"So did you think of a way to describe how you escaped?" Arion asked, after taking a bite of the rabbit leg and swallowing. It amused me that he still seemed to have those impeccable manners even though he was out in the woods.

As if this was really company to use it in. The moment he'd started cooking the animals, I'd found I was famished. When they'd cooled enough (and I was the person who discovered they weren't cool enough, much to the annoyance of my fingers and, later, tongue) I basically attacked the food. My mother would have smacked me for how I'd ripped off a leg and started gnawing at it.

I had the decency to swallow before answering. I drew the line there. I could eat like a pig, but I wouldn't speak with my mouth full. A weird place to start caring, but Mom had scolded me most for that particular fault as a kid. That had stuck with me.

"Well," I started, licking my lips. I really hadn't been formulating those words. I'd been too busy dealing with the emotional angst of this weird new style of communication with Arion. "Well, you know how I said your shield vibrated? It kind of reminded me of when someone plucks a guitar string."

He nodded. "See, that's the way to describe things so people can understand," Arion interjected. A smile curled his lips upward.

I made a face at him. "Don't interrupt, it's rude," I shot back.

The tiny smile turned into a grin that just wasn't fair to exist on the face of someone I couldn't tolerate. "So you heard guitar. What next?"

"You sound like a therapist. And so this happened… how did that make you feel?" I replied snarkily, mocking the bland therapist voice perfectly.

He arched an eyebrow. "Are you going to continue or make snide comments?"

I grimaced, and tried to think of a way to make what I did not sound bonkers. There was no good way to avoid that. "Okay, honestly, this seems crazy, but the guitar almost began to sound like a tango. So I thought maybe I should dance to the music with the shield and it worked which was bizarre but there it is." It came out in a rush, but at least I'd got it out there.

"Sounds typical of your magic," he said. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't really control it – it just happens when you're inspired."

I shrugged. "I never really thought about it. I learned how to make it so that every dance it doesn't automatically become a spell. You're right though – most of the time my dances aren't intentionally magical."

He frowned. "We'll have to work on that." I responded with my own displeased expression. I'd forgotten that "training", whatever that entailed, was coming. My stomach churned, twisting up with nerves. I didn't want to do this. Of all the people I wanted teaching me; Arion was easily at the bottom of the list. I'd even take Thistle back over him. The prince caught my expression. "Don't make that face, we need to teach you."

"Why?" I asked, perhaps a little desperately. "Listen, I know how to make my magic not work. I'm not a danger to others."

"That's the problem," Arion responded. "Do you think what happened at the beach was bad? The moment my brother's agents find us, worse than that will be after you. I can't defend us against them by myself for long. You need to be able to protect yourself. And you need to be able to do it without dancing." I was about to protest again, but he held up a hand. "Let's use the beach as an example again, shall we? You couldn't dance then. What if you simply aren't able to dance the next time? You're powerful enough you can learn to control it without the dance, we just have to teach you how."

I crossed my arms, and I glared at him. "Don't pout, Grace. It's not becoming." He stared back at me levelly, clearly not succumbing to my look.

"I was glaring, not pouting," I replied coolly, my eyes narrowing marginally.

He smirked. "Then how do explain that excessive amount of lower lip you're displaying?" Arion reached across and tugged at my lower lip with his thumb. His other fingers very gently grazed my cheek and jaw line as he did so. I was thrown off, and jerked away, surprised by how his hands were just a little rough, enough to add the slightest bit of delightful friction to the soft touch. My face felt a little tingly where he'd made contact. I tried to ignore the feeling, numbing myself to the sensations.

I distracted myself by pointedly tossing the bone from my piece of rabbit into the woods and then turning back to him to ask if he had a napkin in his possession. I didn't know if I was imagining things, but he seemed to be staring at me. I shook it off as that look was gone almost as soon as my eyes caught his.

"Use the grass," he said, not unkindly, simply matter-of-factly. "I left my travel napkins at home."

"Well excuse me. I thought maybe, since you can make a tent and a pair of pants to appear out of nowhere, that maybe you'd have a napkin." I did as he'd suggested though, wiping my hands off on the grass.

"I only made those appear because they were more important. I'm sorry, but I won't use my magic to get you a napkin because your hands are a little messy." The response was full of sass.

I chuckled, despite myself. When Arion decided to have a personality, he could actually be a humorous companion. I caught him grinning at me, and I quickly looked away. This camaraderie… what the hell, it was weird.

I rubbed my hands together and moved to stand. He was soon standing too, and held out a hand to help me up. I ignored it, and easily stood up. "I'm a big strong girl, I can stand up on my own," I stated aloofly. I wasn't quite ready for this at all.

"And I was being gentlemanly," Arion said defensively. "There's nothing wrong with that."

