He put his spoon down and picked up his bread roll, tearing off chunks and wiping up the last dregs of his stew. After a few moments, I did the same, consuming every last salty drop. There was no point in standing on ceremony here, he had come dressed as a commoner and concealed his true identity as the High Sheriff, I didn’t need to worry about trying to impress him with my ladylike manners.
He chuckled. “I do like to see a woman enjoying her food.”
“Why are you here?” I spat. “The truth.”
He glanced around as rebels started to drift into the great hall for their evening meal, the tables beginning to fill up around us.
“Meet me tonight and I’ll tell you.”
I huffed a laugh. “Why would I do that? You’ll probably arrest me, or kill me on the spot.”
He shook his head. “I won’t, I promise.”
“Why not?”
“Because of this.” He pulled the collar of his shirt to the side an inch and I almost gasped aloud. The mark on his chest sprawled outwards in dark-red tendrils, right over his heart. My hand moved to my own chest, where the pain had been while I’d been running away from the cottage. I had assumed it was the pain I felt from losing Rosemary and seeing Sal and Lavender dragged off to be executed, but perhaps it had been something more than that.
I had thought the enchantment had failed when Rose didn’t wake up. But maybe, just maybe, the spell hadn’t worked on Rose because she’d already been dead. And maybe it had instead transferred to someone else, the nearest living thing. The sheriff I had attacked with my magic.
Had I unknowingly cast the life bond enchantment on my enemy, the country’s highest witch hunter? The very idea made my stomach churn, the vegetable broth threatening to resurface. I stood, staggering away from the table. He stood too, a look of consternation on his face.
“Morgaine,” he muttered, trying not to draw attention to us. “Meet me here after dark. Please.”
I stumbled down the aisle, pushing past rebels carrying bowls of stew, and found the tunnel with the roof openings. I stood there, gulping down fresh air and letting the fine rain mist my skin as the weight of what I had done threatened to crush me.
10
MORGAINE
Islipped out of my room under cover of darkness and padded down the corridor towards the great hall. Rain dripped from the holes carved into the ceiling, and the smell of cool night air made me feel a little less like I’d been entombed.
All I’d thought about as I’d lain on the bed in the shared room I’d been allocated, waiting for night to fall, was the life bond. I had known how dangerous that spell could be, and yet it was the first thing I’d turned to on seeing Rosemary’s broken body. And now here I was, eternally bound to the witch hating sheriff who would kill me as soon as look at me.
Eternity. It would be a painfully long time if I had to spend it with him. After all, I was immortal. Did that immortality extend to the sheriff now? I shuddered at the thought.
The great hall lay in shadow as I entered on silent, stocking feet. I had barely taken ten steps when a large, warm hand clapped over my mouth and I was pinned against someone’s hard chest. I tried to break their hold, but they were too strong. My mouth opened to yell, until a voice hissed in my ear, “Morgaine, it’s me. I’m going to let you go now. Don’t scream.”
I wrenched away from the sheriff. “What are you doing, hiding in the dark like that?” My pulse raced, my chest rising andfalling quickly. I tried to breathe normally so he wouldn’t know he’d frightened me.
His voice sounded smug despite my efforts. “My apologies, High Priestess, I didn’t mean to startle you.” But of course, he had. And now he clearly assumed he had the upper hand.
I made my own voice as cool and bored as I could possibly make it. “Say whatever it is you brought me here to say and have done with it,High Sheriff.”
He began to speak, but footsteps approaching the great hall made us both freeze. It sounded like they were coming from the tunnel where my room was located. Had someone realised that I was out of bed and come looking for me? I held my breath, waiting.
Whoever it was swore loudly as they bumped into a table, but carried on making their way through the great hall and down another corridor. Clearly candles were a precious commodity in the Burrow if everyone walked around in the dark at night.
I felt the sheriff’s hand on my arm and resisted the urge to wrench it away. “Come, I know somewhere we will have more privacy.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, but I also didn’t want to risk getting caught with him if the next person was in possession of a lantern. I let him guide me down another dark tunnel that ended in a set of steps leading up to a trapdoor. He lifted it, and moonlight flooded into the small space. Climbing out, I realised we were in a private chamber filled with robes on hooks.
“Is this someone’s home?” I asked, keeping my voice low in case we weren’t supposed to be here.
“It is a rectory,” he replied, and held out his hand to help me climb out of the Burrow. I took it reluctantly; there still wasn’t quite enough light to see well, but I could just about make out my surroundings, thanks to the huge full moon that shone in through the windows. “Friar Tuck is a rebel sympathiser, I hadheard some of the guards talking at the castle about him. It gave me the idea to come here and watch until he showed me where the entrance to the hideout was. It didn’t take long.”
“So, you just let yourself into the rebel’s stronghold and introduced yourself with a fake name?Dante?”
He chuckled, low and throaty, and it grated on my nerves. “No, of course not. I watched and waited. A group of new recruits arrived in a horse cart, so I joined them. I pretended to be on the run, looking for somewhere to stay and protection from the prince’s men. Luckily, I had not been in Sherwood long and no one had been given my description. It was easier than I expected to join the rebellion.”
