Close Encounters

*Raven*

An odd sense of calm washes over me, even when Kieren has ascended back above ground, back into the sun. I pick up the teacup my aunt Nola gave me and sniff it suspiciously. She knew this would be hard for me, so she must have slipped me something to calm me down. The thoughtfulness touches me as I leave the apothecary to find her and my mother waiting for me.

“You look tired, my darling,” Mother tells me with a knowing look. My cheeks redden under her gaze. “You should rest. There’s much to do.”

I shake my head forcefully, when I hear Kieran’s voice in my head.

‘Miss me already?’

What a strange thing to be linked to him after all this time when our minds have remained cut off from one another.

‘Not as much as you miss me,’ I tell him cheekily.

“Ah,” Nola says with a gleam in her eye. “The joys of newlywedded bliss. You and Cole were like that once you were linked,” she says, turning to my mother.

A brief sadness colors my mother’s face, but it’s gone quickly.

“And soo