Hope this gives you your answers...Enjoy

Alex

"The end of us? What are you talking about?"

He sat down on a weathered down park bench nailed to the sidewalk and I followed him, sitting way too close. It took him a few seconds until he realised this and moved away as soon as he could.

I gritted my teeth. "I want to know everything. I'm ready."

Mason stared off into the pale blue sky. "Werewolves can't date mortals."

"They can't?" I hadn't known this. I'd always been aware of the wizard/mortal relationship that was forbidden but not the wolf/mortal. That sentence along seemed to explain a little.

"No. But by the time we found this out, you'd already made up your mind that you were dropping out. I tried to change your mind but you were too stubborn, you always have been."

He said that patronizingly, as if I didn't realise how persistent I was. As if right now, I wasn't aware that it had cost me his love.

"We broke up." It wasn't really a question, more a confirmation of facts.

He nodded. "We had to. We tried to be friends but it was just too hard, being around you and not being able to…."

He trailed off and I could see tears glistening in his eyes. I looked tentatively down at his hand, almost inviting me to hold it. So slowly and carefully, I snuck it down and intertwined my fingers with his; he didn't even notice, or if he did, he wasn't stupid enough to pull away.

"I lived in New York for a while after that but we didn't see each other for months. Until one night, you showed up on my doorstep."

He paused and I almost leaned in, wanting to hear more. I was so close.

"You came in and you were crying, saying how much you missed me and how you were sorry you didn't study harder to give us a chance. We got into a huge fight and it was only then that I realised...that it was the night of the competition."

I felt cold all of a sudden. The jacket wrapped around me seemed to be doing nothing. I didn't want to listen anymore for fear of what came next but something inside me kept me listening. I'd come too far, searched for too long to give up now.

"I asked you what you were doing there and you said you weren't going to take the competition. Cue the next fight."

I closed my eyes and I felt Mason shaking my shoulders. "You wanted to know, you have to listen."

I nodded and he continued. "Eventually I convinced you to go. Well, I kidnapped you and chucked you in my car to bring you to your parents. They said that the wizard official had refused to administer the test with only two participants and as a result, no one would win the powers."

He fell silent and the corners of his mouth tugged upwards at a smile, like he was remembering. "I've never seen you chuck a fit like you did that day. You literally started to rage but the council said they weren't budging and that they'd come for your powers in the morning. You'd thought they'd just postpone it without you there, you had no idea they'd take all of your powers away..."

"Somehow, I don't think that's the end of the story," I said quietly, gazing down at our hands.

"You never take anything lying down Alex. It's the one of the things I used to love about you."

Used to love. As in past tense. As in not anymore. I could almost feel my heart breaking inside.

"You summoned up a news crew and you exposed magic to the world to get back at them."

I didn't know what to say or do anymore. Every new piece of information was like a bullet; the memories of it would never fade even if the wound did. I'd always have the scar.

I remembered suddenly the visit of Future Harper and the things she had said when we'd ambushed her in the paint-a-plate warehouse.

"In the future, everybody knows wizards exist so it's really not that big of a deal. It's much more interesting for people to read books about wizards in this time period."

"So how come people know about wizards in the future?"

"Again, I have to be careful about what I say in the future but wizards got exposed because someone in this room has a big big mouth, I'm not going to name names."

Justin had mistakenly assumed it was Max at the time and when they'd been caught by those fake government agents, all eyes had been on Justin.

But it was me, it'd always been me.

"The wizard council stripped you of your powers but decided to be lenient and let you go free. Justin and Max were so angry you'd cost them a chance to keep their powers, they vowed never to speak to you again. I tried to apologize for ambushing you but you said you were done and you were leaving and that was the last time I ever saw you."

Justin

Every time I saw her, I saw Dean. Then I saw Dean with her. Then Dean with Alex. And then I had to look away to escape the burning inside my chest.

"My client wants half of all monetary earnings and any revenue garnered from their investments."

My lawyer looked at me to see if I agreed with the terms and I just nodded glumly. "Give her what she wants."

Max, with his connections, had been able to set me up with a lawyer to push through a divorce quicker than I'd ever seen. Now, we were battling out to see who got what. And I really couldn't have cared less.

"Justin?"

I lifted my head and saw Emily gazing at me expectantly. "Huh?"

"I asked if we could have a word in the hall."

I shrugged and got up from my seat to follow her but my lawyer tugged at my jacket. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"I don't care," I replied and I trailed her out of the room.

"Don't do this Justin," she begged as soon as we were out of earshot. "I can change."

I looked away, unable to listen to the lies spilling out of her mouth. The mouth that had touched someone else's but mine.

"Maybe you can but that doesn't change what you did. Nothing ever can."

I turned to go back inside but instead stopped with my hand on the doorknob; now was a good as time as any to find out why.

"Why?"

Emily looked confused. "What?"

"Why'd you do it?" I shot at her, rattling the question off like a bullet from a shotgun. "Tell me, I want to know."

"I don't know," she admitted and the answer made me sick to my stomach. "You just seemed so far away after what happened at the hospital and I was so lonely."

I shook my head in disgust. "That's no excuse."

That's no excuse at all.

Alex

"It's time to go Max."

Max popped his head up. "Okay. I got our bags from the hotel by the way and checked out."

"Thanks," I murmured, grabbing my bag and stuffing the jacket I'd dispersed with as soon as I stepped in the door inside it. Mason came in soon after.

"Where are you going?" he asked as I slung my luggage over my shoulder and motioned for Max to go ahead. "We're leaving, what does it look like?"

"Oh, okay," he said blankly, mindlessly moving to the kitchen to put some glasses in the dishwasher.

"That's what you want right, cause you hate me so much don't you?"

He slammed the plate in his hand down and it shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. He swore under his breath as he removed the fragments lodged under his skin. I watched as he wiped away the blood and it healed instantly, pale new skin replacing the old.

"You don't know anything about this life Alex or what's being going on the last ten years. I'm not the same guy anymore."

"I can see that. I loved that guy."

"And I loved you."

Again with the 'loved'. But I was better prepared this time to be okay with how much it hurt.

"Come with me," I said suddenly, realising how stupid I sounded only when the words had already left my mouth.

"What?"

"Come back to New York with me."

"I can't," he said lowly, almost agonizingly. "I can't."

We looked at each other for a long time, like yesterday when he'd found us in the forest. Except those looks foretold of a reunion; this time it was goodbye.

"There's…there's nothing I can do to change your mind," I said, more to myself than to him. "I have to let you go." I couldn't expect him to drop everything for a girl he hadn't seen in ten years, no matter how much he'd loved her. He'd moved on and it was time I did too.

"Alex," he simply said and I knew in that one word was everything he wanted to say; goodbye, I miss you, I wish things were different, I wish I could love you like I did, I wish you didn't have to go.

"Mason," I said softly, raising my hand and wriggling my fingers in a farewell. I remembered how it felt earlier today to hold his hand and I realised that that moment was the only time during the two days we'd been here that he had come into contact with me (besides the forceful push in the forest), and in that moment, I'd felt complete, whole. It was utterly natural, like crossing the gap between us to kiss him would be but I didn't dare.

Instead, I hoisted the bag further up my shoulder and followed Max out into the day.