As though he read her thoughts, he answered her question. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ll not do to you what you did to me. The binding of which I speak is between you and me.’
She looked at him quickly, questioningly.
‘Step forward,’ he commanded and held out his hands to her.
She hesitated. Was there any way she could escape? The sinister figures had not moved, yet now they formed a tight circle around them.
‘Idoc,’ she pleaded. ‘We are bound and have always been bound by our destinies. There is no need for this.’
He was close to her now, looking down into her eyes. He was as handsome and as tall as when he had been her lover in that other life; and she trembled with something of her old desire. But his eyes were dark and full of bitterness. ‘You tried to leave me.’
‘No!’
He gripped her sudd
