Before Damian fell back asleep with his arms wrapped around me, he had told me that he knew we were fated due to a prophesy. While I wasn't invested in the whole signs, foretelling crap that both of our families were, I knew that I needed an explanation as to how he was so sure that we were meant to be connected. Knowing his reasonings for overlooking the fact that I was currently in love with two guys, was a must.

Damian Reever was not the type of boy who just allowed a girl he loved to seek companionship from multiple sources. Nope. He was an angry boy that threw tantrums when other men gave me attention, he was a boy who got piss drunk and professed his love, because men were showering me with compliments; he was also a boy who dared to sit with me in the presence of his sworn enemy, simply because he cared. That kind of guy didn't just roll over and say, yeah it's ok that you love me and that other dude.

He promised me that he would tell me, but that I would have to wait until Monday evening, because he had been summoned home, along with his brother for a family dinner. After I walked back to my dorm room and changed into my clothes for the day, I decided to check on Lizbeth. I called Miles, who informed me that she was slowly starting to feel better, but that she wouldn't be returning to school until probably Tuesday. We sat and chatted about my trip to NYC and I told him all about the contract and the impending tour. He seemed excited that all of these opportunities were opening up for me and made promises to come and see me at as many shows on the East Coast as he could.

He also told me that Killian had been different ever since our talk that day in his office. That he was kinder as a whole and it seemed that a huge weight had been lifted from his chest. In Miles' eyes, Killian was finally at peace for certain things. I knew those things were his guilt about how the situation ended with my mother and subsequently, not being around and involved in my life. Since the talk that day, I was beginning to feel that there was a possibility for having a relationship with my birth father, past the negative tension that had been so thick between us, since my arrival.

Monday came and classes were as boring as normal. Part of me wished that Killian would just allow me to take my final tests this early in the year. I had no doubt that I would pass with flying colors and I could resume my life the way I wanted to live it. I started to contemplate the possibility of that, while sitting in my AP Literature class, with Mrs. Watts. She was the type of teacher that never took attendance and as long as you showed up for the exams and turned in your work, she didn't care if you attended.

Today was an exam on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, and its central themes of race, identity, ideology, and stereotypes. Those four essay questions were a walk in the park and since I didn't have French during last block today, due to the professor's absence, I headed back to my dorm for some light reading while I waited for Damian.

I heard the knocking on my door close to 9PM and when I willed myself out of the slight nap that I had succumbed to several hours ago, I cracked open the door. Damian was standing there in his typical jeans and a black t-shirt, with his leather jacket and beanie on. I grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair and we made our way down to his car, which was parked in the space next to Paxton's massive Land Rover.

The drive to the clearing didn't take long and when Damian put the car in park, he made his way outside, grabbing a plaid blanket from behind his seat. He threw the blanket around my shoulders and we sat on the ground, leaning back against his pitch black baby.

"So, not that I don't like coming here with you, but is there a reason we are talking at the clearing?" I looked over at him as he ran his hands down his face in contemplation.

"Would you believe me if I said that all good stories deserve the proper setting?" He chuckled slightly before turning and facing me.

"Try again."

"Um, how about I needed somewhere you couldn't run away from once I tell you?" His face started to display a look of worry when he spoke.

"Why exactly would I run away, Damian?"

"Well for starters, I know how you feel about the whole mythology, signs, fate in the stars mumbo jumbo, that has been a central theme to our relationship. Plus, when I tell you what my father said last night, it could change everything." He hung his head and looked at the ground beneath him; plucking at a few pieces of grass and then flinging them in front of him.

"I'm listening. I mean, can it be any worse than your drunken declaration of feelings for the oh so pretty girlfriend who is sexy when angry?

He just grunted in his typical fashion, before staring off into the distance for a few minutes; obviously trying to figure out where to start.

"Alright, so there is a myth in the Nordic culture called the Daughter of Freya. The goddess Freya was a beautiful creature who was obsessed with love, beauty and fertility. She was believed by many to be a free spirit due to her ways and some even accused her of infidelity to her mate. The old Nordic myth says that Freya seduced a prominent god to fall in love with her, in order to change her own destiny and release her of her marriage bond with Odin. Out of this tryst with the other god, she bore a child. The child was sought after by Odin, in order to plunge a knife through her heart. That would be the only way to kill the seductive hold that she would have over all men when she came of age. However, when Freya learned of Odin's plans, she fled with the baby and hid her in a patch of crimson fire that sat on a lonely hill."

