Chapter 9
New green leaves trembled on the birch trees scattered at the edge of the Darkwood as Neeve and I stepped outside the castle grounds. The stretch of meadow between the stone walls and the shadowed recesses of the forest was studded with small pink-and-white flowers, the dried grasses of winter nearly covered by the spiky green of fresh growth.
I pushed my cloak behind my shoulders and breathed deeply of the cedar-scented air. The day was cool, but not unreasonably so. And despite my fears that Lord Raine would prohibit us from setting foot outside the castle, the king had agreed to let Neeve and me go into the forest.
Not without argument—there had been a heated conversation at dinner three nights earlier, when the subject came up.
“Neeve, Rose,” the king had said after the m
