“What the devil?” He muttered, but the shadow he cast meant I couldn’t see what he was looking at.
“What is it?” My voice felt like it didn’t belong to me. A strange sensation had taken over my entire body, spreading out from that mark over my heart. Was this the feeling of the bond breaking? Were we finally free?
“It didn’t work,” Stefano ground out, leaning back to let the moonlight illuminate the place on his chest where the red mark had been. Only now, the spidery lines that had marred his tanned flesh were longer, thicker and darker; almost black.
“What?” I dropped to my knees and started to flick through the Book of Enchantment at speed, looking for any explanation as to why the ritual had failed. And what this new darker mark would mean for us.
“What have you done?” Stefano growled and I flinched. He’d never sounded like that—so angry and threatening. He’d always possessed a quiet strength that hinted at the danger beneath the surface, but now his rage had broken loose.
“Nothing, I have no idea why it didn’t work. There’s nothing here that mentions if it fails or the mark turns black.” I pushed the book towards him. “Look for yourself.”
He kicked it away, and I had to snatch it up before it fell into the stream and was ruined.
“Whatever you have done to me, Witch, you will pay for it.”
16
STEFANO
Iwiped the sweat from my brow with my forearm and leaned on the handle of the axe, considering the large stack of logs I’d already chopped, and the even larger pile of branches I hadn’t yet.
After returning to the Burrow with all of the herbs and plants requested, plus a heap of wolf skins for making into blankets, rugs and warm winter clothing, the rebels had put both me and Morgaine to work. She was mixing tonics and poultices for the Infirmary, while I chopped firewood and lugged sacks of flour down through the trapdoor and to the kitchens.
All the manual labour had given me plenty of time to think about the failed ritual, and how I would get through the next month until the new moon when we could attempt it again. I’d gone over the whole thing in my mind non-stop since that night. We’d done everything the book said, by the letter. We hadn’t made a single mistake. Our pronunciation of the incantation had been perfect, I was sure of it. So, what had gone so wrong?
Maybe the ritual had worked, maybe the bond was broken and Morgaine had tricked me into believing we were still connected so she could escape at the opportune moment. Or perhaps she’d changed the spell at the last moment and waswaiting for the curse to kill me. The witch could have been up to anything and I would have no idea.
The dark mark on my chest had now spread to two handspans, and it throbbed painful at intervals. Whatever the ritual had done, it hadn’t so much broken the bond as damaged it, and I feared if we failed again on the next new moon, we would both die.
I couldn’t let that happen. We had to get it right next time so I could watch Morgaine burn for what she’d done to me.
An uncomfortable sensation twisted in my gut, and I did my best to ignore it. I could not allow myself to go soft. Not now.
I finished chopping the wood and picked up the sack to carry it back down to the Burrow, when Friar Tuck appeared, looking breathless. The man must have weighed as much as an ox, his round face was a shade of purple beneath his tonsure.
“Dante,” he said when he reached me. “Little John asked me to fetch you.”
I frowned. “What is it?” Had I taken too long with the wood, was there some other task they needed me to do urgently? Being ordered around by these second rate revolutionaries was beginning to wear thin, and I wasn’t sure I could take another month of this—let alone the forced proximity to my enemy, Morgaine the Wicked.
“There’s a meeting,” Tuck said, glancing around as though someone may be listening in. “About the mission. You’re needed.”
Ah, the attack on the castle. I thanked the friar and hurried back to the Burrow with my day’s work slung over my shoulder. When I reached the meeting room I was directed to, Will opened the door and ushered me inside.
“We have decided on a date for the mission,” John said as I sat down.
“When?” I asked.
“Two nights’ time,” Will replied. I almost barked a laugh, but thought better of it. I could see from their grim expressions that they were serious.
I shook my head. “It’s too soon. We're not ready.”
“It’s our only chance,” John said. “The prince is hosting a hunting party followed by a feast, the guards and servants will be distracted. It’s our best option.”
“But what about the training? And do we have enough explosives and weapons?”
“We will do the best we can over the next two days, and then it will have to be enough,” said John. “This is it, we have to move now. Before any more of us die of hunger and exhaustion.”
I’d been caught off-guard by this announcement; I had been hoping the bond would be broken before the castle invasion. How would I take part in the attack—and there was no way I could get out of being involved when I was the only one with intimate knowledge of the inside layout—and keep an eye on Morgaine at the same time? The bond made it painful for us to be physically separated, but there would be no reason for her to join us.
