwell. Jacob followed close behind us.

All three of us entered Dominion’s tomb.

Chapter Forty-Five

Again I was struck with the dramatic standing stone, the way she towered reverently over Dominion’s sarcophagus, the other half of her disappearing into the ceiling.

Fabian gestured toward the coffin within. “When something is found,” he spoke softly, “what does one do?”

“Cease the search,” I said.

Jacob gestured with a sweep of his hand. “The best defenses are the ones you don’t know exist.”

Fabian stepped toward me. “Jadeon, two hundred years ago, I approached your father Lord Artimas with a proposition. I foresaw that if the Stone Masters continued to wage war on vampires that the suffering of both mortals and immortals would endure. Therefore, I proposed a truce, one that would place a vampire officially within the Stone Masters. The idea being that they would advance with joint rule.”

“I had already infiltrated the group,” Jacob said.