When I came to, I immediately felt… weird.

My entire body was tingling. I felt as if I was surging with adrenaline. I suddenly remembered what had happened, and my eyes shot open in alarm.

I surveyed my surroundings as I sat up. I was lying on a small bed in a room with at least half a dozen other matching ones. I registered that Tyler Crowley was laying on a bed similar to mine in the corner across from me looking worse for wear. He had a couple of bandages wrapped around his head and forearm. Upon further examination, I saw little spots of blood starting to show through the gauze, and suddenly the reason why I was surging with energy made sense.

I was definitely in a hospital, and I needed to get out fast.

As quietly as I could, I threw my legs over the bed. Tyler had his eyes closed, but he wasn't unconscious. I was hoping I could just slip out of the room unnoticed.

My hopes were dashed when Edward Cullen appeared at the door as soon as I reached it, blocking my escape. A fresh wave of memories came to me: Edward appearing at my side from across the parking lot, Edward pushing the van away from me, Edward lifting it so my legs wouldn't be crushed. And then I had gone and blasted the damn van out of the way and set it on fire.

I looked at him, eyes narrowed skeptically. He wasn't human, and I knew it. I wasn't human, and he knew it. He didn't seem to view me in the same light at the moment though; his dark eyes flew over me frantically, as if he was looking for something.

"You shouldn't be out of bed," he chided. He sounded like a parent chastising a child.

"I'm fine."

Our conversation had attracted the attention of Tyler. "Emme! Are you all right? I'm so sorry! I was going too fast, and the van hit the ice wrong… I tried to stop it! I could have killed you…"

I turned to Tyler reluctantly. I didn't want to be around him at the moment. His blood was getting to be too much for me. I could snap at any second, but it would be rude to ignore his apology. I didn't want him to worry about me when there was nothing to worry about. "It's okay, Tyler. I'm perfectly fine. I promise."

"I don't even understand how you got out of the way so fast…"

I shot Edward a glance. I felt him tense up beside me, waiting for what I was going to say. Any thoughts of me imagining the whole ordeal went out of my mind. He wouldn't be looking at me like that if he didn't have something to hide. "Edward was standing right next to me. He pulled me out of the way."

"Oh," Tyler said dumbly. "I didn't even see you, Cullen. Are you okay?"

As Edward brushed off the boy's concern, I slipped around him and moved into the hallway. The relief was immediate, but I was still humming. I was in a hospital, after all.

"Not so fast," Edward chuckled, suddenly standing in front of me. "You haven't been checked out yet. You hit your head. You could have a concussion."

My head didn't feel as if I had hit it at all, and I told him as much. "My head is fine, Edward." I began, crossing my arms across my chest. "How are your hands?"

"My hands?" He looked genuinely confused by my question.

I glanced around to make sure no one would hear our conversation. No one was near. "Yeah. You know, stopping a van with your bare hands would hurt a normal person."

Edward's reaction to my words was immediate. His flawless face grew serious. He looked straight into my eyes as if that would make me believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. "You think I stopped a van with my bare hands?" His tone was incredulous, but his eyes held the truth. He was worried.

"I don't think. I know. I saw you, Edward."

"No one will believe that, you know," he replied, almost mockingly.

I rolled my eyes. "They also wouldn't believe how fast you appeared next to me when you were standing on the other side of the parking lot."

Edward was careful to not change his features in a way that would give anything away. He was guarded.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "I know you saw what I did, too. I'm not stupid, and neither are you. So whatever game you're trying to play, you should just stop now. It'd save us both a lot of trouble."

"Why does it matter?" he asked. I didn't like the annoyance that filled his musical voice—and I especially didn't like that it was directed at me… or that I'd caused it in the first place.

"You have a secret, Edward Cullen. And so do I. Are you the type of person to just let that go?"

"Can't you just thank me like a normal human?"

The energy crackled around me at the word. Human. He still thought I was a human. At least I had that going for me, I guess. "Thank you."

Edward closed his eyes, almost as if he was in pain. "You're not going to drop this."

"Of course not," I challenged. "I don't know how you did it, but I will find out eventually."

"I hope you enjoy disappointment, Emme."

We scowled at each other in silence for a moment before I was distracted by Tyler Crowley being rolled past us on his gurney towards a room that was presumably for x-rays. Being close to his blood was too much, and I had reached my limit. The lights in the hallway began to flicker.

"Why'd you do it? You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you had just left me to my fate."

Edward brought his attention back to me. His eyes held all sorts of emotions that I couldn't even begin to process, but his voice said something different. "I don't know." He was so quiet, I almost didn't hear him.

For some reason, my stomach felt as it had sunk to my toes. His answer wasn't something that I wanted to hear. I wanted him to tell me that I was worth saving. I wanted him to tell me that he trusted me.

I didn't stop to think about what that meant.

