I could feel myself slowly stirring to consciousness, but there were other things mixing in the back of my mind. Waves of guilt and anxiety were moving in my subconscious, with no rational reason for such feelings. I could feel the heaviness of my eyes and the stiffness in my body, as I fought to make myself wake up the rest of the way.
More emotions formed in the back of my mind as my eyes fluttered open. A mixture of concern and relief. As I looked around me, I could clearly see the furniture of my room, the blanket that covered me on my bed feeling as heavy as a bag of stones.
"Hey, Rae..." I heard Veren's voice whisper from beside my bed.
I had to force my head to turn to face him, and I felt a new, unexplained pull to him that seemed so unusual and so familiar at the same time.
"What happened?" I asked, hearing the rasp in my voice.
He stood up from the chair that I hadn't noticed him sitting in, and grabbed a glass of water from a table that wasn't normally next to my bed. He brought it to my lips, using his right arm to raise my head a little.
The water was cold and burned as it went down my throat, followed quickly by a sense of relief.
Even as he pulled the glass of water away from me, setting it back on the table, he never removed his arm from under my neck, with his thumb just petting against my cheek.
"You passed out" he finally answered me, and I felt a sliver of fear rising in my subconscious.
"Kat...she's dead...right?" I asked, feeling the pain in my body as I forced myself into a sitting position.
Veren sat down on the bed, leaning against the pillows and pulling me against his chest. And then he kissed the top of my head and said "Yeah. She's gone."
I felt the heat rising my gut, but I also felt it in my mind, like a whisper of something so close and yet so far. I didn't fight it, just closing my eyes and letting the heat soothe me from within.
There were whispering feelings in my mind, not truly with words, but I could feel the essence within me. It wasn't just Veren's arms that held me, I finally felt the link to him. Part of me still didn't understand what it all meant, or what I had even done that could have cemented the link to my own mind. But, we were bound, something that I knew without even the smallest shadow of doubt.
I analyzed my own mind, and the link I now had, as best as I could, trying to understand as much as I could, and I felt the one thing that I had wanted so badly to know before. Veren felt for me, just as I felt for him, except he felt it even stronger than I did. The warm and fire that filled me, I knew now that it was the link within me, just waiting to form. It was now his fire that was within my spirit.
What he felt for me, I had no doubt that he had felt it for years. So long before he even knew I existed. He only felt the link, and the longing from what the link created.
A thought dawned on me, but I didn't really want to give it any time. What if the link was a way of some higher power to decide who the ideal partners are? If that was the case, that had to mean that I was meant to come here all along. It also meant that I was meant to fall in love with him, even if logic told me that such things were irrational. I couldn't help thinking that this world really was so beyond such things as logic.
I hesitated for just a moment, then said "You knew how I've felt all along, didn't you?"
I felt him reposition himself so that he was looking at me.
"You knew that I would fall in love with you." I added
I looked up at him, feeling his eyes moving over my face.
"Yes. I knew" he finally said, with a sense of guilt reaching into my mind "it's part of the link."
I watched him curiously, not sure how to respond. Then I asked "Have you loved me all of this time? Even before we met?"
he simply looked at me, conflict written on his face and in his mind, then he answered "Since the day you came into existence, I have loved you."
I felt my face flush, and smiled up at him. I moved my hand, weakly, to rest on his cheek, and I leaned up as best as I could, resting my lips on his. I could feel my own nervousness, and I felt not only nervousness, but also a bit of excitement from him.
I pulled back just enough to look him in the eyes, and, finally, put all of my feelings into the three little words that most girls dream of one day hear. "I love you."