Page 140 of Into the Heartless Wood
in the spaces
where the pain
does not reach,
the glimmerings of light
between shadows.
Growing and growing.
Blazing with souls.
It creeps toward the king and his palace.
It devours everything in its path.
I live,
I bleed,
I wait.
Then one morning, my mother comes to me.
She strips the briars from my body.
She tells me
we are going
to war.
Chapter Fifty-Five
OWEN
DAYS PASS IN THE DARK OF THE KING’S PRISON. I’M NOT SUREhow many. Drystan brings me food sometimes. Rheinallt comes once to change the bandage on my leg.
I grow stronger. I grow restless.
There is far, far too much time.
To think. To fear. To rage.
I pace the cell, over and over until my legs ache. I try to sleep. But nightmares chase sleep away. It’s better to be awake.
I pray that Awela is safe, and far from here.
I try not to think about Bedwyn. AboutSeren.
I can’t reconcile what she did. What she is. What, somehow, she still means to me.
Bedwyn wasn’t real, and yet—
And yet you kissed a monster, says a voice inside my head.You kissed a monster, and you don’t want to let her go.
Not a monster, I tell myself stubbornly.Not anymore. She saved me. She defied her mother and saved me so many times.
