I am literally about to get on a plane and fly to Scotland but I got it done just in time! So my note is short but the chapter is long! Please leave a review! Gotta go! Enjoy!

Snow hadn't been gawking at Regina nor had she been staring at her but she had been watching her. The entire remainder of the ride she had been watching her in her peripheral or risking quick glances or short but lingering looks. Her stepmother was beautiful and as the ride progressed in silence, Snow watched her relax in her saddle. Slowly the tension dissipated from her muscles and Snow watched in fascination as the flamboyant and rigid woman she had grown accustomed to now resembled the woman she once knew.

Her chest ached with the guilt and sorrow she felt toward Regina. How she had burdened her bright young heart and trapped her spirit in the marriage to her father and then crushed it in the walls of that palace. There was so much guilt. More than she had realized she felt until she was able to be in the woman's presence for such a generous amount of time.

She wanted nothing more than to curl in to that woman and hold her and cry until she knew how utterly sorry she was. She would never know though. And even if she did she would never accept it anyway.

So Snow resigned herself to watching her and feeling her guilt tear her apart inside. She had ruined her. They had ruined one another. Snow had recovered. But Regina had not.

It broke her heart and for a few minutes she had to look away from the woman riding beside her. Her mind had run rampant and she could feel nothing but shame and guilt for breaking such a beautiful woman. For Regina had been beautiful. She had been bright and she had been happy, her spirit had been strong and wild and free, her smile could make even the darkest day brighter, she could walk in a room and do nothing but smile and quirk her head and the entire company in the room would be laughing and grinning.

And now that woman was gone and in her place stood a monster. Instead of lifting hearts her laughter now spread panic and fear, her smiles had people crying in moments and begging for her mercy, her happiness replaced by darkness and misery, her selfless nature crushed, her kindness overtaken by the need to kill, her carefree spirit drowned by pain and loneliness for no one understood her. Not one soul.

And Snow was the one who had started it all.

"Excuse me," she breathed as she quickly turned her horse away and cantered off in to the forest with tears in her eyes. She couldn't bear to be in Regina's presence a moment longer. Not without bursting in to tears. So she ran off without so much as a glance in Regina's direction. She didn't even look to David. All she could think about was getting away.

Regina had of course turned her head to the sound of Snow's leave. It had been such a sudden retreat that Regina couldn't help but try to see what had triggered it. She couldn't see any reason for it though and was confused but she didn't halt her horse. She continued forward as she watched Snow run off and just as she was about to turn her head straight, another set of hooves pounded against the forest floor and kept her attention. She was completely unsurprised to find the charming shepherd pursuing his suddenly distressed fiancé.

Really she couldn't care less about their drama, she just wanted to be home and rid of them. But much to her annoyance the travel party stopped with the absence of Snow White and the shepherd and she was forced to halt as well. She did so with a snarl and her mount stomped his feet below her in the annoyance he mirrored from her. She was so done with these fools. She had half a mind to chase after them and drag them back by their ears. And why did she need an escort? Where else was she going to go?

With a seething huff and an abrupt instruction, her stallion swung himself around on his hind legs and carried her off in the opposite direction of which Snow and David had disappeared. She knew the pair well enough to know it they weren't going to return in a timely manner and standing amongst the gibbering idiots left around her was not where she wanted to remain.

...

Snow had run her horse until he was snorting with every stride, she had run him until sweat soaked his neck and shoulders, she had run him until she was as far away from Regina as he could carry her and when she got off she had tears streaming down her cheeks and quiet sobs lacing her panting breaths. She was a wreck and her mind was racing and when a pair of hands touched her shoulders she immediately and violently shrugged and swatted them away as she hopped away from the contact. When she turned she saw it was only David but that didn't change the fact she didn't want to be touched. It only made her cry a little more.

"What happened?" He asked softly and her wild eyes looked off to the side as she shook her head in sharp movements. "What did she do to you?"

"Nothing!" She cried out and then her hands were in her hair, "everything! I don't know!" She shouted and flung her arms out while David frowned in sympathy. "I just couldn't be in her company anymore! I couldn't sit there beside the woman I ruined! I couldn't keep staring at the damage I had done! That is the largest amount of time I have spent with her since I was a child! The last time I spent more than an hour with her we were playing games of hide and seek or she was reading stories while I practiced braiding her hair!

