Jinn took Eutopia's face with tender hands and his eyes were smouldering coals.

'You dream of me?' he asked with a serene tone that didn't match his intense expression. Eutopia nodded, sliding her palm over the back of one of his hands as they lay hot against her skin.

'Yes,' she breathed, sapphire eyes searching his in the hope of finding some unspoken answer in the depths of Jinn's steady indigo gaze.

'I thought you did,' he smiled, offering no further explanation.

'But I don't understand,' Eutopia said, sitting up and turning to face him, pushing herself off from the knobbly bark of the willow tree behind her that she could feel through the thickness of Jinn's hoodie she still wore. 'I don't get it. My dreams… they're just dreams,' she shook her head, causing tangled tresses, dry from the lake water now and half restrained by her ponytail to fall around delicate features that were puckered with bewilderment. Jinn's hand left her cheek to brush lightly at a fallen lock of hair, his eyes lowered to study the way the ends curled around his fingertip in thoughtful silence for a long time.

'Do you remember that conversation we had not so long ago, about how you wished you were from some other place, some other time?' he ventured. Eutopia narrowed her eyes, taking him in at an angle as though his profile might reveal the hint of a lie, or at least some sort of humour in his words as she sensed what was coming. 'Well you are,' he finished simply.

'What?' Eutopia asked with disbelief, feeling her scepticism obvious in the set of her jaw.

'You have lived before. A long time ago,' Jinn could see that he was losing her, the incredulity etched in every line of Eutopia's frame as she raised herself to her knees with muscles tensed and ready to catapult her away from him for the third time that night. Did she never get tired of running, he wondered? She was like a skittish woodland creature whose first reaction to anything new and uncertain was to bolt. Preserve the self. Jinn could understand that but he had waited so long, so long for this moment, he couldn't let it slide now. As much as he hated to prevent her from anything, to fight against her instincts, his fingers closed lightly around her wrist. 'Please, just hear me out.' Jinn sensed her hesitation and imagined he saw her make an effort to smooth her bristling at his restraining hand and so he continued quickly, his words tumbling over one another to begin with in his urgency to keep her attention. 'It was 314 AD, Constantine the Great was Emperor, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity after winning a battle following a dream he'd had in which God had told him he would win. My name was Alexis back then and Liviana, my sister for all intents and purposes, and I, we had it made! We were new and exotic, welcomed into Rome with open and curious arms at a time when newness was invited. The old gods were still very much worshipped but there was a niche for us. At first we sat back, observing the Roman way of life from a distance until we gradually immersed ourselves completely into the culture. We rented a villa, one of the most luxurious that money could buy and we threw ourselves into being like them, so much so that we lost our way. Liviana became consumed by the material lifestyle, her sight misted by all that glittered and her tongue sharpened on the backs of our slaves and their idolisation of her.'

'Whoa,' Eutopia interrupted, fingers pressed against her forehead in a bid to smooth the frown lines that creased her brow, 'whoa, whoa, whoa. Just stop.' Jinn did as she asked; his hands lay impassive, clasping each other as his huge forearms rested on his thighs. 'Slaves?' Eutopia asked, cocking a brow quizzically, 'Rome, 314AD? You seriously think I'm going to buy into your kinky historical stories, Mr Fifty Shades? You sound like the voice over for some cheap SciFi flick.' She seemed half amused as her lips curled gently up into a tiny smile. 'So what, I was one of those slaves and you were my Master, which is why I've been dreaming about you and you seem so freakishly familiar to me?'

'Yes,' Jinn said without hesitation, no hint of a jest. 'Liviana wasn't the only guardian to lose her way, though.'

'Guardian?' she frowned at the term though the word echoed somewhere deep within her, striking hollowly against her mind. Jinn turned a beseeching expression upon her that was so imploring that it caught the breath in her throat. His eyes glittered, as dark and as smooth as the surface of the lake that lay a few feet away from them, undisturbed as yet by the scraggly looking fox that slunk closer to the water's edge with one wary eye on the two figures that remained otherwise motionless. Eutopia fell silent.

