Argent Eye IV

64

It felt like one of those dreams where you fell, and then landed with a jolt in your bed.

Except, I wasn't in my bed. I was laying on something far more uncomfortable, and opened my eyes to see that I was still in the old warehouse.

Ronan was there, looking at me, and then I saw more people come over, as if I'd only just passed out. Maybe I had, to them. For me, though, I'd been to the Otherworld and back.

"Millie, are you okay?" Ronan asked, picking my head up from the hard floor.

I blinked a few times, and then let Ronan help me up. "Yeah, I think so." I said, and the looked over to Anika, who was still unconscious.

I frowned, and ran over to her.

"Millie-" I heard Ronan say, but he hadn't seen what I'd just seen.

I knelt down next to Anika. "Anika?" I said, fearful that she somehow hadn't made it back with me. Between Haydn breaking her neck and her dying, she'd shifted back to her human form, and now lay there with metal chains holding her wrists and ankles.

The light had gone from me- I knew that much. It had done its job, and gone back to wherever it came from, meaning that if Anika hadn't made it back, then I wouldn't even be able to heal her.

But, then she groaned. She didn't wake, but she groaned.

Everyone started smiling and laughing and gasping, not believing what they were seeing, including myself. Relief flooded me, and Stark came forward then and broke the shackles from her.

"We'll take her back to base." Stark said, and Harry the Dreamwalker stepped forward and carefully picked her up, before vanishing.

I nodded, and then stood up.

Stark did not look happy, but then I gasped.

"My parents!" I exclaimed. "I need to see them- they probably think I'm dead."

I ignored Stark's glares, and turned to Ronan, who agreed to take a small group of us to Stella's house, which is where he'd left my parents.

Stella, Ronan and I landed in the living room, where we expected them to be.

"Mum!" I called "Dad!"

At first, I thought that maybe they'd left and gone home, but then they both poked their heads around from the kitchen.

I gasped, and ran over to them, hugging them both.

"Oh, Millie, you're okay." Mum sighed with relief, hugging me tight, and then her voice cracked.

I also found that I was crying, being overcome with relief and exhaustion and thankfulness.

"Thank goodness." Dad said.

Eventually, I pulled away from the both of them, and the relief was replaced with dread. So many thoughts were racing through my head. What did they think of me? Did they even wanna know? After I told them who and what I was, would they want anything to do with me?

Mum was crying, and shook her head. "Oh, sweetie." She said. "Look at you. Are you safe? Are we safe?"

I nodded. "We're safe."

"But that man-"

I took both her shoulders, and looked at both her and my dad. "We're safe." I said firmly.

She looked back at me, before nodding.

"How are you both, anyway?" I asked. "Did he hurt you at all?"

"Not physically." My dad said. "When he said you were dead..." he trailed off.

I mustered a smile. "Don't worry, I'm not dead." I said.

"But how...?" My mum began, and clearly didn't really know what to ask. How are you not dead? How did you defeat him? Did you kill him? How is Stella involved in all this?

"I think we need to sit down." I said, and with that, Stella came over.

"Come on." Stella said. "I'll make us all a cup of tea, and then we can explain everything."

My parents seemed relieved at the mention of a cup of tea, and so nodded and went with Stella to the dining room.

I turned back to Ronan, who walked over.

I sighed loudly, and hugged him, feeling a little strange that this was over.

"You okay?" He asked.

I looked up at him, still hugging him. "Yeah." I said. "Fucking exhausted, though."

He chuckled.

"What about you?" I asked, and then frowned. I realised then that none of my friends who'd been fighting had any cuts or bruises on them, and yet I'd seen Ronan being punched and kicked and god knows what else. His hand had been crushed by Haydn, but now it seemed perfectly fine.

"When you did that thing with the light." He said. "It seemed to heal everyone. Except Haydn, of course."

"Oh." I said. "That's probably how I was able to bring Anika back with me."

Ronan nodded. "Probably."

I sighed again. "This is gonna be a long conversation." I said. "You don't have to stick around if you don't want to."

"What? And miss you introducing me to your parents?" He said, shocked that I would even suggest such a thing. "Absolutely not."

I smiled. "I have to say, when I envisioned introducing my boyfriend to my parents, it wasn't like this."

He laughed. "Yeah, this is way more exciting."

"And stressful." I added.

"You know, I have a good feeling about it." Ronan said. "I think they'll be fine once you explain everything."

"You do?" I asked.

He nodded. "Well, there's only one way to find out." He said, and motioned an arm towards the dining room.

"Let's do it." I said after a moment, and walked in with Ronan.

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