"Don't leave Allisaahn alone, don't go anywhere alone." Zaarek's eyes darkened. "I have a bad feeling about this, brother."
So did I.
ALICE
I didn't knowwhat to say. The words,it was just a dream, hovered at the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them down. It was clear that to him, it hadn't beenjust a dream. And by the way goosebumps spread over my flesh whenever he said the nameAllisaahn, I kind of agreed with him. My logical brain was still refusing to believe any of it.Soulweb GlyphsandMates? But there was no denying the black markings running up and down the left side of my body.
As much as I wanted to call him a psychopath for making this whole thing up, having injected some kind of poison in me to make those marks appear… well, let's just say that sounded as far-fetched as the other story. Also, there was no denying the deep-rooted emotions inside of me at hearinghername. Or how his description of the town and Darlam reverberated inside me, like an echo that had become so faint it was barely audible any longer.
Yet, it was hard to believe in that whole Soulmate stuff. I mean, if that were the case, shouldn't I have been head over heels in love with this guy? Like from the moment I laid eyes on him? Wasn't that what this was supposed to be all about? Love?
I did have feelings for Xyrek. Hell, I was here on a spaceship with him, going to a planet I'd never heard of before, leaving anything human behind. But love?
I listened deep inside me, recalled the great sex we had, the fluttering in my stomach whenever I saw him, the weakening knees. Crush, maybe, I allowed. But did one follow a crush through the universe like this?
I remembered the ache I had felt when he was gone, and I thought I would never see him again. It hadn’t been a mind-numbing, devastating ache, but it had been there, and I wasn’t sure how much worse it might have become. Then again, I didn’t think love was an emotion one could quantify. Some people fell head over heels, some people enjoyed a quieter bond, and neither one was wrong or right. Many people swore they knew they had found their soulmate the moment they laid eyes on them. None of these were things I could dismiss. Neither could I dismiss my growing… fondness for him. Yes, fondness. One didn’t fall in love with someone in a matter of days, dammit. That just didn’t happen. But the truth was that I was following a man through space whom I hardly knew because it was better than being without him, so that had to be a pretty strong emotion I felt for him, right?
This was so confusing, and instead of finding any answers, it got more confusing with every clue Xyrek unearthed… was it still unearthing in space? Alright, I decided not to go there right then. I had far more important things to figure out.
"So, you think this is some kind of memory? That we were reincarnated? Me on Earth, you… wherever, through the Ohrurs?"
He shook his head before he nodded. "Something like that. Memories, for sure. I just don't know how I can have them… and you don't."
Yeah, that wasoneof the millions of questions running through my head.
"There's more," he said.
"Okay." I steeled myself.
Excruciating pain edged over his features. No, I decided. He wasn't a psychopath. There was no way someone could fake this kind of pain. Whatever he told me, whatever he was about to say to me, he believed in it with his entire being. Which still didn't mean it was true.
"The Ohrurs attacked us. They killed us, all of us," he said.
A cold hand grabbed my heart. My ears hummed, a deep, almost subsonic sound filling my head, pressing down, as if I were diving deep underwater. It kept increasing until I had to let go of Xyrek's hand to press both of mine against my head.
"Alice? What's wrong?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. A sound… pressure… it hurts."
"Easy," he grabbed my shoulders. "It's alright, Alice, nothing is going to hurt you."
I didn't respond; I only crawled deeper into myself. He suddenly let go and jumped off the bed. He grabbed the healing wand and moved it over my head. Expectantly, I waited, but nothing happened. Neither the pressure nor the sound subsided.
"Alice," he grabbed me again. "I need you to focus on me," he urged.
And then I passed out.
When my eyes blinked open, I felt a damp towel moving gently up and down my face. "There she is. You scared me. How are you feeling?"
I blinked a few times. The humming and pressure were gone. He helped me sit up, but dizziness made me lean into him. My hand moved up and cupped his cheek. The roughness of his skin was at once arousing and familiar. Achingly so, as if I had done this kind of gesture a million times before. I looked into the deep black pool of his eyes. Eyes that had been so… alien to me when I first met him. But now? Now I felt like I could read his every emotion in them. It was like diving into a dark pool of warm water. Reassuring, pleasant, and so very safe.
It felt like an echo in time, looking into those dark eyes, feeling his skin under my palm. My own flesh tingled at the contact, sending vibrations down to my core, warming my heart, and expanding a myriad of emotions inside my chest. Tears burned in my eyes just from this little contact, and I realized he was more than just a crush to me—a lot more. I cleared my throat to get the lump out of it before I reassured him, "Better, I think. It's gone."
"What was it?"
"I don't know. It was a sound. So deep. It felt like it was inside me—" I tried to explain, having difficulty recalling those moments, no matter how bad they had been. Because this latest epiphany, the way I felt about him? It was all that was on my mind right now.
"Surrounded you? Pressed you down?" he interrupted me, not realizing I had already broken off midsentence.