'We were both too easily distracted, like magpies to silver,' he continued, ignoring her question as though she hadn't asked it and he looked up to find her gaze fixed on a point in the middle distance. Her eyes were narrowed ever so slightly though her head was tilted as though to catch every word. 'Greed and jealousy were the weaknesses of my sister but I was overwhelmed with love and desire for you, from the very first moment I saw you. You were never part of the plan in that respect but from the day I was drawn to you, you became the plan. You were utterly beautiful, eyes as dark as a clear night sky, hair as soft and as untamed as your heart and your soul was the purest I had ever come across in all my existence. Over sixteen hundred years hasn't changed any of that,' he laughed softly into the gentle darkness that was slowly lightening to an inky blue around them as Eutopia felt a blush staining her cheeks.

'How did we meet?' she asked in a hushed, captivated tone, dragging her attention from the watchful animal at the lakes edge who, having drank its fill, lifted its slender muzzle to sniff at the air and turn on its bedraggled tail before slinking off out of sight into a low evergreen shrub, a speck of rust against the shadowy brush. A vague picture began to form in her mind with Jinn's words. Perhaps it was her existing belief in some form of reincarnation that left her susceptible to his story weaving, but in the half-light of the little clearing in the wake of so many dreams of that strange and almost forgotten land, his explanation rang with the sound of truth, however slim. At least to some part of her. A mirage of those misty visions shimmered tantalizingly at her memory, teasing at the edges but never stepping close enough for Eutopia to grab them and drag them into clarity.

'At an auction in the marketplace. I didn't know what the pull was at that time but I suppose I should have guessed it would be to find my new assignment. It wasn't like me at all to visit the slave auctions but it had become Liviana's favourite way to spend her mornings. She had already acquired two women who provided the utmost adoration for her, women she was meant to be helping, and she didn't believe she could tolerate the attention of a third but that didn't prevent her from visiting that soulless place day after day, if only to draw the crowds eyes to her and to revel in her own Earthly fortune. That day I'd set out alone without any real intention or purpose, just followed my feet until I came across the throng of people amassed around a little platform. I could feel the tension thick in the air, sharp and acrid above the fetid scent of despair that always clung to that place. There was a sweeter smell though that I could sense beneath the rottenness. Hope. Expectation. Perhaps it was that which drew me in… I was always a sucker for a positive slant on things.' He chuckled gently. 'The price for you was high, higher than usual for a scrawny dark haired girl when the fair skinned and golden haired slaves were in fashion. The men in the crowd pushed closer to where you stood, jostling each other in an attempt to get their bids acknowledged. I had to push my way through the throng to get a bit closer and find out what all the fuss was about. When I saw you I knew I couldn't walk away without you by my side, I'd been sent for you. You were so… exposed, so defenceless standing there amongst that baying mob scrabbling to own your flesh but I never once saw a flicker of fear in your eyes. There was aloofness to you, a sort of indifference rather than a submission to your situation that I found fascinating. I doubled the asking price for you,' a ghost of a smile lifted Jinn's lips and softened his eyes as he looked up at Eutopia.

'And we lived happily ever after?' she almost scoffed as the spell Jinn had woven with the thread of his words petered out, though her tone was half hopeful. Jinn shook his head slowly, twitching it first to one side and then to the other. 'Not exactly,' he said.

