Tom felt a darkness cloud over him. He didn't like being away from Evelyn. He didn't like not knowing if she was okay, if she was safe, if she needed him. He didn't like not holding her in his arms and kissing her senselessly. He didn't like not knowing if she knew that his love for her was real, that he had never thought himself capable of it until he met her.

And Tom also didn't like the way Evelyn's relatives seemed to purposefully piss him off today.

After she apparated away—and after Tom had a little bit of a breakdown over it—Mattheo tried to instantly fix his sadness. Merlin, the boy must have chosen the, "Well, if Tom is pissed off beyond all belief, he won't be sad anymore."

"Where do you think she went to? Do you think she went back to Black Manor? Do you think she took a trip? Ooooh, I would go to Ibiza if I were her. So nice and warm with lots of women. Do you want to go to Ibiza, Tom? Maybe we should go this summer. Ooooh, we could get paella there. Or tapas! Do you think Evelyn likes paella? I don't think she would; she doesn't seem to care for seafood very much. Maybe Evelyn just went to get a nice beef pot pie. I love beef pot pie with gravy. Do you think she went to a pub? I would go to a pub right now if I were her. Or Ibiza! Maybe she—"

"Maybe you should SHUT UP!" Tom yelled at his annoying brother. Merlin, was murdering children still illegal these days?

When Tom looked over at his sibling, he saw with much chagrin that Mattheo had a shit-eating grin on his face. "What?" Tom growled.

"Glad mopey Tom is gone so angry Tom can actually think of a way to find her," Mattheo replied smugly. Sometimes, it was hard to tell which Riddle sibling was more arrogant.

Tom just grunted in response.

"You looooveeeee her," Mattheo sang. "You love Evelyn. You love her soooo—"

And that was when Tom flicked out his wand and sent his brother back to Hogwarts. Finally, there was some goddamn silence.

After that, Tom went to Black Manor to look for Evelyn. He highly doubted she was here since it seemed like the most obvious place and Evelyn was no idiot but he wanted to cover his bases anyway. Then, after a few hours of searching both the house and the grounds, he used the floo to go to Grimmauld Place.

Sirius seemed to be expecting him because when Tom arrived, the first words out of the man's mouth were, "She's not here." Tom detected no lies.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know." Another truth.

"When did she leave?"

"About six hours ago." Again, a truth. So Evelyn had come to her uncle but he wasn't her final destination. Neither was Black Manor because Tom was there six hours ago and Evelyn hadn't shown up. Plus, Kreacher was under strict orders to alert him if she did and the House Elf was too terrified of him to disobey.

"Where did she go?" A slight variation from his earlier question but when it came to lies, semantics mattered.

"I don't know that either." Damn. Truth. Tom was beginning to be very frustrated.

He pinned Sirius with a harsh gaze. To his credit, the older man hardly wavered, though there was a flash of fear in those grey eyes for a split second. It seemed Azkaban hadn't fully rid him of the emotion. "Where do you think she went?"

"I don't know."

Tom chuckled darkly. "That, dear uncle-in-law, is a lie. Tell me where you think she went. Now."

And that was how Tom found himself at a little house in Chelsea where a middle-aged woman trembled at the sight of him. She was wearing her pajamas—it was the middle of the night after all—and looked more than startled to see him. "Lord Vold—"

"I'm not Voldemort," Tom interrupted with an annoyed twitch of his jaw. "I'm his son. And if you do not tell me everything about Evelyn Black's visit to you earlier tonight, you will find that I can be much, much worse."

The woman paled. "No. I won't tell you anything so you can't hurt her."

Tom sneered. What was it with Evelyn's relatives and pushing his buttons "Hurt her? I love her so the only one that will be hurting is you if you do not tell me everything you know."

So the woman, who later introduced herself as Vivian Hargrave, came in and told him everything. She told him how Evelyn had come there earlier in the night looking for her mother only to learn that her mother had died years ago. Evelyn was, understandably, both upset and curious as to who the woman who sired her really was. Vivian told her stories about the woman, Adelyn, about Adelyn's relationship with Regulus, and how she came to be pregnant with Evelyn. It would seem that Adelyn was manipulated into giving her child to Orion and Walburga only to be told that Evelyn died shortly after birth, leaving the mother distraught and the daughter at the mercy of her grandparents. At that moment, Tom wished he could raise them from the dead so he could kill them again. He hadn't fully ruled it out yet.

Then, Vivian showed Evelyn the nursery (which she also showed Tom). Evelyn spent quite a while there, looking at the home that was meant to be hers, before insisting that she needed to leave. Vivian gave Evelyn a picture of her parents and a locket that belonged to Adelyn before bidding goodbye to the girl.