I had to leave before I couldn't control myself anymore. I couldn't risk using any more magic today seeing as I had already been left unconscious once. I pushed past Edward, sprinted through the ER, and then out the hospital doors. He didn't follow me.

As soon as the cool air hit me, I immediately felt better. My skin stopped tingling, and the extra energy from earlier slowly left my body leaving me drained. It was to be expected. I had used way too much magic for one day. I sat down on the curb, putting my head in my hands. I was so tired. My feelings were going haywire, but I wasn't sure if it was because of my magic or because of Edward.

I decided to walk back home. I'm sure someone had called my aunts to let them know what had happened, though they had probably figured it out for themselves. If they didn't have the foresight to go pick up the Infiniti, then we would deal with it later. They wouldn't chance coming to pick me up at the hospital if they could help it, though. It began to drizzle, but it strangely made me feel better. I set off in the direction I assumed our home was in.

I made it home about half an hour later with no problems. The walk had calmed me down in a way that I desperately needed, but it had made me even more exhausted than I already was. I registered that the SUV was parked in the driveway before making my way inside.

Aunt Isolde immediately thrust a mug of something in my hands. I didn't even have the strength to question her about what it was.

"Your aunt has been calling it a pepper up potion ever since she read Harry Potter," Blair said, rolling her eyes.

I chuckled and took a sip. I had read Harry Potter, of course. Most of it was utter nonsense, as I was coming to find out. It was still incredibly entertaining. The concoction didn't taste like much of anything, although I wasn't particularly fond of the thick texture. It slid down my throat with difficulty like a mostly frozen milkshake—except this was warm. As soon as I swallowed it, however, I immediately felt better.

"Why don't you go take a nap? We'll skip training until you feel better," Isolde suggested.

I didn't argue with her. I had already planned on doing just that. I trudged up the stairs and threw myself into bed.


I woke the next morning feeling infinitely better than I had the day before. I was still kind of drowsy and heavy, but I didn't feel like I was about to pass out at any second like I had yesterday after leaving the hospital.

I joined my aunts for breakfast, not bothering to hurry. School had already started. I was planning on going, but I didn't care when I showed up as long as I made it before the end of lunch.

"Morning," I greeted, sliding into my seat at the table in the breakfast nook. I helped myself to a slice of ham and some eggs.

"Feeling better, Emerine?" Blair asked, eyeing me from over the Grimoire. She was turned to a page at the very back, writing something in neat script.

"Much," I nodded. "The sleep definitely helps." After a moment I added, "The food, too."

"You don't have to go to school today, you know. You could take another day to rest up," Isolde suggested.

I immediately shook my head. "We might have a problem, actually." I tried to make my voice sound casual, but it was pointless trying to hide things from them. "I may or may not have used magic in front of a boy from school. And he may or may not have noticed. And then he may or may not have asked me about it."

My aunts shared a look.

I was immediately suspicious. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Blair said, returning to the Grimoire.

"That look!" I put my fork down, looking back and forth between the two of them.

Isolde exhaled loudly, taking our plates to the sink. She was stalling. "It's nothing, Emerine. We will let you deal with this situation as you see fit."

I was flabbergasted. "What?" Witches weren't supposed to reveal themselves to the humans. It was one of the rules of the High Council of Magic.

"It isn't our place to say, Emerine. Tell the Cullen boy whatever you want. It all has the same outcome."

This conversation was clearly not going how I thought it would. What on earth could Blair mean by that? The two of them obviously knew something that I didn't.

"And another thing," Blair continued. "We know how new you are to this way of life. Everyone makes the mistake of using too much magic early on, and we understand that you wouldn't have even used as much magic as you did yesterday if it hadn't been a life or death situation. But you must understand, Emerine, magic is only here to assist us. We can't use it whenever we want. We are finite, and magic is not. It will use us before we can use it."

"You weren't close to death yesterday, but if the Cullen boy hadn't been there, you could have used too much and been in just as much trouble as if the van actually hit you. That's why self-control is so important. No more setting the lawn on fire just because you want to melt some ice."

Isolde was right. I had to learn to control myself and my emotions.


I made it to school just in time to join everyone for lunch.

I wasn't really excited to be the center of attention. I knew my classmates would bombard me with questions the first chance they got—especially Jessica. But the sooner I answered them, the sooner the whole ordeal would be over.

"Oh my gosh, Emme! I was so worried when you didn't turn up for Trig this morning! I saw what happened yesterday in the parking lot. You totally could have been killed!" Jessica gushed as I sat down at our table.

"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."

"So what happened?" she pressed.

Tyler had not returned to school today, late or otherwise. It was solely up to me to set the rumor mill straight.