He paused and looked up at the stars before continuing.

"The baby lived and grew in the crimson fire, until one day when she became so restless that she peeked out of the fire and saw the beauty of the world around. She knew it in her heart that she was meant for more, so she left the safety of the flames and ventured naked through the hills, until she came to a lone boy sitting on a mound of grass. He was so taken with her beauty and the way her hair looked like the raging flames of a fire, that he brought her back to the town where he lived. He didn't know that by bringing her to the town, he would be condemning every man and boy who lived there."

Damian tugged on a few pieces of grass from near his boot and played with them between his thumb and index finger.

"Because the men and boys could not have the beauty in front of them, they began to be infected with jealousy and rage. Those feelings caused them to wage war against their brothers and fathers, until no man or boy was left standing in the town. The girl fled the town, for fear that the remaining women would hunt her down and hurt her. She scoured the hilltops, desperately searching for the crimson fire, not knowing that she had been the only reason it had burned for all those years. Without her love, the fire dwindled until there was nothing left; just like the hearts of man did when she was no longer theirs."

"Damian, I'm not really sure that I follow where this story is going. Are you saying that my love is poison and I infect men? I'm confused."

"Grey, you never let me finish anything!" Damian chuckled before reaching over and rubbing his fingers over the side of my face. He leaned in and softly kissed my lips before resting his forehead against mine.

"The prophecy of the Crimson Girl, said that only one man could free her heart and atone for the deceit that Freya had caused. That man would be Odin's rightful son. The seers deemed that when the girl met her match, she would do it under the shooting white flames of the night sky, within the hour of the raven. He would know it was her, because his heart would open immediately to her touch."

I just looked at him and laughed. I wasn't sure why I laughed, but I did. This whole thing was absurd; myths were meant to be stories told over campfires and not things to force your life in a certain direction.

"So let me get this straight, because your dad believes he is the incarnated spirit of Odin, which should earn him a trip to a facility for evaluation, you believe that you are the boy in the story? You believe that I am the crimson girl, because my mother cheated on your dad with Killian and I was the result? I'm sorry, I do love you Damian, but that's a little much to wrap my fingers around. Plus, I never met you for the first time under a flaming white sky at 9PM."

I got up to walk back to the car and demand for him to take me back to my room. I was foolish for coming here and entertaining the absurdity. I felt him grab my elbow and turn me back towards him.

"The first time I saw the sign wasn't in that classroom. The first time I really saw you, you were being pushed out of the backdoor of the gym locker room into the pitch black night. I had been taking a walk after practice. It was the same night of the meteor shower. I saw your red hair before I saw your face. The lights from the sky illuminated just your hair, which looked like fire in the black night. Don't you see it, Grey! I knew you would do all of this, that's why I tried my best to stay away!"

He thrust me away from him and turned around, pacing in the clearing.

"I never believed in the signs until that night. I stayed away because I knew what you would do to me, what you would do to my brother, because he is a part of me. I couldn't bear to watch him be the man I could never be, so I tried to stay away. I didn't want you to be the thing that saved my family, Talia, because my father doesn't deserve redemption after what he did to your family."

"I'm sorry Damian, but I don't believe that signs and myths are real. I believe in the physical. I believe in the fact that you were a horrible boy that I hated; then I got to know you and those feelings changed. They changed into what we have now. I believe in the fact that your brother is a carbon copy of your father and I believe in facts. The facts are that in the beginning, yes, I entertained the idea of Paxton, because he seemed warm and charming. He was there for me when I needed someone, but the more time I spent with him, I saw that I was wrong. You could throw a million signs and prophecies at me, telling me that him and I are destined to be together and I would tell you a million times to shove them straight up your ass!"

Damian came towards me and I pushed him away forcefully. The fact that he would even believe for a second that Paxton and I could be fated, simply because the two of them were twins, made me sick.

