Julia's eyes fluttered open and saw Damien standing over Mormo's limp body; his hands drenched in blood. He turned and scooped Julia up into his strong arms and ran to his room on the fourth floor.

Still a little groggy she whispered, "What happened, Damien? What did you do to Mormo?"

He lay her down on his bed, sitting next to her checking her over. Then tilted his head and stroked her cheek. "Your eyes have changed colour," his voice was, soft and kind.

Julia was going to swat his hand away; but she remembered her conversation with Beatrix and went easy on him. She sighed reaching up and took his hand giving it a little squeeze. "What happened, Damien?"

Damien gazed into her eyes for a moment. "Mormo would have killed you. I walked in on him performing some spell that wasn't working. Then he stopped and started ranting about not needing you anymore and how he could make a better weapon than Lord Dumah. He grabbed a knife and was about to stab you." Damien looked into her eyes silently pleading with her. "Julia, I love you. Not in some twisted way like Alex. I didn't fall in love with you because you look like Beatrix . I fell in love with you, the girl in front of me. I'm sorry I kept the whole reincarnation thing a secret; but I know how messed up it is. You were happy in Havenswood and I didn't want to take that away from you."

Julia winced as she sat up the pain in her body still hadn't gone. She reached out and put two fingers on his lips to stop him from talking. Deep down she knew he wasn't the bad guy in all of this. She just didn't know why he did what he did. "Please stop, Damien. I know you love me. I'm still not one hundred percent convinced that you're not transferring some of the feelings you had for Beatrix onto me, but I know you love me. It doesn't change the fact you're working for Thorsen. You know he's crazy and hell-bent on destroying our peaceful way of life. Why would you work for him? What happened to you?"

He looked away and Julia could tell he was ashamed. She put both her hands on his cheeks and pulled his face toward her. "Please, Damien, I need to know."

He looked like a defeated man. Looking into her eyes with such longing he answered, "She said she loved me. When Beatrix was betrothed to Alex, she wanted us to run away together and get married. I talked her into staying knowing our families would make an example out of us for defying them. I had hoped that I could get my family on board first and then talk Alex into breaking the engagement off. I thought I had time, because they loathed each other."

His whole body deflated and seeing the tears lapping in his eyes crushed Julia. She knew he had such a kind soul and the depth of his feelings ran deep. There was so much more to him than she'd ever given him credit for.

"But somewhere along the way they fell in love and she chose him. It destroyed me, Julia, and utterly crushed my soul. Thorsen saw that, and he played on my weakness. Promising me a new start with a different version of her ̶ you. I am so sorry for the part I played in all of this but it was so we could be together."

She started to say his name, but he cut her off with a kiss. This one wasn't like the one in the woods. It was chock full of passion, love, sorrow and desperation. She knew he was showing her his true feelings. Because Julia was so confused about who she was, and how she truly felt, she kissed him back.

At first it felt nice, even liberating. She knew without a doubt he loved her and not Beatrix. But, all too soon, Alex flashed in her mind. Even though she had serious doubts about how Alex really felt about her and she could see herself being happy with Damien, deep down Julia knew she didn't love Damien. Not the way she loved Alex.

Julia pulled away from him. "I'm sorry but I just don't love you the way you want me too. You will always be in my heart. But I will not string you along, Damien. No matter how hard I try not to love him or how confusing things get. My heart always goes back Alex. I'm connected to him, there's this bond we have and I can't explain it but he is a part of me."

Damien stood up and sighed in defeat. "He doesn't deserve you, Julia. But I know if you stay here your life is in danger. And I love you too much to let anything happen to you." He bent down and kissed the top of her head pulling her to her feet.

Walking over to the window he pushed up the huge sash and then wrapped her in a tight embrace.

Whispering in her ear, "Make sure you land on your feet. When you do run as fast as you can into the woods and don't stop until you reach a big town. You can call home there, but make sure you stay hidden because Thorsen will be on the hunt for you."

The fact he was willing to let her go told her how much he loved her. Without thinking, she kissed him it wasn't a passionate kiss and yet it was more than a kiss between close friends. "Thank you, Damien."

The door swung open and Thorsen stormed into the room. "Boy, you and I have to have a serious talk about where your loyalties lay."

Damien held her out at arm's length ready to push her out the window. Julia saw that Thorsen was carrying a silver sword in a gloved hand. She guessed it was an anti-dark fae sword, and she whimpered. "Damien, come with me."

Without another word Thorsen plunged the sword into Damien's back and straight through his heart until the tip was poking out the other side. If Damien had still been hugging her Julia would've been skewered.

"I will have to spend some time re-educating you, Damien," Thorsen growled.

A scream tore through her lips and her fingers clawed at Damien, trying to find purchase so she could pull him with her. "For the love of the gods, Damien, don't be stupid come with me," her voice trembled as unshed tears threatened to fall.

