Chapter 10 Morgaine
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 and falling 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 had heard 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. ”
I almost smiled then. I felt the exact same way, I’d simply woken up that day and already been part of the movement, with no say in the matter. But I remembered where I was, and who with, and why, and the smile died on my lips.
He slid the bolts across and opened a heavy wooden door leading out to a small courtyard with a fishpond in the centre and neat flower beds around the sides. Both of which were empty and dry.
“What did you want to say to me that couldn’t have waited until tomorrow?” I asked, voice as cold as ice. I owed this man nothing, and that was exactly what he would get from me.
“We need to discuss this bond you created between us.”
I narrowed my eyes. “How do you know about that?” For all he knew, it could be a curse, or a normal, non-magical sickness. A plague. But he’d used the word ‘bond’.
“Your sisters told me about it, and they called it unbreakable.”
My sisters?
“Where are they?” My tone slipped from cold to downright violent and I raised my hand to grab the front of his black shirt, but he moved quicker than the eye could see in the lowlight.
He gripped my wrist and growled. “In the dungeon, where you belong. And they’ll stay there until you free me from this bond.”
I glowered, our faces just inches apart as he loomed over me.
I didn’t want to be bound to this man any more than he wanted to be bound to me.
Perhaps I could convince him to free Sal and Lavender if I pretended to help him.
It was all I had to go on, it had to be worth a try.
I wrenched my arm free and he let me go.
“You bound our lives together by mistake.”
“That’s right.” I turned and walked slowly around the perimeter of the courtyard, and he followed. “But I can’t undo it.”
“They said there’s a ritual, your sisters. To break the bond.”
That caught my attention. I paused, turning to him. “They said what?”
“A ritual, to break the bond. They said you would know it, as High Priestess.”
I raised an eyebrow. A disenchantment ritual, and I already knew it? I’d stupidly left the Book of Enchantments back at the cottage, but I supposed I could run back and get it. Maybe the ritual was in there?
“I’ll have to go back to the cottage, the ritual will be in one of our books.”
The sheriff’s face fell and he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“What is it?” I didn’t like the look of his pained expression.
“I may have…burned down your cottage.”
I stared at him, uncomprehending. I felt the lightning hum under my skin. “I beg your pardon? You did what?”
He rubbed his face, exhaustion radiating from him, but he said nothing.
“You burned down my cottage?”
He slashed a hand through the air. “Enough, I’m sure we can figure out the ritual together.”
I wanted to hurt him again, but there was no point. He’d only steal my energy to heal himself, now we were attached like a parasite and its host. But if there was even a chance we could be freed from the spell…
I dropped onto a stone bench at the far end of the courtyard. “What did Lav and Sal tell you?”
“Only that there was a way to end it, and you would have the answers.”
I scoffed. “Why did they tell you that? What torture did you inflict on my sisters to make them tell you anything about the bond at all?”
“None. I simply said I’d give them a way out of their predicament if they told me everything they knew. And they did.”
I frowned. He’d promised them an escape if they helped us break the bond? “What was the way out you gave them?”
“My dagger. I told them they weren’t getting out unless it was in death.” He sounded so ridiculous I couldn’t help the cackle that shattered the stillness in the tiny courtyard.
“Why are you laughing?” He hissed.
I let a cold, vicious grin spread across my face as I said, “They’re witches, you fool. You gave them a way to get out of their cell and come and find you. And when they do, we’ll carve out your heart for what you and your men did to Rosemary.”
He caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger and brought his face down to mine, our breath mingling as he said in a low, dark voice, “Not until the bond is broken, Enchantress.”