She was my best friend! She was my mother! And now she won't even look at me! She won't speak a word to me! There is so much spite and so much hatred and I never noticed how incredibly far she had fallen until today! There is no remnants of the woman I knew! There is nothing there! She's gone! She's dead! And it's my fault! I killed her and I-"

"Snow, you didn't-"

"How dare you tell me what I haven't done!" She roared and knew very well it was too strong a reaction but these fights over Regina had never been reasonably executed. "You have no idea what I have lost!" She screamed and his expression saddened and broke her heart further as her tears streamed down her face, "she is the only family I have left! I love her! Despite everything she has done to me and has tried to do to me, she is my family! She was a figure in my life, she meant everything to me! She raised me, she guided me, she helped me become who I am today and she did so at her expense! I sucked the life out of her! I took everything from her!

I took her freedom, I took her love, I took her happiness! I was selfish! I was ignorant! I was spoiled! She taught me to be humble, she taught me to be aware, she taught me to be selfless! She taught me how to be strong and to be brave! Because of her I am me! She gave me everything and I gave her nothing in return! She gave me everything and I didn't stop to see she was suffering! I didn't notice the woman I loved with all of my heart was dying! I didn't notice that everyday her eyes grew colder! I didn't notice that her smiles took more effort! I didn't notice that her touches had lost their warmth! I didn't notice because I didn't believe I needed to! She was my rock! She was my idol! I took her for granted and now she's gone!

She's gone! And instead of helping her we are dropping her off in a palace full of her memories and leaving her to rot! We are leaving her in the least rehabilitating place imaginable! We are abandoning her! And I cannot cope with that! After everything she did for me, I am abandoning her in the dark! How could I!? How can I do that to her?!"

"Snow, there isn't anything you can do to help her," he told her and she just kept yelling at him.

"There has to be something! I cannot leave her there to die! She can be helped! I know she can!" She cried frantically and when David tried to touch her she swatted his hands away.

"Yes, perhaps. But not under your hand, Snow," he told her gently and she covered her mouth with her hand and pivoted away from him, "you have to know by now that there is nothing you can say or do that will do anything but make her want to kill you more."

"Who then?! Because I cannot leave her in that palace alone!"

"I don't know," he shook his head and she gave him a bitter and miserable laugh in return as she turned and stepped away from him. "But even if I did, Snow, there is no returning to the woman she once was. She's done too much and gone too far to ever go back."

"But she can be better!" She shouted her plea and David sighed with a drop of his shoulders, "it doesn't have to be like this!"

"Snow-!"

"And what did you do to her?! Why did she decide to ride with me?!"

"I was trying to get her to talk to me," he explained and Snow shook her head and denied his answer.

"No, that is not it! You did something to her! You were trying to kill her more than anyone I know and then something happened! You did something! Now you are trying to be kind while she is beating you to death with a god damn frying pan! And then running away from you to me! To me! What happened?! What aren't you telling me?! Why did you call upon Rumplestiltskin?!"

"Who told you that?" He frowned in an attempt to deny any such interaction. It was to no avail though.

"Regina!" She shouted in exasperation and David sighed and rubbed a hand over his mouth. It broke her heart and made her so angry her tears fell even faster as she snarled at him and cried, "you hurt her?! What did you do?! You know what she means to me! You know!"

"I didn't mean to hurt her, I-," he tried but she kept crying and spitting words in his face.

"You hurt her, how dare you go behind my back, why would you do that, she wasn't of any threat to you! She was locked in a cell and had no magic or weapon of any nature! You bastard, how dare you-!"

"I didn't mean to hurt her! I just wanted answers! I wanted to know what happened!"

"I told you what happened!" She screamed as she flung her arms out and her tears rolled down her cheeks, "I told you everything I know!"

"I didn't believe you," he told her and she scoffed and as she started pacing, his eyes followed her every step, "I needed to hear it from her, I just couldn't believe that stories you told about her in your past when in the present time she laughs as she slaughters entire villages! How could I believe you?!"

"Because I have never lied to you!"

"I never said you lied!"

"Then what?! I blew it out of proportion?! My memories were those of an infatuated child?!"

"Yes!"

"Then tell me, Charming! What did you find?! What stories did my beloved stepmother tell you after you tortured them from her lips!"

"It wasn't at all like that, Snow-!"

"Tell me!" She roared and he grew more and more uncomfortable in his own skin.

"You were right," he told her and her rage was replaced with misery and guilt as she sucked in a sharp and shaky breath. "She loves you and she knows that if she were to ever manage to kill you it would be her biggest regret and she would hate herself for it until she day she died. But she hates you so much that she doesn't care. She would still kill you if given the chance. It doesn't make any sense!" He exclaimed with a tired laugh because it truly just didn't make sense.

