But that weren’t to be today.

I looked at Gisbourne and felt my stomach twist and my whole chest squeeze, like someone put me to the rack.

The gibbet landed with a heavy clang. Rob sagged against the side with the jolt of the cage, and the whole place were dead quiet, shocked silent by the sheriff’s cruelty, by this strange day where a wedding meant death instead of new life. Guards had taken Godfrey in hand, keeping him on his knees at the side of the dais. He just stared at Ravenna’s body, dead and lifeless and abandoned. Gisbourne were now free to draw his sword and go to the cage.

“No!” I screamed, my voice mixing with hundreds. I went forward but the crowd wouldn’t part, keeping me hard back, holding on to me. Gisbourne’s sword didn’t go farther, and he waited till the cries subsided.

“On your knees,” he ground out. “You’ll die a common criminal, worse than your traitorous father.”

Rob’s head were unbowed. He looked around the gibbet. “I’d love to oblige, Gisbourne, but there doesn’t seem to be enough room to kneel.”

“Open the cage,” Gisbourne ordered. The sheriff didn’t protest. A guard came forward with the key, and the door opened. I saw how heavy Rob leaned on the side of the cage. He were exhausted, and weak, and in a fair bit of pain. He turned to Gisbourne and I saw his back. The cloth were punched through hundreds of times in perfect little rows, and my whole body burned.

They had put him on a Judas board. It were a big board punched through with spikes, filthy and covered with blood and flesh, and they had put Rob on it till his skin broke and the spikes pushed into him.

Whether or not it were today, I’d kill Gisbourne for that as well. If he didn’t kill me first.

“On your knees, Hood.”

“Wait!” I shrieked. This time my voice were above the crowd, and everyone looked at me. The crowd let me through now, and my shaking legs brought me forward to the guards. “Let me through!” I demanded.

Gisbourne chuckled. “Do it. Let the little thief come.”

Maybe Gisbourne already knew my plan, ’cause he looked like he just swallowed a canary whole and it were singing out his throat.

They parted and I climbed the dais, meeting Rob’s eyes. He didn’t look angry now. He looked lost. I felt lost. I stared at him and my heart broke fresh again. Loving him felt like drowning in his ocean eyes, like a tide I couldn’t hold back, crashing on me again, filling me up with hurt and shame and despair. Standing so close to him, all I could think were the hundred things I should have told him long ago. A hundred moments I’d lost because I were scared and weak and shameful.

It were fair twisted, but maybe doing this, maybe this sacrifice would make me, for one breath, the person he could love.

“Please tell me you aren’t really here,” he murmured, hanging his head. “Please tell me I didn’t save your life for nothing.”

“Needn’t make it so hard, Rob,” I told him. “I’m getting you out of here.”

His head jerked up, and it weren’t anger in his eyes. “The hell you are. Not with him, Scar, please.”

Gisbourne’s eyebrow twitched at this, but he just crossed his arms, all patient-like now that he were getting what he wanted. I looked back to Rob, all my inner bits crowded into my pipes, and I weren’t sure of a single thing. “Do not ask me to watch you die,” I hissed at him.

Rob’s eyes shifted, shimmery blue and wet like rain-slick rocks. “You think you’re going to fare any better?” he whispered. I looked over and saw Ravenna’s blood, and Gisbourne’s sword, dry and thirsty. I shook my head.

“Are you fixing to join him, or did you have another reason for annoying me?” Gisbourne snapped.

“A deal,” I said quick, standing in front of him, standing between him and Rob one more time.

His eyes scraped over me. “What could I possibly want from you?”

“The one thing you couldn’t ever get, not by force or my father,” I told him, and his eyes flared bright. “Two words, Guy.”

The sheriff chuckled. “I believe the lad wants you to marry him, Gisbourne.”

“Another reason you need a thief taker, Nottingham, is that your men should have realized long ago that Will Scarlet is merely a girl.” Gasps ripped through the hall, and Gisbourne laughed. “Christ, no one knew? Not only that, she’s a noblewoman in clever disguise. None other than my delinquent betrothed, Lady Marian Fitzwalter of Leaford.”

Everyone were staring at me now, but I just raised my chin. “Well?”

“What are your terms?” he asked.

“Release Robin and Godfrey. Both of them unharmed.”

He grinned, looking at Robin. “Well, I’ve already harmed him a little.”

“Do you agree or not?”

“And why shouldn’t I just kill him now, and then force you to marry me?”

“Like I said, Guy, you can’t force me to say the words. And we ain’t married till the words are said. If you want me, this is your only chance.”

He stepped forward, squeezing my chin between his thumb and forefinger. He smiled, but he looked more like a dog baring its teeth. “I will make it a living hell for you, Marian. That is, if you last longer than your friend,” he said, looking to Ravenna. Rob jerked forward, but I stayed still. “Are you willing to submit to me for his life?”

“Robin the Hood, Robin of Locksley, Earl of Huntingdon—whatever you wish to call him—is the prince of the people, Guy. He is worth more than my whole life.”