Willa of the Wood
Page 27
She had always thought of love as the rarest and most delicate of things, and that there must be a limit to the amount of love that a human or a Faeran could give or feel, a limit to how much love there could be in the world. She had thought that once the man Nathaniel had reunited with his real children there would be no place for her. But love wasn’t the stone. It was the river. Love was like the glistening stars in the midnight sky, like the sun that always rises, and the water that always flows.
A part of her deep down inside feared that the more she loved the day-folk, the less she would love the forest, that her memory of her forest ways would fade and her powers dwindle. But here with Nathaniel and his children, it didn’t feel as if her world was diminishing. It felt as if it was expanding, growing, changing. Love was infinite in so many ways. It felt as if she could keep opening her heart to the magic in the world, and the magic in the world would keep filling it.
The only way she could live and grow into the girl her mamaw worked so hard for her to become was with the nutrients of a family’s earth and the warmth of a family’s sunlight.
Finally, unable to find the words she needed in a language they could understand, she slowly leaned forward and put her head against Nathaniel’s chest. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she wrapped her arms around him.
The three children cheered and hollered, for they knew what it meant, and Nathaniel whispered, “This is your home now, Willa.”
Move without a sound. Steal without a trace, Willa thought, remembering what she’d been thinking that first night she crept up toward the house.
“I think I may have stolen your hearts,” Willa said. “And you’ve stolen mine.”
T H E E N D
Acknowledgments
Willa of the Wood takes place in the Great Smoky Mountains, straddling the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. As one of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth, the Great Smokies is not only the most visited national park in America, it is also the most biologically diverse, with over 1,600 species of flowering plants, 100 species of native trees, 30 species of salamanders, 50 species of ferns, and much more.
I would like to thank the Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains Association, and the US National Park Service for all the important work they do to manage and preserve this cherished region of our country.
Special thanks to Steve Kemp for working with me on the manuscript. He was a wonderful resource and constant stream of knowledge on the Great Smoky Mountains.
Special thanks to Esther and Bo Taylor—respected members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and valiant guardians of the Cherokee language. Among the many important roles they play in the community, Esther is the media coordinator at Cherokee Elementary School and Bo is a storyteller and archivist, as well as the Executive Director at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina. Thank you for your guidance and assistance on the Willa of the Wood manuscript.
And special thanks to Sara Snyder, PhD, Director of the Cherokee Language Program at Western Carolina University.
I would also like to thank my editor, Laura Schreiber, and editor-in-chief, Emily Meehan, and the whole Disney Hyperion team for their ongoing support and insight. I feel honored every day to be part of the Disney Hyperion family.
My deepest appreciation to my wife, Jennifer, who worked closely and diligently with me on this novel through the entire process to help shape the story to what it became.
Special thanks to my daughter Camille for our early morning treks into Willa’s world, our long walks along the river, our climbs through the moss-covered rocks, and for all the story notes we took together along the way. May you always see the many colors of green, Camille. And thank you to my daughters Genevieve and Elizabeth for their feedback and ideas on Willa’s story.
Thank you to the team of freelance editors who provided input on the story: Sam Severn, Jenny Bowman, Kira Freed, and Jodi Renner.
Thank you to my publicists and managers, Scott Fowler and Lydia Carrington, for everything they do, and to my literary agent, Bill Contardi, who started it all.
Finally, I would like to thank the good people of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee for your continued support, encouragement, and enthusiasm.
Robert Beatty
Asheville, North Carolina
ROBERT BEATTY is the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling Serafina series. He lives in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, with his wife and three daughters. He writes full-time now, but in his past lives he was one of the pioneers of cloud computing, the founder/CEO of Plex Systems, the cofounder of Beatty Robotics, and the CTO and chairman of Narrative magazine.
Visit him online at www.robert-beatty.com.