"Tell me more."

"No."

"David! Tell me-!"

"It is not my place to tell her life story!" He shouted back and flung his arms up and out, "it was not my place to even take it in the first place!"

"Well then why did you?!"

"Because I needed answers! But I regretted it the moment I had them!"

"What did you do to her?! She told me you went to Rumplestiltskin! Is that true?!" she yelled and he gave a bitter laugh and worked the tension from his jaw as he looked away from her, "is it?!"

"Yes," he answered shortly and she laughed as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

"So not only did you hurt her but you put yourself at risk to do so?!"

"He didn't want anything for it, Snow! He said the price would come in time and he wanted no part in it!"

"And you decided that was the thing to do! To pay the price that Rumplestiltskin himself wanted no part in! God, David!" She cried as she turned a quarter step so she wasn't looking at him.

"Whatever price becomes of this, it is mine to pay, it is mine and mine alone to carry," he told her and she gave a tired laugh in return and shook her head.

"You would like to think that, wouldn't you," she shot back and gave him one last look before she scoffed in frustration and walked away from him.

...

David had wandered deeper in to the forest, following the vague directions of a young squire who had followed the queen upon her departure from the group only to have his knife stolen and his life threatened by the woman when she caught him. It didn't surprise David. The queen was no idiot and she was far too careful to be followed without noticing. What she needed a knife for he didn't know though. But he quietly stepped through the trees all the same so as not to startle the woman or set off her temper.

When he did find her she was with her father and her horse. Her untacked stallion was laying off to the side with his legs tucked beneath him and his muzzle balanced on the mossy ground as he slept and while David rolled his eyes at the bipolar creature, he was most fascinated by Regina and her father.

She looked just as livid and dissatisfied as she had the day before but she had told him that her father knew better than to be in her company in such a state. And yet there he was. She sat on a log with her back against a tall thick tree and her legs outstretched in front of her, her knees bent just enough to put her feet flat on the log and accommodate the old man sitting at them. He sat there kindly and spoke words that David could not hear but could see Regina was not pleased by. If not the fluctuations of her expression then the aggressiveness of the movements of the knife in her hand were enough to tell him such.

He didn't know what she was doing with it. He couldn't see from where he stood. But she was working on something in her lap as her father spoke and tried to coax her to do the same. She didn't speak more than a few words at a time though and every time she did speak it seemed to tire the old man further. He didn't give up though. He reached over and placed a kind hand on his daughter's calf and even though she stopped her knife and shot him a glare, the old man didn't pull away. He left his hand there and after a handful of seconds, Regina busied herself with her stolen knife once more. And then the pair fell silent and the old man remained affectionate while Regina remained bitter and her stallion remained dozed.

But David still didn't understand what was different. Why would she accept company now when she portrayed the same rage she had before she started beating him with a frying pan. He couldn't let it go so he studied her harder from his place a fair distance away from her. He looked past her face and found her body lacking its usual angry tension. He watched her movements and now that there were no words being exchanged, her hands and arms moved more fluidly and more carefully. And as her attention focused on whatever distraction laid in her lap, the lividity settled in to irritation.

They were all such subtle things though. Things that a person wouldn't see unless they were looking for them. It had David even more enthralled by her and he could feel himself starting to grow more attached. He wanted to see this woman relaxed. He wanted to see her smile. He wanted to know what she looked like when she wasn't angry and twisted.

He hadn't meant to take a step forward but he had and in the process of doing so, the dozing stallion flicked his ears toward him and lifted his head. Effectively alerting his rider and her father to his presence in the trees. Regina's eyes were on him immediately and there was a scowl on her lips just as quickly. It made him want to roll his eyes and wring her neck. It was so tiring being greeted with such harshness even if he did deserve it. He was just in a touchy mood after such a personal fight with Snow.

He committed to being caught though. He didn't hesitate and stare at her, he merely kept moving forward with a slight frown and she grew more and more bitter and tense with every step he took. Why was he even bothering. "We are ready to start moving."

"I will not ride with you," she snarled and he shook his head as he stopped a few paces from them.

"Snow doesn't want you to ride with me either."

She was confused by his reply and her brow furrowed in suit as she tipped her head up and looked down her nose at him. Snow could have requested to ride with her for selfish reasons but that wouldn't account for the shepherd's wording or his tired tone. So she could only then assume that Snow White was doing what Snow White loved most; protecting those she cared about. It made Regina smirk and then give an amused but bitter laugh.

