Bluebeard and the Outlaw by Tara Grayce

Chapter 10

I know I should have told my brothers about the room and the illusion of blood and dead bodies. But a part of me didn’t want to tell it and admit to even a momentary feeling of true fear.

Besides, they might have done something foolish if they knew. This was my fight. I was determined to see it through to the end, no matter what that end might be.

I had the white cloth in the window. I would be fine.

Probably.

* * *

As I strode toward the dining hall on the fifth evening after the duke had left, the sound of bootsteps pounding on the carpet hurried in my direction.

I halted, wishing I had more than the small knife tucked into my belt. My instincts were prickling, the swell of fae magic in this castle building to a level I’d not yet sensed.

Whatever plot or power had been simmering here was about to be unleashed.

Duke Guy sprinted around the corner. As soon as his gaze landed on me, he raced to me and gripped my upper arms before I could do more than take a step backward to put my back to the wall. His dark eyes focused on me, more frantic and pained than I’d ever seen. “Please tell me you didn’t open that door. Please.”

It was odd, his pleading. He should have returned with demands to see the key, not this panicked begging.

I didn’t like to see this strong, cold man in this state. He was a man for witty banter and hardened resolve to uphold the law. Not…this.

Still, I felt my mouth quirk as I pulled the chain and key from underneath the bodice of my dress. “I hate to disappoint you, but it seems that I did.”

The key swung between us, winking gold and red in the candlelight.

Duke Guy’s shoulders slumped, his hands quivering against my arms. “Then, Robin, if you listen to nothing else I’ve said, listen to this. Run. Get out of this castle. Flee as far and as fast as you can.”

“Come now, human. You know that isn’t how this works.” Sheriff Reinhault’s voice rang down the corridor from behind Duke Guy.

Except, that it wasn’t the sheriff’s voice. Not exactly. The good-humored cheeriness remained, but it was now layered with something darker and sleeker.

Duke Guy slumped farther, his shoulders shaking now as well as his hands, his grip going slack on my arms.

I slid along the wall out of his grasp, giving myself space to run if I needed it.

Sheriff Reinhault slunk down the corridor toward us, a self-satisfied smirk on a face that seemed even more otherworldly beautiful than before. Instead of his usual queue, his blond hair was down so that it trailed over his shoulders. But most disturbing of all were the points of his tapered ears that showed between strands of his hair, no longer covered as they had been before.

He was a fae. The sheriff, not the duke, was the fae my brothers and I had been hunting ever since we’d stumbled across the fae magic here at the castle.

Where were the guards? The servants? The castle had gone deathly still around us, suffocating with powerful fae magic.

Reinhault was no half-fae or quarter-fae. He was a full fae with the power to toy with us however he wished, even with the restrictions of no lying and burning iron that full fae experienced here in the human world.

Not that he seemed all that restricted. He was wearing a sword at his hip, which should have been too much iron for him to handle.

That could only mean one thing…something truly terrifying that my forester parents had taught me years ago about the fae.

Blast. I was in trouble. And not the fun kind of trouble either.

Duke Guy’s eyes shot to mine. “Run,” he whispered before he whirled and threw himself at Reinhault.

This time, I listened. I spun and raced down the passageway, stretching my long legs with every stride. Fae magic burst through my senses, but I kept running. I didn’t bother trying the door to the outside, knowing it would be locked tight against me the way the small door had been.

Instead, I raced up the tower until I reached my bedroom. I skidded inside, barring the outer door, and darted across the sitting room into the bedchamber. I locked that door too before I raced to the window. I tossed the pillows from the bench, then yanked the wooden bench top off, letting it crash to the floor with a clunk.

Inside lay my sword, quiver, and unstrung bow. I fumbled to buckle on the quiver and sword before I shrugged into the sheath that held my bow across my back.

A crash of splintering wood came from the outer room.

I furiously cranked the window open, letting in a blast of evening air. The white cloth fluttered as it fell free, tumbling out the window and flapping on its way to the ground far below.

The door to my room exploded inward, shooting shards of wood and debris in all directions. They stung my arms and back as I lunged out the window, scrambling for the now-familiar toe and hand holds.

A firm hand dug into the back of my bodice and yanked me back inside. I tumbled over the window seat and came up hard against Duke Guy’s chest.

His grip was iron as he spun me, holding both of my arms pinned behind my back. Yet, the glimpse I had of his eyes held a frantic pain.

Reinhault’s mouth curled as he stepped over the remains of the door. “A good attempt, milady, but not good enough. You sealed your fate the moment you disobeyed your husband and turned that key in the lock.”

“It was not…an order…I wanted to give.” Duke Guy’s voice came out strained and shaking, his breath hot against the back of my neck. “Please. Let her go. Let this one go.”

I squirmed, trying to yank free of the duke’s hold. Despite his pleading, his hold on my arms remained solid and unbreakable.

