Gene of Isis

I do, but I would ask a favour of you. Albray sat down on the bed beside me to make his request. I want you to sleep with the stone in the palm of your hand.

‘Why?’ I tried not to sound alarmed by his request. How was I possibly going to drift into a dream space without fantasising about my knight?

Would you? Please, he appealed once more, obviously having no intention of explaining his request. With those big dark eyes gazing into mine, he didn’t need to explain himself. I found myself nodding in agreement.

Sleep came upon me quickly that evening, and I awoke feeling like I’d barely closed my eyes.

My tent was brilliantly illuminated this morning. Even under the brightest sunlight my quarters didn’t usually have this much natural light. I rolled over to look at the clock on my bedside table to find Albray lying on the bed beside me, minus the weapons and chain mail he usually wore. His shirt was gaping open and all I could think about was planting a kiss upon his smooth muscular torso…and so I did.

Placing a finger under my chin Albray raised my face and engaged my lips in a kiss.

Yes, I was dreaming again, but what a dream! His body pressed hard against mine; I hadn’t ever wanted a man so desperately and the touch of his hands upon my body excited me beyond all reason. We were both half naked and well worked up into a passionate frenzy before my sensibilities found me. I thought, Wow… and I had the impression Albray wasn’t interested in me.

Then Akbar’s concerns today surfaced in my mind. That only leaves Molier the option of enchanting you into believing that you are in love with him. If you currently hold feelings for someone he could assume their appearance in order to get to you.

The next moment I was out of bed, panting in the wake of abandoning my bliss, and covering my bare breasts with my discarded shirt.

‘This is too sudden for you,’ Albray assumed, bemused at being abandoned. ‘I fear I have misread your—’

‘How do I know you are not Molier?’ I stated my true concern, which seemed to soothe Albray somewhat.

He smiled and sat up to reason with me. ‘Ask me a question. Something that Molier wouldn’t know.’

‘All right.’ I mulled it over. I had to ask him something about our relationship that had occurred prior to setting foot in the Middle East. ‘Where did we first meet, and what was your first impression of me?’

‘We first met in your home, in the…sitting room? Or that is what such a room might have been called in Miss Granville’s time.’

‘Close enough,’ I warranted, breathing a little easier. ‘And?’ I prompted him to finish answering my query.

‘And I thought upon sighting you…’ He paused to recall his feelings. ‘Here is a goddess…’ This, I very much doubted, until he added: ‘And she’s half naked.’ He chuckled in conclusion and I rolled my eyes, for this observation of Albray’s I did remember. ‘And I was worried by your obvious scepticism and ignorance of your own potential.’

‘Albray?’ I queried, wanting so much to believe that it was him and that he did hold feelings for me, or, at the very least, that this was my own dream that I could feel at liberty to pursue.

‘Yes,’ Albray said, ‘it is me.’

Now I was confused. ‘You’ve never shown the slightest interest in me before today.’

‘Have I not?’ Albray had to grin. ‘I must be a better actor than I thought. I felt sure that during our duel with Akbar my feelings for you had been betrayed.’

The overwhelming feeling of love I had experienced upon surrendering to Albray’s control had been his feelings for me! My heart exploded in my chest at this realisation.

‘My timing is terrible, considering what you learned today from Akbar,’ he conceded. ‘But an unrequited love has had me preoccupied for many a long year, and it took nearly losing you for me to admit to myself that I was falling in love with you. And then I had to consider whether encouraging your love was not an abuse of my position.’ At the last, he waved off the whole idea. ‘I made a mistake—’

‘No.’ I came to kneel on the bed to prevent his departure. ‘There is no mistake.’ I kissed my knight to reassure him, hoping to pick up where we left off. ‘Please stay with me.’

Clearly he wanted to, but I had planted a doubt in his mind, and he in mine. ‘There will be other nights.’

I suspect that Albray saw how dispirited his decision made me feel, for he raised my chin and urged me to look him in the eye.

‘Perhaps we shall both have the courage to speak of how we feel when you’re in a conscious state.’ He knew that this was partly the reason why I was having trouble believing that he did hold feelings for me.

‘But this is my dream.’ I was convinced of that, at least, for our conversation had been too detailed and personal for Molier to have bluffed his way through; it could only have been my imagination.

‘No, Mia,’ Albray confessed. ‘You moved beyond mere dreaming when you sought me out last night in the etheric realms. You,’ he paused to emphasise, for he knew I would be amazed by his assertion, ‘have mastered the art of astral projection, for this is an out-of-body experience.’

I gasped, excited by the news.

‘So you see, I was pushed to make the truth known to you,’ he admitted at last. ‘I couldn’t watch you trying so hard to develop your psychic talent when, in fact, you are doing splendidly. Just different psychic skills than those Miss Granville utilised.’

‘So you know about our meeting last night?’

He nodded a little guiltily.

I was going to have a go at him for not mentioning it today, but then it occurred to me: ‘Is that why you were in such a good mood this morning?’