Remy's POV:

It most certainly hadn't been a good day for me. For one I was mad at myself and the world for how stupid and wrong I had been about Peter, and I was bombarded with questions from a worried Aaya when I eventually left the woods and returned to the camp. First I truly wanted to scream at her to leave me alone, but she was just trying to understand and be helpful towards a friend. More than I have ever been.

I went sword hunting again, and this time I dragged along Sean as well as Curly. It turned out those two got along pretty well, and even though I was disappointed at being unsuccessful at finding the sword yet again it was nice to see Sean make a buddy. Peter had taken the other lads, whom I now knew to be Eddie, Jamie, Aaron, Jason and Alex. I got round to introducing myself properly, apologising for dragging them into this mess and brushing off their attempts at saying "you've nothing to be sorry for". Except for Jamie, he stayed quiet. The guy named Alex (I knew them from class, but I had hardly ever talked to them in my life) explained to me what he saw the night I left.

"I hope I didn't freak you out too much," I told him.

He smirked and told me it was fine, that he was never scared, especially not of any old girl. I laughed and we went our separate ways, him departing with the others and I with Sean and Curly.

"Remy? Helloooo?,"Sean said, interrupting my analysis of the day's events. We were heading back to camp, basically giving up for the day.

"Huh? Yes?"

I looked up at him, straining my neck. That boy was so tall.

"Whatcha thinking bout?," he asked me in an over feminine voice.

"Nothing," I lied. But he knew me too well.

He looked at Curly and they swapped mischievous grins.

"What?," I demanded.

Sean clasped his hands to his heart. "Where art thou Romeo? Or should I say Al-"

I punched him in the stomach, hopefully hard enough to wind him. Curly cracked up laughing and I turned away from Sean so he might think I was angry, not that my cheeks were actually flaming. It didn't mean anything! My cheeks flamed over the simplest of things anyways.

Despite my attempt to silence him he continued. "A tale of star-crossed lovers, Remeo and Aliet," he sighed dramatically.

I snorted. Remeo and Aliet?

He wasn't finished yet. "When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the ga-"

I shoved him while laughing. "Trust you to revise every quote Miss O'Connor gave us like you were a Saint with a Bible!"

"Please," he scoffed. "If it weren't for me you would have failed every Romeo and Juliet quiz under the sun."

This was true. English wasn't my strong point and those quotes were hard to remember. Sean always had me covered.

"Even so," I said, my tone slightly friendlier. "Drop it, okay?"

Sean smiled but nodded.

"Don't want Peter to hear," Curly sniggered.

He dodged my smack.

Sean looked at me. "Permission to beat Curly up?"

I grinned. "Permission granted."

After a scuffle and more laughs, we finally reached the camp. Peter's group bet us to it, and were strewn about on the logs surrounding the campfire, exhausted. As we passed the log where Jason and Alex were sitting, I could almost feel Curly's smirk towards me burn into my skin on the back of my neck. I kept a high head and quickened my pace towards Peter. He seemed even worse off than the others, his eyes staring into space while his face was full of worry. He was probably racking his brains trying to think of where the sword could be, so he could save his family. My guilt turned into a bad smell and filled my nose. I noticed Curly and Sean had strayed away to talk to the others about their searching but it was obvious nothing was found. I was about to pass by Peter and find Aaya when I felt a pat on my shoulder. Peter.

"Can we talk?," he asked, his voice rather discouraged.

"Of course," I replied almost immediately.

"Privately?"

My eyes darted towards the lads and back to him. I nodded. He stood up and walked away from me and I followed slowly, not sure whether I wanted to hear what he wanted to say. The chatters of the lads had hushed and become silent, and I peeked over my shoulder to see them watching us. I turned away, but not before I caught a certain boy's blue eye. My cheeks heated up again and I forced myself to hold it together, especially when Peter seemed so grim. What was wrong with me?

I realised we were heading towards the cliff. It had become a regular spot for me. We were there within a matter of minutes and he kept walking right till the very edge and sat down, his knees sticking slightly over the edge. I didn't await instruction, calmly made my way over and dropped down beside him, keeping a friendly distance.

He was staring out towards the ocean, as if trying to sort through what he was going to say.

"Are you okay?" I blurted out before I decided to even speak. Oh, nice going Remy. He's clearly on top of the world.

I waited anxiously, dying to take it back.

"Raybha told me what happened. I'm sorry I didn't tell you," he mumbled.

I swallowed. Raybha probably wanted me to finally hear the truth from Peter in case I went off on her again.

"No," I heard myself say. "I'm sorry! I had you all wrong! I'm sorry I didn't realise what was going on! I'm sorry I've been hard on you! I'm sorry this isn't fair on you! I'm sorry I can't make it better! I'm so, so sorry Peter."

I suddenly felt hysterical. He looked at me, a little surprised at my outburst. Yet every word I said was true. I wanted to help him, to make it better for him. But how could I if there was a possibility that any chance of our bond being broken could disappear into smoke? Then again, there probably wasn't a chance at all.

I sighed. So many big possibilities and not even a small definite to make up for it.

Bits of hair fell down, concealing my face. I peered out from my curtain at Peter and was outraged to see he was smiling.

"You're – you're smiling?" I sputtered in total disbelief.

His smile only got wider, and he was on the verge of laughter.

I was appalled.

"Here I am, pouring my heart and apologies out and you go and smile?"

He started laughing.

"Oh for the love of God Peter!"

I hit him in the shoulder hard and he grabbed it, still laughing. I went to hit him with both fists and he simply grabbed them, still laughing while my attempts to free them were clearly wasted on his strong grip.

My anger was reaching boiling point and I finally wrenched them out of his hands, folding my arms to protect them. I turned away from him.

"I – I'm sorry," he said, calming down his laughter. Then he sniggered again.

"Not funny," I growled.

He stopped. I wondered there and then how long it's been since he last laughed like that. Perhaps I should let him enjoy it.

"So… that's all you wanted to tell me? That Raybha told you about me?," I asked, pushing my hair out of the way and smiling a little.

He knew he was forgiven. "Yeah, I guess. And I'm sor - "he stopped himself.

I pointed my finger at him and scrunched up my eyes. "If you even –"

"I didn't."

"But you were going –"

"But I didn't."

I hit him again, but only playfully. It felt like old times again, but yet again I had to remind myself not to get attached. But then I also had to realise that I could never not care about Peter nor any of the people I had to leave forever. This was going to be so hard, much harder than I expected. But I wondered what "breaking the bonds" truly meant. Did it mean simply lose my love for everyone around me like I anticipated? Did it mean erase my own memory? Could it mean I was expected to hate them instead of love them? I didn't know. But it was annoying that nobody else seemed to know either.

I voiced my inner turmoil to Peter.

"I know how you feel," he told me. "I've been thinking the same things. I don't know how we're going to do it or even how we're going to find the sword."

"Maybe Raybha knows something she mightn't be letting on," I suggested. "It's a fair possibility."

He shrugged. "I don't know. Would she keep anything useful from us?"

My heart sank a little. "If it's important, then probably not."

He sighed. "Then we have to keep searching. The best thing we know is that the sword is here somewhere."

I nodded. "You're right. If we just keep looking, surely something will have to turn up."

He smiled again. "I was wrong about you."

I frowned. "What?"

"I was wrong about you too. I thought you had changed so much, but you haven't. You still possess ruthless determination."

I smiled a little to show my appreciation at his trying to cheer me up. He was right about my ruthless determination. It was still there somewhere, but even so, it was barely hanging on.

So as it turned out, he was partly still wrong about me.