Damien and I met when we were both very young. We were both lost in the forest for two very different reasons.

I'd packed up a backpack, ready to set on an adventure like my favorite heroine on TV. Damien, on the other hand, had been left behind in the human world for his safety while his royal bodyguards fought off an attack as a last ditch effort to protect him as they ran from a coup to overthrow his uncle who was abusing power.

Or something like that.

I'd found Damien in the night, rolled up, hugging his knees under a tree. He thought that I was a fae as well since I'd emerged from the thick woods soaked in mud and rain. I couldn't understand what he was saying but I understood it was urgent. He'd grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ground next to him, placing his finger to his lips. He then pointed in front of me and I saw a glint of metal in the moonlight.

I wasn't sure how I hadn't seen them before but two men with large-now I knew what they were holding-scythes were looking for something in the darkness. They wore armor that glistened in the moonlight.

Damien held tightly to me, pushing me down as if willing for the earth to swallow me to make me even smaller.

Maybe he was. I still don't understand what his powers are.

We both stayed very still, but, somehow, they found us.

The long silver-haired one pointed to where we were and he and his partner charged for us.

We ran as fast as we could, Damien holding so tight to my hand that I thought he'd pull my fingers right off. I heard their footsteps closer still.

That's when Damien pushed me away and ran in a different direction, away from me.

His small legs didn't compare to the men running after him and in two strides, they caught up to him, one grabbing him by the shirt and holding him up as if he were a prize.

I spit the dirt and leaves from my mouth and pushed my hair away from my face, and I watched in horror as the two grown men terrorized the small child.

The two men spoke amongst themselves then to the boy who saved my life.

Running on adrenaline, I stood and tossed my small Hello Kitty backpack at them. Then rocks. Then dirt. "LET HIM GO!"

One of the men turned, annoyed, then charged at me with his large angled sword.

Not knowing what to do, I shut my eyes tightly, standing frozen in place.

But he never came.

When I opened my eyes again the man that had a second previously been coming at me at full speed now lay at my feet, not moving.

I still remember the blood on the leaves. The smell of it made my stomach turn.

I was only there for about five seconds before I was scooped up from the ground and taken to a different location.

It was Damien's father that saved us from the two men, cut them down where they stood, scooped us up from the ground, and took us somewhere safe.

While everything else was hazy, those were the details I remembered the most and they haunted me for years. Damien's father let us become friends afterwards since I bravely attempted to 'fight' Damien's would-be assassins.

Damien and I had been inseparable ever since.

And that's when I learned what he was.

Damien is the heir of a long standing royal family in power for thousands of years. While he won't exactly divulge all of the details about his true nature, he and his people are part of an ancient race that has lived alongside humans for centuries.

Most people thought of faeries as benevolent, small thumb-sized spirits of good.

But not Damien's race. They were mischievous, cunning and blood thirsty.

Damien wasn't the exception. I was.

Their world was a secret kept mostly because they didn't want to be bothered by humans, they just wanted to live their lives. Some lived in the human world while most kept to their own world separated from humans by a thin veil that only those of his world could cross. There was relative peace between the races and only the occasional nether-creature would disturb it.

And they were gorgeous, if they looked anything like Damien, at least.

While I spent most days in a hoodie, unable to run a brush through my dry split ends, Damien was always dressed to the nines in all black. All the clothes he wore seemed to be tailor made for him and, lately, outlining his perfect physique. His beauty was from another world and purposely so, he claimed, so that it would lure unsuspecting humans.

I'd always felt inferior standing next to him. I was average even by human standards and never bothered to follow the latest fashions. I had split ends, acne as a teenager, and just-too-skinny arms. I had black plastic glasses too large for my face, which I kept in books for most of my teenage years.

Where Damien was adventurous and seductive, I was shy and bookish. I kept to myself and was mercilessly picked on in high school, dubbed the nerd. Those days were behind me.

Well, sometimes.

