Callista had run for Father, and he burst into the house, panting, just as I made to leave. Rob was with him; he wouldn’t leave for his route until after breakfast.
“Beauty, what ... what is this?” Father demanded.
Meeting his eyes evenly, I said, “Astra has taken my ring to the castle. I will go through the woods.”
“Foolish girl,” he murmured. I did not know which of us he spoke of. Perhaps both.
I could see in his face that he would wrap me in a hug, coax me back to the fire, persuade me to stay.
So I said the truth, “Father, I love him.”
For all the thorns I’d faced, at last I’d found the roses.
Callista’s eyes doubled in size. She pressed her hands to her mouth in such shock, I might have announced my new life’s calling as a pirate queen. Rob’s jaw swung open like it had been unhinged. Father only shook his head.
“My whimsical Beauty.” His forehead creased with worry. “You have never been content with a simple world.”
“I can be no one but myself, Papa.” I smiled.
“You can’t go.” Callista grabbed Father’s arm. “She can’t go! She’s only just come back.”
“And she’ll come back again.” Father reached for me. “Promise me, girl.”
I hugged him. “I promise.”
“I’m going with you,” Rob said.
“No, Rob.” He would be fired if he did not show up to work with no explanation. The family couldn’t afford that. We argued, but in the end, he saw reason.
“Take Honey,” he said.
And I couldn’t argue that.
Rob saddled her, whispered something in her ear, which Honey answered with a sharp nod, her mane flopping against her neck.
Then I climbed up, and Father handed me my sword, looking all the while like he was biting his tongue to keep from ordering me back to the house.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, as much for my sake as for theirs.
I faced the dark wood, sword in hand, staring down the towering trees from Honey’s saddle. She shied, stamping anxiously.
“I know, girl,” I murmured. “But I have to.”
I took a deep breath and dug in my heels. Into the woods we went.
The forest swallowed me immediately, closing around me like a curtain, and when I glanced back, I could no longer see the cottage, though it couldn’t have been more than fifty feet away. I patted Honey’s neck, gripped my sword more tightly, and pressed on. If there was something I could do to reason or bargain with the enchantments in the trees, I could not think of it, so I remained silent.
The branches at first arched above my head, and the path between the trees—though not packed down by travel—was at least clear of jutting roots. But as we progressed, the branches grew more oppressive, lowering and thickening until I had to hunker toward Honey’s neck to avoid the thin wooden fingers. Creeping roots began to appear as bumps on the frosted path, waiting to catch Honey’s hooves. Though I felt the urgency of my situation, we had to pick our way forward with caution.
Then I heard the howl.
Honey’s ears pricked, and her eyes rolled. She strained against the reins as another howl echoed the first. My palms began to sweat within my gloves. I threw back my hood, squinting in the shadows between trees, but nothing moved.
I knew nothing of predators except what I’d read, and the knowledge jumbled in my mind. But it didn’t matter since my cursory study of wolves could not hold up against whatever beasts might roam an enchanted forest.
I searched the forest, looking for a glimmer of gold for the gates or a flash of color for the gardens, anything that would signal the castle. But it was only black tree after black tree.
Honey strained again. I forced her to keep the slow, methodical pace. If she tripped and broke a leg, we would both be done for.