Not his hold. The fae’s. However it happened, this fae Reinhault had control of the duke’s actions, even if his mind remained his own.

“You know I can’t do that. I need her blood, as I did the others.” Reinhault’s mouth quirked, his blue eyes flashing with yet more amusement. “Besides, this wife of yours has been particularly naughty. I would think you would want to see her hang. You’ve sought just that, often enough.”

I stilled. Sheriff Reinhault had put it together. He’d realized exactly who I was after that glimpse he’d gotten at the archery tournament.

“What does he mean?” Guy’s question was a breath in my ear.

“Do you want to tell him, or should I?” Reinhault gave a slithering smirk before he continued, not giving me a chance to answer. “Your wife, Duke Guy, is the infamous outlaw known as the Hood.”

Well, no going back now. I drew myself together and glanced over my shoulder at him, meeting his wide, dark gray-brown eyes. I deepened my voice to the one he’d heard so many times as I taunted him. “Hello, Duke Bluebeard, it seems you have caught me at last.”

He closed his eyes, his face twisting as if I’d shot him with those words.

“As you can see, this one actually deserves the rope you’ll put around her neck.” Reinhault shouldn’t have sounded so smugly satisfied. He gestured toward the door. “I’m just giving you what you’ve wanted for years. A chance to hang the Hood.”

Duke Guy’s fingers tightened on my arms to the point of bruising, and he took one jolting step, then two, bodily hauling me toward the door.

I dug in my heels, but even with my height and strength, I was no match for his yet taller, stronger frame, especially under fae power as he was right now.

My brothers would be coming. I had to believe that. It didn’t matter that it was nearly dusk and it would be easy to rationalize the white cloth coming down as merely my normal routine.

One of my brothers would have been watching the castle. He would have seen the white cloth fall out the window to the ground and my attempt to escape. He would recognize my call for help.

Yet, they wouldn’t get here in time. They had to come up with a plan, storm this castle locked up tight with fae magic, and somehow find their way to where I was in the castle.

I was shoved inexorably down the stairs and through the corridors toward that room of horrors locked behind the small door.

As we halted in front of the door, Reinhault turned to me, his lips parting as he stepped closer to me. He leaned in, trailing a finger down my neck until he hooked it under the chain holding the small key. “I’ll be taking this now.” He gave a sharp yank on the chain, and it broke with a painful snap at the back of my neck.

He rubbed his thumb over the key, as if relishing the bloodstains swirling across the glowing metal. “You just couldn’t resist. They never do.”

I gritted my teeth and didn’t respond. I needed to focus my wits on escaping rather than on a retort.

“No comment? I’m disappointed in you.” Reinhault shook his head as he turned the key in the lock. “I would think you’d want to make full use of that voice of yours, before I silence it.”

The fact that he wanted me to speak only made me more determined to keep my mouth shut.

As Guy hauled me into the room in Reinhault’s footsteps, I took stock of what I had.

I had my knife and my sword, though I couldn’t draw either one with my hands pinned by Guy’s merciless grip. I had my arrows, but they would do me little good while my bow was still unstrung and sheathed across my back.

While Reinhault halted by the door, Guy brushed past him, shoving me in front of him until we reached the wall holding the single, empty noose. None of the illusions of dead bodies and blood were visible, but they didn’t need to be. Not now when that noose was so stark against the stone, waiting there for me.

Duke Guy pressed me to the wall, one hand gripping both of my wrists while, with the other, he slid the noose over my head. The fibers chafed against my neck, cruel and taunting.

The duke paused, his agonized gaze swung to mine for a brief, heartfelt moment. “I’m so sorry. I—” Whatever he had been about to say choked off, and he reeled a step backwards as if yanked by an invisible hand.

As soon as he released my hands, I reached up, gripped the noose, and tried to pull it off.

It refused to budge. Even though it was clearly loose enough to slip off my head, it wouldn’t lift that high, no matter how hard I strained.

Reinhault made a tutting sound as he softly clicked the door shut. “You are a forester’s daughter. I would think you of all people should know how this works. By marrying him, you are as bound to his bargain as he is.”

In other words, it was fae magic keeping that noose around my neck. I had no hope of pulling it off.

Especially if the magic was originally tied to the duke, and not to me. I had my iron rod stuffed in my quiver, but even if I gripped it, it likely wouldn’t be enough to stave off this magic. I would need the duke to hold iron, and he was now out of my reach, marching across the room with stilted strides.

Guy halted at the ring set in the wall and took up the end of the rope, gripping it with white knuckles.

My stomach lurched. This was no sudden drop and a broken neck kind of hanging, one that was over quickly. No, this was a hoist-me-off-my-feet-and-let-me-choke-long-and-slow type of hanging. Unpleasant and gruesome.

I dropped my hands from the noose and, even though the duke was the one holding the rope, I faced Reinhault, the one who truly had my life in his hands. I had to keep him talking and distracted. That was my only chance to buy myself enough time.

