Prologue

PROLOGUE

When she was five years old, Rowan Cleary whispered her name to the Dark Wood, and the Dark Wood whispered it back.

Her mother had warned her never to speak her name so close to a forest full of vicious monsters. Names held power. But Rowan had been found out as a spirit singer and given over to the elders by her family. Her life as she knew it was over.

Rowan's power as a spirit singer meant that she would become the acting Red Maiden when she came of age. She would be forced to deliver on a bargain struck between two gods long before she was born. The Mother saw to the living. The Wolf saw to the dead. The Red Maiden was the bridge between two worlds, ferrying souls from the realm of the living, through the forest, to the realm of the dead.

It was reckless. She felt the wrongness in the magic of the Dark Wood, but still, it called to her—reaching out with icy fingers—beckoning her inside as if to say, " Come play with me, Rowan—little red one. Come play! "

One way or another, whatever lurked in the Dark Wood would get her. The rest of the world would know her as a Red Maiden and nothing else. So, she whispered her name and listened to the chilling echo of it in the darkness. It was the only rebellion she could muster at such a tender age.

She knew she would disappear in a matter of years, but at least the Dark Wood would remember her name.