Chapter 41
My bleak mood didn’t last long, as the next afternoon Neeve and I made for the Darkwood.
Though the air was cool, the clouds overhead had lifted into a high pewter dome. Black-winged birds cawed from the branches of the cedar trees as we stepped out of the door concealed in the garden shed.
Beyond the walls, the brown grasses were wet. The hem of my skirt darkened with moisture as we strode to the line of trees. My heart thumped unreasonably loudly in my chest, and I told myself that it was only anticipation at setting foot in the forest again.
I was lying to myself, of course, and not very well.
In truth, I couldn’t wait to see Thorne. Through the dark winter months, thoughts of him had flashed almost constantly through my mind: his serious eyes flecked with gold, how he’d
