I don't own anything in this fic except the poetry, any OC's that might appear and the original plot. Everything else belongs to L. J. Smith.

You'll recognise the beginning as an excerpt from the last book. You guys will see the significance of it later.

This is a boring chapter to start with but it's kinda important. Kudos to Clairavance for encouraging me to write a FG fanfic - thank you!

I'm not entirely sure how far or how long it's going to go on for. Constructive crit is welcome!

I hope you guys like this and try to bear with me. Like I said, this is a necessary chapter.

Let's get started!

You pulled me close and you whispered words,

That were the ghosts of our different worlds,

I saw the desires that seduced your soul;

Your eventual redemption, I now extol.

.'.

"You can't die," Jenny whispered raggedly around the tears. "There must be something to do. You can't just go out – "

Julian was smiling.

"No, I'll dream another dream," he said. "I've made up so many things, now I'll just go into one. I'll be part of it."

"All right," Jenny whispered. She suddenly knew that there was nothing to be done, nothing except to help him all she could. There was something in his face that told her – a peace that was already gathering. She wouldn't disturb that peace now. "You go into the dream, Julian."

"You don't blame me?"

"I don't blame you for anything."

"Whatever else I did, I loved you," he said. He stirred, and then added, "Maybe you'll dream about me sometime, and that will help get me there."

"I will. I'll dream you into a place without any shadows, only light."

He looked at her then, and she could see he wasn't afraid.

"Nothing really dies as long as it's not forgotten," he said.

And then blue mist seemed to gather in his eyes and obscure the flame.

"Go to the dream," Jenny whispered. "Go quick, now."

His chest was still, and she didn't think he heard her. But she caught the faintest breath of sound – not with her ears, but with her mind.

"Your ring..."

The hand that had been on his chest slipped, and Jenny saw the gold ring there. Jenny picked it up.

The inscription on the inside had changed. The words were no longer a spell to bind Jenny.

Before, it had said: All I refuse & thee I chuse.

Now it said simply: I am my only master

Jenny Thornton cursed as her honey-coloured hair got tangled in the massive bouquet as she lifted it from the back seat of her car. She wished she'd listened to her boss and brought the truck even if she did hate the damn vehicle. She could almost hear her superior's voice in her head: I'm always right! This is why you should listen to me. Anyway, the truck is more professional as well as pragmatic. Of course, Jenny's usual remark about people not caring about the truck as much as the flowers would fall on deaf ears.

She sighed, giving the bouquet in her arms a once over to make sure it wasn't damaged – another reason why she should have used the larger vehicle for her delivery. Shaking her head, she made to walk across the road before stopping suddenly. She looked left to right, making sure there were no on-coming cars ready to kill her, and hastened across the road to the large house. In the past seven years, Jenny had found it difficult to adjust to the fact that she was now vulnerable to the dangers of the world, just like anyone else. Having spent 16 years wrapped in a cocoon of safety, it still slipped her mind that she wasn't lucky nor protected. The shield that had always followed her was no more.

She looked at the sheet in her hand and glanced back up at the house before her, confirming she was at the right address. The black door was large and ornate. It was perfectly preserved but there was something ancient about it to Jenny's mind. She lifted the knocker and rapped it several times against its counterpart then waited. It wasn't long before it swung open to reveal a pretty woman.

"Somebody sending you a lot of love," Jenny said with a smile as she lifted the bouquet of multi-coloured roses higher.

The woman laughed lightly, taking it from her and Jenny sighed as she was relieved of the weight. She extracted the clipboard from under her arm and held it out to the recipient who was running her hands over the petals, delighted. Jenny beamed upon seeing the woman's obvious pleasure – after all, even if the order had come from someone else, it was Jenny who'd taken the time to arrange the flowers. That's why she always insisted on delivering them as well – so she could see their reactions. It made her feel good.

The lady set them aside and turned to take the pen and clipboard from her to sign.

"Just here," Jenny instructed, pointing to a spot on the document. She glanced around the garden as she waited and noted that it was exceptionally well kept. There were a myriad of flowers around the sides, like a multi-coloured border. "You have a beautiful garden," she remarked, taking the signed sheet back.

"Thank you," the owner smiled. "I'm afraid the only thing I can take credit for is paying my gardener. He's very talented."

Jenny smiled, running her eyes over the array of snowballs, irises, hyacinths, roses and zinnias. There were many others and she noted that it was an unorthodox arrangement – she certainly wouldn't have thought to put them together like this – but it looked good.

"Clearly he is," Jenny agreed. Then, she flashed another smile at the owner who reciprocated in kind before making her way back to her car. Before she got back in, she glanced at the garden one last time and slid into her seat. As she turned on the ignition and made her way back to the shop, Jenny's mind was on the blue hyacinths.