I shrugged, trying to pretend that I wasn't thrown by the new way to interact. "Still don't need help." I walked into the center of the clearing and then turned back to him, sighing. "So. Training. What are we going to do?"

Arion gave me a solemn look. "Are you not going to complain about my methods and are you willing to do this without being too much of a pain?"

"I can't promise either of those things, but is that really going to be a new element in our relationship?" I asked, arching an eyebrow and crossing my arms. I gave him my best smirk.

The prince shook his head and chuckled, which was a really nice sound coming from him. "No, I suppose not." His eyes connected with mine. "Just promise that you won't resist too much. I really am trying to help. I don't mean to be the villain."

A bitter response was on the tip of my tongue, something along the lines of how bad a job he'd done with that. I swallowed it. He was trying. It was weird, but he was being friendly. "I won't resist too much. Just be aware that I don't put up with abuse."

"Believe me, I know." Arion went back to his horse, pulled something out of a saddle bag, and then stepped towards the clearing. His expression had become serious. With that conversation, he'd stopped being the friendly Arion and was now more the stony Arion I'd spent more time than I liked with.

He held out his hand. In it was a tiny orb, which seemed to be made of glass. "This is something that Thistle taught me with, to show me how to counteract magic. I stole it from her before I left the palace, figuring I'd need to teach you once I found you in a mess of your own magic." He paused and then said, "You're actually much better off than I thought you would be."

"Why, your majesty, was that a complement?" I asked, before I could stop myself. I was going to relish the moment if it was.

"It's merely an assessment of your current skills," he replied levelly.

"So you don't want to admit that you were wrong or give me a foothold to stand on when I say that I don't want training." Yes, I was rubbing it in, but it made me feel good. I'd done well all on my own, he'd alluded to that.

"Grace," he replied warningly. I tried and failed to suppress the pleased smile playing at my lips, but I didn't say anything. While his tone wasn't as threatening as before, I'd satisfied my need to point out the vague praise he'd given. "Are you done?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, beaming. "Continue, this young grasshopper is eager to learn." The sarcasm was just natural. It was oddly natural. We'd fallen into our banter easily, like if we hadn't spent so much of our time hating each other, we might have gotten along in the beginning. I swept this thought under a mental carpet, along with other thoughts from this morning.

He blonde locks danced around his head as he shook it, but despite the action that hinted at annoyance, I noticed him trying to hide his own smile. Simply bizarre. It was another thing I was willing to chock up to my imagination. "Anyway," he said pointedly, like a teacher trying to get a distracted class back on topic. "What I do is I put a bit of magic in this orb. Every time you touch it, you will be shocked. At least, until you figure out how to counteract the magic."

"Pfffft, that'll be a piece of cake," I said, grinning. If this was all that training was going to be, then whatever.

"Oh, yes, and you can't dance." My triumphant feeling deflated faster than a popped balloon.

"How am I supposed to do that?" I asked. "I'm going to get shocked every time, and I'm not a glutton for punishment."

"What happened to it being a piece of cake?" Arion replied calmly, but I heard the challenge in his voice. He was daring me. He was bating me with my ego. I knew that, and I responded anyway. Because a Donovan never gives up.

I tightened my jaw and leveled a glare at him. Well, I might as well get it over with. I reached for the damn orb, gripping it with my whole hand.

I cursed, pulling my arm away. As expected, I was shocked. But it wasn't just a startling shock like you get from static electricity. It was like that and all the blood draining out of your arm, but the feeling goes up your elbow and it hurts ten times more. The sensation lingered unpleasantly, and I shook my arm and rubbed at my wrist, where the feeling seemed worse.

"Fuck," I whispered, chanting it like a curse. I took a few deep breaths. I could feel the pricks of tears in my eyes from the shock of sudden pain, but I tried to swallow them. When the pain faded more, I finally made eye contact with Arion.

"What the hell?" I hissed, still coping. "Is there an easier mode?" I cussed a little more, because it seemed to make me feel better. "Does it need to be on death-shock mode?"

"Don't be overdramatic," Arion said pointedly, but I heard the suppressed laughter in his voice. "It's not that bad. But perhaps more caution when entering the situation would be wise?"

"Oh, shut up," I replied, turning away to take one last, deeper breath and then placed my hands on my hips and turned to face him. The hand still ached. Motherfucker, I thought vehemently, wondering if I could summon my magic to make Arion disappear. No response. Traitor, I told it.

I glared at the orb, and poked it, trying to focus something on it. The unpleasant tingle shot up my finger and into my hand. I tried not to cuss, failed, and shook my hand more. Son of a bitch, I thought. At this rate, I knew I was going to lose all feeling in my hand. Or perhaps never be able to move it again.

This is when I resorted to simply crossing my arm and staring down at the orb, silently willing it to explode. Again, nothing happened. I grit my teeth. This was already old, and I hadn't really even gotten started.

