She would have given up her immortality to be with him.
"I know how I feel, I'm not afraid. You make me feel alive."
Her heart had stuttered at those words. Bold, beautiful words that had made her heart beat faster with excitement, words that she wished to say herself, but she was afraid. He was mortal. She was immortal. To pledge herself to him was to accept death.
"But she will not come. She walks far away, among the stars."
But for him, she would've chosen a minute of life over eternity. To let him show her the stars and his fire moon. To view the depths of the dwarven kingdom, or the vast stretches of the sea. To live a life with him.
"Why does it hurt so much?"
To choose life with him would be to renounce immortality. Time would cast its spell upon her, death creep within her blood and bones. Day by day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, she would feel the consequences of her decision, never forgetting what she had given up. Never regretting it in the light of her love. Her body might die, but not her love.
"Because it was real."
Dying is part of living. Without death, there is no life. Cradling Kili's lifeless body, Tauriel wished for nothing more than to die herself. To let it open its dark arms and accept her soul into it's keeping, joined forever in death with her love. But Kili had passed to realms beyond where she could not follow, leaving her dying in her immortality, tasting the bitter wine of life.