"Where did she go?" Tom asked, still standing in the nursery. It was a little unnerving to be there. This room was so full of love and his girl had hardly felt the emotion. She felt so unwanted in her life that she could scarcely believe he loved her. The thought made his fists curl. Calm yourself. You need to focus to find her.

"I don't know. She promised she'd visit again but she didn't say where she was off to. Honestly, I thought she was going back to school."

Not a lie but it wasn't where Evelyn was. Mattheo was supposed to alert him if that happened, though Tom highly doubted Evelyn would go there anyway. School seemed like possibly the worst place to get over a traumatic event, at least in his eyes.

"Where are you, Little Dove?" He sent down the bond but the cord, still, was dark. It wasn't broken but it wasn't thriving either. He felt empty without it. He felt even emptier without her.

Tom left the little house in Chelsea, wishing he was doing so with Evelyn back in his arms. All he wanted was her back. He didn't want power. He didn't want followers. He just wanted the girl he loved. Why was that so hard?

He strolled down the street with his arms tucked in his pockets. The black cloak swished in the wind. The storm had followed him everywhere, though Mattheo also reported that one lingered over the Hogwarts castle. Tom wouldn't be able to remove it until he returned and he wasn't returning without Evelyn. That was non-negotiable.

What was his plan now? Well, he supposed he could walk back to Grimmauld Place. Sirius would probably take pity on him. If not, he could go back to the dingy London apartment, though, without Mattheo, it was probably dreadful. Empty corners, no clothes, lights off. Yes, that sounded horrid. A cave to wallow in loneliness and guilt. Perhaps he should go there then. It could be what he deserved.

Tom continued to walk for what felt like hours until the blue hour began and the birds began to wake up. He hated birds; their incessant singing felt like even more of a punishment. Soon, the sun would be up and he would have to deal with annoying, commuting muggles. Perhaps he should make his way to Grimmauld Place and hope that Evelyn would be waiting there.

Yes, that was what he was going to do. Just one foot in front of the other until—

Suddenly, Tom was overcome with the darkest feeling. It felt like death was looming over his shoulder, peering down at him with its soulless eyes. Soul. That was what it was. He felt death in his—

"Fuck," Tom hissed under his breath because he realized that the dark feeling was coming from his soul. From the bond.

What was once quiet only moments ago suddenly began to break. Tom felt the cords of the bond splinter by what was perhaps the only power greater than his.

Death.

"Evelyn!" he shouted, clutching at his chest as an immeasurable pain began to eat at his every nerve. Cold washed over his entire body and his throat began to close. Tom clawed at it in an attempt to breathe before he realized that the suffocating feeling wasn't him. It was Evelyn.

"Tom," a broken, weak voice appeared in his mind. At that moment, it was the most wonderful sound he could have ever heard because it meant that a splinter of the bond still worked. She wasn't dead and what was better, she opened him in.

Tom grabbed onto that cord and tugged. He pulled onto it as hard as he could. When he finally reached the other side, he realized that he was looking into Evelyn's eyes. She was surrounded by... water.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"Little Dove," he pleaded, hoping that he wasn't too late. The suffocating feeling? That was her drowning. The darkness? That was her dying. Now, he couldn't feel her at all. The bond became black.

He needed to get to her. Now.

Tom apparated to Black Manor, slicing through the protective wards like they were nothing. Little charms couldn't deter him, not when she was at stake. He ran to the shores of the lake only to find a teddy bear, photograph, and pair of black boots waiting at the edge. They were Evelyn's.

He looked out onto the lake and saw, with a mixture of horror and hope, that there were a few bubbles coming from the middle of the water. It's Evelyn. Nothing else could survive in the depths of the water. The lake was dark, full of magic he didn't quite understand. And now, his worst nightmare had come true: it finally trapped her.

Without even thinking about it, Tom stripped off his clothes before diving into the water. The lake didn't need any more fabric to grab onto him and he would need those clothes to be warm and dry when he retrieved her. When he retrieved her, not if. Because he refused to believe that he couldn't save her.

Tom had never been much of a swimmer. His father taught him once—insisting that he would need to know how to conquer death not just through magic—but that was a lifetime ago. The last time he swam was when he was teaching Mattheo and that was just a distant memory. But as Tom glided through that murky lake, he felt like a fucking Olympian. The water moved around him, bending to his will just like everything else on this Earth. It knew who was the more powerful one here. Good.

The middle of the lake seemed so far but Tom pushed himself even though his lungs were burning almost as much as his limbs. This was a damn big lake and he was still only on the surface. Merlin only knew how far down she was.

