Psychosomatics. He cringed inwardly at the very idea. If it had been psychosomatic, what he'd experienced--no. Uh-uh. No. What had opened the door may have seemed physical, but it was anything but. "It may be psychosomatic for other people, but it isn't for me." He splayed his hands out over the table, then drew his fingers back in toward his palms.
He had to lay it out now, explain the whole thing to her. And he didn't want to. But Emma wasn't stupid, and she would figure it out eventually. "Look, Emma, I died." He looked up at her face and then flicked his eyes back toward the food on the table. "I died and came back. I was a sacrifice." The word was tinged with bitterness and anger. He'd never begrudge his father the experience, but if he ever met that bitch again-- "I was a sacrifice so that my father wouldn't die. And along with two of my friends, I opened up a huge magical beacon. Not--on purpose, not that I wanted to, but if it was a choice between the magic beacon and my dad being dead, I'm gonna take that beacon."
He didn't dare look up again; if he did, he might not get the rest out. "And I had to keep everything a secret from my dad. He couldn't know that I have spent the last couple years running around with a werewolf pack, fighting off things that are bigger and stronger than any human will ever be. He couldn't know that I fucked up a couple of his investigations so that people I know wouldn't get hurt or in trouble. I have done anything I could to keep my dad safe, Emma. Anything." He wiped his hands down his face. "And that's why it's not psychosomatics, at least not with me."
Pokng a finger at the book, he said, "Everything I know about anything supernatural is in there because I don't want to be possessed again, I don't want to be a werewolf, I don't want my dad to die or get hurt, I don't want more of the innocent people I know to die, and when you don't know important stuff, that's what happens. So yeah, everything about anything we've met, and some things we haven't."