We all slammed into the marble floor of the estate's grand entrance. We landed sprawled across the floor, not on our feet like any other time I'd spectered with Damien or Julian.

Of course, they had experience. It was my first time.

I had managed to specter us across realms but was unable to keep my balance as we appeared in Julian's home. It wasn't as jarring as I thought it would be for my first time but it was exhausting. Especially since I had iron on my wrists moments prior draining me.

As soon as we appeared, I tried to stand but promptly fell on my hands and knees.

I watched my parents try as well and fail. They were coughing as if they had the air taken from their lungs as we spectered.

I closed my eyes tightly, fighting the dizziness that was taking over. I tried to stand again and took a step. Before I fell completely on the ground, Julian's strong arms caught me.

"Always falling for me, I see."

I looked at his storm-grey eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't know where else to take them -"

He shook his head. "Skryen is your home now too, protections are extended to them as well. What happened?"

Despite everything, I was happy, joyous. Damien wasn't dead - he was alive.

And he needed my help.

I swallowed the nauseousness as I looked at Julian. He'd been somewhere important - wherever it was. He was wearing the clothes he usually wore for formal functions. As I looked into his eyes I realized he was relieved. He was relieved to see me.

"Julian," I whispered. "He's alive. Damien is alive."

He frowned, taking in my words. Realization went over his features as he looked at the scene before him.  He took my shaking hands in one of his as the other pulled me close to him. "Emylin, you're in shock. What happened to your wrists?"

"Iron. Robyn used iron on me."

A deep growl reverberated through his large chest.

"He threatened my parents. Asmo gave me pomegranate juice to get them here safely." I shook my head. "Robyn knows everything - that I was gone, training. He put Asmo in the dungeon -" I stopped and met his eyes. "He doesn't know about you though. You and Naida - you're all safe."

"Don't worry about us," he said. He looked at my parents. "Am I meeting your parents?" He chuckled, teasing. "This is all too fast, Emylin, I don't know how I feel about this."

Strangely, I felt myself slowly recovering as he held me. And for a brief moment, I closed my eyes. I was lost in his embrace, lost in his familiar scent and in a strange sense, I really did feel like I was home again.

"What's happening to her?" My father's voice sounded far away.

Julian answered in hushed tones, "Robyn used iron on her. Iron is deadly to faeries. This was also her first time moving multiple people across realms - it's taken a toll." He paused. "But she's resilient, she's recovering already. Do you see her wrists? They're healing."

"Who is Robyn?" My mother spoke up. I had to give my parents credit. They weren't hysterical, they weren't questioning their surroundings or anything I thought they would. Their voices were steady, matter of fact. "He didn't do this to her, it was Damien. Damien got into my head and made me put it on her."

I snapped back to reality. As much as I needed to recover, Damien needed me more.

I began to stand and was finally able to do it with Julian's help. I looked at Julian. "Damien is fighting him now. He's fighting to gain control. I have to go help him."

"Good," Julian said as he helped me up. "Where are we going?"

I froze.

Romantic feelings or not-- I had come to care for Julian in the short amount of time I'd known him. Even if he did lie to me ... but that was a conversation for another time.

If we had another time.

But if something happened to him or my parents because of me ...

As if reading my mind, he spoke, "They will be safe in the estate. It's protected -"

I shook my head.

Julian crossed his arms. "I'm going." His tone was firm.

I shook my head again. I couldn't lose any of them. If I failed and they were all lost ...

I couldn't finish the thought.

Julian saw me struggling internally. It was as if he could read my thoughts through my shields. He captured my hands in his, meeting my eyes unwavering. "I'm going to help you, Emylin. We will fight him together."

I shook my head again. "He'll know about you - about the bond we share. Robyn will kill you when he realizes what you are to me."

A teasing smile tugged his lips. "What am I to you, Emylin?"

I couldn't form words and, blessedly, it was my dad that broke the silence. "Am I missing something?" He whispered to my mother. "What about Damien?"

"Shut up, Jack!" She whispered back.

I couldn't explain it. Julian meant more to me than I wanted to admit.

And I couldn't take him with me. Not to where I was about to go.

Julian held me in an embrace, pulling me close. I let myself be buried in his large burly arms, breathing in his scent. "I want to tell you everything, I do. But now is not the time. I'm going with you, Emylin, whether you like it or not."

I stepped back out of his grip. "I'm so sorry."

Before I could change my mind, I pressed my hand against his chest and let out a full blast of power that sent him flying through the room and up against a wall.

My mother yelled out and covered her mouth.

Woof barked incessantly at me from my father's arms.

"Emmy!" My mother gasped. "Why did you do that?"

"Did you kill him?" My father approached me.

I ran to Julian as he laid on a crumpled heap on the floor. I spectered a pillow from one of the rooms and placed it under his head. "Gods, Julian, I'm so sorry, I really am." I watched his chest rise and fall and I could still feel the stillness that being around him brought me. "No," I answered my dad. "He's not dead. I had to knock him out or else he'd follow me."

I sighed as I stood and walked to them. "I have to go, please don't leave. You're safe here."

Before I could choke out a goodbye, I spectered back to my parent's house. 

I knew the way around my childhood home very well.

The last time I had seen Damien he was in the living room, but I had no idea where he would be when I went back. I also didn't know if he had won over Robyn or if Robyn was in control again.

If Robyn was in control again, he wouldn't hesitate to bring me down.

So I spectered to the laundry room on the opposite side of the house on the first floor.

I appeared in the closed room and immediately crouched. The first thing I noticed was that it was impossibly dark. When I looked at the sconces and bulbs in the room, I quickly realized why. The sconces that held the lights and the bulbs within them were completely shattered. As I took a cautious step towards the door, glass crunched under my flats.

I looked out the small window and noticed that the neighborhood was dark too.

Had Damien taken out all of the power in the neighborhood?

Again?

The adrenaline coursed through me and I took a long breath to calm my nerves. I could feel my magic trying to compensate and do the same. It was quietly singing beneath my skin.

I slowly opened the door and peered around the hallway.

It was quiet in the house. The only sound I could hear was my own breathing and the blood rushing to my ears. I swallowed my fear and walked slowly through the hall to the kitchen that opened to the dining room and living room.

As I turned the corner, I had to hug my arms against the sudden chill in the house. The V neck I had on was completely useless against the cold. I couldn't have been gone for more than twenty minutes but the comfortable temperature of the house had dropped significantly. It was cold enough I could see my breath in front of me. I shook involuntarily as I stood on the threshold of the kitchen and took in the damage of the first floor of the house.

The food and drinks we had been enjoying previously were on the floor over a pile of glass in the dining room. Pictures and decorative statues littered the floor but the worst of the damage was in the living room. A couch had been flipped over and landed where the big screen had been attached to the wall. My dad's prized television was destroyed and lay in pieces on the floor.

I moved through the living room quietly looking at the damage then stopped cold. There was a trail of blood leading from the living room to the patio outside. I looked at the patio and realized why it was suddenly so cold in the house.

A patch of fresh snow sat on the threshold of the broken sliding glass doors. Snow drifted through the air flurrying in the small breeze.

Damien's magic was doing it. It was creating the snow and the cold. It had to be. When we'd first spectered to the front porch earlier it wasn't the least bit cold.

Which meant he was still fighting.

I looked into the dark woods and faintly I could feel a strong dark energy as if it were far away. And it was waning, fighting, building.

I ran into the woods.

[A/N]: Didn't realize how short this chapter was.