Page 108 of When the Woods Go Silent

“Please...”

It takes a moment to realize the word isn’t mine, and I press my face to a narrow gap in the branches, ignoring the rough bark digging into my cheek like claws.

“Please, don’t hurt him.” The voice is weak, worn down, and frightened.

A single branch trembles, its leaves parting, and through them I see Ruby. A thin line of blood snakes down her temple, and she’s dazed, but alert. Alive. Begging the trees to leave me alone. I stagger backward as the branches release their splintery hold on me. They listen to her. Theyunderstandher, even though she isn’t speaking fae.

How is this possible? The sheer impossibility of it freezes my blood.

Ruby is human, completely and totally. I’ve tasted her blood. I’ve been inside her dreams. She doesn’t have magic.

Yet the woods are no longer silent for her. They speak to her -forher.

My chest heaving, I watch in amazement as the ragged trunks begin to lean, lifting their roots from the loamy soil and parting slowly to make a gap for her to crawl from the busted window. It’s only then that I realize they moved in the first place, leaving the edges of the road to form a complete, protective circle around her.

A fairy ring of trees.

They broke her fall, bending their branches and cocooning her in leaves even as the car crumpled around her. Ruby is alive because of the trees, and they haven’t just broken their silence for her - they’ve broken their centuries-old slumber.

I start toward Ruby when she stumbles from the car, but a branch whacks against my chest, the message clear. I grit my teeth against impatience as she weaves unsteadily through the trees toward me, grasping their offered branches for balance.

I wait, forcing myself not to wrap my arms around her. Letting her make the decisions. If she shrinks away now...

But she tumbles into my chest, a sob wracking her body as she buries her face in my shirt for the second time today. I wrap my arms around her weak, delicate human body, sweeping behind her knees and gathering her tightly to my chest.

A feathery touch across my forehead has me looking up, where a branch sweeps its new leaves across my face, tasting me. A slim twig taps at my temple, perhaps a warning at how easily I could be run through.

Warning that the trees are still determining if I’m worthy, no matter what Ruby thinks. They have good reason. I have no business holding on to her. No right to ask her to hold on to me.

The leaves flutter down to wipe away the trickle of blood from Ruby’s temple, and she sucks in a breath, trembling as she watches the tree move.

“I’m listening,” she whispers to the canopy above us, her head tipped back and her arms limp around my neck. “I’ve always been listening.”

“Glidden da,” I add. When she darts her eyes to me, I translate. “It’s ‘thank you’ in the fae language.”

“Glidden da,” she repeats, nodding to the branches around us, and her arms tighten around my neck in a show of strength that surprises the hell out of me. My little killer kitten isn’t as fragile as I feared, and she has more connections to my world than I realized.

Hopefully, Julianna doesn’t know any of this, although I have no idea how much information Arlo actually fed her about me.Anger simmers higher in my chest at the thought of what he did, and I know I’d kill him all over again if I could.

“I need to get to Rose,” Ruby says, interrupting my thoughts and glancing back at her mangled car. “I need to tell her I’m sorry.”

“I’ll drive you. Can you wait here while I get keys? Will you wait?” I ask, still uncertain if she’s truly willing to cast her lot with me.

“I’ll wait,” Ruby murmurs, her lashes brushing her cheeks. She’s in shock, I’m sure of it. Will she still be here when I come back out? Or will she have remembered everything and run.

I set her gently on the grass and hurry into the house, knowing how tenuous human resolve can be. Inside, the horror of what happened before Ruby arrived washes over me, fresh and so needless. Everyone is dead - gobbelins, blood slaves. Everyone.

Arlo killed them all before I even got home.

I trusted him, and he betrayed me. His final words before I knocked him to his knees taunt my mind like the swipe of a blade to the back:Julianna is watching your pretty pet, Ruby. And I’m watching hers. Torrence, false prince of gobbelins. Why do you think she keeps you busy here on Earth, instead of letting you lead her army? She hasn’t trusted you in years, you clueless half-blood. She hates you...

All this time I’ve tolerated Arlo, hiding my own agenda and my plans with Idris, allowing him a life of true luxury here, and he was a fuckingspyfor Julianna. I don’t even know what he shared with her. I would have killed him anyway for his treason to me, and I’ll never regret gutting him like an animal.

But fucking hell, I wish Ruby hadn’t seen it. Hadn’t been caught in the middle of it. Why was she here? How did she even know where to find me?

I should stay here and sort out this mess. I should find Idris and warn her. Find Julianna and figure out what the hell is going on.

I could lose everything by leaving with Ruby right now.

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