A/N: I didn't expect to write this chapter as soon as I did but inspiration struck again :) thanks for all the feedback on the last chapter and for sharing your thoughts, please continue to let me know what you think (good or bad), I truly value your feedback.

All errors are mine.

Chapter 6

No More Names

There was no time to dwell on the past, no time to plan for the future, all they could do was walk and keep walking, through the deepest dwellings of the forest, through the valleys and up the hillsides to get as much distance between them and their aggressors as possible before it was all too late.

Helia stumbled slightly and placed his hand on a nearby rock to steady himself. His eyes lifted to the witch before him, still walking without any sign of distress or weakness though they had been travelling for hours. "How much further?"

"Today?" She asked.

"No," his head shook, "total." Her throat hummed as she turned and walked a few steps toward him. Her eyes drifting upwards, as if she was trying to calculate something, before she looked back and sighed. "Not sure."

"What do you mean?"

"I've never stopped to calculate it before," she admitted, finally taking a seat on another rock as Helia moved around and did the same, flexing his damaged hand which was now slowly healing back to its full strength. "All my life I was told to run and never stop, I guess they never specified the exact distance." Her arms crossed and Helia's head drooped slightly.

"Sorry…I guess you probably wouldn't be able to calculate it even if you did." A ghost of a smile pulled on Icy's lips as Helia's mouth opened and he shook his head. "I didn't mean…I'm sorry – that came out wrong."

"It's okay, I know what you meant-" Icy interrupted, watching his face become relieved. "And you'd be right. I don't think I could remember how long it's been. We've travelled between planets, across deserts, through forests and icy glades… I don't think anyone in the magical dimension has travelled as much as my family has."

"Don't you get tired of it?" Helia asked softly and she nodded with a soft smile.

"I do… because of this," she pointed to her tattoo, "I've been doomed to a life that I never wanted, one that will never be truly normal. I used to dream of a time when everything was simpler, when I had a place to call my home and people who loved me…but I guess fate has other plans because now all I dream about is tragedy." She paused and stood to her feet, her eyes drifting to the distant valley below the two of them, the sun in the distance bathing everything it could touch with its warm midday glow.

"I will never get to see the lives that others live, never have the luxury of staying in one place or living by routine, never have a place to call my home," she laughed slightly. "But the funniest thing of all is that others want this life…they call it freedom," again she met Helia's eyes and he knew what was coming next, "I call it hell."

Something glistened in the distance, making Helia's eyes widen before he rushed forwards and tackled Icy to the ground. The shot of magic chipped the rock he had been sitting on and instantly the two of them ran. Pulling Icy to her feet Helia made for the trees and once she found her stride she took a single moment to look down to her right.

Helia's hand held her tightly in his grasp, and yet she didn't follow her initial reaction to pull it away. She wasn't sure which one of them was leading the other through the undergrowth, away from the shouts that followed the two as they ran, but she did know that the last man who held her hand was her father. For the briefest moment she swore he was the one by her side, pulling her along and commanding her to run with her sisters and never turn back. His words were what pulled her through every moment inside this living nightmare, but, just as he had been her crutch during times of stress, and just as her sisters had been her support during times of crisis, he had also been ripped away from her life prematurely.

Anyone that she allowed herself to be near, family or not, were putting their lives in danger and she wasn't ready to let Helia be another casualty in her hazardous life. She might have only known him for a day or two, but it didn't matter. Too many people had lost their lives because of her misdeeds, either directly because of her own two hands, or indirectly because of the consequences of her actions. Her father, her mother, her sisters, her ancestors… there were already too many names on that list, the names of people that she and her sisters had hid with, of those who had offered them shelter for the night or given them food and warmth during the harshest winter storm.

Helia wasn't going to be another one, if there was going to be another name added to that list - it was going to be her own.

"This way," she commanded, pulling Helia toward a series of bushes protected by tall grass. The two hit the ground flat and remained still, breathing quietly and searching ahead for their followers. It didn't take long for a group of four or five of them to show up. They split up to search the area, a few heading to their right and others to their left. One of them started their way and Helia pulled on Icy's shoulder to try and get her to move but she refused. Instead she placed a hand over the one Helia had against her. 'Don't move,' she mouthed silently when one of the hooded men pulled back the branches and leaned forwards, looking straight into Helia's eyes.

His breathing stopped, his heart beats becoming erratically fast as adrenaline pulsed through his body, making his legs prepare themselves to start the arduous task of running once more. But, to his surprise, just as he was about to move and punch the man intruding on his personal space, he pushed the branches back angrily cursing under his breath before reporting back to their leader. "They're not here!"

"Where the hell did they go then!?"

"Maybe down the mountain?" Suggested another before their voices faded and Icy removed her hand from Helia's and rolled onto her back.

"Icy? What's wrong?"

She drew breath from her surroundings before her mark started to burn. Her eyes closed tight as she tried to breathe through the pain.

