Page 12 of Misadventures with a Duke

At least until she speaks again.

“Bastien. You are not reaching for the vision!”

I hiss with low vitriol. “Nor will I.”

Because I want no part of remembering Magique as I last saw her. Because even with that resolve in my spirit, my conscience disagrees—disgustingly so. As soon as Kavia instructed it to activate my imagination, she is all I can see. Memories of all our laughter and lovemaking are mixed in with my last sight of her. The spreading blood on the floor. The loll of her head against the bedpost, and then in my arms. The pallor of her skin. The death in her eyes.

Fresh rage ignites in my spirit. The edges of my stare turn red again, even in this stifling gloom.

No.

That is not the case.

I am no longer encased in complete shadows.

Now, there are flames here too.

“What the hell?”

I wish I could be more facetious about it but am denied by raw facts. Actual flames invade the compartment now, clawing at my ankles, shins, knees, and higher. Instinct has me flinching again and again, and yet I do not feel a single thing. I am peering at pure fire, garish and bright and close to blinding, but every flame is like nothing but a blast of warm wind, buffeting my body and heating my face.

Curiosity takes over. Why not? The amber and orange layers bring more memories of my perfect magie, this time in those shades. The brilliant hue of her hair in the sun. The flecks of gold that spark in her eyes when she wants me inside her. The gleam of her tawny body beneath candlelight as I appease her need.

My mind’s eye brings it all to me, and then some. The memories collide, heartbreaking and intense, until my mind nearly bursts from the glory—and the grief.

I can fully move my limbs again but no longer wish to. I pray to stay in my cage, seared forever by the memories of my precious girl. If the blaze consumes and kills me, so be it. I will be by her side that much sooner. Wrapped around her and inside her for all time.

Beyond the crackle of the invisible kindling at my feet, I hear myself growl in determination. The last answer I expect is Kavia’s new exclamation, as impassioned as the conflagration itself.

“Yes! Oh yesss, Bastien!” Her voice comes from everywhere and nowhere at once, a mixture of fire and darkness. “You see her now. I know it. I can feel it. Perfect. That is perfect, my boy!”

“None too soon either,” Carl joins in. “Woman, these shadows will only protect us for so long. Depechez-vous. Hurry!”

Hurry…how? About what? But the demands are naught but fearful grunts at my lips, hitting a solid wall of trepidation in my mind.

Carl and Kavia do not sound like they want to smuggle me out of here. That leaves me with some dismal options. They mean to kill me or trade me.

“No, Bastien.” Kavia has never scolded me so brutally, even when I swore by three saints in a row after church one Sunday. “Do not let her go! Not for one second! She will guide you. Do. Not. Let. Her. Go!”

She pounds on both wardrobe doors. I lurch and battle an urge to punch back. My self-control is a dismal standby for what truly helps. The flood of Magique back to my mind’s eye. Calm returns, along with my maid’s praising croon.

“Ahhh. Perfect. That is it. Keep her there, Bastien. Right there, in the center of your spirit and soul. In the very beats of your heart, the deepest calls of your instinct. Reach for her. Stretch out to her with every depth of your dreams and desire until you find her!”

She drives on, raising her voice by impassioned octaves. And I hear every note. I listen to every syllable. I crave them now, whipping around me like sparks in the fiery wind. Obeying them like a wraith that already knows it’s dead.

This time, the wraith is me.

Bizarrely, it is not such an awful acceptance. Nowhere near a chilling fear.

“I am looking, Kavia. I will not stop. I swear it.”

The flames engulf me now, so I doubt she hears my vow. But then she answers, “Good. Very good, my boy! Now there is only one more thing to remember…”

The fervency of her words is consumed by the tumult of the fire. Then the smoke that thickens into soot. The dust that soon becomes dense darkness…

Then unbreachable night.

A blackness that brings me to…what? Takes me to…where?