Maddy's P.O.V.

I'm a little girl again and I'm running through the fields.

The green, green grass is bejewelled with daisies, and cornflowers as blue as a twilight sky brush my bare knees. My hair is long and strewn with flowers, my skin is as flawless as a new-born's. I'm wearing a white dress which flies in the cool summer breeze. The sun smiles down at me as I pause to pick daisies, making a fragile crown, declaring myself the fairy queen.

At the end of the field is a wooden fence, with a neat latticed gate in the middle, entwined with roses. Beyond that gate I see nothing but the sky, a brilliant perfect blue, as clear as the ocean.

I know that beyond that gate is where I'm meant to go. And of course I'm curious, but I feel like I'm waiting for something, biding my time. I don't want to go through just yet. So instead I sit in the fresh warm grass which tickles my skin and fiddle with the flowers in my hair.

A wolf.

I look up and see him there. As strong as ever, a pelt the shade of sand flecked with nutmeg, and eyes as golden as liquid sunlight. He's so familiar, so right, that my breath catches in my throat. But what is he doing here? He's not meant to be here; he belongs to another life, another time.

I watch as he bounds up towards me and then stops a few inches before me, transforming into human form. It's Rhydian, but he looks about a thousand days younger since I'd seen him in the fight; eyes innocent but not completely masking the pain. His blonde hair sparkles in the light but his face is serious, a veil of emotions: pain, fear, shock, anger, desperation…love.

"What are you doing here?" I manage to whisper, feeling the words latch in my throat. "This place isn't meant for you, not yet."

"It's not meant for you either." His voice is soft and husky, on the verge of breaking. He sits slowly opposite me and reaches for my cheek. "Don't die, Maddy."

I shake my head, smiling, although I feel like crying. "It's OK." Because as absurd as it seems, I know it will be. But to my surprise his face contorts into pain.

"It's not OK. You want to know what my life was like before you? It was crap. And after you left? It was crapper."

I look down to avoid his burning gaze. "How are you even here?"

"It's an Eolas trick I heard of once when I was living with the wild pack. I put my hand on you and I can enter your mind."

"That's crazy," I murmur.

"Not as crazy as what you're about to do. Don't go through that gate, Madeleine Smith." The way his voice cracks as he says my name makes the tears start to fall, from both my eyes and his. I can't look up to see him weeping, I can't bear it. My heart tugs towards him and I'm painfully aware of how even now, it still beats so fast only for him.

"I have to," I whisper, staring at the poppy in my hands.

"You don't. Jana will go and get help, they can still save you," Rhydian pleads. Then come the words that shatter me. "You can't leave me now, Maddy. I can't live the rest of my life like I just spent the last three years. At least I had something to look forward to. But if you leave me, I'll have nothing. I'll have nothing, Maddy." He grabs my cheeks and brings my face up, forcing me to look at him. "Please. You remember when you left? And I promised I'd come find you?"

I stare into his eyes, blinking back tears. "And I'm so glad you did."

"No, this isn't the end, this isn't it, Maddy, it can't be, I won't let it be," he rushes, and then before I know it I'm crushed into his arms and we're sobbing into each other's hair. I want to stay here so badly. With him, forever. But I can't.

"Rhydian, I have to leave," I breathe softly, pressing my lips to his firm, warm neck. He clutches my hands and shakes his head defiantly, tears streaming down his flushed cheeks.

"Don't you dare leave me Maddy Smith," Rhydian trembles. "You're stronger than this. You're a wolf, remember?"

But as he says those words we're suddenly ripped apart. It must be people in the real world, tearing him back to reality. I scream and try and hold on, trying to keep him gripped to me, but I can't keep my hold. He yells something, before he's tugged away from this cracked piece of life, leaving the sky so much darker.

It sounds like this.

"Wait, Maddy."

But I really don't know how long I can.

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