Chapter Three

Emma was so happy and for so many reasons, she was sitting here, on the rooftop with the greatest guy in world, her one true friend, aside from Lucas, and they were watching a bird fly away into the night sky. A beautiful dove she had created.

She so badly wanted to grab his hand, feel comfort in it's warmth, but she knew it wasn't a good idea, not with everything else going on, she had to restrain herself.

"That's amazing." Nick breathed, he still could hardly believe it. "So whatever you draw comes to life?"

"Yes, but it's complicated, and not that easy." She took a deep breath and let it out, relaxing as if about to tell a long story. "I have to finish the drawing, connect it, which you should now understand is why none of my drawings are truly finished. Also, there's exceptions."

"Like what?"

"I can't draw stuff that interferes with free will and stuff like that. I can't draw my enemies not attacking me, I can't control another person, I can't draw someone dead and have it happen in real life, I can't," She took a breath and glanced at Nick before returning her gaze to the night sky. "I can't draw someone falling in love with me."

Everything seemed to go quiet. Nick had been staring at her the whole time she was talking, listening without really taking anything in, but just watching her lips move gracefully, but now he stopped. The words she had just said fully registered in his brain, but he didn't know how to react to them.

He decided on steering the conversation in a different direction. "So, you never finish any of the weapons?"

She sighed, maybe with relief, maybe because of something else. "Well, no. I finish some of them, when I need them. That's what I meant by 'to prepare', to prepare for if something attacks. That way I can have every weapon at my fingertips without having to lug every weapon around with me. I just close the little bit of space left and boom, it comes to my hands."

"So, does it come exactly as you draw it?" Nick asked, this subject truly interested him, if there were a class at his high school that was weapons design or magic, he'd be like Sign. Me. Up.

"Yeah, so if I got bumped while I was drawing and a bump came out on the sword or whatever, there'd be a bump on the actual sword."

"That's so cool." Emma flashed him a genuine smile and he felt himself melting on the inside. "So," He wanted to ask the question that had been burning at the back of his mind his arrived, but he knew that smile on Emma's face would fade as soon as he asked it. No, not fade, disappear.

"So, you want to ask me about your past and what I meant, even though I told you it was like the game and you'd find out in the end." Emma's smile was still there, but if he pushed her too hard, he knew his prediction would ring true.

"Well, yeah, and what you meant by Lucas's world." Nick looked away, sure the smile was gone.

"Lucas is from the real world, the one we were just in, the one you previously believed we were all from." Nick looked up in surprise, he couldn't believe she was telling him this, but he was right, the smile was gone, only a hint of it was left.

"So, you're from here, obviously, am I from here too?" Emma slowly nodded, she couldn't believe she was telling him this. "Then why do I remember the real world so vividly, why do I have so many memories of it? Why do I consider the real world?" Nick asked.

"Because, you were born here, but something happened and you were transferred to that world as a baby, you really did grow up there." Emma said.

"What happened?"

"That's, that's really for the king to tell you, when all this over, when the Dark Queen is dead." Emma sounded scared but sad, she knew something that she knew he would want to know.

"But," Nick started, and Emma's gaze went over to him, taking in his face. She gave him a sad look, and for once that was the only emotion in her eyes, they were gleaming with new tears.

He was about to give in, give up and agree with her that he could wait, but something inside him told him to stand his ground. This was his past, his life, it might've been her job, but it wasn't her decision whether or not to keep it from him. He deserved to know. "No, okay, I'm not going to wait until after I've battled some of the most fearsome things I've ever seen to talk to a king who will finally tell me past, you're here now, why can't you just tell me?" His voice slowly rose but he wasn't yelling.

Emma's gaze didn't soften, she didn't appear to feel any sympathy towards him, but she wasn't mad either. The tears were still brewing but they weren't yet falling. "I'm sorry, I realize I'm your friend and I may have information you want but I had a job first and as much as it kills me to say this, my duty comes before my friendships, and certainly before anything else after that, so I can't tell you." Emma looked away and stood up. "Looks like you're wide awake, so I think you can take your turn while I sleep." She voice was shaky, but she wasn't breaking down, not in front of him.

She walked over to the edge of the roof, "You can look through those swords or draw your own." She said, she had left her sketchbook on the roof next to Nick. She knelt and put her hand on the edge, ready to swing down, when she looked up at him one last time. "And don't think for one second you're the only one around here with a hard past and an unforeseen future." And with that, she was gone.