Page 57 of High Stakes

From the slit of a window in my room, I looked down at the dark earth just a few stories down –not far enough to jump from. One thought kept pounding through my mind: Titus and I should leave now, while there was still a chance for me to go back. At the first sign that my tech would hold, we should just climb the turret and jump out the window.

Not only was it the smartest course of action, it was the right thing to do.

This wasn’t the time or place to wage a war that shouldn’t be fought yet. There were no vampires lurking in the shadows beneath glowing windows, no screams rending the night in two. There was laughter and a sense of peace, even in the most desperate time imaginable. Enoch had made this castle a sanctuary, a shelter from the rampant pain and death festering outside these walls. How could we ruin something like that?

* * *

Terah soundlessly pushed open my door in the middle of the night, but my senses were so finely tuned, I sensed the shift in the air. I drew a stake and watched as she walked farther into the room, pausing in front of me.

“I know you are at war with yourself about what you should do and how much you should say,” she began, “but your decision is easy. Either tell my brother everything we need to know, or leave. Go back to your own time and live out your miserable, pathetic little life. But don’t toy with him.”

Her golden curls glinted in the moonlight cast through the window, lending her an otherworldly quality. “He has feelings for you. My brother has never looked at anyone the way he looks at you. It’s not just intrigue, either. And while I have no idea what he sees in you, if you feel anything for him at all, you’ll be honest with him. He needs to know how to prevent the future you’ve described. If you refuse to tell him, then the bleak future and all that happens in it is as much your fault as it will be ours.”

With that, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, closing the door with an imperceptible click.

She could’ve bitten me. Could’ve tried to kill me. But in the end, she tried to reason with me. Not just about giving Enoch full disclosure about the vampires of the future, but about his feelings for me. I wasn’t sure if she was right about the way he felt about me, but I knew I had come to care for him. I cared whether he lived or died. I cared whether he became a monster.

I cared about Enoch. Enough to leave this place and him alive in it.

By daybreak, I’d almost worn a path in the stone around my bed, but I’d made up my mind. We had to go back home.

I slipped out of my room, easing the door shut behind me, and headed toward Titus’s room next door.

“Eve?” I froze at the sound of Enoch’s whisper. Unable to take another step, unable to take another breath, and not brave enough to turn around and see his face. “Where are you going?”

I pressed my eyes closed, sensing him drawing closer. “We don’t belong here,” I answered sadly.

“Neither do we,” he replied softly. “We’ve never belonged on this earth, and yet here we are.”

“What do you want, Enoch?”

He stopped behind me and toyed with a strand of my hair, the brush of his hand spreading goosebumps across my back. “Take a walk with me?” he asked instead.

I turned to face him. “To what end?”

“There is something I need to say to you. Please, give me a few moments of your time. If you still wish to leave after that, I will see you to the gate and bid you farewell.” He held out his hand. “Please, Eve.”

I should have told him no. I should have run to Titus and executed the plan I spent the last night worrying over. But my heart was curious. It wanted to hear what he wanted so badly to say. Against my better judgment, I gave him my hand. As I reveled in the feel of his skin holding mine, I tried to memorize everything I could about him. His scent, the way his hair curled around his ears, his easy but determined gait. The strength and breadth of his back, the way he smiled, the length of his fangs and his height. I wanted to remember it all. Every expression. Every nuance.

We walked down grand staircases and through empty corridors to the back of the castle and slipped out a door I didn’t know existed, stepping into an idyllic garden filled with roses of every shade imaginable, blanketed by a thin layer of patchy morning fog. I looked up at the impossibly tall turrets and then down at my hand, where the tech glowed tauntingly.

This is a mistake. I’m wasting time. I need to get Titus...

But when I looked up, Enoch was visibly anxious, pulling at his hair. I couldn’t leave him in such a state.

“I... I don’t even know where to begin,” he commented. “But I want you to know how deeply sorry I am for any hardship I will cause you in the future. I cannot fathom becoming someone who would selfishly risk the lives of good people – people like you.”

Was he really apologizing now for something he hadn’t even done?

I looked to the sky, tears welling in my eyes. He was too good to be true. He paced in front of me as frantically as I had last night, and I wondered if he’d been awake since then, too.

I shook my head. “I’m not a good person, Enoch. I’m not nearly as good a person as you are now.”

He steadily met my eyes. “I would argue that you are far better. You risked your life to come here and fight for the lives of many, so that they might have a brighter future than the one I am destined to inflict upon you.”

I shook my head. Enoch was a puzzle I couldn’t wrap my mind around.

He wrapped his strong hands around my arms, waiting until I looked him in the eye. “I understand why you are here. I understand why you wear the stakes, and why you don’t smile. And I would like for you to tell me how to stop the future you’ve lived from taking place. How can I avoid becoming this... monster you’ve described? Tell me, and I’ll do it,” he pleaded. “I’ll make sure to heed your instructions diligently. I won’t let you down. And when you leave and return to your time, perhaps I will have set things right by you. That is what I wish for, more than anything else.”

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