“Robin,” I said, and it came out a horrible, broken sob.
Half a breath later he had my elbows in his hands, dragging me up. His fingers were on my face, dirty with tears and smoke, and I dug my fingers into his shirt, trying to sink some part of me into him so deep we couldn’t be taken apart again. His shirt caught the drying blood on my hands and I saw it there, bright on his clothes, blood that I put there. I couldn’t stop crying.
Until he pushed my tears off and pressed my mouth to his. I heard Rylan murmur “Oh” behind us and didn’t pay attention.
Rob were alive. Rob were alive, and I were home.
Whatever that meant in true.
Rob’s arms shifted to hold me round my back, fortressing round me and pulling me tight to him. Our kiss broke and our foreheads pushed together, and then our cheeks, every little motion like a physical proof the other were there. When my forehead slipped into the bit where his neck met his shoulder, a shudder ripped through me.
“You’re alive,” I breathed against him.
His arms squeezed tighter. “I’m not the one who was meant to be dead.”
I curled tighter. “This was meant to kill you, Rob.”
“I know,” he said. “And it didn’t work. And you’re not dead.” He nudged my head up and kissed me again, then stared at my face. “Jesus, Scarlet,” he whispered.
David and Allan pulled the last body over the edge, and I cringed.
“We should go,” Rob said. “Rylan, I’m going to send Godfrey to help you. Get the bodies back as soon as you can.”
“Yes, Sheriff.”
Rob captured my hand and went to kiss it, but I hissed and he flipped it to see the burns and cuts from the rope. “Come. I’ll bring you back to the forest.”
I shook my head. “Rob, we came to help. Let us help.”
He sighed. “Things are still burning. It looks like rain tonight, though. Hopefully by morning much of the smoke will clear, and the fire will be gone. Until then—we just came back to get the bodies today,” he said soft.
I nodded.
“Here,” he said, producing two leather gloves from his pocket. I winced as he tugged them down over my hands, but once covered, it hurt less, even in the caverns of gloves meant for hands like Rob’s.
“Better?” he asked.
Pushing his forehead against mine, I twisted my hand in his until they clasped together like two pieces meant to fit.
He kissed me again.
Rob led us silent out of the castle, and David, Allan, and I mounted our horses. Rob glanced at the cart in the lane, being piled slow with bodies, and back at me.
I gave him a small smile. “You seem in need of a horse, my lord Sheriff.”
He came close and I offered him my arm. He stepped in the stirrup and swung up behind me, holding my hips and sliding close against me, razing heat all along my skin. He wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned back a little, covering his hand that held onto me. I felt our hearts meet and match, finding the beat that they had in common and settle into it.
“My love,” he whispered, putting his head on my shoulder.
I nodded against his head, and spurred the horse.
CHAPTER
Edwinstowe were abandoned. The houses were untouched, but there were a stillness that were absurd for the small working village. There were no animals in the pens, no children running ’cross the lane, no women creaking water from the well.
We rode through and into the forest.
The fresh hope of spring caught me up in its arms the moment we entered Sherwood. The trees were full and bright, sweet with sap and fir and pine. Weeds and grass and patches of wildflowers had shot up through the ground like they could pierce through the brush and clear away the death of winter.
We went to the caves. We’d stayed in one of the largest ones for many winters until the snows got too deep, and even on the nights when heavy rains forced us out of our tree-bound home. We rode up over the bank that protected the low, hidden clearing where several caves opened their wide mouths, and everyone froze.
Hundreds. Hundreds of people, easily all of Edwinstowe, and most of Nottingham and Worksop besides.
“You saved them all,” I whispered.
Rob’s hand clutched mine tight. “Not all. Not nearly all.”
My heart stuttered. “Much?” I asked. “Bess?”
“Scarlet!”
I turned to see Much, very much alive. I swung off the horse before Rob could let me down, running down the hill to get to him. He laughed and caught me up in a fierce hug.
I pulled away from him to look at him in full. He were taller still, tall as Rob now, and he looked older in a way I didn’t like. Sadder. Like he knew the sad things of the world.
Which, of course, he did now. We all did.