The soft warmth of another body beside me rouses me from sleep. Not just any body - I'd know this warmth anywhere. Eliot. My eyes flutter open, and there he is, inches from my face, still asleep. His features softened in repose, the usual carefully constructed mask lowered to reveal something vulnerable underneath.

How did I get here?

Memories return in fragments: the rainbow goo that cooed, Eliot's reassuring presence, the small creature with impossibly green eyes that stared into my soul before everything went white.

The soulmate spell.

I freeze, fully awake now. The events of last night crash over me - we actually performed an untested archaic spell that supposedly reveals soulmates.

Eliot stirs beside me, those distinctive viridian eyes fluttering open. For a perfect, terrible moment, we simply look at each other. Then recognition dawns on his face, followed by something unreadable - panic? Resignation? Something softer?

"You're awake," he says finally, his voice still rough with sleep.

The sheets shift as I become acutely aware of how close we are, of the warmth of his skin against mine where our arms touch. My heart races, and I can feel heat rising to my cheeks.

And then there's a soft purr from the end of the bed. The spell's creature - now a small, iridescent white cat with two tails - blinks at us with those same ethereal green eyes before settling its gaze on me, as if waiting for something.

"What... what happened after I blacked out?" I whisper, afraid of the answer.