Reaching behind me, I gave the fae my most infuriating smirk. “And what is this bargain? Surely I deserve to know, since it seems my life is forfeit because of it.”

Reinhault’s gaze swept over me languidly, as if he was reveling in the sight of me wearing that noose around my neck. “A simple bargain. All the wealth and luxuries he could imagine, as long as his wife was obedient. He should have known better than make a bargain like that.”

How I wanted to put an arrow through this monster’s eye. I kept my smirk in place as I fumbled with the ties holding my unstrung bow in place, trying to keep my shoulders as still as possible to hide what I was doing. “That does sound like a pretty foolish bargain to make.”

“Yes, but he was greedy. So was his wife. Human nature makes you such pathetic creatures to toy with.” Reinhault shook his head, almost as if he truly had compassion for me. “Even as each of his wives stood there, the noose around their necks, they could never let go of the longing for wealth and treasure. And you, Robin of the Greenwood, are the worst of the lot. You are consumed with thoughts of gold and how you might steal it. If that rope remains around your neck, it is because you covet the wealth I provide.”

I wasn’t greedy, was I? I didn’t want gold for myself. Only for the hurting villagers.

But that noose was still around my neck, and I didn’t know if it was because of the fae’s power or my traitorous heart.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Duke Guy’s black hair, his head bent as if he couldn’t bear to watch this take place yet again.

My bow came free, sliding down my back and into my hands. I eased one end to the floor and braced it in the corner where wall met floor. Straining with my arms twisted behind my back, I had all the wrong angles for bending the bow and slipping the string up and into place.

But I had to try.

“By the way,” I kept my voice free of any sign of strain as I wrestled with my bow behind my back. “How do you know who I am? I know how you figured I am the Hood, but how do you know I am the daughter of foresters?”

“There was always something familiar about your face.” Reinhault’s jaw flexed, but then the expression smoothed into that smarmy sadistic one once again. “You have your mother’s hair. Your father’s stubborn chin. I should have put it together sooner, but human faces do look so terribly distorted when they are lying dead and mutilated on the forest floor.”

I froze, my bowstring only a fraction away from slipping into its notch at the end of the bow’s arm.

Reinhault had killed my parents. He was the monster who had come through the faerie circle that day. The one evil creature my parents had failed to stop.

He had more blood on his hands than I’d thought. My head spun with all that had happened in the past ten years.

If Reinhault had killed my parents, then he’d likely also killed the duke’s parents, who had died only a year after mine. I’d already realized that he was the true killer of the duke’s three wives, even if he’d maliciously forced the duke to pull the rope himself.

It was beyond time for this fae to meet justice. And I was a forester, tasked with dealing such justice on the fae and their monsters who dared venture into my forest. No wonder Reinhault must have forced Guy to disband the foresters. We were the only ones with the knowledge to stop him.

Reinhault must have seen something in my eyes, for he gestured to Duke Guy. “Enough. I have granted your last wish and answered your questions. Now it is time to give this outlaw her just reward.”

The string of my bow slid into place and held, even as the noose tightened around my neck.

My breath seized, stars bursting across my eyes, as I was hoisted off my feet, my back scraping against the wall.

Even as my instincts screamed that I needed to claw at the thing cutting into my neck and shooting agony into my head, I forced my hand to drop to my quiver and trail along my arrows, finding the one I wanted by feel and by that resonating call inside my chest.

I would have the strength and will for one shot only. I braced my boots against the wall at my back, trying to twist my body into something of a proper stance. As I nocked the arrow, my blood roared in my ears, warning me of the death that was creeping toward me with every second I dangled from that rope.

“Now this is a new game. What are you going to do, little archer?” Reinhault’s face was a wavering blur among the encroaching black. “You have to know his bargain doesn’t allow you to kill me. Otherwise he would have done so long ago.”

Yet as I drew the bow back, my back and arms straining, the arrow’s gleaming iron tip pointed at Duke Guy’s chest instead of Reinhault.

As if sensing the impending danger, Duke Guy looked up. His gaze met mine, and at that moment I wasn’t sure if his gaze or mine was the more pained.

“Kill me.” It sounded like little more than a whisper, though he must have spoken it far louder than that for me to hear over the pounding in my ears. Even through the fae’s control, he gave a shudder. “Kill me and save yourself.”

“Oh, yes.” Reinhault’s voice was almost a purr, smooth and sultry. “Kill him. You’ve wanted to do it for years. You are going to die. You should have the satisfaction of taking your greatest enemy down with you.”

The arrow’s white fletching tickled my cheek as I reached full draw, my elbow knocking against the stone wall behind me.

It was down to me, the arrow, my target. I had no breath to release in a steadying exhale. No instant to hesitate or my arm would waver.

Slowly, deliberately, I released the arrow.