“What do you mean I’m early?”
The smile on Robin’s face turned brittle, but didn’t fall away.
Marian narrowed her eyes, settling the crossbow more firmly in her grip even as dread rolled like a leviathan in her stomach. “How did you know I was coming?”
“Now, now, just put the crossbow down. I wouldn’t want my friends to think you were threatening me.”
Robin waved a hand at the medved and the spriggan, a flutter of fingers as if he were gesturing at a pair of lovely necklaces he wanted to sell her. Marian ground her teeth, anger eating up her fear.
“I’ve got an arrow for everyone. Whoever would like to receive his first, please step forward.”
All three men shared a glance, Robin’s eyes shining with an emotion that looked suspiciously like delight. The medved shook its shaggy head, dragging its huge claws over the ground and leaving deep furrows in the dirt. The spriggan picked at its teeth with the tip of one wickedly curved claw then lifted a shoulder in a shrug.
“Let us not waste time on unnecessary unpleasantries.” He gestured at the cow in Ermentrude’s cloak. “You’ve obviously gone through some effort to be here on your own terms—and I do appreciate a good joke. Why not put the weapon away and tell me what it is that’s brought you here?”
His amusement grated on Marian’s nerves, already raw from trying to keep her attention split three ways. The spriggan smirked and took a step to the left, while the medved took a large step to the right. Her pulse skipped a beat, adrenaline scalding her like acid. They’re flanking me. It seemed that regardless of Robin’s nonchalance, his two companions were taking the situation quite seriously. Deadly seriously.#p#分页标题#e#
“Stop moving. I will shoot you. Both of you. All of you.”
“You will shoot no one.” Robin stepped closer, hand out. Some of the amusement had leeched from his face, sharpening the line of his jaw. “Stop this nonsense and just give me the crossbow.”
The medved took another lumbering step. The spriggan hopped several paces as well. A chuckle trickled from the spriggan’s lips, a higher-pitched sound that she’d expected from its new size. Eyes the color of tarnished brass glittered with anticipation.
Too many teeth. Too many threats, too much movement. All smiling, mocking.
“Marian, give me the crossbow.”
She had a split second to register that he knew her name. Then he stalked toward her like a disapproving parent coming to take a child’s toy. There was no trace of humor on his face, nothing to soften the metallic silver glint in his eyes. And on either side of him, his friends moved to close ranks.
Marian narrowed her eyes, let out a slow breath…and released an arrow.
Chapter Four
Pain ripped through Robin’s leg, the head of the arrow burrowing through flesh and muscle, scraping against bone before exploding out the other side and coming to a stomach-turning halt. Like a dressmaker’s pin thrust through a pinch of fabric, the arrow remained in his calf, filling the air with the coppery scent of blood—and the outraged bellows of a furious medved and a bloodthirsty spriggan.
Little John reared up onto his powerful hind legs with an organ-vibrating roar. Arms thicker than a man’s thighs extended, brandishing huge claws that could turn a body into so much meat in the blink of an eye. His mouth gaped open, displaying a mouthful of thick yellow teeth. His eyes held no trace of the human he had been moments ago, no hint of the level-headed giant that was so often Robin’s voice of reason.
A side glance revealed Will had gone feral as well, his eyes glittering like a chest of pirate gold, saliva running freely from his mouth to drip onto the forest floor. He bobbed in place on the balls of his feet, ready to launch his considerable bulk at the huntress who had so unknowingly tapped into a bloodlust too long unsated.
“No!”
The word exploded from Robin’s lips, a barked order that held the full weight of his authority, his power. He cast his arms out to the sides, the agony in his leg a mere distraction as he fixed his gaze on the woman who’d shot him. He didn’t look to make sure his companions listened. They would listen.
The throbbing in his leg grew worse, the skin pinching with every movement. The arrow grew bloodier with every drop flowing from his veins to drip from its head and paint its shaft. His own temper flared to life, heated his words as they formed low in his throat.
“There are very few souls in this forest who would dare what you have dared this night. Who would offer me the insult that you have.”
Marian’s face remained as impassive as stone, her jaw tight and her crossbow steady in her grip. “I have two more arrows ready to go, should either of your friends feel left out. Or perhaps you’d like to take another step? You’ve got a second leg after all. We could make them a matching set.”