#butch!jim

While you still can, was unspoken.

"I'll text them, or something, but I'm not leaving your side," Claire said. "Not after the amount of dark magic you used. Even I haven't ever tapped beyond my resevoir and into my life force that much. Probably because I was taught to drain the life out of other things, but still."

Some part of Claire wondered if Decimaar functioned in a similar way. She wasn't sure if that was any use, though. Morgana hadn't taught her much about how to put the life force back into a creature, much less a soul.

"Is it really that bad?"

"It's a miracle you're alive. And I don't trust miracles." In Claire's experience, miracles were just the product of meddling wizards, ones more powerful than Claire and Jen.

It had been some sort of miracle that the amulet had chosen her, a seeming human, and called her by her true name. (It had been Merlin using Morgana's apprentice against her.)

It had been a miracle that a fairy was walking the streets of Arcadia despite the centuries of exile after the war with the pixies. (It had been eight years of Morgana's meddling.)

"Okay, then when I see my mom again she can explain why it wasn't a miracle." The way Jen's voice wavered spoke volumes about how much of a miracle it would be for Dr. Lake to still be alive.

"I just hope the Lady hasn't sunk her claws into you."

"You don't call M -" Jen cut herself off at the look Claire gave her. "You don't use her other names anymore. Why now?"

Claire had refused to call Morgana by any of her titles out loud ever since she had come to terms with the knowledge of what Morgana had done to her. She had had parents who loved her. She hadn't been abandoned at the mouth of Morgana's cave. She had had a name, and for eight years Claire had had no name when Morgana had so many names. Even the false name she had been given, Fontaine de Morgan, still had been a way to lay claim over Claire. A fountain of Morgana's magic.

"Names can have power when spoken aloud. You used her staff. I don't want to take any risks."

"I think if her staff was that powerful, it would've been a lot harder for you to fight Angor Rot. You have more of a connection than me, between her hand in your amulet and being raised by her. The magical genetic manipulation is something we both have."

"Please don't take any more risks."

Jen leaned foward and kissed Claire. She began to lean into the kiss before pulling away. "You can't just kiss me expecting that to make me not worried about you."

"We're at war. I don't think we can get away with not taking risks."

"I know, but you know what I mean. No unnecessary risks. You really scared Toby."

And me.

"Okay, okay, no unnecessary risks. Dark magic isn't like a concussion, right?" Jen half-asked, half-yawned.

"What do you mean?"

"Can I go to sleep? Or will I not wake up again?"

"I'll watch over you, but I don't think so."

Jen pulled out her phone as she made herself comfortable on Claire's bed. "Tell your parents."

Claire waited for Jen to fall asleep before unlocking Jen's phone.

This is Claire, she typed. That was the easy part. She kept on typing and hitting the backspace button, trying to figure out what to say. This was why she had considered not going home again, staying Fontaine the Trollhunter instead of becoming Claire once more. Her parents had already lost her once. At least if she hadn't become Claire again, they wouldn't have known it possible to lose her again. The fact that Jen was tossing and turning wasn't helping Claire's concentration.

Jen was likely having a nightmare. Was it induced by the dark magic? Claire having been sent to the Deep with heavy chains binding her wings? The Janus Order?

Out of the corner of her eye, Claire saw Jen's eyelids move. At least whatever nightmare she was having couldn't hurt her here in Claire's room.

Jen's glowing eyes snapped open. This wasn't the first time Jen's eyes had glowed; it was a side effect of her changeling side.

But her eyes weren't glowing blue. Oh, no, they were glowing gold. The same gold that Claire had grown up surrounded by as long as Morgana wasn't ignoring her. The same gold that Claire had once wished her magic had been the same color as, the same gold that Claire had always been thankful that Jen's magic didn't manifest as.

Claire summoned her armor at the same time that Morgana summoned the Skathe-Hrün to Jen's hand. Claire barely raised her shield in time to block the sharp points.

If Jen was controlling her body, Claire wouldn't have been able to dodge what would have been a non-lethal blow in an impromptu sparring session. If Morgana was truly focused on killing Claire, then Claire would probably be dead by now. (She needed to work on her reaction time.)

Claire did the calculations in her head. She couldn't let Morgana take Jen away. Morgana would be more powerful with a physical host, meaning that she probably wanted to take Jen back to the cave to more easily possess her. She was likely more focused on having a host than using her puppet as a lethal weapon.

They wanted to protect her.