Page 3 of Eternal Surrender

His brow furrowed. “Let me know when you’re ready to talk.”

“I’m ready now.”

He tapped his pockets as though trying to find something, the key perhaps. “Ah.”

I reached into his mind, but if he was thinking, I couldn’t hear it.

“How long have I been in here?” I asked.

“A few hours.”

I peered down the passageway wondering if that was the way out.

“We were concerned for your safety,” he said. “You were thrashing around quite a bit.”

“Well I’m fine now.”

He seemed to notice the bloody words ‘Find Dominatio,’ and his careful face changed as though judging what I’d made of it.

“Hard to miss,” I answered his unspoken question.

My mind reached out beyond these dank walls, and I sensed it was midmorning. I cursed the fact I was trapped in here until nightfall.

Jacob stepped back into focus. “You’re the proverbial Gordian knot, I’m afraid.”

I waited for him to continue, hoping for some clue that might lead me back to remembering.

“You consider me an intricate problem?” I asked. “Care to elaborate?”

“Gordian knot, the phrase based on the legend of king of Phrygia. He tied a knot meant to be incapable of being untied. Alexander the Great swept in dramatically⁠—”

“Arrogantly, and sliced through the knot with his sword, thus establishing him as Sovereign. I know what a Gordian knot is, I just can’t remember⁠—”

“Your name.”

I hated this moment, hated him with his never-ending psychological torture of vagueness.

“Perhaps this will help?” He stepped closer. “Stonehenge, you were there last night.”

“I don’t. . .” Nothing came, no vision, no recollection of anything.

A wave of frustration.

The only thing preventing me from having a go at the lock was that damned daylight. His lips curled sympathetically, and I had a sneaking suspicion he’d read my mind.

“Enlighten me,” I said.

“Now more than ever you’ll need your friends.”

“Any of them here?” It was worth a chance.

“You can trust me.”

I went to question his strange idea of hospitality but knew better.

“Last night everything changed,” said Jacob.

“How?” I resisted the urge to yell fucking tell me.