Prologue
The part about living with her uncle Sinclair that Raven dislikes the most is the forest right outside their house that’s practically in the backyard. It’s a vast mess of trees and darkness that borders most of the tiny town. The forest isn’t the bad part, though, it’s the fact that she isn’t allowed to explore it. Her first night here and her uncle sat her down and told her stories about the dark forest. He told her stories about children wandering off into it and never coming back. He told her even more about the children they think drowned in the lake within the depths of the forest. Every few seconds he would knock on wood and force Raven to, too all while he fiddled with the cross around his neck. “There’s evil in the forest, Raven. Things like spirits and things we can’t understand.” He rasps his knuckles against the wood again and urges Raven to do the same. “I can’t lose you, too. You’re all I have left of your mother and I’d like to keep you, okay? Promise me.”
Raven doesn’t understand her uncle’s seriousness but she aims to ease his woes. “I promise, tío. ”
Still, Raven ends up in their fenceless backyard sitting as close to the line of the forest as she possibly can when she spots something nestled in the trees. It’s a girl. Raven fumbles to her feet, leaning forward and squinting as she tries to make sure she’s seeing right.
The girl looms just inside the forest, eyes green and glowing. For a second all Raven can think about is the color of her eyes and not about how her uncle has told her four times now that the forest isn’t a place for seven year old girls. Raven takes a step closer to her and the girl’s black hair and bare feet that dig into the soil are revealed. Another step forward and closer still and Raven makes out an older boy with floppy curls who’s running toward them. Raven takes careful steps forward, reasoning that it must be okay to enter, even if her uncle told her otherwise, if other seven year old girls were allowed in the forest. The green eyed girl tilts her head at Raven and smiles. “Do you want to play?” she asks. Raven’s barely aware of herself saying yes.
She can almost touch her, now, if she would just reach out a little bit. She could see if her milky skin is really as soft as it looked and ask how her eyes looked pale and bright all at once. “You’re pretty,” she blurts out.
The girl looks awed by this, leaning closer toward the edge. “Really?”
“Raven!”
The moment’s ruined as she whips around and sees her uncle jogging toward her. She turns around again and the girl’s green eyes widen. She fumbles back, away from Raven and her questions as she slinks back into the darkness of the forest just as a boy violently grabs her and pulls her backward. “What have I told you, O! What happens if they find out you’re doing things against them. What happens if they find out you’re poking around and asking questions and talking to outsiders!” She doesn’t answer but her head drops. “Tell me, Octavia! Tell me what they’ll do to us if you’re caught!”
Octavia squirms away from her brother and turns toward Raven, looking her dead in the eye. "Say it," he demands.
Octavia's gaze drops. “They’ll kill us.”
Raven’s stomach churns, suddenly. What?
The boy sighs and runs a hand through his floppy curls. He glances at Raven, too, but quickly turns back again, lightly grabbing onto her arm. “You were just making friends?” She nods. The boy sighs again and pulls her into his arms. “I won’t tell mom if you don’t.”
Her uncle calls out to her again, only seconds from her, as they disappear further into the forest where Raven can’t see them anymore.
“Raven! Come on!” her uncle calls.
When he reaches her, he hoists her up into his arms and holds her out like a baby, eyes scanning over her. He lets out a sound of relief and hugs her close to his chest. Raven’s too distracted to return it. “What did I tell you?” he scolds lightly, pulling Raven back to look her in the eye. “Raven, I told your mamma I would always look after you when you were born. And it’s a good thing, too. You were always getting into things, always trying to figure things out.” He pauses and lets out a long sigh. Raven feels bad for worrying her uncle. He’s been the only one there for her since her parents passed away. But part of her is still caught up on what Octavia said.
They’ll kill us .
“I know it’s only been a few weeks and you’re still getting settled but you have to listen to me about this one, okay? Can you promise me that?”
She can’t promise anything when she knows another little girl might be in danger. “But tío , there was a girl and-”
“Raven. I just want you to stay away from it. Do you understand?”
Raven nods and her uncle hoists her up onto his shoulders and starts the short distance back to the house. The farther away they get, the farther she gets from Octavia. She wants to do something but she doesn’t know how. All she can do is watch as she gets farther away from Octavia and the forest.
As time passes, both Octavia and the forest seem more dream than reality. After a few years it presses to the back of her mind, some off memory that she can’t exactly differentiate from the weird dreams she had as a kid. Eventually, Raven can’t remember the color of Octavia’s eyes and she doesn’t remember her jarring words. The boy slips away from the image entirely and eventually, like everything else, so does Octavia. It all becomes just a collection of fuzzy trees and flashes of pale eyes and for now, that’s all it needs to be.