They crossed the street in quick strides and went four doors down to the house the dark faeries were staying at. Heading to the back of the house, they entered the basement through the cellar doors. To Julia's astonishment the basement was gigantic. Magic had made it at least four times larger both in length and width. Looking over at Ren she raised her eyebrows at him.

He took a small bow and flashed her a face splitting smile. "Yes. I truly am that awesome."

"Wow," she whispered in astonishment. "This must have drained a lot of power from you to do this, Ren."

Although those types of spells were easy to perform, they did however take a massive amount of power to do. This was why only very strong witches and faeries could pull off defying the laws of physics. Once established the space didn't require more power to maintain, which meant the space could stay as long as the caster required it.

Julia had only seen three other people do that magic. Rosalie had a secret space hidden behind her closet, that Julia had caught her mom sneaking out of when Julia was nine. Julia had been playing hide and seek while hiding under her mother's bed. Julia found the door, but she never broke the barrier placed around it and she never saw what was inside. Felicia's book shop basement was another; it was an underground warren of winding hallways and rooms. Edrys's office at the town hall was the other; it had a private back room where she hid when she didn't want to be disturbed.

As Julia walked further into the basement, she could hear Alex and Véronique arguing in the corner and Julia's eyes went straight to Alex. Her heart sped up the moment their eyes locked. It had been a long and agonising week since she had been able to get close to him. It didn't help that he always made a hasty retreat the minute he saw her.

She sighed. That night they kissed in the woods felt a lifetime ago, and she still wasn't sure she hadn't just dreamt the whole thing up. Not one but two people had drugged her that night, and the way Alex was avoiding her again only added to her doubt. Julia half convinced herself whatever Mormo had given her, had made her hallucinate the whole kiss and Alex confessing his feelings.

Go to Alex; show him how much he means to you, a voice inside of Julia urged her. She bit her bottom lip to quiet her mind and stopped herself from running over to him. Resolved not to make an ass out of herself by doing anything as stupid as throwing her arms around him and kissing him. It didn't matter that her whole body ached to do just that.

Véronique snapped her fingers in front of Alex's face, forcing him to look away from Julia and return his attention back to his conversation with the She Devil.

Damien walked up behind Julia and rested both his hands on her shoulders in a semi-possessive move. She stiffened as he leaned into her ear and said, "What do you think of your new training hall?"

Julia tried to step out of his grip but his hold on her shoulders tightened, making her even more uncomfortable. She knew she had to nip things in the bud with Damien's advances. But she liked his company and friendship and didn't want to chase him away.

She gave Ren a pleading look begging him to rescue her and said, "This place is amazing. How long have you guys been working on this?"

Before Damien could answer, Véronique clapped her hands together. "Cut the chit chat; let's get started." She gave Julia a nasty look. "The quicker we get this over with the better."

Ren stepped next to Julia and hissed at Véronique, "Excuse you. Last time I checked no one asked you to be here. If you're going to keep that up you can just slither back under that rock of yours."

Alex walked up and got in between the two of them. "Stop causing trouble, Véronique. I already told you you don't have to be here."

Véronique flicked her long black hair and scowled at Ren. "I want to see what she can do." Then she glared at Julia. If the other boys had not been there Julia would've run. Véronique was gunning for her and wasn't trying to hide it.

Damien gave Julia's shoulders another reassuring squeeze and led her past the others. "Jules, the first thing I want you to do is to walk to the other end of the room and back. We have set up a bunch of small things around the room and all you need to do is spot them and then tell us." He pointed to a chair that had a red book and a small button that sparkled on top of it. "See, things like that."

When he took his hands off her shoulders, she nodded and started walking across the room. When she returned to the others, she rattled off her short list; a tissue box, a blue hat and a couple bags of chips. Both Véronique and Alex looked unimpressed, but his disappointment was the only one that stung.

Damien rubbed her arm and smiled. "That was good, Jules. Now I want you to take out your contacts."

Julia looked over to Alex trying to judge his response to Damien's flirtatious behaviour toward her. Alex's silver eyes were frosty as they glided over her and Damien before looking at Ren. His uncaring reaction hurt her even more; turning back to Damien she took out her contacts.

Ren handed her the contact carrying case. "Thanks Ren," was all she had the energy to utter as she fought back the urged to scream at Alex. She hated herself for letting him get to her making her feel like some whimpering puppy begging for scraps of his affections. Barely able to concentrate she didn't hear a word Damien said.

Ren nudged her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Keep it together, girl. This time you need to run across the room and try to spot more things." He gave her a little shove that jolted her back to life.

She took off at a jog, not really into any of it now. But when she realised that everything looked twenty times brighter and crystal clear; she started to notice minute details she had missed before. The matted area at the other end caught her eyes first; one mat was black instead of blue. The book with the sparkly button, which Damien had pointed out to her, had a page dog-eared, and the button was in fact a diamond stud earring. It reflected the small amount of light from the overhead lighting and a rainbow of colour bounced off of it. She had to pry her eyes away from its mesmerising affect.

She had missed a ton the first time around and as she jogged across the room; she spotted more and more things. There were two game controllers, three pillows, one toy car, a stuffed teddy bear, a cookie tin, some silverware, a few empty soda cans and many other tiny trinkets all scattered about the room. Julia couldn't believe her new eyesight and thought it was awesome.

When she got to the other end, she took more notice of the huge climbing frame that looked like some kind of death trap/Special Forces obstacle course. It had loads of ropes, bars, large wooden poles and planks. Her mind raced as to what all of that was about.

This time when she returned to the group and rattled off the long list of things she'd spotted even Véronique looked marginally impressed. Julia was so excited and happy that she let Damien pull her in for a huge hug, ignoring the pang in her heart that it wasn't Alex's arms wrapped around her.

