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Chapters (76)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART I
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EIGHT
  14. NINE
  15. PART II
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. PART III
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. INTERLUDE
  35. PART IV
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. INTERLUDE
  45. PART V
  46. THIRTY-FIVE
  47. THIRTY-SIX
  48. THIRTY-SEVEN
  49. THIRTY-EIGHT
  50. PART VI
  51. THIRTY-NINE
  52. FORTY
  53. FORTY-ONE
  54. FORTY-TWO
  55. FORTY-THREE
  56. FORTY-FOUR
  57. FORTY-FIVE
  58. INTERLUDE
  59. PART VII
  60. FORTY-SIX
  61. FORTY-SEVEN
  62. FORTY-EIGHT
  63. FORTY-NINE
  64. FIFTY
  65. FIFTY-ONE
  66. FIFTY-TWO
  67. PART VIII
  68. FIFTY-THREE
  69. FIFTY-FOUR
  70. FIFTY-FIVE
  71. FIFTY-SIX
  72. EPILOGUE
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  75. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  76. Newsletter Sign-up

“I tried,” she said, then gasped and rolled her head away and coughed red into her hand. She looked at her own blood. “I tried to do the right thing.”

“I know,” he said, taking her hand back, not letting her see it.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t think about that.”

She started to say something else but it came out in a hack, and before she could recover came another one, worse, and when she bent her head back, John couldn’t watch anymore.

The sounds were terrible enough. There was no way to close his ears. She choked for air. Every now and then came a little whimper between her fits, the scratching of her feet and hands clattering through the dirt, and the gentle pattering pecks of Will kissing her as she convulsed. His own breathing was fast and heavy, but he made no other noise except to say I know again and again, until they weren’t even words at all. Eventually the unbearable sounds of her struggling body faded, bit by bit, and was replaced with a telling quiet that was so very much worse.

There

didn’t

seem

any use in opening his eyes, so John didn’t.

After she was still, and some time even later after that, Will screamed. It sent a chill down John’s spine, a wretched naked noise he would never forget. Will let it out now, all of it, and part of himself, too.

After that he made no noise at all, for so long that John opened his eyes simply to be sure anyone was still there. Will was clutching Elena’s body on the ground, his head sunk down into her chest, her lips covered in blood. The others stood unmoving, like John, gravestones in the mist.

Will sobbed while they stood in silence.

When he had no more to cry they stood in silence still.

As the fog grew barely thinner, just enough to reveal a few of the figures in the trees, still they stood.

It

didn’t

really matter

when the first of the intruders stepped forward.

FIFTY-TWO

GUY OF GISBOURNE

THIEVES’ CAMP

THERE WAS NO WAY to interrupt that wasn’t cruel. In the face of such stark humanity, the past didn’t matter. No depth of animosity Guy held for Will Scarlet could overcome the crippling display of his grief. And so they stood in utter silence, watching one murderer mourn another. Even the forest itself was not wicked enough to break the stillness. It lasted so long Guy might have doubted he was even visible through the fog, if not for a few meaningful glances he shared with Robin of Locksley. They acknowledged the moment, an understanding of that which would come next, and that it could wait.