Amon's POV

It feels so natural and normal to be back here. Even though I can't say I enjoy fighting, it just feels good to be back with my coven.

And I'm glad Milo doesn't seem to hate me. God, I missed him so much. I would give him the world if I could. I feel bad about just leaving him behind, but once this fight is over, I'll tell him about everything that happened so he can understand why I did what I did. He deserves a detailed explanation.

The fight goes on for a while. The other coven seems to have a lot of members. I don't even know who I'm fighting, but I'm just here to support my family. At one point, I see Caspian - so that must mean this is the Onyx coven, right? I didn't know it still existed. I thought most of them were wiped out.

I realize I'm a little isolated from the rest of the fight right now. I'm standing in the woods, and the rest of the coven is fighting on open ground. When I look to the other side, I see part of the prisoners who took over my mind - Caspain, Arran and Clio. I inhale sharply. Caspian is wearing some sort of artifact around his neck, and I'm pretty sure it's a weapon of some kind.

"What a surprise seeing you here, Amon," Clio says, "I thought you were off the grid."

"Well, I just got back on it." I push my sleeves back and get ready to defend myself. I'm not sure how strong that artifact makes them, so I wanna test the water first. But they don't attack me. Instead, they start doing a spell, and I realize it's the same spell that has been done on me once before.

They're trying to take over my mind, and the spell is powerful. Much more powerful than last time, and I fear that's because of the artifact.

I feel my heart pounding. I can't let this happen again. This is what I trained for. I learned to defend myself - so I can fight this. Or at least I should be able to. What if I'm not? What if it was all for nothing?

A thousand thoughts are racing through my mind, and it's hard to keep track of even one of them. But in the end, there is one single thought I can focus on, one that really sticks out.

One single thought that gives me the power to withstand this.

Milo. I'm thinking about Milo and about how bad I wanna live a peaceful, happy life with him. About the hours we could spend together, all the things we could do... All the times that I wanna see him smile, hear his laugh, and count his freckles.

I feel some sort of soft electricity pulse through my body. And along with it comes a feeling of warmth and peace... and love.

I believe in my own strength, and all I want is to have my old life back. So that's what I'm gonna fight for.

I manage to fight off their attempt of taking over my mind, and then I attack them. We fight back and forth for a while. They're all incredibly powerful, but hey, so am I.

I know the attacks they're using are dark magic, and I feel my chest ache because I can't manage to block all of them.

At some point, I start gaining the upper hand. I can see the doubt in their faces, and then suddenly, they exchange a look and quickly fly over to the battle again, away from me.

"Fucking cowards! Come back and fight me!" I yell after them and follow them.

They separate and start fighting several people. Before I can decide which one of them I want to fight, Jasper steps up to me.

I smile a little. "Oh, hey Jasper, long time no see."

He narrows his eyes. "You think you can just come back here after what you've done? Do you know how much pain you've caused?"

I gulp. "I know, and I'm deeply sorry, but none of it was done under my own free will."

He shoots a spell at me, and I stumble back a little. "None of that matters! You killed a family member, and no one here wants you back!"

"Don't listen to him!"

I turn my head and see Philomena. I smile. I missed her.

"He's no longer part of the coven," she keeps going, "he left." She throws a spell at Jasper, who gets thrown back a little. Before he can react, I do a rope spell, and he gets tied up. I hesitate but then put a shield around him and levitate him away from the battlefield. We can deal with him later.

"Thanks, Philo."

"No worries." She smiles. "Good to have you back, though you definitely have some explaining to do." She puts up a shield and blasts an opponent away.

I dodge an attack. "I know. I promise I'm gonna explain everything when this is over."

"You better." She smiles again and then starts attacking another sorcerer.

I turn back to the battle as well. Further away, I see that Milo is battling Caspian. I quickly make my way over to him to help. I blast a strong attack at Caspian, and he stumbles back a bit and scoffs a little.

"What are you gonna do, kill me? You don't have the guts."

