Page 131 of Song of the Dark Wood

“Sarai, we need a plan,” Rowan said. “The Crone said that the blight is still spreading in Ballybrine, and I think the Mother is doing it. There must be a way to strip her of power and pass it to someone else, just like she was planning to do with Conor.”

Sarai furrowed her brow. “Well, theoretically, the magics are two sides of the same coin. Death is just the pause before life. It’s all an endless circle.” She leaned back in her chair thoughtfully. “I have an idea, but it’s going to be a long shot, and it might not work at all if we don’t have enough people to witness the transfer of power. Still, it’s our best option.”

Conor sat down, and the three of them set about making a new plan.

Rowan stoodin front of Orla’s shrine, striking a match to light a candle and bowing her head in prayer. The afternoon light pouring through the stained-glass window cast her face in an array of colors.

Conor stood awkwardly off to the side. He’d been following her around all day. Even Sarai teased him about it, but so much had happened in the past day, and he had a strange fear that if he let Rowan out of his sight, she would disappear. Or, worse, change her mind about him.

Rowan had been presented with quite a bit of startling information in the past few days, from the Crone’s prophecy to Rowan’s ability to control the Dark Wood to the fact that the Mother was still spreading the blight into Ballybrine to the revelation that Conor had killed most of the past Maidens.

She’d been uncommonly quiet and reserved, even when he made love to her that morning. She was more tentative. Her emotions were carefully tucked away from him.

Conor’s mind spun wildly. It was the first time he’d been able to see a real way out of the mess he’d made so many years before. The plan that he, Sarai, and Rowan had formed meant that he’d no longer need to be bound by taking Red Maidens.Unfortunately, it also meant that as soon as they handled the Mother, Rowan would no longer be bound to him. She could finally have a life of her own, and as much as he wanted that for her, he didn’t want to think about how his days would drag without her.

She lifted her head and sighed, brushing her hair back behind her shoulders as she turned to look at him.

“What’s going on in your head?” Conor asked.

A smile tugged at her lips. “I thought you knew now with our bond.”

“I know what you feel at times, which is quite a lot, but I have no idea what you think.”

Rowan considered it, wringing her hands and twisting them into the skirt of her dark green dress. “I think that I wasn’t surprised when you told me about the other Maidens. I wanted not to believe it, even if it’s what I suspected. I’m not sure it changed anything, but I can’t exactly say that it’s comforting.”

Conor waited breathlessly for her to say more. He didn’t remember ever feeling so terrified. It went far beyond what he felt for her physically. Lorna might have introduced him to compassion, but Rowan had demanded it. She dazzled him, and now, as all of their truths were borne to each other, he was desperately afraid that she wouldn’t want him. He knew asking her to love him still was asking a lot, but he foolishly hoped for it anyway.

“I want to keep you,” Conor said desperately.

Rowan’s face softened. “Keep me?”

“Yes. Keep you in my arms. Keep you safe. Keep you smiling.”

“And if I don’t want to be kept?” she challenged.

“Then I want you to keep me,” he sighed. “I just want to be with you.”

She frowned, and apprehension buzzed through their connection. “But I will continue to age. I will get old and gray, and you’ll be just as handsome as you are now.”

He was surprised she had thought of such a thing. When they met, she’d seemed so certain of her early death that she hadn’t even bothered to think of what she might want if she could decide for herself. Rowan had come such a long way.

“That’s not necessarily true, lass. The magic of this place preserves you while you’re here.”

Rowan’s eyes went wide. “So if I stayed here forever and never went back to Ballybrine, I would stay the same age?”

“It’s not instant—if you walked back to Ballybrine after a year, you wouldn’t instantly age a year. It’s simply that when you’re in Ballybrine, you age normally, and when you’re here, the eternal magic keeps you as you are.”

If she was thinking that much about the future, perhaps he had more of a chance than he thought. Perhaps she could love him with the same certainty with which he loved her. Perhaps he could satisfy all of her questions until the only answer she had left was “yes.” Could he be so fortunate?

“You know, I would make the whole world dark for you so that you can be the only bright light,” Conor said.

She smiled. She’d let him drag her down into the dark, or perhaps she’d always lived there and he simply found her and made her unafraid. She’d lived at odds with her nature, but he wanted to set her free.

“There is an ember in you that glows brightly all the time. To have been hurt and forgotten, to have been wounded and betrayed, and to still do nothing but burn… I am blown away by you, Rowan Cleary.”

Conor lowered himself to his knees.

For Rowan alone, he was devout. He had spent centuries as someone who exclusively received reverence and homage, notone who gave it. But Rowan demanded his faith with her very presence, and he never wanted to worship anyone or anything else.

---