It was a fact of life, like how the sky was blue, that Damien was a Prince then King of a secret dark kingdom I'd only heard of. I never put much thought behind it–he was just my best friend with some secrets better left unsaid, beautiful purple eyes that left girls a sighing mess wherever he went, and magical powers I still didn't understand.

So, it was only natural that when he said 'Queen', I almost choked on the peanut I was eating.

He gently rubbed my back as I dug in my bag and pulled out a water bottle and took a drink. "Queen? Why don't you get a girlfriend first and then work up to marriage?"

He shook his head, "No time. I need to find her before the next Blood Moon."

I coughed. "And when's that?"

He stretched his legs out under the desk, his tall stature didn't suit the desk well. "Three months."

I laughed. Really laughed. "Maybe we should set you up like the Bachelor?"

He didn't like the joke.

"Okay," I laughed. "I thought you couldn't marry humans?"

He sighed, picking at something on his pant leg. "We don't. There has to be someone else in your school with ties to the Underworld."

I scoffed. "Yeah, and I would know how?"

"You wouldn't know, I would. We can sense each other's aura when we're in close proximity. Introduce me to someone. I will be able to tell."

Another power to put down on my list of new things I'm learning every day about Damien.

"What's wrong with the women in your world?"

He sighed, bored. "I've already dated the ones I'd consider, they're really boring." He paused. "They're not all here," he tapped his chest, pointing to his heart. "They're like dolls, most of them just want favor in the royal court. They mean nothing."

"I never thought of it that way. How lonely."

He shrugged. "It happens."

I glanced at the clock briefly wondering where everyone was that they hadn't shown up yet. Students would start showing up fifteen minutes early sometimes and it was ten minutes before class would start. "Why does it have to be the Blood Moon?"

"Stuff." Was all he said before he grew distracted and pulled out his own cell phone and started scrolling through the screens.

Another secret. Great.

I started going through my emails on my phone and found the professor had canceled class. I sighed loudly.

"He canceled class, didn't he?"

I didn't look at him, just crossed my arms. "Shut up."

As soon as I spoke, the door burst open letting a cacophony of voices drift into the room. I recognized the blonde immediately and her brunette friend. They were laughing and then immediately stopped when they saw me.

"Sitting in the dark by yourself, Emylin?" The brunette laughed.

I looked at the desk that Damien had been sitting in and found that it was empty. He'd done that often enough that it no longer surprised me. He only showed himself to those he wanted and it seemed that now wasn't one of those times.

I smiled as sweetly as I could and tapped the textbook in front of me. "I like reading on my own where it's quiet."

The blonde giggled. "You know he canceled class, right?"

Leah and Mia, best friends since high school, were the kind of girls that nineties movies were about. Leah the blonde cheerleading captain in high school and daughter of the wealthiest lawyer in town. She always wore heels, had her nails done, and wore the fanciest clothes I had ever seen. Mia was her follower, and while not as wealthy as Leah, she kept up on her own.

They were basically made for each other–tit for tat, Abbott and Costello–where Leah led, Mia followed.

And they both had the most rotten personalities of anyone I had ever met. They had made my high school impossible and even egged other students to terrorize me as they did. I had thought I'd escape them in college. But no such luck.

I was convinced someone hated me. No one had as bad luck as I did.

I smiled painfully. "Yes, what are you doing here then?"

"We were hoping to use the room to study for next week's midterms."

I sighed, gathering my books and slinging my bag over my shoulder. "I'll just leave."

Mia pranced inside in her heels. "You're a doll." The tone of her voice suggested she didn't really think that way.

I moved my way past them, and once in the hallway, Damien reappeared from another room.

"Who are they?"

I sighed. "Probably the biggest pains in the world, why?"

He ignored me. "What about the blonde girl?"

I scrunched up my nose, perplexed by his question. "Her name is Leah, why?"

His eyes gave a small glint of childlike enthusiasm. "Can you introduce me to her?"

I stopped walking. "Why?"

He smiled. "I think she may be the one."

I shook my head, "What? No. No way. She's human, anyway, you can't marry her."

He smirked. "She's not human, Em. She's a dark fae, I noticed it as soon as she walked into the room."