curve of his back, his lower abdomen, and where his elbows once more rested on his bent knees. Delicate color splotched her pale cheeks. She swallowed hard. Her voice turned raspy. “Do you really want to kiss me?”
“Yes.”
Her chest lifted and fell.
He reached into the woven bag tied at his waist, pulled out his mating gemstone, and started to hold it out for her—no. The seaweed.
A half-empty plastic bottle of water rested next to her. It was regular water, not the shiny color of the elixir, but it should still work. He rinsed his gemstone and his hands, then his mouth with the bottle of water, and just for good measure, poured the last over his head. The constant surface wind dried him quickly.
She watched him avidly, and her attention made him stand taller, as a warrior.
Her lips parted.
The barrier thickened, hiding away her light.
She quickly covered her chest. Trying to hide…no, not from him. Trying to hide, somehow, from herself.
This barrier was so powerful. She had learned to live with it, just as she had learned to live with her allergies. If her allergies were her body’s overreaction to her physical world, this barrier was an overreaction to the glow of her soul.
He rolled to his knees again and rested before her. “Starr. This barrier is a powerful danger. It will repel me. And I think it has caused your elixir to not heal you.”
Her soul flickered deep inside. “I think the elixir isn’t healing me because allergies are natural. It’s not a foreign illness. It’s my own body.”
“There are many kinds of illnesses, even the illnesses of your soul.”
Her brows lifted, then her gaze turned inward.
He was losing her.
And she knew it too. She rubbed her chest, trying to fight the barrier, but she couldn’t. “I can’t risk it.”
“You must. Once our bond is strong and the healing energy of the Life Tree flows in your veins, you will not suffer the allergies that have endangered you up to now.”
“I will always suffer. Going into the water with you, with seaweed and fish everywhere, I might suffer more. And if I react…” She shuddered.
“That will be no problem.”
Her gaze narrowed. “If I react, I can’t breathe. You think that’s no problem?”
“Yes.” He took her hand. “Because under the water, united with me, you will never have to breathe again.”
Five
Starr’s world cracked open.
Gailen offered her the holy grail.
She would not have to breathe. Their souls would be united by their kiss.
Her heart thudded. Excitement pushed against the band tightening around her chest. She wanted to draw in a great breath and dance. Twirl. Sing. But the protective film squeezed like a corset, and unless something changed, it would cut her off again.
She withdrew her hand. She had to force herself not to feel anything.
The shadows beneath Gailen’s eyes deepened. Pulling away hurt him.
She didn’t want to hurt him.
Drawing away like this had never hurt anyone but herself, so trying to fight against it was like trying to fight against a DDOS attack. The attackers came from everywhere, and unlike in the movie Hackers, she couldn’t shout out cute names and stop them. They descended like a swarm of bees.
Bees. Another thing that could potentially kill her.
The warrior in front of her rested on his knees, patient. But darkness and sadness showed in the hollows of his eyes. He looked haunted, hunted. He had been through a terrible experience, worse than her, but similar enough. And she knew what she was missing. It was why she’d gone to therapy in the first place.
“I’m sorry,” she managed to say, distantly and emotionlessly, while pressing on her chest hard enough to leave a bruise. “Whether bad or good, it does a hard reset and forces me to stop feeling.”
“When I said you were my soul mate, was your emotion bad or good?”
She knew the answer.
But even thinking it made her heart lift and the film tighten, so she said, “I don't know.”
He looked devastated.
And that hurt.
It…
Nothing. She felt nothing, actually.
The film cut her off.
Which wasn’t fair. If she was feeling happy and then she felt hurt, the two emotions should cancel out and return her to neutral. But it didn’t work that way. Like if her protective system was already on overdrive from allergies, she should never get sick, but she was sick all the time.
Anyway, she shouldn’t care so much. They had just met each other. They'd known each other for an afternoon.
Although the sun was down now.
He rested on his