"You know Grey, give me a little credit. All I saw was how cozy you two were. You can't blame me for feeling the way I felt about the situation. You may think that my brother is a bad guy, but you don't know him like I do and I have to believe that somewhere deep down is the best kind of person."

I just looked at Damian, with my mouth wide open in shock. Without thinking, I burst into uncontrollable laughter. I laughed so hard that I fell down to my knees and grabbed my stomach. When I looked up, his face was angry and it just spurned my laughter further.

"Oh come on Damian. My dear sweet Aunt Bonnie, who wasn't my aunt at all; she was just the nice old lady who lived down the street told me a story once. Since your big on stories, here it goes! There once was a girl who picked up a turd off the ground. It was the ugliest, smelliest turd around, but for some reason she took it home. She wrapped it up in the prettiest wrapping paper she could find and placed the most beautiful bow on it. What was left was a gorgeous present that many people coveted. Instead, that girl placed it on a shelf and just spent her life looking at it in admiration."

I could see his face tense, his forehead furrowed in anger when he spoke, "What are you trying to say, Grey?" He clenched his fists at his sides and walked towards me.

"See, now who is the person, not letting the other finish?" I got up off the ground and stood face to face with Damian.

"As I was saying... She treated that present like it was worth a million dollars, but guess what? Underneath all that pretty packaging, it was still a turd. Bonnie told me that story, to show me that some people put on a great outer packaging. They wrap themselves up, to make others feel like they are the grandest prize, but underneath all that flair and fluff, its an unpleasant interior that can never be changed. That is how I see your brother. I started seeing him like that the minute he manhandled me and told me to never see you again!"

Damian stepped closer and instinctively, I raised my hand and went to slap him across his face. His hand caught mine and he just stared at me, before his eyes dropped and he moved away, turning his back to me.

"Damian, what happened at your parent's house that changed everything? Because, it really seems like everything has changed with us." I asked him as I placed my hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to turn him around.

When he faced me, his eyes were sad. "My father ordered me to never see you again. That you were meant to be Paxton's prize."

I backed away from him and gasped. It took me a moment before I walked back over to him and forced his chin up to look into my eyes. "You will hear me and hear me good, Damian Reever. I am no man's prize to be given away so freely! I am not, nor will I ever be Paxton's anything. If you are so manipulated by your family that you would walk away from me, because of something your father proclaimed, then you aren't the boy I fell in love with. So, are you that horribly angry ape that grated my last nerve, yet somehow wore down my walls and showed me that there was always good in someone? Or are you that boy who is so clouded by doing what he's told that you are nothing but an attack dog?"

He looked into my eyes in that exact moment, but it was more like he was looking past my eyes and into my soul. "I'm yours Grey. No matter if you choose me in the end, I will always be yours."

He grabbed ahold of me and thrust me into his embrace, wrapping his lips around me and passionately kissing me. I felt my knees go weak underneath me at the forcefulness of his embrace. I could feel all his frustration, all his pain, and all his love in that one passionate kiss. That one kiss that was fueled by anger and desire; the things that consumed his soul.

When he finally broke it, he attempted to catch his breath. He placed his forehead against mine and his face winced in pain. I could see the turmoil inside of him brewing like a storm, like a battered around small ship, swept back and forth against the waves of conflict. I knew in my heart that he would always choose me, but I also feared that his duty to his family would force him to walk away and thrust me into Paxton's path.

That was one path in life that I wasn't eager to travel down.

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A/N: Hey Guys!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please don't forget to vote and comment.

So, to clear the air, Freya is an actual goddess in mythology; but the Daughter of Freya and The Crimson Story is not myth, it is fictional for the purposes of this story.

As for the turd story, you guys can thank my dear sweet departed Nana for that story of wisdom. *bows* She told me that story after a breakup when I was in high school and it always stayed with me, because it's accurate about how we place bad people on pedestals in order to make them seem better.

OK, so back to the story. Talia and Damian have this moment and he reveals that he's been forbidden to see her. Will he comply with his family and walk away?

Thoughts on how this thing about Talia being Paxton's Prize and how it's going to play out?

<3 Amina