Chapter 26.

  Nowhere to go.

  Theodren stood, rolling his head left and right in an attempt to clear the tension while he did a mental check for any injuries. Retribution had spread out over his back and head to protect him from the chaotic thrashing of Reina’s shadows.

  Slithering back beneath his robes, he gave it a mental ‘thank you’ before returning his attention to Reina who stared wide eyed at the shadows around her. “Those are mine?” She whispered excitedly. Reina reached out a hand slowly, wiggling a finger, and in the distance, a shadow wiggled back.

  She squealed, bouncing on her toes in excitement. Theodren groaned, at the headache that her growing power would bring, but he couldn’t help the reluctant smile at her moment of joy. For a moment he was lost in the excited light in her blue eyes and bounce in her golden hair. He frowned, shaking his head, he turned away.

  “Come on, dinner is still out there somewhere, and we need to keep moving.” Reina danced after him. Experimenting with how the shadows moved with every step. It was certainly not her Thread, but she was determined to master it as quickly as she could. Excellence is opportunity, and she would need to find new ways to survive and defend herself now that her thread was gone.

  Her eyes traced the broad shelf of Theodren’s shoulders as he lumbered through the forest. She would need to find a way to be more than just a means to an end for him. She knew he needed her to keep the sleeping babe tied to her chest alive, but the child grew stronger by the day. He couldn’t see it yet, but Theviana’s own Acher was becoming intrinsically linked to her soul much like Reina’s own, and when that was complete, he would no longer need Reina to siphon off the child’s Acher to keep it from overwhelming her.

  She could not bear to think of parting ways from the baby girl held so close to her heart. Even the thought of splitting from the brooding giant was curiously unpleasant. Theodren held a branch up and out of the way as he walked under it, holding on to it without thinking until Reina was also past the tree before letting it return to its place in the greenery of the forest.

  He was a conundrum to her. Only a day ago he had buried a town full of people he had known for years, and she had been the one to kill them. He should hate her, he should despise her for the role she played in the deaths of all one hundred and thirty three people she had slain. She shuddered as their surprised and terrified faces flew through her mind. She despised herself for it well enough.

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  Her dancing steps had stopped and so had Theodren. He dropped low to a knee, easing an arrow from his quiver while his eye remained fixed on the doe that had wandered into view. She watched his back tense beneath the leather jerkin as it held the weight of the bow’s draw. He murmured something she couldn’t hear, before the arrow leapt from the stave. It flew true, burying itself in the doe who dropped instantly to the forest floor.

  He nodded, pleased. Rising to his feet he turned to Reina with just a hint of a satisfied smile. “And now we have dinner.” He trotted off to the doe, pulling a knife from his belt to begin the process of dressing his kill for the trip back to their temporary camp.

  She frowned. He could fight and fend for himself, he even shared his own food with her. Why would he keep her around when she was no longer needed? Her fears multiplied in her head. All her life, her relationships had been built on selfish back and forth between rivals. Once there was no longer anything to be gained from a person, there was no reason to entertain them further. Would Theodren do the same once she was no longer necessary to keep Theviana alive?

  And if she was sent away, what would she do then? There was no returning to the Church, and certainly there was no returning home to her mother. Between the two, she could not choose who was the harsher. The cold order of the Church or the ever demanding expectations of her mother. To come home not only a failure but an apostate? She shuddered, leaning against the tree beside her as she contemplated the future.

  Theodren returned with the doe, gutted and cleaned over his shoulder. The offal he left behind as a gift for the forest. He walked up to Reina who appeared lost in some dark thought, brows furrowed and lips scrunched up tightly. She appeared unaware of the creeping darkness that spread from her shoulder into the tree that withered at her touch. He cleared his throat.

  “Ahem.” She blinked back to reality, looking up at him quizzically. He pointed with his eyes at the eroding bark of the tree she leaned against. Her eyes grew wide and she jumped back. “Not again!” she fussed over the tree, grabbing at the bark as she tried to take the Acher from the ailing tree.

  Theodren sighed exasperated. Gently pulling her hand away, he replaced it with his own larger one. He probed into the bark of the tree with his Vitae, pushing life into the blackened wood of its trunk. It took only a moment for green to return to the tree. Finding the balance he needed, he pulled his hand away, keeping an eye on the cells of the tree. After he was sure that none of them would grow rampantly, he nodded in satisfaction. “Let’s head back.”

  Reina ran her hand along the fresh bark of the tree, whole and hearty as it was before she leaned against it. Her eyes turned to Theodren’s back as he walked toward camp. He could fix whatever she broke. She trotted after him, all the more determined to follow his path