WINGS & FANGS

From Chapter Four

Deirdre

Humans talk about soul mates like it’s some mystical thing, where the stars line up and everyone’s all lovey-dovey and they ‘complete’ each other. Not true. At least, that I know of. For Rahvels, it means we’re the same thing; not yin and yang, not two halves of a whole, we’re just… the same.

Basically, a Rahvel’s soul mate is another part of them. When Fledglings are born our souls haven’t quite finished forming, and can get caught up with another infants’. So my soul and Phillip’s somehow tangled together and we’ll never untangle.

No. Tangle isn’t quite the right word, because that sounds fixable.

We’re more like those bottles of colored sand. We can’t ever be separated, but we can become more mixed, until we’re so blurred we can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. That’s where the danger is.

There’s nothing romantic about a relationship you can’t help, nothing nice about being so caught up in another person that you forget your family, your friends, and more important, the fact that you’re supposed to protect people.

That’s what becoming involved with your soul mate can do to you. That’s why it’s forbidden, why Phillip and I can’t ever be together.

At least, not again.