Soul Ties

Chapter 20: At First Glance

I feel dizzy. I have to grip the metal railing of the bed behind me to keep myself from falling over, or worse, fainting. Across the room stands the man who my soul was supposedly connected to. The man that I had been so sure couldn't possibly be the one for me. The man who I had to kill when the time came.

He crosses his legs at the ankles, letting his shoulders fall back to lean against the wall. He doesn't say anything, just stares with those deep black eyes at me pressed against the bed frame. He looks far too casual for our first encounter, and that makes me surprisingly upset.

I clear my throat, taking a deep breath in while I stand up straight. I want to make myself seem taller, like I wasn't just running in a panic down the hall into this very room. But when he pushes himself off the wall, taking a step towards me, I shrink back to the edge of the bed.

Get a grip, my thoughts scream. I clear my throat again. I want to say something, but what could I say to make this moment less awkward? I do the only thing left to do in this situation. I study him.

His frame is large, just like Caelum's, though he seems a foot or so taller. I can tell even from across the room. His pink skin is relatively the same, but the veins running up his arms are far more prominent. They trail all the way down to the knuckles of his hands, covering almost every inch of skin my eyes land on. When he moves again, his muscles follow, wielding their way with every small advance he makes underneath his skin. I can't help feeling uneasy by how strong he looks.

The dark red pants he's wearing do little to cover him with all the tears and pieces of what I assume is missing cloth. My eyes settle on his exposed thighs, the enormity of them making me gulp as he slowly makes his way to me. His black shirt, just as ripped as his bottoms, hangs loosely on his shoulders settling at his waist. The hem of it shredded on one side lets me see a small amount of his hips, those veins trailing upward.

I tear my eyes away from the bottom half of him, trying to focus solely on his face. The black horns protruding out of his head are both intact, unlike Caelum's.

The base of his horns are covered by his onyx colored hair, ending just short of his collar bone in soft silky waves. They seem to shine against the dim light in the room. His horns curve slightly towards his face, curling near his ears until they end in a dangerous point. My fingers tingle imagining myself feeling them.

I gaze down at his jaw, noticing the muscles working as he clenches and releases it. Is he upset or nervous?

He takes another cautious step towards me, his exposed feet covered almost to the ankles with dirt. A warm hum draws my attention away from him and down to my arm where the golden thread sits. To my surprise, it's brighter than before. Immediately, I look over at Scorpius' arm, his golden thread glowing just as intensely. He continues to stride forward, almost closing the distance between us, but not quite. When he takes another step the heat from my arm increases, as does the glow.

"Stop," I tell him. He doesn't, continuing across the room. My pointer finger is getting feverish.

"Don't come closer." I peer down at his forearm, the string casting light on the walls behind him. Looking at his face, his eyes appear almost like he's in a trance. The more distance he closes, the more my arm heats up.

I grip the bed frame and close my eyes, willing everything to disappear.

"Stop!" I shout. My words come out in small pants, my lungs begging for the air they never seemed to fill with. This was all too much.

Between the darkness of the halls, to the dread and anxiety I had when I stepped on this planet, I couldn't take one more second of this. I knew what would happen if our hands got close enough. We would mate, our souls officially tying together to become one. It was all just happening too fast. I needed a moment to think.