Page 86 of Into the Heartless Wood
All the nights I spent with her on the hill. Every time I looked at her and forgot she was a monster. Every time I wished her to be more than she was, that Ithoughtshe was more—
She as good as murdered my mother, and I’d thought—I’d thought—
Do you fancy yourself in love with this girl?
Her mouth on mine, her body on mine. Her smooth-sharp hands pressed against my ears, blocking out the horror of her sisters’ song.
The same song thatshesang when she lured my mother to her death.
Her betrayal cuts deeper than any knife.
And yet it gutted me to leave her alone in the dark.
I loved a monster.
Now I must pay the price.
I’m not sure how I make it to the edge of the wood and Father’s wall, just as dawn lightens the world around me. Maybe it’s the lingering remnants of the magic Mother wielded to keep us safe. Maybe it’s Seren, commanding the wood to leave me be. Or maybe I am simply not important enough for the wood to bother with.
I scramble over the wall. The lantern is lost somewhere among the trees—it would be just if the oil spilled and caught fire, if the wood burned all to ash. But I don’t think there is any justice to be had in the Gwydden’s Wood.
I drag myself past the garden, up the steps to the door.
A paper notice stares me in the face, nailed into the wood and stamped with King Elynion’s seal. I tear it free, shaking so hard the words swim before my eyes. I force myself to be still.
A warrant for the arrest of Calon Merrick, on the charge of high treason, signed and witnessed on this day by His Royal Majesty Elynion, King of Tarian.
It’s signed with an illegible scrawl, and dated yesterday afternoon. I read it three times, disbelieving. Father arrested for treason? Why? How? The king must have sent soldiers by train. They must have arrived around the same time my mother—
I force away the echo of her screams, the memory of her heart in her hands, before she turned to ash.
A new terror grips me. If Father was arrested, he would have been taken to the palace in Breindal City by now. But what about Awela?
I fling the door open and tear through the downstairs rooms, then race upstairs to search those as well. My little sister is nowhere to be found.
I pace the kitchen, telling myself to be calm, tothink.Awela spends most days with Efa at the farm. She’s probably there. I’ll stop and check on my way to Breindal City. Because of course I’m going after my father. This all has to be some horrible mistake. Father could no more commit treason than Awela—he hasn’t got it in him.
I’ll take the train. Go straight to the king. Bring Father home.
A clap of thunder rattles the house, and I jerk my eyes to the kitchen window. Rain breaks anew from heavy clouds.
Breath rushes out of me. Suddenly, all I can see is a bloody heart in a rainy wood. All I can hear is my mother screaming.
I press my hands against my ears. “STOP IT!” I cry. “STOP IT! LEAVE ME ALONE!”
I collapse onto the kitchen floor as the horror of my mother’s death repeats itself behind my eyes, over and over again.
And I weep for her. Because I am the only one who knows she’s truly gone.
It doesn’t take long to get ready—I shove food and a few changes of clothing into my pack, along with last month’s payment from the king, and the star charts that document the sky before and after the impossible meteor shower. I pull on a clean pair of trousers and a fresh shirt, fumbling with the buttons. I jam my top hat onto my head and then shrug into Father’s old oilskin coat. It’s overlarge on me, and smells like him: ink, cinnamon, woodsmoke. My brain works at the knot of his arrest, trying to understand the incomprehensible.
It’s midmorning, and still raining as I trudge to Brennan’s Farm. I’m eager to see Awela, eager to promise her that all will be well very soon, that we’ll be together again. We never have to go back to the house by the wood. I never want to.
I knock on the farmhouse door as rain cascades from the eave of the roof, and damp chickens cluck in annoyance from their pen beside the house.
Efa opens the door, but she’s alone. Her eyes widen at the sight of me. “Owen! What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to see Awela. Where is she?”
