Amon's POV

I wake up a while later after I fell asleep cuddling with Milo.

"You awake?" I ask softly.

"M-hm."

I move a bit, and he turns around, so we're facing each other. His eyes are a little red, and he looks sad. I frown.

"Have- have you been crying?"

He doesn't look me in the eyes. "Maybe. A little."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I ask carefully.

"It's just... " He sighs. "The stuff Caspian said about my mom... it really got to me."

"You mean that she'd be ashamed of you?"

He nods, another tear making its way down his cheek. I wipe it away with my thumb. "She wouldn't, I promise you. She has every reason to be proud of you, Milo."

"Every reason? I can't think of a single one," he replies, his voice cracking a bit. I can tell he's holding back more tears.

"I can name a lot more than one."

"Amon, I'm useless. Both as a sorcerer and a human. I can't do anything right, not even the things I'm supposed to be good at. All I do is mess up and create more problems for everyone. You'd be better off without me."

I just look at him for a few seconds. This is the most heartbreaking thing someone has ever said to me. He's crying even more now, and I can't help it either. Tears roll down my cheeks.

"Milo, I... I know it's hard for you to see how wonderful you are," I start.

He looks back at me, still crying softly.

"But please... Please stop being so hard on yourself. You are an amazing sorcerer and person, okay? You are so wonderfully kind, brave, and intelligent, and you have so much love and warmth inside you. You can make people feel comfortable around you instantly, you put things in words so beautifully, you know so much about spells, and you're so good at helping other people and supporting them."

Milo looks at me, a little surprised, more tears streaming down his face.

"And I could go on," I add, "you are so god damn beautiful inside and out, and it hurts that you can't see that."

He doesn't reply. He just hugs me very tightly, crying even more. I stroke his back and take a few deep breaths, so I stop crying.

When we let go, he smiles at me through his tears. "I've never met anyone as sweet and wonderful as you before," he says softly.

I smile and blush a little. Milo's innocence is such a beautiful thing.

I gently kiss his cheek. "I can say the same thing about you," I reply, and he chuckles, blushing as well.

I take his hand. "Believe me, your mom would be incredibly proud of you."

He smiles at me. I softly kiss his cheek.

That night we go to sleep early, exhausted. The next day, we're sitting at the kitchen table, trying to come up with a plan to take down Caspian.

"We might have to kill him," I say carefully.

He looks at me for a second. "Maybe, but... we're just getting rid of him, okay? I know you want to get revenge, but you can't start using dark magic."

I nod. I'm scared that at some point, I'll use dark magic without even being aware of it.

"Should we just go to the coven and see what we can do?" I ask.

Milo thinks for a few seconds. "I don't know. Maybe... Maybe we can take him down from the inside. I know there are a lot of people that are unhappy with Caspian. But unfortunately, they're also scared of him. But if you're there, they might help. We need some people to take on his henchmen."

"... And I'll take on Caspian", I add quietly.

Milo nods. "Yeah. You can beat him, I know it. I think you might be the most powerful sorcerer on the planet right now."

"Psh, no," I say, chuckling.

"I'm serious. I've never heard of anyone doing the things you've done. You're definitely special."

I sigh. "And I have no idea why, or how..."

Milo smiles and cups my face. "Doesn't matter. You just are. To me, you're special anyway, with or without your powers."

I smile back at him. That's such a sweet thing to say. "Thank you. You're sweet."

He scrunches his face. Suddenly, the doorbell rings, and we exchange a look.

"Are you expecting someone?" Milo asks me.

I shake my head. "No."

We both get up and walk today the door. I carefully look through the peephole. Then I smile, relieved, and open the door. It's Philo and Sophia. But my smile fades away as I look at Sophia.

Her face is covered in blood, and she looks horrible.

"Oh my god, what happened?"

"They found us," Philo says. She doesn't seem to be hurt, but she looks terrified.

I step out of the way so they can get inside.

Sophia has her arm around Philo, who is helping her walk. She puts her down on the couch. Sophia groans.

"I didn't have time to try to heal her yet," Philo explains. "Caspian hit her with a pretty heavy spell, definitely dark magic. She-she was coughing up blood, I-I think she's bleeding internally." Her voice is shaking heavily.

"I don't know if I can fix it," she adds, and a few tears stream down his cheeks.

Oh, no, this is bad. I've never seen Philomena cry. This must be grave.

I exchange a quick look with Milo. Sophia groans again, clearly being in a lot of pain. She closes her eyes.

"I can try," I say.

Philo looks at me. "A-are you sure you can do it?" Her voice cracks a little.

I smile softly. "I'm sure. I healed Milo, too. I can do it, don't worry."

