Staring into Will's puppy-dog eyes, Regina asked, a tremble at her throat, "What are you doing?" Staunchly, with the air of a demanding queen, the bandit replaced her tremors with authority. "I will not walk a pig into a slaughter."

Curving his eyebrows rather comically at her, Will answered passively, "I'm doing charity work. Leading a bandit who slaughtered The Queen's happiness to the only place where bluebirds don't sing. Even though," he snorted derisively, "she won't let me touch her fine hips." Bowing sarcastically, he snarled while glaring, "I'm being a gentleman to an entitled lass who doesn't deserve any kindness, and she has the gall to question my motive?"

Regina studied his resentful eyes. She wished Robin Hood was here. Although she'd never met him, she felt a keen sense she could trust him.

A helluva lot more than this puppy-dog eyed bloke.

There were rumors on the wind that Robin was loose of the hospital. Though the wives and Little John's widow wouldn't speak directly to her unless they had no choice, Regina heard things when they set up camp for the night.

Eavesdropping was her only source of news. She used the skill to the best of her ability.

They were standing on a hill overlooking Snow White's castle. Regina had seen the turrets poking over the treetops and had called to Will she wanted a private word. All day she'd had a feeling in the pit of her stomach insisting they were drawing too near the castle, but as they'd been surrounded by shrubs, there was no telling physically whether the anxiety was founded or because this part of the forest was unfamiliar to her.

Now she knew they were in an area of the forest she'd intentionally avoided for several years. Will had been very careful to circle round several times and leave her heavily confused before bringing her here.

It had seemed a bluebird or flock of them had been flying overhead every few seconds for the past couple of days. Though this had made her shoulders twitch, she'd informed her rational side it must be her imagination.

Through clenched teeth, Regina asserted, "It's too near the castle. How is this helping? If I get caught and wrangled on a chopping block, screw the place where bluebirds don't sing."

Will rolled his eyes. "You won't. Yeah, sure, the path we must take brushes by the castle gate. Whoop de doo. Stop being a drama queen."

That did it. Regina's face burned red and swelled in fury. She feared her purple magic might well up and do something to him. She calmed herself down by picturing the back of Robin's head while staring down at the grass with two fingertips to her temple. Once she felt she could handle the man scowling openly at her, Regina briskly voiced, "I'm done. No thanks. Keep your resentment and your bluebird repellent. I'm out." She spun on her heel.

Will nearly wrenched her arm out of her elbow. Instinctively, she scratched his face with the claws on her other hand.

Sourly, Will Scarlet snarled, "For once in your bristling life, can you be grateful to a man who only wants to help?" He wrenched her through a thicket, getting twigs stuck to her hair and clothes. Clutching her in front of his chest like a large squirming puppy, he pointed to a road. Leaning her head down to look, Regina nearly banged her forehead against a bramble.

"That's the only road that will take you to the place where bluebirds don't sing." Sarcastically, Will grumbled, "Be a lady, for once," and released the hand on her stomach so suddenly that Regina fell in a heap on the ground.

Something inside her still didn't trust him, but at this point, she didn't feel she had a choice. If she tried to run, she felt sure he'd grip her by the hair and tie her on a horse.

So the two of them returned to Robin's Merry Men and hopped the stolen horses.

Regina's horse was the slowest one, so trying to bolt wouldn't benefit her. It was odd. She'd never felt more like a prisoner than she did now, surrounded by snobby outcasts. Outcasts who thought they were too quality to deal with the likes of her.

The ride to the road they would take was grueling. The path disappeared. The horses had to trample down a steep, mud-slicked slope. Several horses misstepped and threw their riders to the soft soil. To Regina's smug and sly satisfaction, Little John's widow, Marian—the snobbiest of them all—was one of the people who could not hold on. She landed in the mud doubled over, her chin between her knees and briefly stuck before she yanked it up.

With knobby knees and shaking withers, the horses stepped onto the path leading out of the forest.

When they reached the gap that yawned at the exit, Will halted his horse. The other riders yanked on their reins.

Without turning back, Will heard when all the horses had stopped. He spoke firmly. "Everyone, follow my pace. We must be languid so no one takes notice of Regina. Then we will succeed in our journey."

Regina's heart hammered, a minnow swimming upstream. It was with great courage and little faith that she stepped out of the forest's shadows and into the bright light of the path that brushed up against the castle walls.

Of course, there were two guards in soldier uniforms beside the gate's closed door. Regina saw them through her peripheral vision but kept her gaze forward.

Passing them was easy. They seemed to take no notice of her.

A few more steps forward, and a noose yanked around her neck so hard she was pulled from the horse and smashed to the gravel, cutting her elbow and side of her nose open.

The last thing she was aware of was Little John's widow cackling merrily at the sight of a great horsewoman fallen from an equine.

When Regina next cracked her eyelids apart, she saw she was on the barrows. A man was about to swipe her head off with an axe as Snow White shoveled popcorn between her greedy red lips. The sting of Regina's cut nose and elbow throbbed synonymously.

Regina's purple magic took her away as the axe was just about to cut into the hairs at the back of her neck.

The scene before Regina changed. The clearing of a forest replaced the queen, tiara glinting in the sunlight as she shoveled popcorn with her fist from her lap to her lips red as blood.

The forest surrounding Regina was not the same forest she'd climbed out of not long ago.

Regina had teleported on her stomach. The ties that had bound her wrists and ankles together had been melted by her purple magic. She now sat up and moved her limbs. Shaking out the stiffness. She got a good look at the ugly opening on her arm and grimaced. The fall had cut her a lot deeper than she would have guessed—no wonder it felt like a surgeon had dug his scalpel in her elbow and nose without using magic to numb the area first.

Then she sat with her chin propped on her knees and arms wrapped around her legs. Her shoulders quivered.

Will Scarlet hadn't wanted to help. She'd known that all along. But she'd forced herself to bravely trust him in spite of the warning bells clanging in her head.

Running her hand along her ankle, she felt something squishy. Glancing down without moving her chin from her knees, she saw a tick. Irritably, she used her purple magic to burn it to a thin wisp of smoke.