4. CHAPTER FOUR #2
“I need to explain something,” she said. “About why you’re here.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m listening.”
I scooted back a bit and got comfortable.
She pulled at the sleeve of her robe, not looking at me for a second. “We Velans can see auras.”
“Auras,” I repeated. “Like colorful energy fields?”
“Not colors exactly,” she said. “More like frequencies.
Patterns. Every living thing has one. Most of them are normal, just background noise.
Unless you find your mate. Then their aura will be this…
spectacular color show. Like a star going supernova in the galaxy.
It has been the inspiration for this tours song list as I have yet to see one… "
She looked up at me.
“That is, until tonight.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, blinking. “I’m not really following. What does that have to do with me being back here?”
“Your aura—it’s not normal.” She finally looked up at me, her brows scrunched together. “Well, it is, but it’s not. Do you understand?”
“I’m trying to.”
“I have performed in front of millions of people, Vada. Millions. I have never seen an aura like yours. It was so bright that I lost my step.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Of course I would be the one to cause my favorite famous pop star to miss a step and go blind the first time I watched her perform.
“It’s not your fault, Vada. There’s a word for it in Velan,” she went on.
“It’s used when you see an aura that matches yours—one that connects to yours.
” She pressed her hand over her dual-pulse.
“Among my people, some believe you can find someone whose frequency fits with yours so completely that you feel it in your body the moment you see them. Your hearts sync. Your light responds. It’s not exactly rare, but some Velans live their entire lives without ever finding it. ”
She began to fidget with her hands.
“That sounds… romantic. We don’t have that as humans, and I’ve never experienced true love.”
She fell quiet and looked at me as if I were supposed to piece it together without her actually saying the words.
Her eyes softened. “It means you are my Sola-Ka.”
“Your… solar car?”
“Sola-Ka,” she repeated more slowly. “Fated frequency. The one my pulse is tuned to. The one whose presence stabilizes my biology. You would say…” She frowned, searching for the phrase. “Fated mate?”
As if she’s saying I’m her fated mate.
“Um, fated mate? As in, we’re meant to be together?”
“Mhm.” She leaned in closer. “According to Velan biology,” she said, her tone shifting into something that sounded like she was reciting from a textbook, “once a Sola-Ka is recognized, the pair must complete the union swiftly.”
She smiled brightly.
“Union,” I said, already regretting the follow-up question. “Like…?”
“Bedding,” she said calmly. “Sex. Physical joining. When we are both close to the peak, our pulses automatically sync and the bond seals. It anchors the surge and prevents destabilization of the nervous system.”
“I see,” I lied, looking away. “That’s very science-y.”
I looked back at her and just stared.
Because what?
Her brows knit together. “You do not wish to proceed?”
“Okay, wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up both hands. “You’re actually serious? You think I’m your fated mate?”
She nodded. “I know you are. The universe says so. My heart says so.”
“And if we have sex and we both finish, the bond just locks in? Permanently? Like, forever forever?”
“Yes,” she said. “Our pulses sync at the peak, and the bond completes. It cannot be undone.”
“And right now, it’s just—what? Hanging there? Open?”
“Lingering,” she said. “The connection recognized you. My body responded. But it is not complete.” She pressed her palm flat over her dual-pulse, almost absent-mindedly.
“If we do not complete it, the frequency will begin to weaken. My energy fades. Slowly, but it fades. It is not dangerous. It’s just… ”
She searched for the answer.
“It has been described to me as a dull pain. So, like hearing a song through a wall and not being able to reach it.”
“How long does that take to kick in?” I asked.
“I have heard others say months. I do know it’s not urgent. I’m not going to collapse on you.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “But you should know it is there. That is fair, I think.”
“So no pressure,” I mumbled. “Except the literal biological clock ticking inside your chest.”
Every cell in my body screamed yes so loudly that I was surprised she couldn’t hear it.
But here was the thing. I was sitting on a couch in the dressing room of the most famous pop star in the galaxy, and she had just told me that her alien biology had flagged me as her cosmic soulmate.
And I had known this woman for approximately five minutes in real life.
I didn’t know what she ate for breakfast. I didn’t know if she was kind to waiters, if she was a clean person or kept her places messy or if she was the type of person who ghosted people after two texts.