She was 23 years old now and had passed with a degree in computer forensics. She'd graduated a year before everyone else and graduated well but as soon as she was free to find a job – which should have been easy with the number of offers flying her way – Jenny had been compelled to go another way. She hadn't known what it was until she'd passed a florist and seen a single white rose in a holder on the door. Without thinking, Jenny had entered the little shop without any idea what she was doing there. Her now-supervisor, Irina, had been befuddled when Jenny kept going back every day and staring at all the flowers as if she'd never before seen them.

One day when she'd been wandering around the shop aimlessly admiring the plants, she'd heard two of the employees arguing over what flowers would look best together. Without thinking, Jenny had spoken out, telling them what she thought would look best. Surprised, they'd followed her advice. The bouquet had been one of the best they'd ever made and they recommended her instantly to Irina who hired her, uncertain at first.

The reluctance soon turned to glee when Jenny started pulling together different flowers to make pieces of art that were an instant hit. The shop's popularity rocketed and they now had regulars who always requested their 'special bouquets'. These were always made by Jenny. The others could follow her instructions but they never seemed to be appreciated the way Jenny's handmade ones were. Her two co-workers often jokingly claimed she was in possession of magic dust.

Jenny only smiled in response but her thoughts always turned to a memory that was only seven years old but seemed much older. Always, her mind remembered only a few words of the memory: I'll dream you into a place without any shadows, only light.

She didn't know if she only appreciated the beauty of nature and its purity because she'd seen the unnatural ugliness of another world. Sometimes she thought that the promise she'd made to Julian was more binding than she'd realised. Every time she touched a flower she noticed every facet of its enduring beauty even in the shadows that wrapped around it. In the back of her mind, she often told herself it was symbolic of his nature. Ultimately, he'd been good – a beauty wrapped in and cursed by shadows.

The last present he'd given her before passing hung on a chain around her neck. Every time that she went to work with the flowers and delivered them, her fingers always fluttered to the ring and her heart always whispered a silent offering to the young man with the indescribably blue eyes that still lived in her subconscious.

Here's more beauty for you, her heart would sigh as it imagined all of the light that would bounce off the multi-coloured petals.

Here's another gift for you, her mind would murmur as she handed the token of her client's love to the recipient.

Despite this though, Jenny wasn't pining for Julian. She loved him still with a poignancy that made her marvel at his far-reaching influence but it wasn't enough to send her spiralling into depression. Her life certainly didn't revolve around thoughts of Julian. Yes, she thought of him every day but for a man who had loved her so desperately and given his life for her, didn't he at least deserve that much?

It was just a belief that the more love she spread in the world, the more there was for Julian wherever he was. This thought made her happy and it had been her way of life for a long time now. She was content with the smiles she saw every day, the colours that surrounded her and the memory that she carried them with.

Jenny still smiled. Jenny still laughed. Jenny had new friends and she still loved her old ones very much. She had seen others leave behind their high-school friends as they outgrew them but she was bound to hers by something far stronger than mere adolescent attachment. Tom, Dee, Audrey, Michael, Zach and Summer had stood by her with such fierce loyalty and they had pulled through so much together that no amount of time could break their bond. She had left behind her relationship with Tom but they both retained a deep affection for one another and it made the rift that had arisen between them easier to overcome.

She hadn't stopped loving Tom – it had just changed. Or maybe she had changed. It was difficult to tell. All she knew was, after Julian's sacrifice and Jenny's promise, something had changed her in a way she hadn't fully realised until later. For instance, in the years that followed, she had strangely changed her colour preference. Each year, her mind was drawn to a different one and if she tried a different colour, she was always restless. In the first, it had been red and in the second, it had changed to orange. She'd thought nothing of it at first but then the next year it was yellow and then it was green. It wasn't until Audrey had asked her a peculiar question that she'd realised how odd her habit actually was:

"What are you going to do after 7 years, mi amica? The rainbow's not infinite you know."

Last year had been the worst. She'd tried hard to ignore her hankerings after blue clothes, blue shoes, blue nail varnish, blue jewellery, blue everything. It had become increasingly painful to be continually drawn to the colour when it resembled the twin pools that had closed so slowly years ago. Try as she might, she couldn't resist her strange attraction so when the new year had rolled around and she found herself drawn to violet, Jenny had been immensely relieved.

Last year had been the only problem she'd had since Julian's demise and she suspected that she only had herself to blame. In hindsight, she realised that if she'd just given in to the phase, it might have passed over her head without so much as a second thought. The rest of her life went on smoothly. She succeeded in everything she did, she blew through all of her problems smoothly and she was still hopeful about life.

Nobody could say Jenny Thornton was miserable. She was her own master. Nobody could find proof to contradict that belief.

But if anybody saw the way her hand wrapped around the ring as she slept, neither could they say she was happy.