A sudden force jolted me awake.

I quickly shut my eyes against the harsh light of the room as soon as they were open.

I'd felt the force before on extremely exhausting nights - it was sudden, out of nowhere. It felt like I was falling off a cliff.

After a moment of disorientation, I suddenly recalled my last memory.

Had it really happened?

Was Damien really dead?

My heart squeezed.

I pried my eyes open again, the light of the room was softer this time making it easier to open them.

Someone in the room moved, startling me. I rose from the bed too quickly, making my head spin. I was disoriented, dizzy. I groaned, placing a hand on my forehead.

The person sat next to me on the mattress making it sink under their weight, I instinctively moved away.

"Just breathe."

I looked at the owner of the voice and froze.

Damien's violet eyes met mine.

Damien was alive.

He was alive.

Just to die again.

I jumped back, kicking the comfortable covers off of me. My back collided against the headboard then my head.

Damien reached forward towards me.

"No!" I jumped back even further falling off the other side of the bed and onto the hard floor.

"Gods," he grumbled as he got off the bed and ran to the other side towards me. "Stay still, you'll hurt yourself!"

I huddled to the corner of the room not stopping until I could feel the walls meet behind my back.

My tears ran freely. "Please!"

He didn't stop approaching me.

"No!"

The room exploded.

Or at least it felt like it did.

The bed that I was laying on before was suddenly hurtled away from me, flipping in the air and colliding with the wall on the other side of the room. The crack of heavy wood breaking rang through the air. Splintered wood and debris fell around us.

I was shaking like a leaf as I watched him freeze in front of me, hands extended, palms towards me, like he was talking me off the ledge. "Emylin, it's okay."

I shook my head fiercely. "No, no, it's not!"

He watched me as he stepped closer.

I flinched and the rest of the furniture in the room scraped against the floor making me clench my teeth.

He stepped back stopping his approach.

"Please," I begged. "Please, I can't watch you die again. If we try to escape again, he'll know, he'll know-"

The doors burst open and armed guards poured into the room led by Oren.

Oren. I hadn't seen him since the night of the party.

He'd never been in my dreams never in my frantic fantasies of escape.

Why was he in this dream now?

"Em."

I turned to Damien as he addressed me.

"It's me, it's really me. I'm here, you're safe, you're back in my home."

I looked around me and despite the damage, I recognized the room. It was his room, the same room I'd woken up in when he took me to the Underworld for the first time. I turned to the dresser and recognized the polaroid on it.

It was the same picture I'd seen when he left me in his room that night. I knew the picture, knew the story behind it but didn't know why he kept it. If he really was Damien, he'd know. He would know why he kept that picture - it had to be a question I didn't know the answer to.

Something that Robyn couldn't get from my head.

Through choked sobs, I was able to ask him, "Why that picture?"

Damien smiled. "That is our first picture together."

I shook my head. "But why that picture? We took a dozen pictures that day. Better ones. Why that one?"

I saw the small tilt of a smile play on his lips as he spoke, "Well, I do look good in it."

I choked a laugh. "That sounds like something you'd say."

He took a step but I didn't move.

"It was the very first picture of us. The very first. Even if it is blurry or we weren't looking at the camera even if it wasn't the best one, I kept it because it was our very first." He laughed. "You and your pictures, Em, I'd swear you were trying to find a bad angle of me."

I laughed again through the tears.

"I can tell you for a fact," he mused. "One doesn't exist."

He was close enough to touch and with what little bravery I could muster I reached out. He gently caught my hand in his and I laughed.

He was there. He was truly there.

He was whole and solid and there. When I couldn't take it anymore I stepped towards him and hugged his middle.

He hugged me back as I breathed him in.

He was really in my arms.

I'd go mad. I'd break all over again if he died but it was worth it.

It was so worth it if even for just one moment I believed he was there.

"Before you die again," I whispered through my sniffles. "You should know that I think I'm in love with you."

He held me tighter.

I pressed my ear to his chest, finding the familiar rhythm of his heart. "Even if you are married."

I felt him tense but didn't think anything of it. After a few quiet moments, he spoke. "Are you hungry? Come, let's sit out on the balcony."

He didn't let my hand go as I started to follow him to the balcony. I stopped halfway there. "My parents. Where are my parents?"

He turned to me. "Home. Safe."

"Home," the word sounded foreign. My hand dropped to my side.

They were home.

I had to see them. I needed to see them. I had to go home.

Home with my parents. Home with Woof watching one of their godawful movies.

Home. I could almost feel the comfort it brought - the familiar smells from the kitchen, the cluttering of pans early in the morning on the weekends -

Suddenly, I almost fell forward into dirt. I reached out with a hand to steady myself against a nearby tree.

I looked around me looking for the hard stone floor. Instead, I was greeted with large trees and sprinkling rain.

The dirt and mud gushed under my toes.

It was night time and the weather was cooler than where I was previously. It had been raining for a while, from what I could tell with the moisture in the air and cool dirt beneath me. The comfortable dress I was in stuck to me as I walked around.

I looked at the large trees as they towered over me and recognized them immediately.

Somehow I was home.

My heart lept - I was home.

