Rhydian's P.O.V.

"NO! Wait, Maddy, wait!"

I hear my own voice cry out through the blackness, but it sounds detached, far away from my body. I feel like I'm falling through a black hole, before harsh hands suddenly drag me away and I'm pushed onto the hard, thorny ground.

My eyes blink against the sunlight to see Jana and the pack healers crouched down before me. To my right is Maddy Smith, in her blood stained clothes as she lies twisted across the heather. Above me, Jana is yelling something, but for some reason I can't hear her, until suddenly everything comes into bitter focus.

"Did you just do what I think you did? You went into her mind?" she shouts incredulously.

"I…I saw her…in a field…I told her to wait," I stammer, my mind spinning circles. The pack healers have moved on from me and are bending over Maddy, plastering her wounds with leaves, forcing strange-smelling liquids into her mouth. I remember the words she'd just told me. She'd said she had to leave. But…she can't. I can't let her…

Before I know it I turn around and am violently sick onto the heather-I'm trembling beyond control, even though it's not cold. It's then that I realise I'm sobbing too, sobbing so hard the tears choke my throat. I haven't sobbed so much since I left my first foster parents when I was seven and was sent to an orphanage.

"I've never seen anyone do that before," Jana murmurs. Then "You must love her so much," she says under her breath.

"She has to hold on," I stutter, to the air, to the healers, to myself. "She has to sit in that field and wait."

But looking down at the broken body of the girl I love, I'm really not sure she will.

"MADDY!"

I turn to see the anguished faces of Daniel and Emma Smith as they run through the forest to meet their daughter. They look exactly the same as they did three years ago, if not for the dirt and the wild worry in their eyes. Emma stares at Maddy's body with eyes narrowed into gold.

But Daniel looks at me.

"Rhydian," he says slowly as he approaches to crouch before me. "What happened?"

"Wolves-came to-attack Alric," I stutter, not knowing if I'm still out of breath from the fight, crying or just shock. "I'm sorry, I should've saved her-I should've-done something-"

"It's not your fault." His eyes flicker over to his daughter's limp form and I see them shadow with pain. "Who were those wolves who attacked Alric?"

I shake my head; I have no idea. Jana answers for me.

"After he was banished from our pack, he started another with a female, and they had a baby. But her family were angry that she abandoned them so they went and killed her. Then they wanted revenge on my father, too. And…" she winces and stares unhappily down at the moonlight-pale child in her arms. "They want Arianwen too, for something. Either to kill her or…I don't know. That's all my father told me before he died."

We all sit in silence, unable to think of anything to say.

"Why are you here anyway, Rhydian?" Daniel asks me. I look up and meet his gaze, those same dark chocolate eyes as his daughter's.

"I came to find Maddy. I swore I would, when she left. I swore it." I hear my own voice crack at the end and more tears stream blindly down my face. Jana's eyes fill with tears, too.

"This is all my fault," she breathes, her voice husky. "I made Maddy come with me to find my dad. I should've never been so stupid." Her face curls up and she buries it in Arianwen's neck.

"It's no-one's fault. None of us knew what was going to happen. And Maddy's not going to die."The belief in Daniel's voice makes us both look up again, shocked. "She's a Smith," he says simply. "She's feisty, we all know that, right?"

Somehow, the sentence makes me smile. A smile through the tears. Sunshine in the rain.

"You just have to believe that Maddy is going to make it," Daniel continues. His voice is slow, but rings with confidence. "Because honestly, what else can we do?"

I stare at him for a minute, thinking. He's right. I'm just about to speak, when Emma's voice cuts through the cacophony of sounds.

"Maddy just opened her eyes."

Sorry. Nothing happened in this chapter!But there will be more next chapter….anyway please review!:)