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"Help me!" he shouted, but the forest stole his voice

"I thought you were the one," she said

"Lesya--"

"I thought there was love!"

"I don’t belong here in this place; I can touch the wild but--"

"I showed you things," Lesya said, and her voice grew gentle again She ca in that way that had always enraptured hiave you a part of ain I showed you things I’ve never shown anyone else before"

"I knoho else you’re talking about," Jack said And he wished he hadn’t

"Leshii!" Lesya growled, and the trees around theround shook, and the air itself see to draw a breath as she approached him Her hands were clawed before her, and the usual pinkness beneath her nails had turned a pale green

He closed his eyes, saw Eliza and Shepard again, and his mother, and he knew that if he died, she would try to talk to hih one of her terrible séances And confused by panic and terror--both ehtened to a point Jack believed noheavy with him that his mother would succeed

And then a roar, and a sound like the earth breaking, and it was Lesya’s startled cry that ain

At first he could not understand what he was seeing There was a blur ofhe sought was Lesya She was not where she had been standing, so he looked left and right, following the other flashes of greenishdriven back Trees sprouted, fell, and died in seconds, as if he were seeing their whole iree And with each neth between him and Lesya, she was pushed back farther

"Father!" she shouted, and then she started screae that Jack had never heard before And though the words made no sense, the way they were delivered was fa and threatening, following that pattern over and over as Leshii pushed her away

A ed from behind Jack and knelt by his side He was irass as a beard; and his thick vine hair hung down alround The skin of his hands orn bark He was the forest co for the creepers around Jack’s legs

"Leshii," Jack breathed, almost breathless

"Leave," the rated beneath his touch

"What about Lesya?"

The Lord of the Forest blinked, and in that expression Jack sa ain Jack nodded his thanks and left

Once again as he ran, chaos erupted He kept his eyes on the ground before him and resisted the temptation to let his senses wander, because he needed all his wits now The fight continued behind him, but it never sounded any farther away

He could have been running for ht through the forest was haunting and unreal All the animals had fled way ahead of hih the , thu hi to see if they ca, the forest ended, and he stu up toward a low hillside

Jack gasped in surprise "I thought I was in there forever," he whispered Behind him, the sounds of pursuit quietened, and all was silent Is she gone? Now that I’one back to that lonely cabin?

He turned, looking back at the dark forest that seemed to halt so suddenly And then Lesya appeared before hi a few errant leaves from her hair

"I’hed She stepped out frorassland, her s Jack’s senses And then she shrugged herself down into a cougar and pounced

So cat Other shapes streaked in frorunted, flitting back and forth, and then he realized what they were doing--herding Lesya, in her cougar for it down, dise it with one snap of her jaws and jerk of her head

His as there then, nuzzling at his hand and trying to pull him away

"I don’t kno much more I can take," Jack said, and the aniain