Cracking up at my own stupid joke, I grab the karaoke mic and my phone, flipping through the playlists until I find what I’m looking for.
“Prepare yourself for the Stevie Milan Bon Jovi remix,” I say. Then I take a deep breath, hit the button, and light up the stage.
I sing my heart out for every song, shaking my hips, bobbing my head, working it until I’m damn near exhausted and the yellow candle sputters out, filling the air with the scent of candle smoke and lemon bread and the big-haired, air-guitar-shredding nostalgia of the eighties.
I’ve just wrapped up the last song—and epic rendition ofI’ll Be There for You—when the impossible happens.
The citrine crystal cracks in half.
And Ani says my name.
Twenty-Five
ANSEL
Stevie… Stevie…
The name is on my lips, the sound of it bringing flashes of another life to my mind. A woman with wild, curly hair and eyes the color of the sky. She’s running down a red dirt path toward me, her hair flowing out behind her, her smile as bright as the sun itself.
Stevie…
She glows like an angel, reaching for me, still smiling, her words echoing in my mind, again and again and again.
Mage of sunshine, mage of fire
Hear my words and know my desire
Wherever you wander, wherever you roam
May the light of our love guide you back home
I reach for her, the magick between us building, conspiring to bring us together. I feel it pulling me closer, pullinghercloser…
Mage of sunshine, mage of fire
Hear my words and know my desire
Wherever you wander, wherever you roam
May the light of our love guide you back home
My heart beats a frantic rhythm, the air around me superheated with magick and fire. If I could only touch her, feel her in my arms, maybe I would remember…
Mage of sunshine, mage of fire
Hear my words and know my desire
Wherever you wander, wherever you roam
May the light of our love guide you back home
Home. Yes, she is my home. She must be. I can feel it, deep inside. A sense of rightness and completion. Joy. A light that can’t be dimmed.
I push harder, running faster and farther, determined to reach her. She’s closer now, so close I can almost taste the sweet scent of her skin. I stretch out my arms, and she does the same, our fingertips brushing for the briefest instant…
Lightning explodes overhead, ripping the very fabric of space and time, tearing her from my grasp. I reach for her again, desperate, lost, but my wild-haired angel is already fading, vanishing into nothingness.
Stevie…
