As soon as the forest closed behind Theiden, Lenesa turned back to face Audeste—only to be met with a bolt of magic hurtling towards her face. She threw up a barrier just in time, but the impact of Audeste's spell splintered her shield and it burst into a million clear shards that rained down upon her. Lenesa ducked and covered her head, feeling the charged energy in the air left behind in the wake of Audeste's attack.

"Why have you not killed him yet?" Audeste called out, already preparing another spell to fling Lenesa's way. "Can you not see the deception he wields behind that helpless façade?"

Lenesa winced and slowly straightened, still feeling the aftereffects of the spell she had used to send Theiden away. "I will not kill him," she said.

"He reeks of evil," Audeste replied with a disdainful sneer. "He will bring ruin to us all if you do not dispose of him."

"He is not evil," Lenesa defended. But she knew there was little she could do to convince Audeste otherwise. Under her breath, she began calling upon the remaining stores of her power. She had used up so much already in her training with Theiden, and what magic was left had to be pulled out slowly and steadily, like the thread from an unraveling tapestry. Immediately, Lenesa knew she would not be able to win this fight.

"You are so naïve," Audeste laughed. The sound was abrupt and unnatural, as though she was unused to being so amused. "Mona died thinking the same thing."

Lenesa gritted her teeth. "She was right," she defended.

Audeste's derisive smile faded. "Your great-aunt wouldn't have died if she was right. I'd have thought you of all people would realize that, seeing as how you bear an eternal reminder of that day."

The breath stuttered in Lenesa's throat as her opponent eyed the scar along the side of her face. Lenesa quickly shifted her hair to cover it, but Audeste's eyes still gleamed with the victorious sting of her insult.

"Your efforts were wasted then, just as they are now," she added in a taunting hiss.

Another magical blast came Lenesa's way, and again, she put up a wall to block it. Beside her, Shwei shifted into a great horned owl to meet Audeste's wisp as it attacked in the form of an eagle. Lenesa could feel as Goru's talons ripped into Shwei as if it was her own skin under attack. The hisses and scratchy snarls of the two creatures tore through the air as they tumbled together, each grappling for an advantage over the other.

They had to leave!

"Admit you were wrong," Audeste demanded, while another orb of power began forming in her hands. Lenesa shook her head, still winded from the last attack. "Say you'll dispose of him."

"I can't," Lenesa said. "I can't become one of you."

"Why not? I offer you my protection." Audeste's tone turned sweet and deceptive, like the honey luring in the fly. "You will have nothing to fear from those in the city. Nothing to want. Let me help you."

Persuasion was Audeste's specialty, and she worked it well. Despite herself, Lenesa could feel her resolve weakening. She would give almost anything for this fight to end. She was tired of always being on guard, of worrying and trying to protect what little she had left. There was so much she had done to help those in the city, and she only received prejudice and hatred in return.

"You see," Audeste wheedled, a twitchy smile skittering across her lips as she took a step forward. "I can see you want an escape. An end to all of this. I can help you—"

"No!" Lenesa lashed out against the influential, magic-tinted words. A burst of energy left her fingertips and rippled in an arc across the space between them with enough force to knock the Turned witch off her feet.  The resulting sound echoed with all of the volume of an avalanche.

There was no time to check if Audeste was unconscious or just stunned—Lenesa turned and ran.

Audeste's wisp, Goru, disengaged himself from Shwei and swooped over to check on the Turned witch. Shwei, in turn, changed back into a ball of light and zoomed after Lenesa as she stumbled through the trees. The use of too much power had left her with an empty pit in her stomach that made her feel nauseous, and she knew she did not have enough magic left to clear a path for herself like she had for Theiden. She was afraid to look down at her hands, to see how much negative energy had formed there already. She could feel them tingling and starting to go numb.

She lost her sense of time as she stumbled recklessly through the forest. When a stone half-hidden by fallen branches eventually caught her foot, Lenesa finally succumbed to the concoction of lightheadedness and queasiness raging within her and fell to her hands and knees. Shwei sat patiently beside her in fox form as she retched into the bushes until there was nothing left. It didn't take long—she had barely had any breakfast and it was well past the appropriate time for lunch—and Lenesa finally sat back on her heels, trying to control the small tremors coursing through her body. It was almost too much of a temptation to just give in and lie down on the ground and go to sleep, but Theiden was waiting for her. She had to continue.

Shwei nudged Lenesa's knee in encouragement, and she staggered back to her feet with a tired sigh.

The walk back to the cottage took close to an hour. Lenesa was in no hurry to return home, and went slowly, hoping to regain at least enough of her energy for the black markings on her hands to go away. She had never seen them worse than in this moment, as this time the thorny tendrils extended all the way up to her elbows.

By some grace of fate, the angry obsidian patterns had receded to Lenesa's wrists by the time the worn gray stones of her cottage came into view through the trees. She shoved her hands deep in the pockets of her skirt, suddenly wishing she had worn her blue dress with the longer, billowy sleeves—despite how impractical it would have been while fighting.  It would have at least done a better job of hiding the marks that remained.

"Lenesa!" Theiden had been pacing by the garden, and approached her as soon as she stepped out from beneath the shadows of the trees. He was cautious, Lenesa noticed, stopping short to keep a large amount of space between them. She could tell his encounter with Audeste had rattled him, though he tried not to show it.

"I'm not going to attack you, if that's what you fear," Lenesa said, willing her words to come out light and unaffected. Despite her efforts, though, she could detect a tang of fatigue in her tone that weighed them down, and she only hoped that the hunter would not notice.

