coming from my burning eyes. “What more could I do?”
Robin shot a hand up, looking as if he was aching to touch my arm, before he dropped it with a defeated exhalation. “I think that’s your problem. You need to stop doing what others think is best, and do what’s best for you.”
“I don’t even know what that is! I spent my entire life being bombarded by demands, orders, and instructions from those who ought to know best. And yet, it turns out they might have been wrong about everything, from my education, to my behavior, to my priorities, to what breaks this curse!”
“We don’t know about that last part! We still have Agnë’s king, and he sounds perfect for you!”
Agnë had framed her king as the perfect candidate. But I had become really wary of anyone who could be described as such. The last one had sent me on an exploratory trip to the Underworld. This one might be what made my visit permanent.
I exhaled. “I’m starting to think the Spring Queen let Leander be saved. Maybe she couldn’t take my father’s heir from him. A future king is not expendable, after all. But I am.”
“Don’t ever say that! You’re not expendable!”
I looked down into his stormy eyes, and felt even worse at his affront on my behalf. “Robin, even if I wasn’t cursed, I’d be worth less than a welder or a farmer to my family and kingdom right now. At least, they need those. I serve no purpose if I don’t marry a king.”
“You need a king to live, not to appease your parents! They already got you into this mess, and have no right to judge you. Their opinion of your worth, or that of anyone who doesn’t benefit you, doesn’t matter.”
“It’s easy for you to say that. You’re free of expectations as an outlaw…”
“I wasn’t born an outlaw! You think it was easy for me to throw my old life away and become—this?”
Wishing I could reach down and soothe him, smooth his tousled hair, I sighed. “Is that what you’ll do after this is over? Hang up your bow, and go back to your old life?”
He seemed stunned by that question, like he hadn’t considered it before. “I can’t go back to being who I was before.”
“Which was?”
He gave me a bitter smirk. “The Earl of Sherwood’s son.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
By now, I should have been used to surprises. Especially where Robin was concerned. He was like a rose, where I’d peel one layer and find another and another, each revealing some new facet to him.
“You’re noble-born?” My whisper was as ghostly as I was becoming.
He exhaled. “I was. Your dear Uncle Jon stripped my father of his lands and title when he opposed his actions. Which begs the question, is one still noble without a title and a place in the hierarchy?”
This explained his hatred of my uncle. It had been personal as I’d first suspected, augmented by a healthy dose of righteous chivalry.
“What happened to your father?”
“After being disgraced by the regent himself, all my father’s friends and relatives abandoned him,” he muttered, his voice seething with remembered anger and pain. “His heart couldn’t take it, and he died just as I was being sent off to war.”
“I’m…” I didn’t know what to say to him. An apology, coming from the niece of the man who’d ruined his life might be insensitive, and the last thing he’d want to hear.
Empty words of regret meant nothing, anyway. I had to do something about this.
“If I survive, I will help you make this right!” I said urgently. “If I don’t, you said you know Leander well. He hates our uncle, too, and would want to rectify his crimes against the people. He would surely offer to reinstate your land and wealth!”
He waved. “He suggested it, but I didn’t have time to think about how I can govern my father’s estates, or restore his honor, in my current state. Anyway, everything had to wait until I brought Marian back.”
And once he did, would he give up this life for one with her?
He looked ahead with unseeing eyes. “So to answer your question, I don’t know what I’d do afterwards. I have been at this for so long, fighting all manner of enemies, on behalf of others, trying to do what I can to right any wrongs I come across. I don’t think that’s something I can just stop doing.”