Page 10 of Song of the Dark Wood

“We should go back. I’m sure Orla is home by now,” Rowan said. Suddenly, a murmur went through the crowd behind them. “Let’s go see what the fuss is about.”

They pushed through the pulsing crowd. The buzz grew louder the closer they drew to the Elder Tree in the center of the square. The magical tree had been transplanted from the Dark Wood years before and acted as a beacon for what was happening with the magic of the forest and the Red Maidens.

When they finally reached the front of the crowd, they saw what the fuss was about. Half the Elder Tree’s branches were bright white with blight, the rest their normal, healthy brown.

But it wasn’t the blight that had everyone whispering prayers under their breath.

Blood dripped like gruesome rain from the blighted branches of the Elder Tree.

Rowan stared in disbelief. Her mouth went dry and her ears rang. Her chest was too tight to draw breath.

“Rowie?” Aeoife said. Her voice shook with fear. “Doesn’t that mean?—”

“Doesn’t that mean a Red Maiden is dead?” Cade finished.

Aeoife tugged on Rowan’s sleeve, but she couldn’t look away from the bloody branches.

After the third tug, Rowan snapped out of it. She looked around the square. Townspeople stood staring at the two Maidens. Aeoife’s lower lip trembled under the hood and Rowan’s protective instinct kicked in.

“Let’s go,” Rowan said, tugging on the little girl’s hand. She pulled Aeoife through the gawking crowd toward Maiden’s Tower. “Don’t worry until we have to, okay?”

Aeoife nodded as she stumbled along beside Rowan.

Finn was waiting outside the tower doors. “Rowan, we need your help,” he said solemnly. His gaze passed over Aeoife.

“Aeoife, can you go read in your room? I’m going to help the huntsmen.”

The little girl hesitated.

“I promise I will come talk to you as soon as I know what’s going on,” Rowan said. She squeezed Aeoife’s hand, and the little girl turned and made her way upstairs.

Rowan turned back to Finn. “It’s true, isn’t it? Orla’s gone?”

“Row, I’m so sorry. I know you were close,” he mumbled.

Rowan shook her head, blinking away tears. Having known for years that Orla would likely die young did nothing to soften the sting of her loss. She was just two months from the end of her term. She, Rowan, and Aeoife were a family of their own, and though her whole life brushed up against death, Rowan had never lost someone she cared about.

Evelyn, the Red Maiden before Orla, and Lorna before her, had always been cold toward Rowan, so she had never formed a close bond with them before they passed. Orla’s death, however, touched something that lived in the secret part of Rowan’s heart.

“Are you sure?” Rowan asked.

Finn swallowed hard. “That’s why I’m here. Her body is just over the border in the Dark Wood, but the magic is so powerfulnone of us can bear to get close. We need you to go get her and pull her out.”

Rowan paled. Things were happening much too quickly. She felt as if a clock had begun ticking down in the back of her mind.Tick, tick, tick. Orla was dead, which meant Rowan was the acting Red Maiden.Tick, tick, tick. Orla was dead, which meant Rowan would be dead soon, too.Tick, tick, tick. Orla was dead, and Rowan needed to retrieve her friend’s body because no one else could.

She wanted to stay right where she was until her mind could catch up to the new reality. If she didn’t see a body, it would feel less real. She wasn’t prepared, and yet, in some ways, she’d always been prepared. This had been inevitable since the day she whispered her name to the Dark Wood. Rowan might have been able to pretend, but the knowing lived in the back of her mind like a recurring nightmare.

“I can’t” wasn’t a declaration she could make, even if the words screamed through her mind. “No” wasn’t a word she had the luxury of using. She’d never had an option other than absolute obedience. There was only what the world required of her—which was everything.

“I know it’s horrible, but I also know you wouldn’t want to leave her there,” Finn continued. “We will be close in case anything happens, but every time I’ve tried to cross the border into the woods, I get this horrible ringing in my ears, and I’m so dizzy I fall over. I didn’t even want to ask, but I didn’t know what else?—”

“I’ll do it,” Rowan said, snapping out of her daze.

“I’ll go with you,” Cade said. She nodded at him, even though Finn couldn’t hear the demon.

She followed Finn toward the Dark Wood. Her legs felt leaden, not with fear but with the dread of seeing with her own eyes that Orla was gone. Finn whispered beside her, but shecouldn’t make sense of the words—something about a lack of blood or obvious injury.

As they approached the trailhead, Rowan flinched at the sound of a loud, guttural scream. Her hands came to her ears, and she doubled over.

---