I throw another attack at him, and so does Milo, and Caspian stumbles back even further. "You're in no position to be saying this shit right now," I say and step closer to him.

I glance over at Milo, and he looks back at me.

"You might be powerful, but you're still pathetic. You will never be happy, Amon. You've been doomed from the start and-"

He doesn't get to finish his sentence because Milo and I both shoot a strong attack at him. He gets flung through the air and hits a tree at the end of the battlefield. Milo and I just stand there for a second before we walk over to him. I push his torso with my foot, but he's not moving. Milo checks his pulse.

"He's dead."

"Well... I think it's been a long time coming. Let's finish this fight."

He nods, and I kiss his hand. We fly back to the battle and engage in the fight again.

"There's no point in fighting anymore!" I yell at our opponents. "Caspian is dead. Spilling magical blood isn't the point. Give up now, and you'll be shown mercy."

The motion around me stops momentarily. Looks are being exchanged, and then suddenly, the Onyx Coven starts retreating quickly. All of them start flying away, and before we know it, they've all gone through a portal.

I sit down on the grass, a little exhausted. "Cowards, all of them", I mutter.

Suddenly, I just feel arms wrapped around me tightly, and I fall on my back and laugh a little. I hug Milo back tightly, and I tear up a little again.

Oh, how I missed this. How I missed him.

"Good to have you back. We all missed you."

I look up. That was Sophia. She and Philomena are looking at me with a smile, and I smile back at them.

"I missed you too. I'm sorry I didn't come back, I..."

"I'm sure you had good reasons," Sophia says, "don't worry too much. You can explain everything once we're all back inside and have calmed down a little. Welcome home." She smiles, and I get up and hug both of them.

Then I turn back to Milo. "You're bleeding."

"So are you," he replies, and I chuckle.

"It's not that bad," I say softly as I take his arm and start healing it. I can't fully heal it, it's dark magic, but it should be a lot less painful now.

He smiles. "Thank you." He lifts his hands and moves them over my face, healing a cut on my cheek that someone gave me as much as he can.

"Thanks."

We hug again, and I kinda never wanna let go of him. Suddenly, I remember something and let go of the hug.

"Milo..."

"Yes?" He looks at me with a soft look.

"While I was away, I had a lot of time to think and... I made a decision." Fuck, now I'm nervous. Milo is still looking at me with an expectant look. "I love you more than I could ever love someone else, and I wanna be by your side for the rest of my life." I pull the ring box out of my pocket and make sure it's the one with the engagement ring. I open it and hold it up to Milo, whose face goes from confusion to shock to happiness.

"Will you marry me?"

He smiles, and a few tears stream down his face. "Absolutely, I will."

I smile back and wipe away a tear, and carefully put the ring on his finger. He holds my face and kisses me softly.

I look up and realize that Philomena and Sophia are watching us, and I think they're both trying not to cry. Next to them stands a woman, smiling at us softly. She looks strangely familiar. Milo looks over to and seems to realize something.

"Oh, uh, you two haven't met yet." He gets up, and so do I, and we walk over to the woman. She smiles at me.

"You must be Amon. I've heard so much about you."

I smile politely, and Milo is smiling too, tears streaming down his face. "Amon, that's Fiona. My mother."

I look at him, confused. "But I thought..."

"So did I, but we thought wrong. She was captured by the Onyx coven. We found her when we were looking for you."

Fiona opens her arms, and we hug. "I'm happy you're back. I know you mean the world to my son."

I sniff, and we let go of the hug. "I'm also happy you're back because I know you also mean the world to him."

I hug Milo again and don't let go for a while.

I'm finally back home, back in the arms of the man that I love. And I'm doing so much better mentally.

I think things are finally gonna be okay now. They won't be perfect, but they will be okay. And I think we can be happy together.

I kiss the top of Milo's head, still hugging him tightly, tears streaming down my cheeks because I'm overwhelmed with my emotions - but in a good way, for once.