“She is weak,” Avery said, and past him I noticed the mob, dressed for the mountains and armed to the teeth. “She is weak, and we will at last be rid of her. I shall avenge my father and my brother, and the wealth of the mountain will belong to us. Your father was right, Rowan. We will hunt her lands, and with the wealth of her furs we will prosper, and you will never look down on me again.”

“Avery,” I said, but the madness that had left my father had taken root in the man in front of me.

“I will kill the Huntress myself.” His eyes bulged, and the crowd behind him cheered.

“Please, Avery,” I begged.

He laughed in my face.

“You scorned me, Rowan, and you chose to love a monster over me. This is the price.” He turned to face the crowd. “Who’s with me?”

A hundred voices roared their approval, and I watched my sister’s husband march off into the woods to kill the woman I loved.

“You’ll never find her,” I shouted after him.

A soft chuckle of laughter disagreed with me. “On the contrary, child. You’ve led them right to her.”

The old woman had not followed the mob, and I craned my neck to see her through the bars.

“How?”

“The roses do not give up what is theirs so easily. They bloomed in your footsteps as you came down the mountain. Even a child could follow them.”

“Why?” I asked her.

She gave me a piercing look. “Why what, child?”

“Why did you tell him?”

A smile flitted across her ancient face. “The same reason I cursed her.”

I screamed a wordless cry of rage, lunging for her through the bars.

“Do you not want to know the reason?” she asked, stepping just beyond my reach.

“Because you are a bitter, evil old hag?” I guessed, still trying to claw her face with my hands. Behind her, I saw the gleam of a pair of golden eyes, and I grinned, for the first time understanding how a person could murder another and enjoy it.

Kill her, I willed the pup.

The wolf pup sat at the witch’s feet, tilting her head to stare at me as the witch answered.

“To save her.”

The air left my lungs in a painful whoosh, and I hung from the door, panting. “How could a curse save her?”

“The woman I cursed was not worthy of your love, child. She was cruel and careless with the hearts and lives of others. A woman like that could not rule the mountains. A woman like that would have destroyed us all, and the loss would have meant nothing to her. So I condemned her to an eternity of winter, until she learned what it was like to lose one she loved more than her own life. It would seem that is you.”

“She hasn’t lost me.”