They popped open another bottle of wine and spent the next hour talking it out while Googling everything they could on the subject of reincarnation. Déjà vu moments were said to be glimpses into our past selves, reminding us of things we’d seen or done in past lives. That was why she’d always favored Scotland, why it’d felt so recognizable when she was there.
Hero had also died before her time and in a violent manner. One site theorized that past lives that were exceptionally turbulent and emotional were often the ones people remembered. Past pain or trauma carried on from life to life. Kris thought that was why Mikah was afraid of heights. A death like Hero’s would have haunted her through all her incarnations.
Which would also mean that the dreams she’d had her whole life weren’t dreams at all. Rather they were visions of that former life. Memories.
Then they found a website on past life regression, talking about how people might be hypnotized back into their previous lives. “One often visits a past life to repair a wrong, to set their path to rights,” Kris read aloud.
“But I didn’t change anything. Iandied. I died,” she whispered softly. “I’ve lost him.”
A part of Kris wanted to point out that she hadn’t lost him, that it hadn’t been her life, but he knew her pain was real. That, reality or not, Mikah loved this guy. Rationality in a situation like this wasn’t the play of a true friend. “So maybe you should do this past life regression thing.”
She shook her head with a shudder. “I want him back, but I don’t want him for a day or a memory. I already have those.”
“He must have really been something to hook you like this,” he said. “What was he like?”
She leaned back and curled into the crook of his arm with a sigh. “Oh Kris, he was so wonderful.”
“A marquess? Isn’t that like being a prince or something?”
“A step down from a duke,” she told him. “But it wasn’t just the tall, dark, and handsome thing. The castle and title. He was beautiful to the soul. Smart…protective. And funny. Everything you could want and a bag of chips.”
“Sounds tasty.”
Mikah laughed, but it ended with another lament. “I never knew it could be like that. That’s why I convinced myself that it was only a dream. No one is that perfect.”
“I feel that. Not in this life anyway.”
They toasted to that sentiment. Too much wine had been consumed without much food to counterbalance it, yet Mikah was feeling more balanced than she’d been in months. “So, I’m not crazy.”
“Not certifiable anyway.”
Punching her friend lightly on the arm, she cracked a smile. “So what now?”
“You’re going to go to this auction.” Kris waved the auction catalog in her face. “You’re going to see it for yourself. Touch it. Feel it. Take some satisfaction in the fact that it is a real place. Pick up a souvenir or two.”
“And then?”
“Come back and find yourself again, Mikes,” he said. “I get you loved him, but after you do this one last thing, you need to finally put all this behind you. Stop wallowing in the misery of someone else’s life and wallow in your own for a while.”
“Ouch.” Mikah winced at the assessment but he was right. Real or not, it would never be her life again. That past was never going to be her future. “Thanks.”
“That’s what friends are for, to deliver the brutal truth. And to prove how good a friend I am, I’m going to come with you.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“Who’s asking?”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Dùn Cuilean, Scotland
December 2016
“Nice place,” Kris whispered as their cab dropped them off in the courtyard drive at the north side of the castle. “Wonder what the monthly heating bill is.”
“Probably a tiny bit more than your apartment,” she told him as they entered Dùn Cuilean through the entry hall to find a small area that was now staged as a check-in area. A jovial Scottish woman introduced herself as Mary as she greeted them at the desk. She asked for their names and credit card as she began typing information into the computer. “I see you requested the Lady’s Chamber. Are you sure you still want it?”
When she’d found out that the renamed marchioness’s chamber was available, she’d jumped at the chance to stay in her—or Hero’s—rooms once again. “I do. Why do you ask?”
