Page 85 of Eternal Surrender

The lights of Penzance lit up the night sky, reflecting off the grey-crystal water. The tethered rowing boat bobbed on the surface.

“I thought Alex chopped the boat up for firewood.” Sebastian said.

“Evidently he was joking.” I checked the oars were secure and untied the rope, throwing it into the boat. “Get in.”

Sebastian hesitated. “You told me that once on the other side of the island there was no going back.”

“It was metaphorical.” I pointed to the boat.

Among the clouds hung a low silver moon. Over centuries, I’d observed its ceaseless wonder and come to know its dark and featureless lunar plains. Just as the moon nearly always showed its same face toward the earth, I too had hidden my darkest side. But clearly Sebastian was a remarkable man, and I was finding it ever more challenging to hold back.

“How do you know I won’t tell the world about you?” he asked.

“I trust you.”

Now let him go. Not just in thought, but deed itself.

He knelt and rubbed his calf out of habit as though his leg needed it.

“Get in the boat, Sebastian.” I headed back to the castle. “Go do what you do best. Dance.”

“Why didn’t you do it,” he said, his tone strained.

I turned to face him.

Because. . . I was going to bribe him. Bribe him with a chance to dance again, but only once he had revealed secrets that he had to know.

But now, seeing him so broken, I questioned not just who I was, but what I was.

“You followed me up that clock tower?” he called after me. “Didn’t you? William, you knew I was once one of them?”

I paused and turned round, slowly.

“That’s why you were on Big Ben?” he asked. “You were going to kill me, weren’t you? After you got what you wanted?”

I broke his gaze, not sure how best to tell him that yes, his life had hung in the balance that evening and it had nothing to do with his fall from the tower.

The shame of what I might have done, too terrible to ponder.

“They insisted vampires were real,” he said, “but I refused to believe it.”

“Say their name.”

“Stone Masters.” He looked miserable.

“I’d obtained a list of their current members.” I stepped toward him. “Your name was on it.”

“Why am I still alive?”

I gave a slow deliberate nod, hoping that might serve as my answer and turned quickly, heading back into the castle.

Sebastian’s footfalls were close behind me, closing the gap between us. “Why not just force the answers out of me?”

“I didn’t expect to like you quite this much,” I said wryly. “Rather an inconvenience.”

“What do you want from me?”

I headed on in.