Chapter Twelve

A s Soleil came down to join her family for breakfast, Aurora turned towards her with a bouquet of lilies.

Her heart sank.

“Yes,” her sister said with a nod. “It is from the marquis again.”

She forced a smile. “How lovely.” She took the flowers and gave it to one of the maids. “Throw it away please.” Behind her back, the baron and his younger daughters exchanged looks of dismay.

Fleur waited for her oldest sister to take her seat before saying, “ANEX has also sent a missive. I have taken the liberty of reading it—-”

“Fleur!”

“And it says that your request has been approved,” Fleur finished. “What did you request? It did not state so in the missive.”

“When have you developed this interest in reading other people’s mails, Fleur? I am terribly disappointed.”

Fleur ignored that, asking again, “What did you request?”

Soleil said calmly, “Nothing that would affect anyone of you.”

Ah. The baron and his daughters had no trouble reading between the lines, knowing that meant it had to do something with the marquis.

The rest of the day proceeded as it had in the past month. It was like any other day for the Orpheline household – or what it used to be before anyone of them had become acquainted with the marquis.

Callers came during the day to be entertained, the sisters talked among themselves about the missions of Trois Belle Lames over supper, and afterwards the baron would retire while the sisters dressed up to attend a ball. It was near dawn when they returned home, and after bidding each other good night they went to their respective bedrooms.

Soleil took a shower, changed into her sleeping gown, and threw herself on her bed.

It was so, so silent.

She tossed and turned, knowing that she needed to come to a decision soon.

She closed her eyes, knowing that if she only opened her mind just a little bit, she would be able to hear him.

And she wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to hear his voice. But how could she ever listen to it, knowing that because of her curse she had unknowingly used his pity to force him into tying his life to her?

There was only one way to release him, and she had to make a decision about it soon.

Forcing herself to get up, she hurried to her writing desk and pulled the drawer open. Taking a clean sheet of paper and pen, she began to write.

After, she pulled the bell and waited for one of the servants to come knocking on her door. “I’m sorry to have waken you,” Soleil apologized, “but it is urgent that you send this to the Marquis of Lunare tomorrow night. Simply proceed to the town hall, let them know this is my missive, and they will know how to reach the marquis.”

“Yes, milady.”

“You must not give this until it is about, oh, shall we say six in the evening?” By then, it would have been completed, and there would be no chance for anyone to stop her. “It must not be earlier than that. Do you understand?”

“Yes, milady.”

“Thank you.” She hesitated. “And please do not let anyone know about this.”

“Yes, milady.”

When the door closed, the servant went straight to Lady Fleur’s bedroom and knocked on her door. The youngest Orpheline daughter had let it be known that she was willing to pay an ample sum for all secret missives sent and received by Lady Soleil.

A sleepy-looking Fleur opened the door. “What is it?”

“What you told us to watch out for, milady,” the servant said.

Fleur became wide-awake. “A moment, please.” She hurried back to the room and when she returned, she handed the servant several notes in exchange of the missive. “Thank you.” She opened the letter and started to read.

Her brows furrowed.

What did it mean that her sister meant to forget the marquis for good?

SOLEIL WOKE UP EARLY the next morning, her mind made up for good. She bathed and dressed in a hurry, leaving before any of her family had come down for breakfast. Upon arriving in ANEX, she went straight for the headmistress’ office for a meeting.

The secretary took her appointment book out, murmuring, “Your name has already been listed, but the headmistress has scheduled you for a meeting at seven o’clock.”

Forty-minutes from now , she thought uneasily. “Would an earlier appointment not be possible?”

“I’m sorry, milady, but the meeting preceding yours is not the type that I could reschedule.”

“I understand.” She stood up. “I shall return at seven then. Thank you.” Turning to leave, she thought about what to do to kill time. Heading to the library, Soleil hoped to find a book that would keep her from worrying but instead she saw her new student seated alone in one of the tables.

“Good morning, Zari.”

Zari appeared surprised but pleased to see her. “Oh, good morning.”

When the younger girl started to stand up to curtsy, Soleil shook her head with a smile. “No formalities between us when we’re alone, remember?” She gestured to the chair opposite Zari’s. “May I?”

“Of course.” As Soleil took a seat, Zari started uncertainly, “I’m sorry about what had happened.”

The day following her ordeal, Soleil had written right away to Zari, thanking her for sharing her vision but without going into too much detail about what transpired. She said slowly, “When you told me that there was a person trying to kill me, I thought you meant physically.” She paused. “But in the end, Crystal caused me even more pain by showing me the truth about...my life.”

“Are you speaking of milord’s other heartkeeper?”

Soleil was stunned, and if she had to admit it, she was also terrified. “Is it now common knowledge?” Because if it was, she just didn’t know how she could face the world again, with everyone aware that the marquis had chosen her to be his heartkeeper out of pity.

But he also saved your life by doing so, she reminded herself severely, so you must never hate him for it.

Zari was saying, “I...err...heard it from someone.”

The way the younger girl avoided Soleil’s gaze was telling. “Zari, you’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”

Zari cleared her throat. “Umm...”

“Zari?”

