The Archer (The Blood Realm Series Book 3)(15)

Will ambled across the clearing, giving Marian an exaggerated berth. The spriggan had stopped laughing, but his eyes were still bright, the corners of his mouth twitching up every moment or so—which considering the extra wide character of his mouth meant it nearly touched his ears. Robin couldn’t help but notice the bloated creature didn’t meet his eyes as he knelt to examine the leg.

“You could,” Marian acknowledged.

Robin closed his eyes as he lay back on the grass, letting Will do what he would with the wound. “Could what?”

“Kill me.”

I should kill you. Why didn’t I kill you?

“But if you kill me, you’ll be bored again. And isn’t that a fate worse than death?”

Bloody nosey female. Eavesdropping. Rude, that’s what it is.

Will snorted, then pressed his lips together. Robin opened his eyes, a hot retort ready on his lips, but before he could comment on his companion’s loyalty, the half-goblin spriggan grasped the arrow and gently broke the tail off. With more care than anticipated, the bestial creature slid the arrow out of his leg.

Holding his breath, Robin lowered his leg so the grass touched the wound, letting the earth lend its energy to his own recuperative abilities. A pleasant, tingling energy licked at his skin, easing the pain and sending warm pulses of healing through the jagged wound. Will winked at him, then settled back on the grass like a spectator at a public joust. His body shuddered, then shrank, muscles tightening and growing more compact, the majority of his bulk melting away. His smile melted to a more normal width, though it was still wider than any human’s. A moment later he was once again a scrawny young man wearing clothes far too loose for him, beady black eyes greedily watching the events unfolding before him.

Little John’s black nose twitched as he snuffled again, a dismissive huff that seemed to encompass everyone in the clearing. He rolled his girth to the side, lumbering off into the woods, probably to hunt for dinner. It didn’t take long for the shadows of the trees to close around him, blending his dark brown fur to black before swallowing him completely.

I hope he catches something besides fish. I’m tired of fish.#p#分页标题#e#

Robin sat up to better see his attacker gathering her ill gotten coins. “You think you know me so well after your little bout of eavesdropping. But I would caution you against growing too comfortable. Killing you would bring me just as much excitement as sitting down to dinner with you.” He leaned forward, careful not to break his leg’s healing contact with the ground. “And I could make it last much longer.”

Marian didn’t take her attention from the gold filling the folds of her skirt she was using as a makeshift bowl. The teal material bulged in an uneven pattern as the weight strained the cloth, but it held. “You do not strike me as being overly complicated. You are a child in a man’s body, whining about boredom as you play about in the forest. I heard Little John’s lament about your attention span. Even your companions have no faith in your staying power.”

Now that the pain from his leg was fading into the background, Robin couldn’t help but notice Marian’s voice held a sexy rasp—an intriguing side effect from his impromptu strangulation. His earlier thoughts of seeing her laid out beneath him in the grass flitted through his mind. “If it’s my staying power that interests you—”

“It doesn’t.”

Another bout of snickering poured from Will. Robin glared at him, but the spriggan remained largely recalcitrant, mouth curved into a sickle-shaped smile. Robin drummed his fingers against his knee and studied the mouthy female. Not overly complicated. A child in a man’s body. Her incessant insults were growing tiresome.

Dropping his hand from his knee to the ground, Robin waved his fingers over the grass. Power rolled over him like a wave, energy crystallizing like frost and spilling out to coat the clearing with another glamour. A circle of fluffy white snow bloomed up around Marian in a three foot circle, startling her into withdrawing her hand, fingers brushing her chest as she stared at the now frozen ground with its buried coins. A muscle tightened in her jaw and she stomped through the circle aiming for a patch of still green grass with unburied gold. The snow moved with her like a wintry skirt, covering her boots and hiding the ground beneath an icy blanket. Robin propped his elbow on his knee as Marian blinked and then scooped up a handful of snow.

“It’s cold.”

Robin arched an eyebrow. “Yes. It’s snow.”

Marian shook her head, lifting her hand to her face and sniffing the icy layer of white. “It smells like snow.”