The prince watched silently. His amusement was radiating off him. My eyes snapped up to his face, where I could fully appreciate his dancing gray eyes. He had beautiful eyes. My annoyance allowed me to ignore it. "Do you find my struggles funny, your prince-liness?" My voice was dangerous.

"Schadenfreude, Grace. You'd laugh if you were watching yourself."

I scowled, and then thought about it. He was right, of course. I was approaching this with no strategy and probably looked like an idiot, cussing and waving my arms around. This didn't help to improve my mood. "Well…" I couldn't think of a comeback. I was prepared to resort to 'you're just a stupid face' when Arion spoke again.

"Perhaps thinking back to your process this morning would be helpful." His voice drifted lightly into my angry thoughts, and I considered his words.

Think back to my process this morning. What had I done this morning? I'd felt the shield and broken free. How was that supposed to help? I'd been about to snipe about how that was a lame attempt at a hint when it hit me.

I'd felt the magic and figured out how it worked.

Biting my lip, I held out my hand and allowed it to hover over the orb like a fortune-teller would when reading a crystal ball. I tried to feel the magic like I had before. I allowed my attention to focus upon the ball, and took deep breaths to center my thoughts.

There it was. I felt the magic licking the surface on the orb. It was like when you know your hair is standing on end because of static. And it was reminding me of something. It felt like the itch to dance to your favorite song in a ridiculous way. I nearly started to dance, but I resisted the urge, knowing that I couldn't do that.

"Have you got the feel of the magic?" Arion asked softly, his voice gently encouraging.

"I do. But I need to dance. I-"

"Focus the feeling on the orb. Push the urge to dance into the other magic."

"That's stupid," I replied, still attentive to the ball and the magic in it.

"Try it." He insisted.

I sighed. "If I get shocked, you owe me."

"Grace, just shut up and do as I say for thirty seconds," he replied. I might have been offended, but he delivered the words in such a teasing manner that I knew it wasn't wholly serious.

I narrowed my eyes, and pushed idea of the dance I was thinking of towards the electric magic, and touched the orb. I expected to feel a shock, but instead felt a steady stream of the emotion from my mental-dance from the core of my being and into the glass in Arion's hand. I was so proud of myself, the emotion grew. That was when Arion yelped and pulled his hand away.

I couldn't help it, I laughed. Hearing the high-and-mighty prince yelp was fantastic, especially since it was followed by the most delightfully disgruntled looking scowl at his hand I'd ever seen. I was almost expecting him to pout. The feeling of success made the moment even headier, and soon I was giggling uncontrollably.

"Oh my god you yelped!" I wheezed between laughs. "You sounded like a girl."

He tried to look aloof, but I could tell his pride was lightly wounded. "I was startled. You weren't supposed to push the shock back." Arion paused. "And I did no such thing." He added. When I didn't stop, he grimaced. "Would you stop?" He demanded.

"Schadenfreude, Arion." I replied, calmed enough to use his words against him. I giggled a little more, and then beamed at him. He was giving me this look that I'd never seen anyone ever give me before. A little like they were awestruck. Like the other odd looks, it was gone in a flash. There was an awkward silence, though, as I tried to process what I knew I had seen and he did… whatever. Very carefully, neither of us stared at each other.

He cleared his throat in the end. "So…" the prince said, his voice almost a little uncomfortable. First time I'd ever head that from him. "Since you've figured out how to counteract that magic, let's work on spur of the moment spells, shall we? If you end today with the ability to at least defend yourself, that would be excellent."

I nodded and then looked at him, giving a small smile. "Okay," I said. I decided that I'd focus my energies on training rather than the weird looks and emotions the looks gave me. They were no good. The hell-practice would give me something else to focus on, even if I didn't like it. It was easier to handle that than this other stuff.

I was fairly certain that I didn't want to deal with any "other stuff" involving Arion. Being friends was bad enough. I wasn't ready to cope with "other stuff" that had to do with a man I had hated for so long.

"So what's the next exercise?" I asked. "Oh, and take your electro-orb back." I tossed it back at him. He easily snatched it from the air and then rolled it towards the camp and away from where we stood. I wiped my not-sweaty palms off for no reason.

"Now I hurl spells at you, and you try to quickly figure them out and neutralize them." Arion seemed just as eager as I was to move on from the moment. I could feel him relaxing even as he settled into his teacher-voice.

"This is going to go badly." I muttered.

"Focus, so it doesn't." He replied, matter-of-factly. I was glad to be back to banter. Banter was safe ground, and it gave me a somewhat familiar emotion to deal with around Arion. "I'll cast them slowly, and then as you get better, will make the magic move to you faster and faster. And remember, no dancing."

I felt myself tensing and bracing myself for what was to come. Well, here goes nothing, I thought, feeling the magic building up around him.