She nods and wipes away tears. She looks so different from usual. Her professional facade is crumbling, and I can see the fear and hurt in her eyes.

She's fearing for the life of the person she's in love with, and I know exactly what that feels like.

"Take a few steps back," I say, and Philo and Milo step away.

"Do you know which spell to use?" Milo asks me.

"I do," I reply.

I don't know why I know, but I just do. I've read about a few, and I just know.

I reach out my hands and mumble the words to myself as I move my hands around. The atmosphere is tense, but I know I can do this.

When I'm done, Sophia gasps for air and then lies back down, catching her breath. She moves her hair out of her face, rubs her eyes, and then looks at me.

"Does it still hurt?" I ask her.

"A little, but it's much better."

I smile. Philo kneels down next to her.

"Sophia," she whispers softly.

"I'm okay, my love, don't worry."

Philomena gets up again and hugs me tightly, still crying.

"Thank you," she mumbles.

I stroke her back, trying to calm her down a little. We let go of the hug, and she wipes away a few tears.

"Oh, look, it's Philo-I-don't-cry-Sierra," Sophia says with a smile.

"Shut up, you ass," Philo mutters.

Sophia chuckles. "I love you too."

Philo rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath. Then she turns to me again. "Amon, you... You're incredibly powerful. You're aware of that, right?

I nod. Philomena looks at me for a few seconds. "I know you have a good heart, but you still need to be careful that your power doesn't get to your head."

I nod again. "I know."

"That's what I'm here for," Milo says, and I smile softly.

Philomena smiles. "I'm glad."

It's quiet for a while. No one really knows what to say.

"We were working on a plan before you two got here," I say, "and we could use some help."

"Right," Sophia says.

"But you look like you need a break first," I add.

Philo still looks very distraught, and Sophia just looks exhausted.

"Yeah, that's reasonable," Philo says quietly.

"But we can't just stay here," Sophia says, "I don't think your friend would appreciate that."

I chuckle. "If you guys are okay with sleeping on the couch, I'm pretty sure it'll be fine."

"And I don't think it'll be long until we make a move," Milo adds, "as soon as we have a plan, there's no reason to wait any longer."

We all nod in agreement. Then we decide to take a break and just relax a little. Sophia and Philo are sitting on the couch, cuddling. I turn to Milo.

"Hey, do you want me to teach you how to cook?"

He chuckles. "You could show me how to make ramen."

I laugh softly. I forgot Milo still doesn't exactly know what they are.

"Well, with the ones I make, you literally just have to add hot water to the noodles and put in the spices. It's easy, quick and cheap and pretty good, that's why I used to eat them a lot. You can add a lot more stuff if you'd like, though."

"Oh. Okay."

I smile at him. "Let's go to the store and get ramen." He smiles back, excited.

30 minutes later, we're back home. We put the water and the spices into the noodles.

All four of us are sitting on the living room floor, eating ramen when the door opens- Mike just stands there and looks at us.

"... what the hell?"

"Hey," Sophia says with a slightly awkward smile.

"Sorry," I say, "I should have warned you. Those are our friends, they had to crash here, Sophia was injured. Can they stay a night or two? They'll sleep on the couch."

He stares at us, a bit overwhelmed. "Sure. Uh. I'm Mike."

"Sophia."

"Philomena, but you can call me Philo."

"Nice to meet you guys," Mike says.

"There's more ramen in the kitchen. Sorry, we didn't wait for you", I add.

He chuckles and shakes his head. "You guys... It's not a problem."

He walks into the kitchen. I turn to my boyfriend, who has been quietly eating this whole time.

"Do you like it?" I ask him.

"It's so good," he replies with his full mouth, and I laugh softly. He swallows his food and smiles at me. "I love it!"

I smile back at him and kiss him softly.

"Wait, now I'm fifth-wheeling? Really, Amon, you brought another couple?"

We laugh. "Sorry, mate," I reply, and Mike smiles and shakes his head.

We all eat for a while and talk about random things. Philo and Sophia tell us about how things were going on in the coven before they left.

"Everything was a lot more hectic," Philo says, "Caspian was seriously pissed that you two slipped away."

"Well, I'm pissed that he's a piece of shit," I say bitterly, "but he'll get what he deserves."

"Let's talk about that tomorrow," Sophia says, "I think for now we should focus on nicer things."

I nod. Milo scoots a bit closer to me and leans on me. I smile softly. The last two days have been exhausting and way too emotionally draining for my liking.

But it's nice to have this moment of joy and peace within all of that chaos. I know it's gonna get stressful again very soon, but right now I'm just enjoying this moment with my friends and my boyfriend with who I am very, very much in love.