"The contacts aren't normal," Damien explained. "They have a spell cast on them that cancels out what your dark faerie eyes can see." He caught the frown on Julia's face and then added, "Edrys and your mom were only trying to help. For someone who has spent pretty much their entire life with their dark faerie powers bound I'm sure everything can get very distracting. For instance, how the light reflecting off the earring distracted you. I don't think you realised, but you paused for a few seconds to look at it."

"Yeah, I knew that would distract you. You still missed half the things we laid out," Véronique said with contempt. "I still say this is a hopeless endeavour and a waste of time."

Alex shot her a dirty look and snapped, "Shut up. I'm sick of hearing it. If you think this is a waste of time, then leave."

Véronique looked hurt but quickly hid it. She turned on her heels and stormed out of the room, slamming the cellar doors behind her.

Julia wanted to feel a little sorry for her but Véronique was always so rude and obnoxious that she couldn't find a good enough reason to feel any empathy toward the Ice Queen.

"Thank the gods," Ren muttered. "She's been driving me crazy with her constant bitching."

Alex turned to him and in a clipped tone said, "Not helping, Tink." Before Damien could once again put his arm around Julia, Alex stepped next to her and said in a very businesslike manner, "Time is probably the one thing we don't have, Julia."

Julia's breath caught in her throat. His words were an arrow, and they tore straight through her heart. She couldn't tell if he was speaking in general or talking about the two of them. His cold, distant attitude toward her felt as if she was being repeatedly stabbed in the heart. She didn't think she could take much more before she broke down.

She looked up at him with her huge hurt eyes, willing the other Alex to come back to her. When he didn't respond, Julia clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip to stop it from trembling, and fought back the fresh tears that threatened to fall.

Alex continued talking as if he hadn't seen her sad reaction. "We know Thorsen is after you, and he has never been someone that likes to wait. If he thinks he can grab hold of something, he will without a second thought. He is more than happy to pile up the bodies to get what he wants." He paused and waited for her to process this.

Julia directed her thought away from him as Alex's words sunk in. "What you're saying is he could come after me any day now. And if anyone like my mom, or Ren, or the others get in his way he'll kill them."

Alex's expression softened, and he rubbed her back. She fought the strong magnetic pull he exerted over her, with every fibre of her body. Yet it was no use, Julia wanted nothing more than to be engulfed by his muscular arms. When he let his hand drop the tiniest gasp escaped her lips, because the loss of his contact physically hurt.

Ren stepped in and wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders, giving them a tight squeeze, as if he had to hold her together to stop her from falling apart. "Jules, your training has been negligible. I'm partly to blame, I should've insisted on more training. But that's in the past now, and your mother still refuses to undo the bind on you. This leaves us with very few options."

Alex looked at her; some of his cold expression had melted. "We need to give you a crash course in combat. So you're not a sitting duck when Thorsen comes."

Damien joined them. "From now on every night one of the twins will take your place and you will come and train with us."

The thought of the twins in her body made her stomach curdle, and she cringed.

As if he had read her mind, Ren slapped her on the back. "Come on, Jules, it's not that bad. And I'm sure Kuro will keep his hands off of Ella for a while."

She stepped out of his embrace and punched him. "Thanks, Ren. Now I will never get that picture out of my mind. Yuck!"

Alex shook his head and said with a smirk. "Are you two children finished or do you two need another moment?"

Ren's eyes flashed with mischievousness and he wrapped Julia in his arms. "Oh fang-boy you have no idea the moments I've had with this one." Ren chuckled suggestively then pushed her at Alex causing Julia to slam into him. "But she's all yours now, be gentle," and winked at him.

Mortified, she turned cherry red. Not knowing what Alex's reaction would be, she peeked up at him. Her heart took a nosedive as his eyes met hers for a split second and then he looked away. He gently gripped her arms and pushed her away from him.

Raising an eyebrow at Ren, Alex said, "Real funny, Tink." Then he looked at Julia. "Damien will be helping you with basic hand to hand combat. I will be helping you learn how to hone your speed, agility and balance on the obstacle course over there. And the village idiot will teach you how to use a sword." He gave Ren a jeering look. "Hopefully you won't lose a hand."

Julia turned to Ren. "What about my magical training? Are we just going to give up on that?"

Ren sighed; all of his joking spirit vanished. "Sorry, Jules, we don't know how much time we have before Thorsen makes his move. What we are certain of, is he will do it before your eighteenth birthday. The simple fact is; as long as the bind your mother put on you remains. You won't be able to use your powers."

She looked at him pleading with her eyes trying to get him to reconsider. "I don't understand. You say I'm a sitting duck. But I sort of harnessed my powers that night in the woods. Why can't we work on that? I don't want to be this huge burden for everyone to carry around. I want to help. I want to fight."

Ren looked even sadder. "I know you do. Look, that night in the woods you only drew out a minuscule amount of your powers, and that took a lot of time and most of your energy."

Damien walked over to Julia and hooked an arm around her waist. She told herself she no longer cared if Alex got jealous. In fact, she wanted him to; at least then she would know he had some feelings for her.

Damien said, "The point to us teaching you how to use the natural dark fae traits you already have; your strength, speed and your new kick ass sight, is to help you not be a sitting duck. You'll at least be able to defend yourself."

Hearing this put a smile on her face. Damien always had such confidence in her and it felt good to know at least he was on her side. "Fine. Where do we start?"

He smiled, "That's the spirit," and gave her waist a squeeze. "Tonight is all about finding out your abilities and your strengths and weaknesses. We thought you could start out on the obstacle course."

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