Theiden snorted, and his shoulders lost some of their rigidity. "I'm not afraid you're going to attack me," he replied. "Training's over, right?"

He managed a semblance of a smile, but Lenesa didn't bother to return it. Instead, she tottered over to the front step and sat down, mindful of how Theiden watched her every step.

"What happened to Audeste?" he asked as she leant against the door frame.

"I don't know," Lenesa replied, and this time, she couldn't keep the exhaustion from her voice. She blinked, but the blink lengthened and turned into a long moment of sitting with her eyes closed instead. At one point, Lenesa felt her head start to nod backwards, and though her body protested, she forced her eyes to open again. It would not do to fall asleep here.

Sitting beside her in fox form, Shwei gave a low, concerned hum. Without looking, Lenesa reached out a hand and gave him a scratch behind the ears.

"Are you all right?" Theiden asked. He was standing in front of her now, looking down at her with a concerned frown.

"Perfectly so, thank you," she replied, somehow managing to take his empty smile from earlier and wear it as her own.

"What's wrong with your hands?"

The mirrored false-smile slipped off her face in an instant and crashed into a wince. She had forgotten about the markings when she had reached out to reassure Shwei. No doubt Theiden had noticed the ominous black tendrils that still licked her skin. But had he made the connection to the same design that marred Audeste's features?

Lenesa shoved the offending hand back beneath the folds of her skirt. "It'll go away soon," she said, willing him to dismiss the subject. She turned her gaze to the ground, acutely aware of how Theiden stepped closer to her. Shouldn't he be afraid? Accuse her of Turning, and killing him? Of being evil, just as he had always believed her to be?

When Theiden instead moved to sit down next to her on the step, she couldn't help the sharp gasp that stuck in her throat. What was he doing?

Shwei moved aside to make space for the hunter, and Lenesa could only watch, frozen, as he moved closer to her. Surely he could hear her heartbeat as he reached out and uncovered her hidden right hand, holding it gently in both of his as he examined it.

"I've seen this before," he muttered softly, and Lenesa braced herself. "When you fought the faun...to save me. It showed up on your fingers."

He paused.

"Audeste had it, too."

Lenesa tried to pull her hand back, but he held it still. "It's only a result of overexertion," she defended, words tumbling off her tongue in a panic. "It just means I used more of my powers than I should have. They'll go away, once I'm better rested." It should have been a reassuring statement to Theiden, but she knew the full truth. The worse it got, the closer she came to ending up like Audeste, or any of the other Turned creatures. Fear was growing within her—that she wasn't good enough, and that she wouldn't be able to make a difference and her efforts would be wasted, just like Audeste had said. It only made her more desperate, and closer to that edge from which there was no return.

Theiden's grip tightened slightly, and Lenesa at first didn't recognize the sensation that bloomed within her chest. It was a kind and comforting gesture, and it set her at ease, though she was surprised at the feeling.

"I'm glad you came back," Theiden said, his voice low and words hesitant, as though he wasn't quite sure about the truth of his statement.

"Are you really?" Lenesa asked. She found enough energy to raise a brow in skepticism. "You don't have to pretend. I know how much you resent me."

Theiden's lips pressed together, and a frown briefly crossed his face before he looked up at her. It was then that Lenesa realized how close he was to her—too close. A few wind-tousled strands of his ebony hair, which had grown long during his time in the mountains, swept across his forehead in soft waves. His hands were calloused but gentle, and warm against her own. The dark green fabric of his shirtsleeves were half-rolled up, revealing the muscles beneath. But his eyes—they were dark, like the earth after rain, and yet there was so much brightness in them: honey-colored flecks that drew her into the hypnotizing swirl of his irises.

It was then that Lenesa finally realized just how attached she had gotten to him. What had started out as merely a concern for his safety had grown into something else entirely. She no longer just wanted him to stay out of trouble—she would actually feel sorrow if he were to get killed now. And yet, she suspected, to Theiden, she was nothing more than an insect trapped in his amber gaze.

She had to let him go.

That thought was enough to snap her back to reality and jerk away from him. He had a family and life back in the city. She could not keep him from it any longer.

"It's almost dinnertime," Lenesa said, forcing a freshness into her voice that she didn't feel. "I should go prepare something." She struggled to get back to her feet, eventually using the side of the doorway as leverage to help herself up the rest of the way. Theiden stood with her, and she tried to ignore how his touch brushed along her arm and shoulder, lightly supporting her.

"Can I help with anything?" Theiden asked. "You're tired. I could cook."

"No, no, I'll be okay," Lenesa hurriedly objected. It would be his last night. She would not make him do all the work.

"Are you sure?"

She paused, hand on the doorknob, before she looked back at him. "Well, I suppose since the weather has gotten warmer, we could try something a bit different," she said. "Why don't you gather up a few blankets?"

Theiden tilted his head, puzzled. "Blankets?"

"Of course. We're going to have a picnic."    

~~~~~~~~~~~

From fighting to picnics.  What a turnaround.  What do you think?  I think I want Lenesa's dress.  A dress with pockets?  Yes please, I'll take five.  Why is it so difficult for designers to make those?

I tried to find some music to fit this chapter, but it's tough when most epic music starts out slow to fast and your chapter goes from fast to slow.  Ugh.  The Wonder Woman's Wrath song actually worked really well for the first part of this chapter, but then it got weird when suddenly she was back at the cottage and there were guitar riffs, so...I went for this other one instead.  Hope it sort of works.  XD

Dedication to Nyghtfyre_Stars for all her support!  Check out her book, Black Magic, for Fae, thieves, and of course, magic (but like, really cool, dark magic).  :)

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