"What is so funny?"

"I need to be rid of you idiots," she sneered and then swung her legs off the log, dropping her whittled piece of wood and tucking the dagger in to the waist of her pants as she walked. But her path was promptly blocked by David and the hairs rose firm on the back of her neck with her anger.

The glare she shot him was almost enough to put Medusa to shame but he stood strong and denied her passage, "dagger."

"I like this knife," she argued even though she really didn't care for it in the slightest. It was just something to do.

"Why do you seem to believe you are permitted a weapon while incarcerated, your majesty?" He pondered aloud and finished with a forced smile. Her bitter smile only curved higher as her eyes narrowed and she effortlessly snatched the blade from her side and spun it up between their faces. Cooperative. "Thank you," he nodded and then reached to take it from her. But before he could she had flipped it in her hand and sunk it down to its hilt in to the muscle of his thigh.

He shouted in outrage and pain as he stumbled off to the side a small ways but she didn't care. Merely smiled sweetly with a tilt of her head and walked back toward their travelling party with a quick call for her stallion to get up and follow. Seething through his teeth, David carefully wrapped his hand around the hilt of the blade and watched the dark stallion get up and trot after his queen and David simply laughed in disbelief and annoyance. That damn woman. With a series of quick deep breaths to prepare himself, he quickly pulled out the knife with another shout of pain but the blade came out clean. Not a drop of blood shed. Not even a slice in the fabric of his pants and with the blade gone from his leg, the pain quickly disappeared.

He was going to have to talk to Rumplestiltskin about getting this protection spell upgraded to block the pain as well.

"I am sorry for my daughter," Henry apologized as he approached the shepherd with his daughter's tack in his arms, "she was not always this way."

With another deep breath to gather himself, David nodded and shoved the dagger in to his belt, "I know."

He did know. Now. He knew there was once a time in her life that the queen wouldn't hurt a fly. Wouldn't even think to. And now she was stabbing people when she was annoyed. Quite a life she had lived. With a shake of his head, David turned to the old man and out of habit, reached forward and took the saddle from his old arms.

"You don't have to do that."

"It is quite alright. You have enough on your plate," David excused and the old man nodded and shrugged the bridle better on his shoulder. "What were you arguing about?" David questioned and wasn't truly expecting an answer. But he got it and was surprised by it.

"She doesn't want to return to the palace."

"No?"

"Too many horrible memories," Henry told him with a shake of his head and kept his eyes on his daughter ahead.

"...Why not tell us before making arrangements to go there?" David questioned with a frown and the old man laughed under his breath.

"You are banishing her. Not setting her free. It is not supposed to be a pleasurable experience, she doesn't have a choice in where you and Snow White send her," he shook his head at the man who frowned deeper and then Henry looked back up to his daughter, "besides," he shook his head once more with a quieter voice, "she doesn't have anywhere else to go."

...

She was itching. Just itching to get out of their company but as Regina stood at the gates to her palace she wanted nothing more than to fall to her knees and cry against its bars. She did not want to be there. She wanted to scream and shout and set fire to it in the hopes that every foul memory would burn away with it.

But she didn't. She couldn't. Not with so many eyes watching her. So she kept staring up at the silver spires and tried so very hard to come up with any excuse to give them to let her get away from its walls. Anything. Anything but the truth. The truth wouldn't work anyway. David already had the truth and he was standing in silence despite knowing every detail of what she had endured in there. Snow would react differently, she was sure, but she couldn't tell Snow the truth. She couldn't tell anyone the truth. Wouldn't.

So she stood in misery resigning herself to the rest of her life and was only disturbed from herself when footsteps approached and halted behind her. When she turned around she was scowling at Snow White, not letting her see so much as a flicker of her ache to be free of this place. To be free of her. To be free of this life.

Approaching her stepmother had put Snow back on the brink of tears and when the woman turned with such a cruel scowl, Snow felt her heart break for the thousandth time that day. She couldn't help but wonder if she was ever going to see her smile again. She didn't believe she would. Not a smile that mattered anyway. And standing there before her now almost within arm's length...it was killing her.

