Page 119 of When the Woods Go Silent

It’s not enough.

The cry of a small bird echoes as Rose opens the door, and I turn, my eyes scanning the night sky. I know that cry.

“What is it?” Rose asks, her fear edging back in.

“Acuale. Can you see it? There?” I point to where it’s landed on the balcony railing above us. Rose nods, tilting her head back. “It’s from Aralia.”

She spins around to look at me, open-mouthed. “As in, it’s a fae bird?”

I smile, holding out my arm for the bird. It flutters down to land on my wrist, the same size as any sparrow, but glinting like the night sky with its luminescent silver spots against deep purple feathers.

“It’s a bird, not a fae. But it’s not from Earth. My brothers and I use them to communicate when one of us is here.”

I’ve kept my voice and explanation light, but thecualeisn’t used for silly messages. I hold the bird closer to my ear, and it sings the fae words Brigance gave it, my older brother’s terse tone echoing like a whisper beneath the bird’s sweet notes.

Return immediately. Gobbelins are attacking the border, and I need you here.

My stomach sinks with the message. I need more time here with Rose, but these fucking gobbelins won’t allow it.

“What did it tell you?” Rose asks when the bird falls silent. I wonder if she’ll one day remember the fae language, too, or if she was brought to Earth too young to have learned it.

“I have to go home now. Tonight. The gobbelins are attacking Aralia. Please, Rose,” I ask, although I can already guess her answer. “Won’t you come with me? You could help so many fae.”

She sags against the door frame, looking regretful but determined. “I can’t, Kier. I can’t leave Ruby.”

“Bring her with you, then,” I try, although with her connection to Torrence, that’s a dangerous move. He could see it as a strategic one, meant to lure him out.

Rose chews her lip, and I realize Ruby isn’t the real reason - or not the only reason, anyway. She doesn’t want to come toAralia at all. I fall back a few steps as the reality hits me, my chest constricting as I understand.

I’ve found the changeling, but she wants nothing at all to do with her people.

Too late, I realize she hasn’t even accepted the idea that the faeareher people - her mind has barely made the leap to changeling, and she still sees it as a separate thing from being a fae. She might not even fully believe there is another world out there, one that desperately needs her help.

She sees herself as a human who somehow has magic, but nothing more. And I don’t have time right now to help her beyond that wall. I have to return home, and quickly.

“I’m sorry, Kier,” she whispers, sadness in her hazel eyes but a firm set to her shoulders. A crushed flower, damaged but already unfurling a new bud in an effort to stay alive.

“I’ll be back, you know. These battles flare up and die down quickly enough. I’ll be back. And I’ll keep praying to the Goddess that you change your mind.” I hope it’s more of a promise and less of a warning.

Rose hugs the strange, beautiful flower she created closer to her chest, nodding as she bruises the thick petals a bit more. Her eyes glint with tears, and a new hope surges in my chest. Maybe shewillcome, after she’s had a few days to think things through and talk to Ruby.

Maybe Ruby will actually be the one to convince Rose. I tell myself this is a good thing, leaving the girls alone together.

But I can’t have her forgetting me, so I grasp her face in my palms and pour all the magic of seduction I’ve learned into one last, searing kiss. Rose melts into me, the heady perfume of her flower pressed between us.

“I’ll be back for you, Rose, as soon as I’m able. You’re going to bloom for me again,” I promise, nipping her bottom lip as Ibreak away. Her chest is rising and falling quickly, and the teary eyes have been replaced with flushed cheeks.

“I’ll look forward to that, then,” she says, stepping backward through the doorway until the darkness of the building blurs her edges.

Thecualeflutters away as I turn back into the forest, hope burning a beacon in my chest as I race through the woods toward the path to Haret. This is just a minor setback, and with any luck, I’ll turn it to my favor.

Rose is the changeling, and I’ve found her.

My sentence is finally fulfilled, my promise kept. I’ve spent three years playing King with my brothers, and now, finally, it’s time for me to hand back this heavy crown I never wanted. And once we defeat the gobbelins, I’ll be free to live my life the way I’ve always dreamed, free of the ugliness of war.

When I reach the hidden entrance to the path, I expect to find Ronan waiting for me there, but the clearing is empty except for the little house where the Qilin conductor lives.

“Nobody else on the Path tonight, just thecuale,” confirms the Qilin, when I press him about other Haretians traveling back and forth. “Are you waiting for someone, then?”

---