Page 192 of Eternal Surrender

“William, I’ll always love you,” Ingrid said. “Always.”

Lucas raised the scroll high, interpreting the Egyptian and chanting the incantation with clarity and confidence, his accent thick, his intonation exact. The ancient language carried upon the air, echoing and filling the space around us. Spellbound, I marveled at the way the stones shimmered, their grandness emphasized by the soft blue hue emanating.

Words drifted on the air, velvet and veiled, the meaning sealed from knowing. They rose and fell like music, their cadence magical, each syllable shimmered as Lucas eloquently read the ancient words, releasing something in the air . . .

Within these woven sounds, magic breathed. Soft at first, the sound gathered from silence. It swelled reverently, like a secret hymn carried across green hills by countless voices rising as one devotion to something unseen; deeply known; deeply beautiful.

What would become of me?

Would it be sudden? A breath stolen? A heart sealed in an instant? Or something slower, colder, a bending, a breaking, a shattering. Remade into something unrecognizable? Something like him⁠—

Something like Paradom.

My heart ached at the thought of him, and only now, too late, far too late, did I understand the weight he carried, the loneliness stitched into his very existence, the quiet torment of surviving something the world could not name without fear.

I had judged what I did not comprehend. Now, I walked the very edge of it. Even as the darkness curled its fingers around me, I clung to what remained, my mind, my will, my fragile self.

More than anything, I wanted to live.

I should’ve asked if I would forget everything experienced as William. I wanted to remember everyone through these eyes.

Wanted to remember her, Ingrid.

Finally, I prayed, hoping death did not strike once and fade me into oblivion.

“Do you see it?” I blinked several times, fearing the brightness.

Silence found me; the chanting had ceased.

Fabian, Lucas and Jacob had gone.

Reading Ingrid’s expression, it pained me to see her so fraught.

I held her gaze. “I will find you.”

Lips trembling, her hand shaking in mine, Ingrid conveyed her faith that I would.

I sighed my surrender.

These were more than individual pillars brought here centuries ago to be worshipped, and when placed together, each was more than a sum of its parts, a profound conduit for power. Stonehenge rising like the earth, remembering its own divinity.

Harnessing that which offered itself willingly and trusting in the silent words they spoke to me, I glimpsed the other side. . .

A place of wonder and trueness.

Sunlight struck the stones and the rays caressed the pillars, bouncing off each one and pouring intense crystal shards down and around me. A bright, orange sun bowed low and swept me up into her arms, carrying me into her very center. I willed myself to know her brilliance.

And remember the light. . .

Chapter Forty-Four

I writhed, gasping for life.

Through blurred vision, I made out a single standing stone and there, slumped at its base, was Orpheus. Half dressed, chest bare, he lay there with an easy unspoken grace, lean muscle drawn tight over his muscular frame, both powerful and composed. His expression strained, yet threaded through with a fragile relief.

Fragmented memories.

My flesh felt like it was melting, but I forced myself to ignore it and rallied my strength, staggering toward him.