"I miss you," she breathed with a shake of her head but Regina did nothing but blink at her. She didn't want to let her go. She wanted to hug her and hold her until everything was better, she wanted to fix everything. But the woman did say a word or move a muscle. She simply stood tall and proud in her loathing and Snow felt her control slipping. It had been such a horribly emotional day. If only she would just, "come back home with us," she pleaded softly and for a moment, just a moment, Snow thought she was going to accept. But then there was a bitter breath of laughter as she prowled forward and Snow's throat and chest ached with sorrow and loss as she looked between those dark eyes.

"I have fully cooperated under your wishes. Return what you have taken from me," she demanded lowly, her voice like velvet wrapping itself around the girl barely a stride from her. The deepest parts of her begged her to reconsider. Pleaded that she take the princess' offer to leave the dark palace behind her.

But she could not bend to Snow White.

"Yes," Snow replied under her breath and even though it had been just a single word, her voice still cracked and showed her sorrow. Regina didn't care and it reminded Snow once more of the days where Regina would soften at the smallest hint of unhappiness or distress in her voice or expression. Or the days she possessed such kindness and concern she would gallop after a wild horse and pull a terrified young girl from its back. But now those eyes were hard and those lips didn't so much as whisper a tender frown or quiet smile. It killed her.

"You still have your magic, its use has just been blocked," she started and focused all her energy on keeping her voice steady as she reached in to her pocket and retrieved a small orb roughly the size of a walnut. It was a spell. White and foggy as it swirled around its enclosed glass like the clouds of a building storm. Then she offered it to Regina and the woman took it without question and began to study it while Snow watched the white smoke darken in to purple and grey.

Magic was truly fascinating. "Blue said all you have to do is-," her instructions were cut short when Regina crushed the orb in her palm and sucked in a deep breath. The woman's cleverness almost made her smile. "Break the glass," Snow finished pointlessly and soaked in every detail of Regina for she knew that she would disappear at any moment. Then Regina opened her eyes and Snow's heart jumped for gone were the dark brown irises and in their place were eyes taken over by a swirling purple so dark it was nearly black. And then the woman blinked and her eyes were cleared once more but Snow only saw them for a moment before Regina had engulfed herself in thick purple smoke along with her horse and her father.

She was gone and silence took her place. Silence that rang in Snow's ears as she looked up at the palace that had once been her home. She felt guilty. Guilty and ashamed and completely helpless. There was nothing she could do without making things worse. So she closed her eyes and took a deep breath and as she lifted her hands to rub over her face and in to her hair, she tried to come to terms with abandoning her dearest family member. And then her attempts were interrupted.

"I am going to stay behind with her," David spoke his thoughts aloud and his voice sounded completely foreign to his own ears for he hadn't permitted the words to actually leave his head. But they had. And he didn't take them back. He was a little surprised to find he truly did want to stay. The thought of leaving made his spine shiver and his gut twist. And when Snow turned around she was at a complete loss for words.

So they merely found themselves staring at one another while their company awaited instruction. And then David was shaking his head and looking over Snow's shoulder to the dark palace behind her, "we are not on good terms but...I don't know what it is, I just need to stay...I want to stay," he told her and after another moment or two of silence, Snow stepped in to him and wrapped her arms around his middle in a suffocating hug filled with relief and gratitude.

...

She was laughing but the tears in her eyes were not those stemmed from her sense of humour nor were they those connected with amusement. Her mouth was not pulled in to a smile but rather a sneer of clenched teeth as she stormed down the hall of her castle. Her steps were long and harsh against the marble floor and the tail of her riding coat flowed and flapped behind her with every sharp step and smooth sway of her hips.

Her fingers were clenched and then flexed with magic and while she did have it back, she found no comfort in it. It merely amplified the anger she felt, the betrayal of Snow White, and her hatred of that palace. And oh how she hated it. She wanted to burn it to the ground. She wanted nothing to be left of it, nothing but scorched earth where it once stood. Maybe then she could escape, maybe then she would be free.

But she needed it.

"Child, we needn't stay here," Henry tried as he trailed behind his darling daughter. How he had failed her.

"And where am I to go?!" She cried out and hated that her voice was more of a sob than anything else, "what am I to do?!"

"Appeal to Snow White," he pleaded behind her and she shook her head with an utterly miserable laugh, "request passage from her kingdom, leave this all behind you, start a new life-"

"How?!" She roared as she spun around and her hair and coat spun around her with the motion. Over her shoulder and around her ankles before settling. "How could I do that, there is not a soul alive who does not know who I am! I have cast far too large a shadow and spilled far too much blood to ever be forgotten or forgiven! I am the Evil Queen! And I will not plea to Snow White, nor will I retreat!"

