Prologue
"I would rather die than be with you, Guy of Gisborne. I love Robin Hood. I love Robin Hood…"
Guy awoke with a desperate gasp for air, as though he had been immersed in deep, black water. In many ways, he had been. Though the night was warm, a cold sweat dripped over his bare skin. He could taste it on his lips and feel it on his temples. It was real, this was real: Marian was gone.
He lay in his bed panting as his heart raced within his breast, threatening to escape the cage that held it captive. It was real. Blue eyes stared upward, not even seeing the darkness of the room, so clouded were they by the shadows of his mind. It was real.
Marian was gone… Marian was gone.
Guy knew not how long he lay in this waking sleep, this nightmare he could not escape.
"I am in hell," he said within himself again and again; a living hell where the fires burned at his spirit before his soul could be sent there. He could not escape it, he could not escape her, and, worst of all, he could not escape himself.
In one fatal moment he could scarcely remember, scarcely believe, he had damned himself and released her to heaven. Like the angel she was, she watched over him, she visited him, she haunted him. He could not close his eyes without seeing her face and when he opened them he only found her image burned upon his mind. Her scent followed him wherever he went, her voice whispered soft words upon the wind, words that were lost to him forever.
It was real.