Page 19 of Song of the Dark Wood

He opened his mouth to speak, but a knock at the door cut him off.

“Miss Rowan, your family is here for breakfast,” a servant called through the door.

“Let the fun begin,” Rowan said dryly as the door opened and the group of Cleary women bustled in.

Rowan took in her mother in her fine red wool dress. Her auburn hair was arranged immaculately, all hints of silver rinsed away with a beet wash. Rowan’s sisters, Maeve and Shaina, paraded in behind their mother in elaborately embroidered scarlet dresses that brought out the red in their darker hair. Tonight they’d look the part of a proud family, even if they hadn’t been to visit in months.

Maeve was four years older than Rowan and married to a wealthy man who ran fishing routes around the entire island of Eireione. They had two sons whom Rowan had never met. Shaina was two years older and newly married to a man whose family owned three pubs in Ballybrine, and she was pregnant with their first child.

“Darling, you look a fright,” her mother said.

“I forgot how charming she is,” Cade said from his perch by the fire.

Rowan’s sisters awkwardly hugged her, as if she was a stranger and not the baby sister they should have spent their lives taking care of.

“Mother, honestly, is that any way to greet her?” Maeve placed a hand on Rowan’s shoulder. “Ryan and Jack send theirlove. Ryan is running his own small fleet these days, and Jack is managing all of Megan’s father’s estate.”

“Of course,” Rowan said. “Life goes on.”

Rowan wished she could have been alone, but it was the job of the new Red Maiden’s family and a team of hair stylists and servants to prepare her for her inaugural journey.

Rowan crossed her arms. “I’m sorry that I didn’t sleep well the night before my devouring, Mother. I suppose you all have your work cut out for you.”

“Let’s get to it, then,” her mother said, and a team of servants and stylists descended upon Rowan.

Rowan blinked several times,trying to recognize herself in the woman in the looking glass.

After her steaming hot bath, the servants buffed her skin and groomed her to painful perfection, plucking her brows and brushing and styling her hair until it felt like it might fall out. It was almost as bad as when they’d arrived two days before with a sugar paste to remove all hair from the lower half of her body. That pain alone was enough to make her fear death slightly less.

When the team of servants and stylists was satisfied with her appearance, they left her alone with her mother and sisters. She carefully dressed in the obscene white lace undergarments the seamstress had provided, and then her mother and sisters helped her into the silk dress, cinching it with ties at the back so that it clung to her curves.

Now, she stared at their handiwork in disbelief. Her long, curly hair was twisted into an intricate braid draped over one shoulder and woven through with tiny white flowers. They’d rubbed her lips with a beet stain to brighten them.

“You look beautiful,” her mother said appreciatively, running a hand over the silk gown as if it was a wedding dress and not sacrificial garb for a virgin.

Rowan supposed that’s what all wedding dresses were.

“You look like a doll,” Cade said from where he leaned against the wall by the fire.

The clang of a bell outside—the first of three that let the people of Ballybrine know it was time to gather for the weekly Gratitude and Grieving Ceremony—saved her from having to respond.

“We should go,” Maeve said. She and Shaina helped Rowan into her red cloak.

Rowan took one last look at herself and led them out of her room. In the hall, she found Aeoife waiting.

“Rowie, you look so pretty,” Aeoife said, her blue eyes glassy with unshed tears.

“Thank you, Aeoife. You’ll be okay on your own tonight, right? I’ll be back when you wake up in the morning,” Rowan said. She struggled for confidence she didn’t feel, but she hoped that it was true for Aeoife’s sake.

Aeoife’s eyes passed nervously over Rowan’s sisters and mother. “Is it okay if I wait in your room until you get back?” She tried so hard to hold herself together, but her lower lip trembled.

Rowan pulled her into a hug. “Don’t worry, okay? I’ll see you in the morning, and if I can’t be back, I’ll send Cade.”

Her mother’s eyes widened in horror, her gaze darting around the room at the mention of the demon.

Cade chuckled next to her. “What, did she think I would abandon you like she did?”

Rowan gave Aeoife a light pat on the shoulder, pulled up her hood, and made her way out into the square outside Maiden’s Tower.

---