Page 113 of When the Woods Go Silent

Ruby smiles, toying with the edge of a blanket. “I get the sense that he’s trapped, somehow. That whatever is going on with all of this war stuff, he doesn’t want it. Maybe there’s a reason you and I met men from different sides. Maybe we can bring them together.”

I don’t contradict her, although it sounds naive to me. Simplistic, like a little girl’s dream. Instead, I allow myself one question - hopefully a safer one than all the ones I have about Torrence.

“Why would Arlo kill all those people - gobbelins?” I correct myself, still trying to wrap my brain around the idea that even though the servers at the restaurant looked like people, they were all magical creatures the whole time. I guess that would explain their next-level hotness.

“Torrence says Arlo was a spy. A plant from the gobbelin queen, keeping an eye on Torrence while he worked here.”

I frown as a whole new set of questions cascades in my mind. “What exactly were they working on here? What’s the point of running a tourist restaurant, if they’re in the middle of a war?”

Ruby shakes her head, shrugging. “We didn’t talk about that. I guess I don’t know as much as I want, either.”

Her eyes meet mine, and the apology is clear. We’ve both been operating on a lot of assumptions and half-truths. Neither Kier nor Torrence have told us everything we need to know, and instead of fighting with each other, we should be sticking together.

“We’ll get our answers from them,” I say, determination working its way through the fatigue that’s left behind after all my fear and anxiety.

“Wait - you’re not a long-lost princess, are you? Because I really would lose my shit then.” Ruby glares at me, but it doesn’t last long, and the thought sends both of us into a fit of relieved giggles as the tension finally breaks.

“I fucking hope not. It would suck to find out I’m Kier’s sister,” I say when we catch our breath, but it only sets us off again.

“Maybe incest is a fae thing.” Ruby grins and ducks away from the pillow I half-heartedly toss at her. It feels good to have reached this point again, although I still wish we could pack everything back into the car and drive away from Clearwater before things get messed up again.

“Wait. Where is the car, anyway?” I ask, my brain firing back to the fact that Torrence brought her home.

Ruby groans. “I forgot about that part of the story, and it’s just as crazy as the rest. But in a good way,” she adds, that gleam of excitement back in her eyes.

“We do need some good magic to balance it out,” I hedge.

“Oh, this isgreatmagic. So, when I saw Torrence kill Arlo, I was terrified, obviously. I ran like hell, pulled the car around too fast. I crashed, and he tried to save me again.”

“Crashed?” I echo, a whole new wave of panic setting in as I work to remind myself Ruby is fine, sitting right here with me. Not mangled in a car accident.

“I took a turn too fast, way too desperate to get out of there. I should havedied, Rose. The car... it’s so beyond totaled. It’s like a pop can someone crushed. There’s just a little me-sized space in the middle of all that twisted metal.” Her voice trails away, false bravado echoing through the room.

My nausea is back, and worse than before. “And he saved you? How?” I choke out.

“Well... actually thetreessaved me.” Ruby chews on her lower lip, and I can’t tell if she’s confused or hesitant or ashamed - of what, I have no idea.

She takes a deep breath and scoots up onto the couch, gazing through the kitchen and out the back windows to the woods beyond.

“The trees moved. I know it sounds ridiculous, but after everything else? Why not? They lifted their freaking roots and wrapped their branches and cushioned me with leaves. They saved my life, and it was so amazing. I’m grateful, obviously. But... I have no idea why. Why would they save me?”

I’m trying like hell to assimilate this new weirdness about trees being sentient and mobile, but I have no problem answering her why.

“Because you love them so much, Ru. You walk there every day. You talk to them. You listen. If trees are going to come alive in this brave new weird world, then of course, they would try to save someone like you.”

Her cheeks flush, and she smiles, looking like herself for the first time all day. “Tor taught me how to say ‘thank you’ in fae. I told the trees,glidden da.”

A few days ago, I would have assumed Torrence was some douchebag playing games to get Ruby in bed, but in theridiculous mix of everything else I’ve learned, a fae language sounds like a safe and lovely thing for him to share with her. Hearing Ruby speak words she’s dreamed were real for almost twenty years gives me a life raft of hope to cling to.

It doesn’t make all the other shit worth it, of course, but somehow it lends a tiny credibility to her stubborn belief that this could all turn out to be a good thing in the end.

“You finally found your magic, Ruby.”

She slides back down into the pile of blankets with me, grinning. “I can barely believe it. All this time waiting and hoping. Trying to act like it was knowledge and not just faith. And it worked.Wefound magic, Rose. It found us.”

Ruby laughs like a kid, and my heart warms for a moment until I remember that she watched Torrence kill someone today and still got into a car with him.

We have a lot to talk about, and she’s going to need some therapy like, immediately, but I’ll be damned if I ruin the mood now. Besides, I’m exhausted from the day’s roller coaster of emotions, and I know she must be, too.

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