A Murderer's Son: A Zelink Story

Chapter 13

I was beginning to sink into sleep, my eyelids heavy against my eyes, my body radiating with warmth. Flashes of colour and indistinguishable imagery were twisting in front of me as I was dragged into sleep, when suddenly, a pair of arms wove around my waist.

I sat up in shock, gasping as cold awareness smacked my face. I heard Link's familiar, comforting voice before long though, and held my chest, laughing.

"Hey," he smiled, kissing me through the shimmering rays of moonlight. I asked him how he'd gotten in. "You left your balcony door open. I was gonna knock."

However his words slipped away into another kiss, his arms reaching round my back as I cupped his jaw with one hand. "Zelda..." He spoke softly, breaking the kiss and looking down.

"Hm?" I sounded, craning my neck so I could look at his face, gentle comfort lingering on the tone of my voice.

"I need to tell you something."

My mind momentarily rushed through each possibility. Breakup? He'd cheated on me? He wasn't actually the chosen hero? "What is it?" I asked, my voice unsure and wavering. Doubt flashed across his face in a furrowing of his brows. I lifted an arm to his chest, the pulsing of his heart evident and sprightly. "Link?"

"I..." He began, biting his inner cheek. "I think I love you."

My jaw hung for a moment, displaying my raw amazement and elation. My heart, too, began to race at paces unknown, my cheeks growing hot, awaking a red hue to flush across their surface. "You what?"

A childish grin creeped across his lips. "Don't make me say it again," He chuckled, pulling my smile even wider, his cheekbones raised in my hand. 

"I love you too," I whispered, cradling his face in my hands. Ecstasy washed over him as he kissed me again, winding his arms round my waist and laying me down. I looked out into the view from my bedroom, of the sparkling night sky and luscious greenery. This time, however, I allowed for Link to hold me, wrap his arms around me from behind, rest his head in the crook of my neck, hold both legs either side of my hips and cling to me all night.

***

Her breathing was so smooth and rhythmic, the moon gently fondling her hair with its silver lining. I breathed into her neck until my lungs burned, the scent of her perfume only dragging me in further. It was funny how it all made sense. Urbosa had told us we were tied, we were meant to be together, we were always going to wind up together, in every possible universe, in every possible scenario. And this was all true.

Because when I was with her here, my arms weren't strong enough to grip her in a way which satisfied me. She wasn't close enough, even though I was pressed into her. I couldn't hear her voice enough, even though we spent every possible moment we could with each other. It wasn't enough.

I wondered if love always felt like this. When I'd asked Max about love once, he'd told me it felt like everything in the world had just clicked. But it didn't feel that way with her. Because my need for her was so irrevocably strong that her entire existence wasn't enough. That until we were bonded in spirit, perhaps after death, I would always have a lingering want for her. And I knew this wasn't a normal connection. I knew this was something deeper.

Urbosa was aware of it. She was aware of practically everything that went on between me and Zelda. Yet she'd kept her mouth shut, held her tongue in the face of the King.

And every time my thoughts trailed off, every time I felt even remotely happy, my heart would tug with despair as I remembered once again.

I'd had my nights of hyperventilation. I'd had that episode the night I found out, that episode where I'd ran across the desert and didn't stop until I reached a cliff's edge, where I sank to my knees and sobbed for hours.

And that was bargaining. That was pleading for a miracle, that was hoping, denying, processing, lying, hiding, suggesting, accepting.

But now I was here. At the final stage of grief, and I hadn't even died yet. 

And sometimes the claustraphobia would kick in, and my heart would race, calenders forming in my mind as I tried to calculate the months. And I thought, a lot, about the day. The day it would happen. The day I was due.

And it was terrifying, truly. I couldn't escape it. But she diluted it. She numbed it; temporarily, but that's better than nothing. She had made me feel like I was living again. She had saved me from that hell, that turmoil of finding out. And those nine days with her had been paradise.

"Hey, Zelda," I whispered, her giving a half-asleep hum as a reply. "Do you remember the ocean?"

She gave no reply, clearly swamped in sleep. So I joined her, and left today's troubles behind.

And I was leaving tomorrow. But I still hadn't told her, let alone why I was going in the first place. She hadn't even known about what happened today in the medical grounds.

I didn't want to break her heart.