Damien smiled and shook his head. "Be happy my love," he croaked out with such a sorrowful look painted on his face. With his remaining strength, Damien pushed Julia out the window.

Thorsen let out a ferocious cry, "No," and pushed Damien aside watching her fall with cold, unadulterated rage in his eyes.

She bit her lip attempting to focus on righting herself to land on her feet but just couldn't manage it. Screw it! Julia closed her eyes and braced for impact; hoping she didn't break any bones.

Julia landed with a thud, but instead of connecting with the ground two rock hard arms enveloped her. What the?Her eyes shot open to see Alex. Relief surged through her, chasing every other thought out of her mind. She flung her arms around him and kissed him with all of her heart and soul. It didn't matter that a mad-man was after her; she had to kiss him and get her fill of him.

Alex let her kiss him for a moment and then set her down interlocking their hands together. "As much as I would love to kiss you all night we need to go," he said, and they ran to the other side of the mansion. "Kuro and Ella are waiting for us in the woods. We'll meet up with them and get the hell out of here."

When they got to the meeting spot, only a pile of Kuro's discarded clothes were there to greet him. Julia knew that meant Kuro had changed into his full inugami form. Alex reassured her Kuro and Ella had probably gone to patrol around the perimeter of the house and it would be safer to wait for the pair to return instead of going to look.

Alex wrapped her in his arms then brushed her messy hair out of her face. "You look like death-warmed-up. And your eyes, they've changed colour. What did they do to you?"

Julia touched her lower eyelid then shook her head. She had more important things she had to discuss with him. "I know about Beatrix," she told her tone sounded colder than she meant.

Alex let out a heavy sigh and then traced the lines of her face with his thumb. "I figured Thorsen would tell you. Sorry you didn't hear it from me. It's just; how do you tell someone that?"

Julia wanted to scream in frustration. Everyone was sorry but didn't change a damn thing. She was still left questioning everything. Shaking her head, she replied, "I don't know, Alex. But you should've. Now I'm left doubting everything."

Before he could reply the window on the second floor shattered as a colossal black dog jumped out of it, landed on the ground and ran toward them. Once he hit the tree line Kuro changed back into his human form and joined them.

Alex reached down to a pile of clothes and tossed Kuro his jeans. "What the hell is going on? I told you guys to wait outside damn it."

"Thank the gods you guys are here. I thought I would have to search for you two," Kuro said as he slipped them on. "Ella didn't listen. She saw an opening and went inside. Thankfully, she had the good sense to transform into Jules before going into the house. But there were too many of those damn slaves, they swarmed us and caught her. I would stay and fight but that warlock dragged her away thinking she was Julia and nearly incinerated me with his magic."

"Damn it!" Alex held onto Julia's hand as headed back to the house. "This is exactly what I told her not to do," Alex said.

"We have to get to her fast, Mormo's lost it. He thinks he can create a better version of me and is determined to kill me. Damien saved my life and Thorsen drove an anti-dark fae sword through his heart for it." The guilt, over him risking his life to save her, hit Julia hard and a whimper escaped her lips.

Alex gave her a squeeze. "Hey, it will be fine. We'll go back in and get her."

She cut in before he said anything else, "I'm going with you guys. Don't even think about telling me to wait."

Alex gave a little chuckle. "After your little stunt in the woods I wouldn't dream of it."

Remembering how she ran through the woods, like a bat out of hell, searching for him put a smile on her face. "What's the plan then?"

"My bet is Thorsen will probably have Mormo try to break the bind while his slaves reinforce guarding this place. We'll sneak in and then Julia, you take us to the room where Mormo was performing the spells on you."

With that said they entered the house. The place was deserted and eerily quiet. Julia led them through the house to the stairs at the back of the kitchen and up to the second floor.

Something was off and it made her stomach churn. They should've encountered a swarm of slaves but the house seemed to be abandoned.

"Something's not right. When Ella got captured the house was crawling with those dark fae-zombies. Why the hell is it so quiet?" Kuro said.

"He's right, there were tons of them. That's one reason I didn't escape," Julia added.

Alex raised an eyebrow at her. "Later, I'd very much like to know the other reasons you didn't run away."

Yeah, that will be a fun conversation, she thought sarcastically. "Come on, the room is just over there," she said avoiding his question.

When they reached the door to the study where Mormo had cast his spells on Julia, they held back and Kuro said, "Now what's the plan?"

Alex reached round his back and pulled out two of the daggers Edrys had given them and handed them to Kuro. "The plan is to burst in and surprise everyone. Grab Ella and get the hell out. If you see Mormo, throw those at him. Hopefully, you will hit him. But be careful, you don't want to get Julia by accident. We still don't know what those would do to her."

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