Marigold's feet crunched against the gravel leading up to the Best's farmhouse. It looked older, somehow, as it sat empty beneath the moonlight. The whitewashed wood seemed even more chipped than it already was, the porch saggier, and the windows more smeared with grime.
"Ready?" Silas asked, appearing a few feet away.
Marigold tore her gaze away from the farmhouse, away from the blood still staining the steps, and said, "I'm ready."
Silas was bluish at night, which made his eyes look particularly dazzling and otherworldly.
She still wasn't sure what he was planning to do in the forest, but he seemed like he had a plan. That was more than Marigold could say.
For the first time, she realized that it would've been wiser to have one of her sisters with her. It occurred to her that it was rather unsafe to walk into a magical forest with a murdered ghost unaccompanied.
It was too late to go back now, so they climbed the fence and went into the forest.
Marigold had entered Gwydyr several times since Wyatt's disappearance but was surprised that she felt more at ease with Silas by her side this time.
Maybe it was because he knew the forest and it, apparently, knew him too. She was in his home, his world, and didn't feel so much like a trespasser.
For the first time, she saw the beauty of the forest, and for a while, they simply walked along the mossy pathway and marveled at it.
Each tree was perfect, without a shard of bark missing or a branch broken. Some of the oaks sprawled out several feet, arching downwards until the thick branches rested on the ground.
Even in the darkness of the night, there was something golden about Gwydyr--a shimmer of radiance that Marigold couldn't quite place.
"It's not so bad, is it?" Silas said. "It tends to scare people off. But it's just particular who it lets in."
"So does it have a conscience?" Marigold asked quietly. She was always worried she'd offend the forest if she spoke too loudly.
"Sure," Silas replied. "Most things do."
"But I mean; is it sentient? Does it have a mind, a heart?"
Silas thought about it for a long time. "I guess you'll just have to see for yourself."
Marigold sighed--half in frustration, half with resignation. They kept walking.
As they made their way down the nonexistent pathways, Marigold stole another glance at Silas.
She itched with dozens of questions, but the ones at the front of her mind had to do with Silas's death. How could she possibly ask such questions? So I heard your father killed you? What was that like?
But she was curious. He'd only been seven-years-old when it happened and he'd grown up in this mysterious place. What had he seen or experienced?
She also wondered what was so special about Gwydyr that Hal stooped to such disturbing levels to gain entrance inside. So far, the forest was wild to be sure, but it didn't grant kingdoms or money or immortality. At least, she didn't think it did.
"I didn't know it was him," Silas said.
Had he been reading Marigold's mind? She asked, "What do you mean?"
"I didn't really know it was my own father who killed me," Silas continued. His hard-edged glare was back, threatening the trees and everything around him. There was something dangerous, not vulnerable, about him just then and Marigold wondered how so much anger could be stored up in one person. She didn't blame him.
"All I knew was that I was in the forest one moment, then there was a gunshot, and I woke up here."
"Were you suspicious who it was?" Marigold asked.
"I was seven," Silas retorted. "I never would have...never could have thought that..."
His voice faded and he clenched his jaw, marching up ahead a few paces, his shoulders rigid.
Marigold concluded that this conversation was over. She stayed back, allowing him his space until they came to a small clearing.
Marigold recognized it as the one they'd been in when they'd summoned the forest.
Silas broke off a branch from a nearby tree and Marigold flinched. It felt like he was snapping someone's arm.
She watched as he drew a circle around himself with a single diagonal slash coming through half of it.
"What do I do?" Marigold asked, even though she wasn't at all sure what he was doing.
"What you Penny girls always do," was Silas's cryptic reply.
Marigold interpreted it as sitting outside the circle, but still only a foot away. Silas gave a nod and Marigold closed her eyes.
She felt the energy course through her immediately, from the top of her head down to her fingertips and toes.
The damp grass beneath her suddenly felt like ice and the air stilled--thickening, almost.
Then there was a new, pulsing energy like a wave gently pushing and pulling against the atmosphere--no, like a heartbeat. Steady. Rhythmic.
Alive.
Whispers, thousands of them, rushed into Marigold's ears and she had to resist the urge to cover them.
There were so many that it sounded like static coming from the radio. Was this what was supposed to happen?
The pulse of the energy rocked Marigold into a stupor--half asleep, but still aware. Her senses were spread out over the forest and then, in an instant, her spirit left her body.
She was looking at herself from the outside. She was sitting in front of the circle, a serene expression on her face, while Silas sat with a distinct frown, muttering things she couldn't hear.
She floated up into the trees when some invisible force took her by the hand, guiding her.
It felt like a dream, but at the same time, it wasn't like anything she'd ever experienced.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked, but her words were muted by the whispers still crackling in her ears.
She was taken high above the trees and was stunned by how vast it was. It was impossible.
She couldn't even see Nowhere from her vantage point.
A fluttering sense of freedom unlike anything Marigold had ever known blossomed inside of her. At that moment, she felt as if she could go anywhere, do anything, be anyone.
With the forest, nothing in the universe was out of the question. She could have sobbed at the thought of it, this feeling she'd been craving all her life.
Here, she didn't feel stuck. She was free. She felt like she had a purpose, no longer yearning for things she'd never have.
What did it mean? Why was the forest showing her this?
All too soon, her invisible guide brought her back down to earth, where Silas was shaking her awake.
And just like that, her eyes were open, back in her own body, staring at Silas with a dazed expression.
"Marigold, wake up!" he said.
All facades of ego and bitterness were gone. In their place was the look of a frightened boy. His eyes were wide, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.
Marigold blinked herself into focus. "What? What happened? Is it Wyatt?"
For half a moment, it looked as if Silas was going to cry, but he covered it with a snarl.
He said, "The forest is being murdered."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey everyone! Sorry for the late post! Don't forget I'll be posting AGAIN (!!) on Saturday!
~For my US readers--are you excited for Thanksgiving?? What's your favorite Thanksgiving food?
~What did you think of the chapter?