“He always did tell me I suck at lying,” the younger girl muttered.

He being Alexandru Gheorgiu, Soleil thought. How strong this soul seer was, to not mind continuing to think about the man she loved even when they were apart and there was no guarantee that they could be together again.

“I’ve decided,” Zari said out of the blue.

Soleil blinked when the girl suddenly stood up and began gathering her notes. “What have you decided?”

“Follow me to my room, please, and I shall show you something.”

“The last time someone told me that,” Soleil said lightly, “I almost ended up killed.” But even so, she couldn’t stop herself from following the soul seer, knowing at least that within the heavily fortified walls of ANEX, there was no chance of subterfuge and foul play.

As they made their way to Zari’s room, she asked the soul seer a question that had been on her mind for a long time. “Would you be able to choose the visions you see?”

“Not really, but there is a chance that I will see more of what you want to know if you want me to see the past, rather than the future.”

“Good.”

“What is it do you want to know?”

“There was a man my sisters and I were hunting down, but he died before we could get information from him. I had thought he was in league with Crystal...” She shook her head. “But now I know that wouldn’t make sense. That’s why I’m hoping your visions could help us identify any other enemy we have out there.”

“If you could bring me any item from the scene of his death, I may be able to help.” They stopped in front of Zari’s bedroom door and as she bent to unlock it, the younger girl murmured, “I have never played matchmaker before, so I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing...”

Zari opened the door and stepped inside her room. “Come and look, Soleil.”

Soleil winced. “I really, really don’t like how that sounds.” But even so, she forced herself to follow Zari inside.

Zari gestured to the tower of missives on her writing desk. “Those are all from the marquis. He writes to me each day, reminding me all of the things I should tell you were we to meet. Mostly, they are—-” She enumerated with her fingers. “He is sorry. He misses you. Oh, and that you are the only woman he loves and will ever love.”

“How sweet.” Soleil’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “But I also know he’s lying.”

“Is he? After all, he did not say you are the woman he had loved. He speaks of the present and the future, not the past.” Zari flashed the older girl a painful smile. “Your marquis is...cunning. I actually had to look the word up just so I could find the right way to describe him. And he is that.” She nodded vehemently. “He knew about the time when I also almost parted ways with my Ma—-with Alexandru, because of a woman he had once loved, and when he reminded me of that...” She shook her head. “I don’t want you to be needlessly hurt. Just forgive him—-”

Soleil’s teary laugh cut her off.

“You think I haven’t forgiven him? You think that is what this is all about?” She swallowed. “How can I not forgive him when he’s saved my life more than once? I haven’t even been able to stop loving him, and I doubt I ever will until...” She bit her lip. “The reason I can’t make myself face him is because I am too ashamed. He saw me dying, and he so he was forced to lie about loving me and taking me as his heartkeeper. He didn’t know then that it would be for forever. My curse ensures that whoever terminates the union will die, and he didn’t know that when he saved me.” Tears ran down her face. “He saved me, and in return I have forever closed the door on any chance of him taking the other woman as his heartkeeper—-”

Zari protested, “But she already belongs to the demon duke—-”

“If Alexandru belongs to someone else, will it stop you from loving him?”

Zari paled.

“Exactly.” Soleil smiled sadly. “And we may say that his grace and his heartkeeper are in love now, but how do we know it won’t change? How do we know that maybe in the future she will not find herself loving Ilie—-” She took a deep breath. “The marquis will not even entertain such an idea, of course, not only because of his honor and his friendship with the duke, but because he thinks it will hurt me.” Soleil’s fists clenched. “That’s why I’ve decided to request for the spell that would permanently erase my memories of him.”

Her heart ached at the words.

She thought about the marquis’ wolfish smile and the wicked gleam in his silver eyes—-

She thought about the way they danced in the ball.

She thought about the way he sounded when he asked her to be his heartkeeper.

Be my heartkeeper, ma lisse.

Take my heart.

Share your soul.

Spend eternity with me.

She remembered the way he rocked her in his arms, and how he began to bleed tears of blood, which had fallen on her cheeks.

I love you, Soleil.

Be my heartkeeper.

Soleil squeezed her eyes shut.

Liar.

Liar.

Liar.

But she couldn’t blame him for not saying the truth, could she?

I love you, Soleil.

Be my heartkeeper.

She was almost tempted to cover her ears so she wouldn’t hear his words, playing over and over in her mind. Desperately, she tried to mentally hum the lilting notes of La Vie En Rose, but it didn’t work.

None of it worked.

The world was too, too silent if he was not with her.

I love you, Soleil.

Be my heartkeeper.

She whispered, “If I d-don’t remember him, I will not be hurt—-”

Someone knocked urgently on Zari’s door, cutting her off, and when Zari opened the door, it was to find one of the school guards trying to catch his breath. “Lady Zari. Lady Soleil. Someone’s trying to break into ANEX.”

Soleil was the first one to recover from her shock, and she demanded, “What? Who?” But she had already started running as she spoke, and the guard did his best to catch up with her.

As they ran down the stairs, the guard huffed out, “It’s Lord Ilie, milady.”