"Tyler was going too fast in the parking lot and hit the ice wrong. The van came right towards me, but Edward pulled me out of the way just in time." My eyes moved instinctually to the Cullen table; it was almost second nature for me to stare at them at some point throughout the lunch period. None of them were looking at me, though. "If he hadn't have been standing right next to me, I don't know what would have happened."

Jessica looked confused and followed my gaze to his table. "Edward Cullen? I didn't see him standing next to you."

I nodded. "He was asking me about a Biology assignment when it happened. He had to get checked out at the hospital, too. Tyler seemed to be the only one to actually get any injuries, although he was okay too when I left him yesterday." I hoped talking about Tyler would be enough to change the subject away from Edward.

Jessica had already started recounting my story as soon as the others joined us at the table. She was reveling in the attention, but my focus was elsewhere, as per usual.

I had to talk to Edward about what had happened. I saw him do something that wasn't human. He saw me use magic. He had a secret to keep, but I wanted to make sure that he wasn't a threat. I needed to know that he was safe to be around. My aunts made it seem like it didn't really matter, but I was still nervous. If he was a warlock…

I had to stop myself from going down that road.

Edward wasn't a warlock unless he was amazingly gifted at cloaking himself. Magic users can nearly always sense other magic users. He had to be something else. Alice, too, for that matter. Neither one of them seemed like a threat, but the entire family was obviously off. The humans knew enough that they subconsciously stayed away from them. Why else would teenagers practically ignore the ethereally beautiful family? So why did I feel such a magnetic pull towards the Cullens—specifically Edward?

This was ridiculous. We were being ridiculous. Surely Edward could see that? I refused to sit here silently fuming and wondering when I could do something about it.

Abruptly, I stood up from my seat, interrupting Jessica's fourth retelling of the accident. "I'll be right back," I murmured, leaving my friends mystified, watching after me as I practically stomped towards the Cullen table.

Every last one of them was avoiding eye contact with me when I arrived. I could practically feel the anxiousness radiating off of each of them in waves. I could only assume that they all knew about what happened. Edward had his gaze—glare, more like—fixed on Alice, who looked somewhat apologetic.

Rosalie was the first one to acknowledge me. I noticed she had the same golden eyes that Edward had had but much less patience. "What do you want?" Her tone was callous as if I was the reason for every single thing that had gone wrong in her life.

I wouldn't play her game. I rearranged my features into something that I hoped resembled pleasantness. "Hello… I'm Emme Wildes. I don't believe we've met yet."

She rolled her eyes and didn't reply.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your… lunch." None of them were even eating. "But I'd like to speak to Edward for a moment if that's all right."

Edward stiffened when I had said his name, but he didn't seem surprised. He took a beat, still facing away from me.

I briefly wondered if he thought he could ignore me away. I could feel myself becoming more and more irritated. I was trying to play nice, and I was being met with resistance from every single one of them. I knew that it was probably for the best if I just left them alone. Our two families had existed in Forks amicably before I came along. But that was before they knew the Wildes' had magic. Who knew what they would do with that information. I had proved myself trustworthy by lying for Edward. Surely they could do me the courtesy of telling me why. Or at the very least agree to do the same for me.

My frustrations slowly faded away, replaced with a feeling of contentment. I furrowed my brow in confusion. I was certainly not content. I didn't get any of the answers I wanted. My heart started to race as I tried to get my feelings under control. If I let them rage like this, I wouldn't be able to control my magic. The thought sent a panic through me, yet the contentment just got stronger. Something wasn't right.

That was when I made eye contact with Jasper Hale.

A whole new wave of emotions hit me, but these ones felt even more wrong. I was anxious and uneasy. I was so worried and nervous. I was angry. I was excited. I felt a surge of adrenaline surge through my veins. None of it made any sense.

What did make sense, however, was that Jasper was like Edward and Alice. He was doing something to my emotions. I knew it, and I was always right.

The lights started flickering overhead again. Not enough for it to be weird, but enough for me to notice and know that I had to pull myself together before I did something worse.

"Stop it," I hissed toward him after another wave of satisfaction was pushed at me. My voice was low and cold. I wanted him to believe my next words. "Or I'll make you."

And then he and Edward were both out of their chairs, almost faster than I could follow. A few students looked our way. Apparently my being at the Cullen table was weird enough; the scene that I was causing made it even more unusual. I didn't want to attract any more attention to our conversation.

Edward had placed himself in front of me. If I hadn't known any better, it seemed as if he was protecting me from his brother. His body language was almost animalistic. I couldn't see his facial expression, but the surprise on Rosalie and Emmett's faces said enough about what it looked like.

Jasper looked over Edward's shoulder into my eyes. His gaze was cold and calculating. I didn't sense any hostility. To him, I was simply a bug that needed to be squished.

Alice stood up slowly, placing her arm on Jasper's. "It's all right, Jazz."

"This isn't the place, man," Emmett agreed.