'The girl, the one you loved in Rome… That was me…' Jinn could practically see the piece drop into place as Eutopia made the connection. The skin tightened around his eyes as pain sharpened his perfect features that were brought further into relief by the lightening of the clearing as dawn edged closer around them. Somewhere nearby Eutopia could hear the sharp, eerie barking of a fox cub, a piercing wail so like that of a human child that it caused the downy hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end. The hidden cub was no doubt calling for an early breakfast before it would settle back into the warmth of its den to sleep the oncoming day away. She absently wondered if the skinny fox she had seen drinking moments before would be the one to answer that call with a rabbit, still twitching and hot from its pursuit through the undergrowth. Right now she felt like she imagined that rabbit would. Her heart beat ten to the dozen, thudding inexplicably as her rationale wrestled with her sentiment. Did she want this to be true? Past lives had interested her for as long as she could remember, it had always seemed like such a romantic and idealistic notion. Imagine being able to have a second or even third attempt at life! But did she truly believe it? She wasn't quite sure.

'And you?' she asked, quietly, 'how many times have you lived before?'

'Only once. Just this one existence I've been leading. I was created at the dawn of time to help guide you humans through life. All of us angels were. That's how I ended up in Rome in the first place, I was sent to help you, but instead I ended up falling in love with you which didn't go down too well with the hierarchy and so I was cast out, unable to return until I do my duty. '

'Your duty? And what would that be?'

'To guide you along the path that has been chosen for you.'

'And just where does that path lead, exactly?' Eutopia asked, carefully.

'It's not the destination that matters so much,' Jinn answered with deep sincerity, 'it's the journey.' He scooped up Eutopia's hand and lifted it to his lips, grazing her knuckles lightly so that she could feel his soft, warm breath on her skin.

'Oh!' she murmured, feeling her insides fluttering like so many moths drawn to the flame that was the bright spark in his eyes.

'And that's a journey I can now complete with you, dear heart, now that I have found you once more.' Like little kisses from a summer breeze she felt his lips brush over the intimate flesh of her inner arm, his hand again pushing up the sleeve of his jumper that she still wore to expose the skin and trail his mouth delicately over the silvered scars of her past.

'Why couldn't you have found me sooner?' Eutopia asked in a whisper, feeling her heart swell as his words, his lips lay like a gentle balm against her skin, wrapping comfortably around her as the ruby dawn burnished everything it could reach, staining the lake just a stone's throw away from them.

'It was impossible for me to find you until you reached the point in this life that I came across you in your previous life. I've had to wait a long time, an incredibly long time for your soul to regenerate, for you to grow into the person you are now and you wouldn't be who you are without all that you have already suffered as you have already said.' His voice was strained, his fingertips again skimming over the faint lines that marred her otherwise smooth skin. 'It pains me so much to know how much you've endured in my absence. Believe me, Eutopia, if I could have been there from day one of this life to protect you, I would have been there,' Jinn's eyes blazed with a passion that she felt, hot and tangible in the misty dawn air around them. 'Unfortunately I am still bound by some laws of my kind, at least for the moment.' He nodded faintly at the range of emotions that flickered across Eutopia's face as he spoke, he could feel her bewilderment, confusion and something else… was it hope, hope that all he said was true? Eutopia was unsure herself at that moment.

'This is a lot to take in,' she said, her eyes on the translucent mist that crept and swirled around them and seemed to rise in little wisps from the dew that dampened the ground, scattered like stardust at their feet. 'It's not that I don't believe… I want to believe, more than you know! But, it just sounds so…'

'Far-fetched?' he asked, one eyebrow cocked as a hint of a smile tugged at his lips.

'Yes.' Eutopia gave a hugely deep sigh that caused her shoulders to slump as questions fluttered, half-formed and un-asked, in the recesses of her mind, twisting with the enticing recollections of her recurring dreams. They glimmered and merged with the pictures his words had conjured, as ethereal as the stirring daylight in the clearing. The birds began to sing; a tremulous, shivering sound.

'Then come back to the house with me, think it over before you decide anything now,' Jinn said, extending his hand to Eutopia as he stood up with easy grace. Eutopia contemplated the open palm for a moment, her eyes dark and thoughtful, before she stretched out her own to allow Jinn's long fingers to enfold hers as he pulled her, stiffly, to her feet.