“I have a plan,” she announced to the men. “Lochlan, I need a favor.”
“It appears your wife has abandoned you already,” Henry said as he rode beside Sin.
Sin refused to let Henry know how much those words hurt him. He would never admit to anyone, not even himself, that what he had really wanted was for her to stop him.
Right until the moment the castle had faded from his sight, a part of him had longed to hear Callie cry out that she loved him too much to see him die. That she would do anything to see him safe.
It was a fool’s dream and well he knew it.
“She does what she must to protect her people, much like someone else I know.”
Henry snorted. “We never thought we’d see you self-sacrificing for a putrid Scot. Nor bearing their mark. Tell us, Sin, what brought about this change in you?”
Sin didn’t answer. He couldn’t.
What had brought about this change? The gentle smile of a winsome maid who had reached deep inside his dead heart and restarted it.
Closing his eyes, he summoned an image of her face and held it dear.
What he did, he did for her. Now, she would be able to have the peace that meant so much to her. Dermot would never again dare to raise MacNeely arms against England and Callie would have her people safe and whole.
There would be no more bloodshed.
Henry let out a slow breath and when he spoke, it was without the cold formality of a king. “Sin, don’t make me do this. You are the only man I truly don’t want to kill. Give me something to save your life.”
“I can’t do it, Henry.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Won’t.”
“Damn you!”
Sin laughed at that and repeated the king’s words back to him. “If I am damned, it is surely for more than this small matter.”
Henry’s jaw flexed. “Very well. We shall take you back to London where we will make quite an example of you. Our only hope is that when your innards are being scraped from inside you while you’re still alive to feel it, you will still think this sacrifice a noble one.”
Henry kicked his horse forward and left Sin alone with his thoughts.
They rode through the day, only breaking for a small repast at noon. As expected, no one bothered to offer food to Sin. There was no need to waste supplies on a dead man.
Ostracized by all, he was left alone until they made their camp that evening.
Sin spent the night lying on the cold ground out in the open, chained to a log. He should be cold and uncomfortable, but thoughts of his wife stayed in his heart.
He’d always assumed he would die in battle. Felled by an enemy sword or arrow. He’d never dared to dream that it would be love that killed him.
While he’d only known love for such a short time,it hardly seemed right it would be the death of him and yet he could think of no better ending.
He couldn’t stand by and let Callie’s brother be taken and killed, nor could he have killed Dermot himself.
His days as an assassin were over. He’d left that part of himself in England and his heart he had left with his wife.
Now there was nothing left of him. He was an empty shell that existed only to remember Callie’s gentle face.
Closing his eyes, he took comfort in the knowledge that though he wouldn’t live out his life with Callie, at least he’d been fortunate enough to have her for a small span of time.
Dying was inevitable, but until the day she had turned that breathtaking smile on him, he had never really lived.