It took a second, but he finally sat down—albeit reluctantly.

I had no idea what exactly was going on, but I knew enough to realize that none of it meant anything good for me. I stayed silent.

Finally, Edward turned to me. His face was resigned. "After you." He gestured towards the door.

I shot the rest of the Cullens a wary glance before turning my back on them and leaving the cafeteria. I settled on a bench that was outside of the building off to the side. Edward chose to remain standing. It wasn't raining, but it was windy. The cold breeze felt refreshing after whatever that had been in the cafeteria.

There was no point beating around the bush. "I want to know why I'm lying for you."

Edward ran his hand through his already tousled bronze hair. "I'm not going to tell you anything, Emme. I can't."

My heart quickened at the sound of him saying my name; I tried my best to ignore it. "I need to know."

His golden eyes fixed on my face, pleading. "Just drop it. Please."

The look he was giving me made me want to agree, but the nagging voice in the back of my head knew I couldn't. "I can find out without your help, you know. I don't want to, but I can."

"I wish you wouldn't." His musical voice was barely above a whisper.

It was silent for a moment while I considered this. Could I just drop this? Could I pretend like nothing ever happened? Could we both just go on, living our normal lives?

I wanted to believe so, if only for him. But I couldn't without knowing for sure. So, I asked the question I had been dreading. "Is there anything that I have to… worry about?" Am I safe? Is my family safe?

Slowly, almost as if he was fighting against himself, he reached out and touched my cheek. Just like last time, his touch was icy cold and electrified my skin. My face grew warm. My heart stuttered. It took me a moment to realize I had frozen; I had to actually remind myself to breathe.

"You have nothing to fear, Emme."

And then he was gone.


Edward and I ignored each other as best as we could over the next three months.

As weird as it was, my gut told me to trust Edward when he said I had nothing to worry about when it came to him and his family. He had obviously decided that he could trust me as well.

But I was utterly and perfectly miserable.

It was torture having to sit next to him every day in Biology but not be able to talk to him. I tried to tell myself it was better for him if I stayed away. A witch shouldn't get involved with non-magical lives. I could be strong enough to ignore whatever this pull between us was. I could. Or that's what I told myself every night before I fell asleep.

So, I did the only other thing I could think of that would divert my Cullen centric thoughts; I threw myself into learning magic. Miraculously, I had managed to pass my trials progressing from unranked to Thridde such a short time. My aunts applauded my work ethic, but they didn't realize that the only reason I did it was that it was a distraction that I desperately craved.

To no one's surprise, I first mastered precognition and clairvoyance. My aunts and I knew it was because of the Cullen children. My aunts also knew that I was very much not taking their advice and getting closer to them. They took to tiptoeing around the subject whenever I tried to bring it up in search of more information. They knew something, and yet were doing everything they could to keep it from me.

I spent a good majority of my time cursing my morals. I could probably read their thoughts, but something told me that it would be better if I didn't.

My aunts also noticed that I was hesitant to use any sort of magic outside of training. I didn't want to admit it, but I didn't like how exhausting it was to train so hard. I didn't want there to be a chance of something like the van incident happening again. In my studies, I learned that many witches got addicted to magic and either went insane trying to figure out how to get more energy or put themselves in comas after becoming addicted to the power it offered. I didn't want either to happen to me.

After I tested for precognition and clairvoyance, I turned to potion brewing. It seemed like the safest option as it took little to no magic to do. Anyone could brew potions, not just witches, although the humans didn't usually know that; if they did, it was rare that they had access to the information.

I spent a lot of time in the forest around my aunts' house. Many of the ingredients could be found there, and I enjoyed the comfort that the forest brought. Blair and Isolde were also glad that since I was around, they didn't have to go to town anymore. I didn't mind running to town for them, either.

Oddly enough, I was beginning to fit in in Forks. When I needed new boots for my forest excursions, I went to Mike's parent's store. When Jessica and Angela wanted to hang out, I met them at the diner. My face wasn't unfamiliar to them anymore. Slowly but surely I was becoming less of the new girl and more and more just a regular girl—which is all I had ever wanted, really.

After my father's murder, my mother's abandonment, and my aunt's training me in magic, it wasn't something I ever thought I would get.

But I felt so empty.


A/N:

Hope everyone enjoyed this next chapter! Shout out to everyone that has reviewed and followed this story so far. You guys are the reason why I've been updating so quickly. I've also had a couple of people reach out to me about this story's playlist... if you're interested in that, you can message me for either a Spotify link or a list. It will also be posted on this story's tumblr page... the URL is: devils-playground

And a quick question: do you guys enjoy that this story has been following the original Twilight plot kind of closely? Or would you prefer it to branch off and do its own thing? I am at a bit of a crossroads now, and I think I know what I'm going to do. But I still appreciate input from the people that actually read this haha. Let me know. Until next time!