light and flattening her expression to a vacant, absent look.
His heart ached. He opened his hands to show the seaweed. “I collected food for you.”
She backed away. “I'm allergic.”
He threw the seaweed over the side. “Forgive me. I am learning this new illness, and I have never been complimented for skilled thinking.”
She blinked.
And then, like a cautious firefish, once more her soul light flickered bright enough to be seen.
“This pleases you?”
She covered her chest with both hands.
“I can see your soul light even if you cover your chest.”
After a long moment, she spoke. “I know. This is for me.”
“For you?”
“I have to be careful of how much I feel.” A hint of a frown crossed her brow. “Knowing you can sense me anyway helps.” Her brow smoothed and her eyes, formerly glassy and dull, brightened as she seemed to return to herself. Her shoulders slumped and she rubbed her forehead. Her soul brightened.
His chest warmed in response. Resonance. And even though he should be careful, he couldn’t help but smile. “This too is allergies?”
“If you mean that I’m allergic to emotions, then yes. It’s just one more allergy.” She gestured at the seaweed. “I’m sorry I can’t eat it. I’m allergic to seaweed. And fish. And shellfish.”
He flexed his fingers. “Then it does not help that I ate seaweed to remove the peanuts from my breath.”
“Yeah, it’s been long enough you were probably okay on peanuts. Um, about what you were saying about soul mates…” She hugged herself. “Without going into too much detail, how do we know if the test works? If I kiss you, will I transform immediately? Or does it take time?”
Her soul fluctuated dangerously.
And his, already linked to her, did as well. Was she thinking the same as him? He fought his excitement, too used to being disappointed, but still hopeful. “You have already drunk the elixir. Our kiss increases our resonance, and when our souls resonate strongly enough, you will transform. But I cannot kiss you now.”
“You can’t?”
“Because of your illness. I do not want you to react to the seaweed I have eaten.”
“Oh. You’re right. But… Ah.”
He reached out to take her hand.
She backed away.
He curled his seaweed-tainted fingers into a fist. “If I eat your food, then we can kiss.”
“Can we? I mean…” She seemed caught between a smile and a frown. She reached up under the hood and scratched her scalp. “I don’t even know if we can kiss. That would be so ironic if we were soul mates and we couldn’t kiss. And we probably shouldn’t test it.” She rubbed her thigh where she had jammed the medicine tube. “Not without some plan to protect me if it goes wrong.”
“In the ocean, I will protect you.”
“But you can’t protect me from myself.”
“Starr.” He captured her gaze and held it before she had the chance to disappear completely. “Tell me about this illness, allergies, and why it makes you hide away from me when you are sad.”
“They’re kind of two separate things.” She nodded slowly and hugged herself. “That’s a good topic. That’ll calm me right down.”
She sat on the deck again, and he joined her at a safe distance. She hugged her coverings closer and put her shoulder to the ever-present surface wind. “Allergies happen when our bodies try to protect ourselves too hard from something that doesn’t really mean us harm. It’s a massive overreaction. We have a saying about cutting off our nose to spite our face, and allergies are like cutting off our whole head to prevent a little scratch. In my case, I’m allergic to peanuts, soy, latex, pollen, dust, dairy… The list goes on. Food allergies are the worst because they trigger my asthma, so I can’t breathe, but the other environmental ones just make my skin red and itchy. The dietary ones that don’t kill me give me indigestion. I can’t live a normal life because almost everything in normal life will cause my body to react.”
“Can you tell your body it is not in danger?”
“I did allergy treatments for a lot of things, but we couldn't risk anaphylaxis. Shellfish is terrible. Fish and seaweed aren’t as bad, but they can still give me contact rashes and indigestion. And that’s why I can’t risk exposing myself to you.”
“I am not shellfish, fish, or seaweed.”
“I know, but if something comes from the ocean, usually I can’t touch it. And you come from the ocean.”
“But now, I am a man.”
Her gaze trailed down his body to the