They were the same woods I had grown up in. The smell of the wet ground and trees were familiar. I recognized the sound of animals that came out at night too.

I let my feet lead me through the familiar paths - letting the mud squish between my toes as I did. They knew the way back home. They recognized the trees, the mangled roots and fallen branches.

I recognized the edge of the woods as I approached it. I knew the row of homes that came to meet me.

I stopped before I reached the clearing that separated the woods and the yards. I stared at the little white house that I grew up in. The deck was dark, no lights illuminated the backyard which made it easier to see inside the sliding glass door.

In the living room, I could see the little bob of frizzy blonde hair sitting in the dark with the dark-haired man she loved. My parents cuddled under a blanket on the sofa with Woof sitting in the corner of the room on his own little bed.

My heart squeezed with joy. They hadn't stopped their routine. If I were there, I would take the corner of the sofa with Woof on my lap watching the movie with them.

I began to take a step when I heard something move behind me.

Already on edge, I turned to find Damien. The lights from the backyard of the houses illuminated him enough that I could see his black royal wear, the silver thread running through it, the intricate designs on the shoulders.

He spoke softly. "I don't think it's a good idea to go see them."

Damien knew how much they meant to me - why would he want to stop me from seeing them after so many weeks?

"Why not?" I half whispered.

He watched me carefully, the lights of the house casting shadows across his perfect face. "You still can't control your powers, Em. It's dangerous for them. They're only human."

Robyn had said something similar. That my parents weren't my parents. "They're human," I echoed, hollow. "And I'm not."

"Yes," he strained at the word. "I'm still trying to figure that out myself. I wish I knew Em-"

I turned to the edge of the woods where I could see their silhouettes in the house. "Can I at least speak to them?"

After a couple of breaths, he stepped forward fishing in his pockets for something. He pulled out his cell phone and started dialing, handing the phone to me.

I looked at the screen and saw my mom's name on it. I placed the phone to my ear and waited with bated breath as the rings continued.

One.

Don't be a dream.

Please let this be real.

Two.

I looked at Damien. Please be real.

"Emylin!"

My knees nearly buckled when I heard my mom's voice. I thought I'd fall right then but Damien caught me and held me close.

I was grateful for it - thankful for him.

God, I loved him.

She was happy to hear me, not relieved. Not like she had spent restless nights wondering where I was. I wondered what kind of story Damien had to weave to make her not worry.

This was real. This wasn't a dream. I was really here. Damien was really here holding me.

"Hey, Mom," my voice cracked.

"Everything okay?" Now she did sound worried.

I sniffled. "Sorry, I just got a little sick, I'm getting over it now." I hated how easy it was to settle back into the lying that I'd done to protect Damien.

Now, I had to protect them.

I couldn't tell them what happened. I had to lie to them. Lie to protect them from the truth.

I heard the familiar tone of the voices on the other side as she put me on speakerphone.

"Hey, honey! How are you?"

I smiled as my father spoke. "Hey, Dad. I'm all right."

I turned to the house and watched them as they huddled around the phone on the sofa their TV show forgotten.

"How is the internship going?"

An internship, that's what Damien had led them to believe to explain my absence. I smiled as I watched them. "It's good, a lot of new opportunities."

I could hear the pride in my Mom's voice. "I still can't believe they chose you! I wish you would have told us!"

I cleared my throat, I hated lying to them. "I didn't want to jinx it. I honestly didn't think I'd get it." I changed the subject. "How are you guys?"

"Oh," my mother huffed. "You know, same old. Things are quiet when you aren't here. Your aunt called me the other day - she says she's eager to have us back for Thanksgiving. Do you think you'll be back by then?"

Back? When would I be back? Would I be back?

I wish I knew.

"I hope so," I sighed earnestly. "But how are you guys? Are you guys okay?"

I heard my father laugh. "You should see the vacation your mother has planned for us for when you get back. It's a beautiful resort, you'll love it. It's the same place we went to for the Convention right around the time your internship started."

"Sounds like fun," I managed to choke out.

I didn't want to hang up I wanted to stay talking with them for hours but I knew I couldn't stay on the phone with them. I would ask them how they were over and over and they would suspect something was wrong. After several minutes we finally did hang up.

We said our good bye's our 'I love you's' and ended the conversation.

I watched them from the edge of the woods as they had a small conversation then turned their attention back to the television.

Nothing was wrong. Nothing was amiss.

They were mad I didn't call them sooner about the "out of state internship" when I accepted.

But they were all right, they were safe. Robyn never touched them.

I looked up at Damien as he held me. "Whatever you did for them, thank you. Thank you for keeping them safe."

He gave a small smile. "Of course. I will help you, Em. Whatever you need. I will make up for everything that bastard did."

I frowned. "You can't blame yourself, Damien. You came for me. You saved me."

"I took too long. Too long. Every minute you were away was like a knife-" He looked away as he choked on the words.

A knife in the back.

A knife in the heart.

A spear in the heart.

I winced, the dreams were too familiar.

"I was in Hell - " He stopped again. "I will help you, Emylin. Anything it takes for you to heal."

Heal, I needed to heal.

Heal. I shut my eyes, willing the word to flow over me.

How would one go about doing that?