"Icy?"

"I'm…fine," she managed finally feeling the pain dull so she could focus again. Her eyes opened again slightly and she saw the confusion written in Helia's eyes. It was a mixture of curiosity and fear.

"How did you do that?" He asked, helping Icy sit up. He inspected the tattoo and was pleased to see that it hadn't changed though he couldn't help but notice the way that she removed her wrist from his fingers as if they were made of fire. "If you could do that all along then why didn't you?"

"Because it's a one-time thing," Icy explained, getting to her feet and walking away, making Helia quickly follow. "When we use the time travel, depending on length, we are also awarded a certain period of invisibility after we travel through the portal. It's so that we can slip away should the need arise once we enter the new time period… when I last used this I was too weak to use its full potential so it still carried a residual charge."

"And you just used all of it?"

Icy nodded. "We should keep moving."

"Why not stay here?" Helia asked. "If they've already looked over the area then what are the chances of them coming back again?" Icy didn't know, but she had never stayed in one place for too long, no matter how close the call had been. She didn't reply and instead started trekking further up the ridge, making Helia release a sigh and force himself to follow. He walked by her side, occasionally flickering toward her face to search for anything that told him how to react. Icy seemed to have the ability to be as open as a book one moment and as cold as the material she was named after the next. One moment she was sharing stories, telling him history, her regrets, and the next she was refusing his touch as if it was going to physically harm her.

The witch was a hard person to read, and maybe those little moments that they had shared through conversation were just a lapse of her mind telling her to relax her guard a little. And maybe the reason her wall had rebuilt seconds after it had occurred was because something had triggered it or her brain kicked back into gear and told her to be wary. But for whatever reason he knew that Icy had saved his life more than once over their last few days together and no matter what kind of person she was, she needed to have a heart under that tough exterior somewhere.

Silence crept between the two, leaving the only sounds those of the grass crunching beneath their shoes and the birds whistling merrily in the trees above.

After they reached the final crescent in the hilltop Icy stopped walking, catching Helia's attention immediately. "Icy?" He asked from behind as she turned her head to the right and finally willed her body to turn.

"I think we should separate."

"What?"

"I said-"

"I heard what you said," Helia interrupted, stepping closer. "But I don't understand…Why don't you want me with you? Is it because I'm slowing you down because I can keep going or run when you want me to I'll do whatever you need-"

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"Everyone that has helped me, or hidden me in the past, has been mixed up in my world," she paused, swallowing the building saliva in her mouth. "I don't want that for you."

"You didn't bring me into this," Helia replied, watching the way she looked away. He reached and took a hold of her shoulders to make her look at him. "You didn't make me do anything. I was the one who brought you into my home, I was the one who treated your wounds and when you gave me the ultimatum I decided to follow you. You didn't make me choose any of it, you aren't responsible for this."

"I am," she replied, shaking her shoulders from his grasp. "I'm responsible for more death then you will ever see. I have been cursed my entire life…but that doesn't mean that I should drag anyone else down with me."

"I'm not being dragged anywhere," Helia replied honestly, though another part of his brain instantly replied 'yes you bloody hell are by the fact that she is probably your only chance for survival'. "I choose my own path, I don't have anything to return to back home, I didn't really have a life or a purpose after Flora died, so I have no reason to leave."

"If you stay with me, you will die… I told you that you wouldn't but I can't promise anything and I shouldn't have misled you."

"With you I die, without you I die," Helia chuckled, "think I'd rather die with someone, who might not even want me around, then do it alone."

Icy didn't look convinced.

"Look…" his voice softened. "As far as I can see it, we are all each other has. I know that without your abilities and your magic I would have died today. I would have been dragged to the wolves but I wasn't because you were there. So no matter what happens, I think we should still do this together, and it's not just because I'm worried that without you I'll die, although I am, it's because even though I don't know you and I don't know everything you've been through, I still would rather follow you on this wild adventure then go home and wallow in my self pity until The Shard are knocking on my door…but if you want to split up, then that's your choice, but you know what I think."

Icy inhaled a breath before she turned, contemplating her decision. She was sick of others putting themselves out to save her life, was sick of them being put into unnecessary danger by following her into the darkness. Though, another small part of her hoped that she wouldn't have to face it alone. She had always had her sisters by her side in the past, had their guidance, their friendship, to guide her through the loneliness of a life on the run. But they were gone now, now she had no one…except him.

Helia, a broken and downtrodden man overcoming the loss of one woman and now stuck in a wild goose chase with another. Relentlessly hunted for doing the only thing that anyone with a true heart would do, show an injured person refuge from the storm and care when they needed it most. Could she really leave him in the cold now? The logical side of her mind screamed to her to do what she needed to do, to keep moving, to keep going solo because fighting for two lives was always harder than fighting for one.

But another part of her could see Helia's need for something, for some kind of purpose. But could survival be that purpose?

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review.