"Your pride is dragging you in to further misery and insanity, you do not have to live this life."

"My pride is all I have left," she snarled as she stepped closer.

"But it does not have to be so!"

"What life do you see for me?!" She cried out with a wave of her arms while her heart ached and her tears finally started to fall, "what possible happiness do you believe I am capable of finding?! After all I have done?! What do you see?! Do you see me running away from here?! Do you see me on a working farm with a man of my choosing?! Children running in my shadow?! Do you see my past never catching up with me?! Because I see none of that, daddy! None of it!" She shouted and while her burning anger pulled at her snarl, her pain and sorrow and loneliness had her practically hyperventilating between her choked sobs.

"I am exhausted!" She cried with closed eyes and with a shape exhale, she felt her shoulders deflate. And then she felt her father's hands on her and she did allow herself to just give in and tip in to his arms and cry. She didn't want to be in that palace.

...

She had spent the following hours destroying her room and pulling her hair free of its pins. Her throat was raw from her shouting and her stomach was sore from her sobs. She was sure her eyes were still tainted red but she didn't truly care. The only one watching her was her mirror through his shattered glass. Even though she couldn't see his face, she knew he was there. He was always there.

But now she was quiet. She sat at her vanity silent and still, appreciating the warmth and relaxation in her muscles that came after destroying her bedchamber. Everything was still. Her body and even her mind as she pondered the sharpness of the tip of one of her hair pins. It wasn't sharp. But it wasn't dull either. And as her thumb dragged over it for the hundredth time, she wondered if it could break her skin if she pushed hard enough. It probably could. But surely she had something sharper. Perhaps her seamstress had a needle large enough. Or perhaps she could work out the science behind the apple she gave to Snow White.

It was a curious idea. Hurting Snow by putting herself in a virtually unbreakable curse. She would obsess over it, ruin her life with the utter need to free her. Regina could go to sleep knowing that she was still Snow White's undoing and that was a tempting thought. She had nothing here left to live for. There was nothing she could do. She couldn't hurt them.

The only issue was her father. Once again love was her weakness and her mother's words echoed in her mind and made her lip curl back in distaste. She could be free of her too. Or perhaps not.

She didn't know what would await her if she were to curse herself to sleep. But surely it would be worth it. Surely it would be worth finally besting that insipid girl. The girl that never failed to stab her in the back. She wanted her gone. She wanted to break her.

"It's not worth it," David spoke up as he got closer to her and she whirled around in her seat with wide eyes. He hadn't been standing there long. But he had been there long enough to watch her focus so intently on the pin in her hand. A pin that very much resembled the needle of a spinning wheel that Maleficent had used. "Snow still has nights she cannot sleep because of the nightmares. And she has very little to regret. I can only imagine what would be waiting for you," he explained and she didn't seem to quite grasp the fact that he was there.

"You look like hell," he noted with a slight nod and when her expression turned feral, he decided it best not to announce the state of the room. But she did look like hell. Her hair was a mess, her clothing slightly dishevelled, her eyes rimmed with red and puffier than they should be, her makeup still managed to look undisturbed though. It was strange to him to see her falling apart. She was always so impeccably put together. Even in the rags they had given her in her cell. There was never a hair out of place.

"What are you doing here?" She growled and when he took another step forward, she stood up and he stopped.

"I stayed behind."

"You are not welcome here."

"I am not leaving."

She scoffed at that in disbelief and quickly felt the tension and anger seeping back in to her body with her bloodlust. This insolent shepherd had a death wish and she so dearly wanted to fulfill it.

"And what exactly are your motivations for such a hopelessly moronic idea?" She shook her head as she stepped closer and then taunted with a smooth turn and downward tilt of her head, "are you and your precious fiancé still caught up in the notion of rehabilitating me?"

"I do not know why I am here," he answered truthfully and she grinned but while it would have ordinarily been threatening and had proved to be threatening in the past, with her tangled hair, tear burned eyes, and dishevelled clothing, it only made him pity her. He would never tell her as such lest he wish to lose his head but it was what he felt. She was a ruined woman and it put an awful ache in his chest. "But I could not bring myself to leave you here alone. So I am here."

"You are an incessant pest," she hissed as she slunk closer and her rage and hatred toward this man caused her throat to grow uncomfortably tight. She just wanted to scream at him to go away. She wanted to tear him limb from limb and feed him to her hounds, "get out of my sight."

"No."