Page 4 of Song of the Dark Wood

They followed Orla onto the balcony off her bedroom, where Aeoife waited, her thick strawberry-blonde hair twisted into twin braids.

“Rowie, the woods are dying,” Aeoife said, her blue eyes wide as she slid her hand into Rowan’s. Cade stepped to Aeoife’s other side, and she leaned her head against his arm.

Rowan looked out on the scene far below. Sure enough, the edge of the Dark Wood, where the trail from the square to Wolf’s Keep began, was full of barren, leafless trees. Their bark had turned a bright white, their branches like skeletal fingers reaching toward the moon, as if to scratch it from the sky. Heavy fog made it impossible to see how far the blight had spread.

Rowan looked at Orla. Though they weren’t permitted to talk about anything important, Orla was like an older sister, always put together immaculately and brave in the face of chaos. But now her perfect facade was ruffled. Wisps of silky blonde hair escaped from her coronet braid and her cheeks were flushed in the autumn air.

“Is it the Wolf?” The question burst from Rowan’s mouth before she could stop it.

Orla’s dark eyes met hers. “I don’t know. Maybe something happened to him.”

“Happened to him?” Rowan almost laughed. “He’s a monster, Orla.”

Orla said nothing, but her hands were clasped together in a white-knuckled grip.

“Maybe he’s not happy with the souls we’ve sent him,” Rowan said. “I saw more than I’ve ever seen gathered down below.”

Orla’s eyes darted to Cade. “He has to go.”

“He won’t tell anyone,” Rowan argued.

“I’m serious.” Orla’s voice was firm. “Please.”

“Cade, leave,” Rowan ordered.

“You know I’m great at keeping secrets,” Cade said.

Rowan shook her head. “I know you are, but it’s not my secret. It’s Orla’s.” Cade didn’t move. “I don’t want to banish you, but I will if I have to.”

Cade sulked away to wait in Rowan’s room. She made sure he’d really gone before turning back to the other Maidens.

“What do you know?” Rowan asked.

In all their years together, Orla had said nothing to her about the Wolf. Even after she’d transitioned from the white dresses Rowan and Aeoife wore into red dresses that signaled the Wolf had claimed her, Orla had stayed silent.

Orla’s gaze passed over the forest before coming to rest on Aeoife and Rowan. “He’s not what everyone makes him out to be. That’s not to say he isn’t dangerous, but I don’t understand why he would do this. I haven’t done anything wrong.” A crease formed in her brow, and she bit her lip. “At least, I don’t think I have.” She shook her head. “People here are too quick to blame their problems on the Wolf.”

Orla squeezed both of their hands. Rowan wanted to ask a hundred different questions, and from the look on Aeoife’s face, she was struggling with the same thing.

“Tomorrow is the next ferrying,” Rowan whispered.

Orla swallowed hard. “Then I guess I’ll find out what’s happening soon.”

Rowan should have taken Aeoife in for dinner, but they stayed beside Orla, as if their presence alone could banish her fear.

Three Red Maidens stared out at the withering Dark Wood and wondered what it meant for a forest full of dead things to be dying.

2

ROWAN

The dampness of the ground soaked through the hem of Rowan’s dress as she knelt in the dirt of Sarai’s garden outside Crone’s Cottage. Autumn in Ballybrine was eternally wet, rain showers popping up so often that nothing ever seemed to dry fully. But even her sodden dress wasn’t enough to stop her from worrying about Orla’s ferrying later that night. She looked across the lake at the silent Dark Wood.

“You’re distracted today,” Sarai said. A gust of wind swayed the rosemary plant as she reached to snip it. She brushed her dark braids behind her shoulders. “Did Orla say anything about the Dark Wood?”

“It was so strange,” Rowan said. “Orla has never told me anything worthwhile about the Wolf or the woods, and she looked worried. Then she told us that if there’s something wrong, it wasn’t the Wolf’s doing. She suggested that something might have happened to him.”

Sarai’s eyes went wide. “Does she like him?”

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