Chapter 65

THERE WERE THREE of them. Nora was in no mood to be bothered now. Her heart broke more with each breath she took. She was losing Jack. She needed to repair the damage done to their relationship, but now, she might not get that chance.

Two of the bandits set upon Jack and the third one grabbed her by the arms from behind before she could get to her weapons. Jack dispatched one of his attackers quickly with his knife, hitting the man square in his throat, but the second was larger than Jack and proved more difficult to dispense with. Jack struggled with the man, trying to get a hold on him.

For a moment, Nora froze. All her training immediately melted from her mind. What should she do? What could she do? She assessed the situation with emotion instead of strategy. The attacker held her arms. He obviously didn’t expect any trouble from her. That would be to her advantage, but how?

The man wrestling with Jack pulled out a knife. “We just want the girl,” he said. “You don’t need to die. I can knock you out and be long gone when you awaken.”

“You’ll have to kill me first!” Jack roared.

“I can do that,” the man boasted.

“You can try!”

Fighting with a vengeance, Jack continued to struggle. Shaken out of her frightened haze, Nora spurred into action. She sagged against the man holding her, feigning a faint and he loosened his grip on her just enough. When he thought she was about to fall, she jerked back up and slammed the back of her head into his face, hearing the rewarding sound of a scream and crunch of bone. Stepping on his insole, she shoved her elbow into his stomach. The man staggered away from her, cupping his face just long enough for Nora to free her knife.

“The wee bitch broke my nose!”

Before Nora could get away, the man dove for her, and they fell to the ground. He grabbed her wrist and began to slam her hand into the ground, trying to force it open so the knife would fall out. Nora held onto the knife for dear life. The man tried to pin Nora’s other wrist, but the blood from his nose—blood that was now falling on her—made his grasp slippery.

Nora reached out with her free hand, searching the ground for anything she could use as a weapon. When her fingers met stone, she closed her hand and smashed the rock up against the man’s head. The man listed to the side, his grip on her knife hand faltering, and Nora reached out and swung her arm around and down as hard as she could, planting the dagger in the man’s back. Her aim was true, and the knife landed between the man’s shoulder blades. He fell atop her in a dead heap.

Her arm radiated with pain, and she struggled to extricate herself from underneath her fallen attacker. When she finally did, she staggered to her feet, still holding the rock and the knife. She looked down at her hands and stared in amazement. The stone in her hand was the Philosopher’s Stone. The hidden pocket in her cloak must have torn loose during the struggle and freed it. She had never imagined the stone as a weapon, but that was exactly what it had just proven to be. She stared at it, transfixed. Though she often hid the stone in her cloak, it had never come loose before—not once.

Jack’s continued struggle pulled her out of her thoughts when she heard him order her to run. Run? Was he mad? Did he not think she could protect him, as well? She had just killed a man. Again. She watched Jack’s struggle and seethed with rage. He may be furious with her now, but she was not about to leave him to die.

Quickly, Nora assessed his fight. Both men were gaining and losing ground with the same rate of recurrence. She consid-ered launching herself at his attacker and making the odds two against one, but she suspected that would be more of a hindrance. Instead, she shoved the stone into another hidden pocket in her cloak that also held a small amount of emergency money and ran for the cart. She pulled out the bow and arrow they had brought with them for hunting. Her skills were strongest with this weapon, and she could use it from a distance. She nocked an arrow, drew, and waited for her moment.

It was then Nora realized that the bow and arrow might not have been the best choice. What if she found her moment and they changed position right when she loosed her arrow? She could hit Jack. Did she try to get another weapon? No. She waited for her chance and committed to this. As long as she didn’t hit Jack’s heart or head, he would likely survive just fine. And quite honestly, once the arrow met any mark, the element of surprise would give her time to launch another one.

Nora drew in her breath, saw her best chance, and took it. The arrow pierced Jack’s attacker in the shoulder. The man screamed and reared back. With speed made purely of adrena-line, Nora launched a second arrow, hitting the hoodlum right in the heart.

Silence followed. Jack and Nora stayed frozen, panting for breath. Finally, Jack looked up at Nora from his spot on the ground, and she lowered her bow. She felt deflated.
Jack still looked at her with rage and distrust in his eyes, and she felt empty inside.

“I release you from your obligation, sir,” she said softly, turning and heading back to the cart.

“What did you just say?” Jack demanded, scrambling to his feet.

“Go! Make your own way! I shall not hinder you any further with my trials and tribulations, with my ‘manipulations.’ You can see you have taught me well. Consider your vow honored.” Nora replaced the bow and quiver on the cart and blinked back tears.

“You cannot release me from a marriage, Eleanor,” Jack hissed, following her. “Things do not work that way.”

“We were married by an eccentric ship’s captain!” she countered. “No banns were read. I hardly think anyone would expect you to honor it.”

“It is a legal marriage, and I will not walk away from it,” Jack replied hotly.

She could feel the anger radiating from him. Nora moved away from him again. She no longer knew what she felt. Anger? Relief? Love? Sorrow?

Anger. She honed in on the anger.

“What would you have from me, Jack?! You claim I have manipulated you into your emotions, that you can’t trust me. So, I release you from all obligations, but you get angry and refuse to walk away. Which way is it to be, Jack? You can’t have it both ways. And telling me to run? Like I would ever consider leaving you behind?” she accused, spinning back towards him but keeping her distance. If she were closer to him, she’d likely strike him.

“I wanted you to run to keep you safe and remove you from the fight. That, after all, is my job! My task is to protect you, the Guardian.”

“The Guardian, you say? Don’t look now, Jack,” Nora said harshly, “but it sounds like you might believe!”

The sound of racing hooves drew their attention towards the trees. Riders swarmed out of the woods and swirled around them. There must have been a dozen of them.
Certainly too many for the two of them to fight.

“Nora, run! There are more of them!” Jack bellowed again to her. “Run, God dammit!”

But there wasn’t enough time. One rider rode down on Jack and struck him over the head. Jack crumbled soundlessly to the ground. The second rider reached down and grabbed Nora about the waist and slung her over his horse. Screaming, kicking, and clawing, she fought. The first rider closed the distance between them and when he was next to them, he struck Nora on the head, as well, and everything went black.