Her panic was drowned out when Tallis's voice cut through, though it sounded hollow and distant, almost lost amongst the glass-shattering screams escaping me involuntarily as death clamped its jaws around me.
"Please, Ayla, you have to try!"
I could hear Ayla crying, which meant Jay was close by for her to be able to do so. "I can't—you know I can't. I could kill her."
"Ayla she'll die if you don't do it. I can't lose her. Please!" Tallis's voice broke on the end, and my tears ran harder.
"I don't know how to control it, Tallis. You've seen what it can do," she sobbed.
"What can she do?" Jaslene interjected panicked yet hopeful, but another scream drowned out whatever they answered.
"Ayla, it didn't work before because you didn't know how to feel. You didn't know pain, fear, happiness, sadness, or any of it. Now you have Jay, and you can feel. You can do this. Please, do this for me. I won't live without her."
Jay spoke, his voice carrying more emotion than I'd ever heard. "Ayla, don't let my sister die. I just got her back."
When my brother started weeping loud enough for me to hear, my hope slowly started to fade. For Jay to cry...
I'm sure it was feeling the pain of her soul mate that made her consider doing what they were asking, but Ayla finally relented, "If I'm going to do this, I need everyone to be quiet."
Everyone started hushing each other, but I couldn't help the roars of agony escaping me.
"Jay, hold my hand," Ayla said. "I want to be sure I do this right. I can feel the most when you touch me."
Her gentle touch felt like a rose petal's caress when she put her hand on my forehead, but even that stung like a fire against my skin. I was still convulsing, writhing in pain, and my body trembled as it tried to expire.
All of my organs were trying to explode, and my breaths were more painful with each intake. I almost welcomed Yastine's crushing force at that point.
No sooner did that thought enter, did I feel everything lifting, slowly easing. Light started filtering through my eyelids that were locked shut, and I could breathe in more than just a teasing breath of air.
The pain was gradually fading, then I could see blackness to the left and a bright light to the right. I took a right, walking through an unseen doorway as the light consumed me, and filled me deep within.
It seemed as if I was sailing through an alternate dimension. Everyone's voices had faded into a distant echo, almost nonexistent. An unknown heat was radiating from my body.
A huge white flash blasted through my mind, and I crashed back into my body as though I had left it. It sounded as if every window in the house was shattering simultaneously, and flakes of reality began to settle in as I slowly opened my eyes that had been screwed shut.
The room was brighter than I had remembered, forcing me to throw my hand up quickly to shield my eyes.
I heard Jaslene speak in a soft, nearly whispered tone as the lights dimmed. "Sorry, Arisianna. I forgot how bright it all is it first. We're normally better prepared. The sensitivity will fade soon."
She kept her voice quiet, almost a whisper. I assumed that meant my ears were sensitive as well.
Jaslene released my hand to let Tallis take over. I lowered my other hand down from my eyes, hoping the blurriness my sight offered faded soon.
My breath was stolen when I found enough focus to see Tallis's cocked grin. Gravity was pulling at us, demanding
we get closer. It was so much stronger now than what it had been.
"You really are my soul mate," he said in a reverent whisper as his grin grew to be almost painful.
"Duh," I murmured with a goofy grin of my own.
I heard a couple people laughing, but they even kept those as muted as possible. He didn't seem to mind as he pulled my face close to his so gently and slowly, giving my breath time to catch in my throat. The moment I'd been dreaming about was here, and I pressed my lips against his for the second time.
Fire ran through my veins, but this time it was not painful. It was ecstasy's touch full of bottled, pent-up emotions that we'd had to deny for too long. His lips were gentle, and slow, but I needed more—craved more.
I slid my hands in his hair and tugged gently to deepen the kiss, and his tongue slipped in. Heart failure seemed to be inevitable, because it was too powerful to withstand for too long.
I wanted to kiss him for the rest of my life, I decided when he let out a little growl of pleasure that sent delicious tingles to my toes. He didn't seem to mind that everyone was staring, and neither did I. We had been waiting for this moment since the day we met. I wasn't in any hurry to cut it short simply because we had an audience.