I knew her music. I knew her from interviews and magazines.
I knew the version of her that had been packaged, broadcast, and sold to me through a screen for three years.
That wasn’t knowing someone.
That was knowing a poster.
“Okay, let’s back up for a second, okay?
” I said, moving my hands around. “I’m going to be real with you.
This is all very crazy, okay? I don’t understand how I could be classified as your fated mate.
I admit I don’t know much about Velans, but this doesn’t seem crazy to you? Solar car or whatever?”
She just stared at me, unblinking, like a hologram someone had paused.
I waved a hand. “Earth to Zhari. Seriously, how is this real? Oh God, I think my brain’s about to short-circuit.”
I pressed my fingers to my temples and shut my eyes.
She had basically just told me I was her person, and my brain did not go, Yes, this makes sense.
My brain went, This is insane, and you are a stranger, and I am in your dressing room in a miniskirt with sweaty palms and absolutely zero frame of reference for this situation.
But also, I had nothing to go back to. That was the truth sitting underneath all the panic. My job was boring, and Carla was always up my ass about something. My flat was lonely. My social life was Thomas and a vending machine.
I had spent years drawing this woman’s face in the dark, and now she was right there, telling me the universe had connected us.
Terror and want crashed into each other in my chest, neither of them backing down. I could feel the shape of my old life behind me like an open door—sad, safe, and empty—and this was… whatever the opposite of that was.
Her expression softened a bit, and she reached out and lightly squeezed my knee, resting her hand there.
“It’s Sola-Ka,” she corrected me again.
“I believe you. I think. Or I believe that you believe it. But I don’t know you. I know your music. I know your interviews. I know the version of you that exists on my screen. But that’s not the same thing.”
Something shifted in her expression. Not hurt, exactly—more like she hadn’t planned on me arguing and was having to recalibrate.
“You’re right,” she said quietly. “You do not know me.”
She pulled her hand back and rested it in her lap.
“But my aura is very sure about you,” she added, her eyes dropping to my mouth.
My gaze followed to her lips. They were perfect. I briefly caught myself wondering what it would be like to kiss them, then blinked and reeled myself back to her eyes.
“But,” I mumbled, “I also don’t have a single reason to leave.
My life back home is lonely. My mum actually thinks I’m working right now.
So if you’re telling me the universe pointed at me and said, ‘That one,’ I’m not going to argue with it.
I’m just going to be honest that I’m processing, and I need you to be patient while I catch up. ”
“I can be patient,” she said.
And then she kissed me.
She just leaned in, her fingers curling into the front of my shirt, and tugged me toward her. Her mouth found mine as if it were the most logical next step in the conversation—which, sure, maybe it was on her planet, but my brain definitely hadn’t gotten that memo.
As I sat there with my hands resting in my lap, her hand moved slowly up the back of my neck. For about two seconds, my entire body went, Yes, absolutely, finally, and then the rest of me caught up.
I pulled back. “Um,” I gasped.
She blinked at me, confused. “What? Did you not like that?”
“Uhh, no, I enjoyed that, it's just, you said you could be patient.” I wiped the corner of my mouth.
“I’m kissing you,” she said, as if I had asked her what color the sky was. “Is this not what you do on Earth when you feel something for someone?”
“Maybe when you’re drunk,” I said. “At a party. When someone plays a slow song and you’ve had four drinks and your judgment has left the building.
” My face was on fire. My entire body was on fire.
“I’m not going to lie, that was really hot, but you literally just heard me say I needed to process, and then you kissed me. ”
“On Vela, we usually go to bed after a kiss,” Zhari explained. “It’s what we Velans do," she explained. “I am already being very slow.”
My eyes went wide.
“Well, some humans don’t typically do that,” I mumbled, “as much as I would like to.”
“I am sorry. Your aura is just very bright,” she said, as if that explained everything. “It’s distracting. It makes me feel some sort of way. I have never felt like this before.”
I pressed my hands to my face. “Okay. I need you to give me a minute.”
“Okay! I can do that.” She grinned and sat back, looking cute. She folded her hands in her lap and looked around the room.
My brain was stuck on a loading screen.
Good grief.