Haylee stomach ached by the time the dukes announced that they will be leaving. They weren't what she expected at all and they treated her a lot nicer than she thought they would.

They all greeted her along with their advisors one for one. The last to greet her was Dwarrel.

"Malady I must apologize." He said earnestly.

"For what?" She asked.

"For being so against your kind. I see know that I can't judge all the humans because one or two decided to harm someone in our realm. Your a good human and I'm grateful you landed in our realm." Dwarrel said before he bowed.

She nodded while giving him a smile.

"And malady?"

"Yes?"

"Please take care of our king, he needs someone like you in his life." He gave her a final smile before he left the room leaving her alone with the knights. Jayk and Ryhan went to see the dukes off.

When Jayk and Ryhan returned the knights were busy bickering about who should escort Haylee back to her room and guard her tonight.

Haylee laughed at their antics.

"How old are you? I'm not a sandwich to be fought over at lunch." She said.

Jayk took in the scene in front of him.

"What's going on in here?" He asked as he folded his arms in front of his chest.

"Ooh Jayk finally! Because you guys can't play fair, Jayk will escort me to my room and he will decided who guards me tonight." The knights grumbled under their breaths before Haylee stuck out her tongue at them and grabbed Jayk's arm. Jayk could only chuckle.

"I will return later and Ryhan will guard Haylee tonight." This caused the knights to banter more and Haylee and Jayk slipped away quickly.

They laughed all the way back to her room. Once in her room she crashed onto her bed.

"Today was fun." She said before Jayk laid down next to her.

"It was. It went better then I thought it would." Jayk admitted.

"I don't think they hate humans so much anymore." Haylee said.

"Well who would be able to hate humans once they met someone like you?" Jayk asked softly.

Haylee turned her head to look at him. Their eyes met and their heads moved towards each other. Closer and closer.

Their lips were almost touching when Jayk remembered the knights were waiting for him. He pulled away begrudgingly.

"I have to go, the knights are waiting." He said. Haylee nodded before Jayk gave her a final smile before exiting her room.

Jayk scolded himself from stopping their kiss but as he looked into her eyes guilt has overtaken him. He could not kiss her before she knew the truth. The truth he has been hiding from her.

The knights and his brother was sitting around the table waiting for his return.

"That went rather well. All the dukes and their advisors seems to like the young girl." Baelon said as Jayk took a seat.

"They did. They all even warned me to keep a close eye on her and to protect her." Jayk said as he recalled what most of the dukes told him as they left the castle.

"What are we going to do about her father, the hunter? We can't keep her in that tower for the rest of her life." Evan said.

"I agree, that is why I want us to return to Jayel's house and look for any clues we might've missed. The sooner we can find this man, the sooner we can rest in peace." Jayk said. The knights agreed that they would return to the house the next day. Jayk was going to join them.

After dinner Ryhan went to guard Haylee for the night and the rest returned to their rooms.

That night Jayk kept dreaming about Haylee's father finding her and killing her and everytime he was to late to save her. He spent most of his night tossing and turning around and when the sun's first rays entered his room he was grateful for the morning.

After a quick bath and breakfast he met the knights in the hall. Cason was looking after Haylee for the day and Ryhan was sleeping.

They travelled down the familiar route until they made it to the barrier that divided the two realms. They travelled through the human forest before they made their way to Jayel's farm.

They burried the bodies in the forest at the foot of the volcano. He owed it to Jayel and he would like to take Haylee there once he told her the truth.

The house was the same as he remembered it. He looked at each and every photo of Haylee and her family. He found their photo album and decided to take it back to Haylee.  He also took a few personal items like her mother's necklace and some of her clothes. He was going to take everything she needed back to her.

The knights found a leather pouch under the bed but nothing else was out of the ordinary. Once they were sure they had everything and that they checked everything for clues they returned home. The knights were quiet on their journey back home.

Jayk knew it was time that he told Haylee the truth, but he had no idea how he was going to do it.

When they returned it was already late afternoon and Jayk decided that now was as good time as any to tell Haylee the truth. He quickly went to his office before grabbing her mother's diary and placing it in the bag along with all the other items he returned from her home. With the bag in hand he headed towards her room.

When he entered the room he found Haylee playing chess with Ryhan. Cason was reading a book in the chair.

They greeted him quickly before he asked them to leave the room so that he could talk with Haylee. He knew this wasn't going to be easy. He quickly placed the bag on the chair. Haylee eyed the bag before she looked back at Jayk.

Haylee's eyes were filled with concern.

"Jayk? What's going on?"

Jayk closed the door behind Cason and Ryhan before he locked it. He didn't want someone to barge in again and prohibit him from telling her the truth.

"Haylee I need to tell you something. I know this is going to be a great shock for you, but I want you to know why I didn't tell you the truth." He said as he took her hands in his and sat down with her on the edge of the bed.

"I didn't tell you sooner because I wanted you to heal completely before I shared this devastating news with you. I knew you were already in a lot of physical pain and I didn't want to cause you emotional pain as well. I just wanted you to know that I understand your pain and I will always be here for you." Haylee was confused but she could see he needed to get this of his chest. Her own heart started to hammer in her chest as she wondered what he was about to tell her. Something inside her told her that it wasn't going to be something nice.

She nodded for him to continue and he did.

"The reason why I haven't allowed you to return to your parents is because something dreadful happened. Your parents have been murdered." Jayk said solemnly.

"They're dead?" Haylee said softly after a moment.

"I'm afraid so," Jayk said.

Haylee's whole world came crashing down as she realised what their death meant. She would never see them again. Never talk to them again. Never tell them about Jayk and how much she felt about him. Never be able to show them this wonderful place or introduce them to her new friends.

A wave of grief hit her hard and she started to sob. Jayk quickly threw his arms around her and she was grateful for his comfort. She was to sad to care that he didn't tell her about her parents' death and to grateful for his comfort to be mad at him. Deep down inside she understood why he didn't tell her earlier. Because the thought of seeing her parents again was what got her through the recovery process and what motivated her to heal faster.

That night she fell asleep in Jayk's arms as sobs racked through her body and memory after memory played in her head about the time she spent with her parents.

Jayk's shirt was drenched by the time Haylee fell asleep. He hated seeing her like this, but he knew what it felt like to loose a parent. He lost his parents too and he remembered how many nights he spent crying himself to sleep and if it wasn't for Ryhan and his friends he might've never climbed out of the dark hole he found himself in after their death.

Now it was his turn to be the loving mate and friend and it was his turn to make sure that Haylee doesn't end up in the hole he did. He was going to help her work through her parents' death. It was his duty to.