I'm back. I can't stop writing this story. I don't want to, even if I could. So…

Seven months later:

"Ow. Ow. Ow." I felt like I was going to snap in two. "Malcolm, do I really need to be able to do this? I couldn't do this before I hurt my spine."

He looked up from his notes. "I need to make sure your muscles are working."

"They certainly won't be. And it's not helping that you get to sit and relax while I'm—ow."

We were out on the rooftop terrace of Castle Macindaw. Malcolm had agreed to help me full time. Apparently he's researching injuries and deformities and how to heal them. But I had to move to Macindaw. I didn't mind much: Fenwick reminded me of my last mission and my parents.

And Macindaw stayed nice and warm with that cool northern breeze all summer. Fenwick, since it's so near the ocean, is really hot and sticky despite being in the north.

"Malcolm, please can I go back sooner?"

"Your spine has healed better than expected. It seems the diet change helped."

I'd been eating a lot of protein, all sorts of leafy green stuff, and milk. I would kill for a cup of coffee. "Sure, Malcolm, whatever you say. Can I?" I asked, falling sideways out of the stretch. My muscles screamed in protest.

"Try a cartwheel." He said, still absorbed in writing something.

I did a round off, followed by a flip and then a sommersault. "Happy, Malcolm?"

"Estatic." He said sarcastically. "You ought to get going if you want to get back to Seacliff before the next storm."

"Seriously? I can go back?"

"Indeed."

I climbed onto the edge of the battlements and yelled, "YES!"

x-x-x-x-x Will POV x-x-x-x-x

"Did you close up all the windows yet?" Halt asked.

I looked up. "Erm, no. I was lost in thought. I'll go do that."

"Where has your mind been?" He said, shaking his head. "You've been weird for seven months. You do realize you can write her a letter?"

I swallowed hard and looked down at the table. The letter from Alyss was still lying open on it. I couldn't help hearing Rosabel's voice in my mind whenever I looked at it, like it was her writing and not Alyss. But it wasn't Rosabel. She hadn't written anything to me. The others could paper the walls of the cabin with the letters she'd sent them, but I hadn't heard a word from her since she whispered goodbye in the corridor. I stood up and pushed my chair in abruptly.

The thunder rolled by outside as I walked slowly to us guys' bunkroom. The shutters were flapping in the gusts of wind blowing in. I closed the window and started to close the shutters, but I couldn't. It was raining now, harder than ever.

"I love you and I have ever since Gilan brought you to dinner three years ago. I will fight for you every day if you say goodbye and I will fight beside you every day if you don't. Goodbye, Will."

Interesting. I was now hearing voices.

The horizon was gray and watery. I tried not to take that as an omen. As I watched the rain, I could see a small figure riding over the horizon.

At first all I could think was "voices and hallucinations?" but then I realized it was no hallucination. I closed the shutter and stepped away.

Rosabel was back.

x-x-x-x-x Rosabel's POV x-x-x-x-x

I jumped off of Belladonna's saddle with my pack in hand and promptly dropped it in the mud. A familiar figure had thrown open the door to the cabin. I ran to him, and he sprinted out into the rain and caught me in his arms.

"Will!"

"Rosabel."

"Yes, I do appear to be Rosabel. How odd."

He laughed. "You're back early." He said, his voice full of wonder.

I felt that familiar tugging as I remembered we were just friends. I stepped away. "Yeah. I'm back early. Where's everyone?"

"Indoors. They're probably brewing a pot of coffee and laughing at us for being soaked."

"Like old times." Like before Alyss came back. Please tell me you're thinking the same thing…

"Things were simpler then." He said quietly. "But I'm glad you're back. We need a danger magnet, things have been utterly normal."

"Well, don't worry. I'll put everything back to the way it was or I'll die trying, and that's a promise. "

Surely Will wasn't dumb enough to miss something that obvious.

He looked at me strangely and I met his eyes with anger boiling up. "You used me." I said suddenly.

"What?"

"I knew it. I'm Alyss's little doppelganger. Don't even bother denying it, I'm not a complete idiot. If I wasn't just her replacement you wouldn't have immediately went back to her, you would have given me a shot. But no, of course you didn't.

"Nope, you left me and proposed to her. Do you think you're clever, taking the damned ring off before you came out here? You've got a neat little tan line there, did you know that? And your knuckle is red from being squeezed as you slid it off moments ago.

"Trying to make sure I wasn't hurt, weren't you? It's a bit late for that, don't you think? You broke my heart, Will, and now you're treating me like a child. Yes, I'm younger than Alyss, but I'm every inch her equal.

"And I've got more friends. Did you really think that no one told me? Did you think Adrianne, Marissa, Elizabeth, Anne, and Henry didn't decide to tell me? Hell, Gilan and Halt told me."

Utter. Silence.

"Um, hi." Someone new said. I looked up and saw two girls, about a year younger than me. They were obviously twins.

"I'm Vanessa, and this is my sister Carmen."

"I'm Rosabel."

"We know." Carmen said. "Everyone here knows."

"Oh. Haha. I guess it'd be hard not to."

"Yeah." Will said, looking dazed.

Hmm. It seemed I could daze Will…

Yeah, I was back and ready for some action. And I was gonna make sure everyone knew that. Starting with Alyss and Will.