Tom continued to swim until he reached the middle. With one large breath, he dove under the surface. It was incredibly dark so Tom pulled on what little fragments of the bond remained. Guide me to her, he begged. The longer he took to find her, the more afraid he was becoming. What if she was too far gone? What if she was dead?

Don't think like that. You'll find her.

Suddenly, he felt it. Tom looked down to find a flash of something black. Evelyn's hair. He swam with a renewed fervor toward it and almost cried with relief when her face came into view. Tom grabbed onto her arm and tried to pull her up only to find that something was holding her down.

It was the goddamn lake.

Tom let his power seep into the water, let his shadows overpower the darkness of the lake. He felt the being retreat. When Evelyn's body became lighter, he knew it had let go of her.

"Ascendio!" Tom said with his last breath. They shot to the surface. Tom gasped in fresh air and noticed with dismay that she didn't seem to be breathing.

Fuck, fuck, fu—

Calm yourself. Get her to shore.

If Tom was an Olympian before, he was a God now. Poseidon had nothing on Tom fucking Riddle. They reached the shore in record time. "Stay with me, baby," Tom pleaded as he pulled her onto the gray sand. "Stay with me, darling."

She looked so pale. Her skin was blue, her lips still, her hair matted to her head. She looked dead.

"No," Tom growled. "You will not die on me, Evelyn Black. Did you hear me? You. Will. Not. Die."

Tom grabbed his wand and waved it slowly. Like a floating river, water flowed out of her mouth and dispersed into the air. "You will not leave me. You are going to wake up and you are going to yell and scream and run away if you damn well want but you will not die."

He ripped off the soaked sweater and placed his hands on her chest. "Rennervate." The Reviving Spell. Evelyn's chest did not move. "Damn it, I said renneverate!"

Tom called on every ounce of his power. He called to dark magic, to light magic, to everything in between. He called on his father's power and his own, called from the power of the land and wind and seas. Do what I bid, he commanded it. Bring her back.

Silence. It was the loudest thing he ever heard. Then...

Evelyn jolted to a sitting position before beginning to cough wildly. Tom wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his lap, cradling her tightly as if she might disappear again. "You're alive," he whispered, stroking her damp hair until she stopped coughing. "You're here. You're okay."

She leaned back and stared at him with wide eyes. "T-Tom?" she stuttered through chattering teeth. You idiot. She just came back from the dead. Of course she's cold.

"I'm here, darling. I'm here." He used his wand to summon his dry clothes and her boots. Tom dressed her in the shirt and pants he left behind. Then, he wrapped the cloak tightly around her as if it were a blanket before putting on her socks and casting a warming spell. Evelyn relaxed instantly, sinking into his embrace while he worked.

Tom didn't realize he was crying until his tears landed on her cheeks. Fuck, he wasn't supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be unemotional, detached, anything but this.

"Are you alright?" she whispered, looking up at him with confusion in her eyes.

"Fuck no, I'm not alright, Evelyn," Tom said with a voice that was half-hurt and half-trying to hide the hurt desperately. "You were tortured for a week by my enemies and then you completely disappeared when I finally found you. You cut off our bond and when you open it again, it's because you are dying at the bottom of a lake I told you not to go into. I had to use almost every bit of my magic just to revive you and now I have to face the very real fact that you probably don't want me here and I don't blame you."

"Tom—"

"No, let me say this. I will give you anything, Evelyn. I will give you everything. I will give you my love, my heart, and every piece of my soul. They've always been yours anyway. I will give you a crown to put on top of your head and a legion of followers to do your bidding. Fuck, I'll give you the moon if you ask it of me. Just please, don't leave me again. I couldn't bear it."

Evelyn reached up and cupped his cheek, drawing his attention back to her eyes. When he looked there, he didn't see any remnant of the cold emotion she stared at him with back in the field. He saw love again.

"I'm here," she murmured. "I will never leave your side as long as you allow me to remain there."

He bent down until his lips were just barely hovering over hers. "An eternity with you wouldn't be long enough."

And then, he kissed her and all in the world seemed right again.

YAY, they're back! Thank God, am I right? Lol, this may seem like the story is done but we still have a few more chapters (some overcoming traumas, some romantic, some just straight up getting dicked down) so don't go away just yet!

Plusssssss, since you guys are the most amazing readers and I love you so much, I have planned a series of little bonus chapters. If you don't like fluff, you can stop at the epilogue but if you're like me and you just want chapters of our characters being happy, having babies, getting married, seeing a glimpse into the future, etc. then you are going to love them. So yay, good news!

Thanks for reading, commenting, messaging me, etc. I love it so much :)))