Page 132 of Eternal Obsession

“And leave her behind? No, none of this makes any sense. You’ve spent years searching for her and now you just walk out like she is of no consequence.”

“It’s complicated,” I said.

“I have a right to know.”

“He has a point,” Orpheus said.

“Then ask him.” I gestured toward Orpheus.

Silence.

“Leave with me, now!” I yelled.

“No, Jadeon.” Alex stepped toward me and we embraced. He pushed something into my hand and squeezed it tight. His glare indicated I was not to look down at the small round object.

“Reconsider,” I said.

His expression conveyed he was impossible to persuade.

“Then I will stay here with you.”

“I don’t want that,” Alex said.

I stared at Orpheus and back at my brother. “I will come back for you, Alex.”

“I’m sure that’s another empty promise,” Orpheus said.

I glared at Orpheus. “If you so much as harm him . . .”

“One thing’s for sure,” Orpheus said, “Alex is safer here than in one of Ingrid’s police cells.”

“You bastard.”

“Get out before my men drag you out,” he said.

I had no choice but to leave. I took one last glance at Alex. “Use caution,” I said.

Marcus’s words haunted me. I recalled when he’d trespassed into our castle, threatening us. He will take your Queen and then he will take your King. Apparently to Marcus, my struggle was nothing more than a game to Orpheus. Marcus had warned that Orpheus was after Alex.

Before exiting, I turned to take one more look at Alex, be sure that this was what he really wanted and that Orpheus had not trapped him.

Orpheus’s lips mouthed, “Checkmate!”

I pulled myself up to my full height. “Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin.”

Heavyhearted, I withdrew.

Chapter Fifty-Six

JADEON

Unbearable, this weight of leaving him behind in that perilous place. In the hands of the most dangerous vampire. The guilt pressed into me like a blade.

Trying to confront the dreadful truth that I had failed Catherine terribly.

Shame sank deep into my bones, a sorrow so vast, it eclipsed reason. This dreadful waking nightmare seemed endless, each moment steeped in a grief I couldn’t outrun.

In the stillness, a question burned in me like poison, why Orpheus didn’t just end me.