Page 82 of Eternal Surrender

He stretched out his long legs. “You’re not going to stay, are you?”

“What did you do?” I feared to see in his eyes or read from his thoughts what he’d done. “I have every intention of taking you with me.”

“You didn’t last time,” Alex snapped.

“Tell me you didn’t harm him.”

Panic hit me. A raw, awful dread. What if he had hurt my friend, the man I cared for, the man I had promised to protect, the man whose life I had saved. The same man whose quiet kindness had reached a part of me I hadn’t known needed it.

“Even now you don’t know me.” Alex righted his chair and stood up. “Sebastian was a ballet dancer.”

“Was?”

“Not just any dancer,” Alex blurted, “one of the finest.”

I turned toward the doorway, terrified of what I’d find. “Stay here.”

“You’ve never been alone,” Alex shouted after me.

I flew back toward him and grabbed his shirt, shoving him against the wall. “What did you do?”

“Why did you bring him here?”

I shook my head. “He wasn’t meant to stay.”

Alex grasped my forearms. “Tell me you’re not going to leave me.”

“I would rather lose this place a million times over than lose you.”

“I don’t believe you!” Alex yelled.

“Promise you’ll talk to me before doing anything like this again.” My hands were shaking. “I need you.”

“You’ll help me get Jadeon back?” he begged.

“Yes.” I turned away, flashing back to those terrible minutes spent with Paradom, his black orbs like a child’s, freakish, and full of pain. “I want it more than you,” I murmured.

Alex buried his head into my chest.

I wrapped my arms around him, trying not to choke on my words and asked Alex again, only this time in a whisper, “Where’s Sebastian?”

Chapter Seventeen

Within the dungeons, Sebastian was huddled up with his back against the wall, clutching his legs, his stained shirt collar the only evidence of Alex’s attack.

I swung open the gate, the rusty hinges squeaking.

“Interesting place to hide,” I said.

“Three cells down there’s a coffin.” He raised a finger. “No one’s in it, yet.”

“May I come in?”

“Tell me it’s not mine.”

“It’s not, Seb.”

His lips trembled when he saw the three books I carried. “William, how long do you intend to keep me here?”