I woke in Julian's lap. My cheeks turned bright red and I felt my heart start pumping again. I looked at Julian's youthful face as he quietly slept. Slowly, I tried to maneuver off of Julian without waking him. But just as I went to sit up, I force pulled me back down and closer.

"Please don't leave, this is closest I've gotten to you... I don't want to lose this moment..."

His eyes were now open staring into mine. I bit my lip to keep from smiling and nodded just a bit. I had been wary at first when my father told me I was going to be in an arranged marriage, but every time after when I would see Julian, I regretted thinking that way.

His touch was ever so gentle and caring. He was patient and kind, and had no intentions on doing things too quickly. Although, sometimes in my room, I dream of him kissing me without permission. Like, a new passion sparks in his eyes and he just kisses me and ignores my shyness. Afterwards, I tell myself that he's not that type of man to be forceful. He's patient and would wait years until I finally agreed. But he doesn't understand sometimes a girl is ready and just doesn't know how to say it.

"Have you ever wanted to travel Letta?"

Letta was his name for me. He said that he wanted to have a special name for me, so whenever I heard him call me Letta, I would know it's him.

He would always ask these deep meaningful questions. Sometimes I want something simple, like "how was your day?" However, our relationship is very deep and meaningful as well. I know a lot of things about him. Something always lingers in our conversation, both of us waiting for the other to bring it up.

" Of course. Who wouldn't want to see the world and travel, but I feel sometimes that maybe the world wouldn't live up to the expectations I have of it. Whenever I imagine it, I can only see the beauty of the world and picture waterfalls and meadows, but I can picture the hard truth of it all. Maybe it's because I've never experienced anything like that or... maybe something inside myself is hiding the truth from the me that you know. Like... past lives of Scarletta don't want me to experience bad situations."

He took a moment to absorb what I had just told him and leaned on his hand.

"You are deep Scarletta... You are always going beyond my expectations. Whenever I think you'll say something simple, you say something so true and heartfelt, and just your way with words... It makes me ... honored to think you approved of the marriage. there's no other person I would rather spend the rest of my life with."

I took in a sharp breath while my brain tried to wrap my head around what he just said. Pounding of thunderous lightening boomed inside of me. My body felt like it was melting from the heat.

I opened my mouth to say something back, but the words wouldn't come out so I quickly shut it. He looked at me with such sincerity, taking all the strain an stress out of my body. He leaned in closer, shortening the space between us.

Pound pound. His head tilted. Pound pound pound. His lips gently pressed to mine. Pound pound pound pound pound pound pound pound.

We stayed like that for what felt like a lifetime, but was a moment. A moment with Julian. I could live every one of my moments from now on, with him at my side.

"I love you Scarletta," the words flowed, so easily from his lips and yet I could not say it back. My lungs were still on fire. He sat back on his knees and smiled the warmest smile I have ever seen. So genuine it burned into your very soul.

Suddenly, Julian's expression changed. it became almost stunned, but he wasn't looking at me. I turned around and behind me stood a misshapen demonic looking creature headed right at me.

"Watch out!" He lunged for me and yanked me out of the way of the creature. The creature stopped short, skidding on the grass to turn itself around in our direction. Julian grabbed my hand with a strong grip. He stood in front of me, protectively.

The demonic creature crouched low to the ground stalking us. We were the creature prey now. The creature was jaguar like, with a slender cat body with strong slick black hairs. However, the teeth on this beast were much larger than a normal cat and it's tail was covered in spikes.

My hands began to sweat and I frantically searched for help. Suddenly, the beast began charging at us. I screamed for my dear life and shut my eyes. Abruptly, I was tossed aside and slammed into the ground.

My vision was blurry from the impact to my head. I pushed up onto my elbows, but was slipping back down. I caught the glint of a shiny weapon. Kai....

The world was getting fuzzy around me. I dragged myself over the grass and hid behind the tree. I fought to keep my consciousness. My head throbbed violently. I attempted to use the tree to stand, but fell back down to the hard earth. I heard shouts that sounded as if they were miles away. They echoed in my ear and through my head like in a cave, but with each yell came horrific throbbing.

Suddenly, I felt the sharp pierce of metal slice my arm. I tried to yell in pain, but the noise wouldn't come out. I touched the area where I saw the red. It must've been that creature's tail swinging back at me. The red covered my hand and I wiped it off on something. I could tell it wasn't deep. From somewhere far away I could hear someone calling my name.

I was violently jostled and saw a unclear body in front of me. I shut my eyes unable to tell who it is. They grabbed a hold if my waist and threw me over his shoulder. He began running. I bounced up and down on my stomach. My vision slowly began clearing up, and I could tell from the back of the shoes and pants that Kai was carrying me. I saw someone running beside him. It took me a moment to realize it was Julian.

We ran all the way back into the castle and Kai ran into the first room he saw. Kai slammed the door into a bedroom just was Julian walked in, and locked the door. Then, Kai gently lowered me onto the bed and sat beside me.

Hastily, he bandaged up my arm with some spare fabric on the dresser. The bleeding had stopped significantly.

"How are you doing?" He gazed at me with purple eyes and touched his hand to my face. His face was filled with concern. My heart leaped. My breath quickened.

No this isn't right... I'm with Julian. I pulled away from Kai and pressed my hands into my lap. Kai was surprised at this reaction, and just stared at me.

"I'm fine really..." I trailed off. I was still pretty dizzy from the impact to my head, but I didn't them to worry. Julian was pacing back and forth and don't notice my moment with Kai....

"What do we do Kai? What's the plan?" Julian stopped his pacing and looked to Kai.

"Simple, get Scarletta out safely. We could head into the Town of Maine down south."

Julian nodded at me with a determined look in his eye. I folded my hands through each other and looked down. Kai stood from the bed and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Everything will be just fine Princess."

I nodded and pulled together the most supportive smile I could, but my mind still wandered, wary of what was about to happen. I stood up from the bed confidently, now fully recovered from hitting my head, and proceeded to the door. I grazed my hand over the handle and looked back at the two men waiting for my decision. I turned the lock and slowly opened the door.

There was nothing in the hallway and I motioned for Kai to go first. I creeped through the corridor silent as possible. we had a few close calls where a demon crossed the hallway, but did not turn his head to see us. The castle was crawling with demons. I have know idea how on earth they got here. Demons rarely come out, so the person completing the ambush must be a death magician. Death magician have control over the demon world and spirit world. Demons are humans manifested when they are cruel in their lifetime. You become a spirit when you are good and have a good soul.

A death magician is the only one who can mess with those who are dead and manipulate them to their will. I've only ever seen a demon once, but he scurried off with fear. They can be fierce, but also gentle and scared on occasion, depending how far home their soul is.

We finally reached the main doors with no trouble which worried me. My two protectors grabbed me by each hand and pushed open the door....

Suddenly the doors slammed back in their faces and the force of the doors made all of us fall to the floor. I slammed my head on the tile floor. The world spun in circles all I could think was that someone was holding my hand. I looked up and saw the fuzzy silhouette if a person.

"Well isn't this great! I was going to come find you, but it seems you delivered yourself."

I turned over using my upper body and the image became clear My brother Madden standing there with a strange colored eyes. Black and soulless.

The world went black....