Sorry this chapter is so short, but my muse is being fickle and the next part of the story after this is going to have to be separated so - here we go a shorter chapter. Enjoy!

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The dream faded slowly, and as he returned to his own mind, he began to worry. She was right; time was running out for them. It was the first day of the 5th year already. It was the day that he had promised to return on, and he was not as close as he had led her to believe. If only he had not been delayed for so long. If only he was there with her now. He would give anything to be with her now. It was then that he decided that somehow, someway before the stroke of midnight or earlier if possible. Before she could be disappointed again, he would make it home to her.

Somehow, he managed to wake himself from the dream world. He had to if he was going to make it home to her before midnight. It wasn't going to be easy, and it was probably going to take every ounce of energy he had in him, but he was going to do it if it damn near killed him. Once he was fully awake, he bolted into action. He packed light; he wouldn't need much and gathered up everything that he would need in order to do this properly. He was going to need to hurry if he was going to make it on time, and the journey was not going to be an easy one. He prayed that she would forgive him if he came home a little worse for wear.

Should he step into the shadows and travel to her that way? After all the shadows had been his home for so long - he knew them well. Should he risk stepping into the shadow world once more, even if it was to get back to the love of his life? It was a dangerous proposition all around. Damned if he did and damned if he didn't. If he didn't shadow step there was a very real chance that he wouldn't make it back to her in time. If he did shadow step, there was a very real chance that the other things that lurk in the shadows could attack him.

He wasn't weak by any means, but he was not yet back to his old self yet either. Not that he would ever truly be a shadow man again. He was carved back in and he was still immortal, but he would not become what his ancestors became - horrid ugly deformed beasts. Because he had learned to love, had fallen in love and was loved in return. That curse of vile form was not his future anymore. She had saved him from that. She was his light, his sun. she was his saving grace, his one and only angel.

He only hoped that he could make up for all of the evil he had done and make himself truly worthy of such an angel. He sighed to himself as he thought about what he should do. He needed to get back; he needed to do it before midnight. He needed to do a lot of things and had so little time. He was going to have to shadow step if he had any hope of getting home to her in time. Why had he gone so far from her? What had he been trying to prove?

If only he had stayed closer to her home. If only things had not turned out the way that they had for the two of them. But now was not the time for regrets, for there was nothing to be done about the past. He had to worry too much about the present to allow himself time to dwell on the pains of the past. He steeled himself and prepared to enter into darkness once more. He only hoped that it would not consume him once more as it had so long ago.