Page 58 of When the Woods Go Silent

“Tell me about how the store is coming along,” I suggest, leaning back and giving Ruby an out so we can play again later. She sits up and reaches for another bite of a flaky appetizer pastry, launching into all the work they’ve done and the plans they’re making.

Somewhere along the way, I agree to provide hors d’oeuvres for their grand opening, and I snicker to myself as I imagine how pissed Arlo will be.

“I just wish Rose were enjoying it better here,” Ruby says, and my attention snaps back into focus. I’ve lost the trail of the conversation, enjoying watching her instead of listening.

“What’s not to enjoy?” I ask lightly, though just hearing her friend’s name aggravates me. She’s the thorn in my plans for Ruby, and no matter what I do, I know the redhead will be watching me play the game like a killjoy referee.

“She gets spooked easily. She’s used to the city, not woods like this. It’s messing up her dreams and everything.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, although I already know it isn’t the woods entering Rose’s dreams, or Ruby’s, either. It’s dreamwalker magic, rooting around in their subconscious to learn their secrets.

“She even went sleepwalking the other night. She’s never done that before - and into the woods with nothing on!” Ruby scans the trees worriedly like her friend might show up again right now.

“Never? What made her do it?”

“She blamed it on some ghost story she’d been reading about something that lured people into the woods, but I just don’t know. Rose usually likes scary things.”

“Sweet Dreamer?” I ask, before I think it through.

Ruby’s eyes snap to mine. “How did you know?”

“Local legend,” I answer, shrugging, but mentally punching myself. I should have noticed that Julianna was pulling this shit again, and I need to put a stop to it. She put me in charge here, and if too many humans start to disappear again, it’ll ruin everything I’ve been working for. No matter what her plans are, there’s a stupid, probably childish part of me that wants to figure out a way to revive this restaurant when the war with the fae is over. I actually like Clearwater - I don’t want to ruin it.

“Legend or not, it’s fucking creepy. I mean, I want to believe in the good parts of magic. Not the potential for evil - the world already has enough of that,” Ruby is saying, so sweetly innocent.

“Everything good has a potential for evil, little killer. Every sunrise is eventually followed by midnight.” I can’t tell her how right she is. Magic is both beautiful and deadly, depending on who’s wielding it. I could create a sparkling six-foot icicle with one hand and slide it through her neck with the other.

And if she ever saw my true form beneath the gobbelin glamor, she would understand the monster I really am.

“Do you believe in magic?” Ruby asks me suddenly, and I bite down on the laugh that escapes me. Her face flushes and she looks off into the growing darkness around us. “Never mind. I’m just teasing.”

“Why does it mean so much to you?” I ask instead of answering her. Lots of humans love the idea of secret magic, but it’s something more for Ruby. I want to know why - what does she know?

She sighs. “I know, I’m a little obsessive. Probably need an official diagnosis, or whatever.” She weaves her fingers together, staring down at them. “But did you ever have the experience as a kid, when the grown-ups were talking about something you didn’t understand, then they denied it and told you it was nothing? But you still knew it wasn’t nothing?”

Ruby sighs again, the sound more disgusted this time, and I can see the frustration in her face. Her belief in magic is a mystery to her, too, and that’s what makes me want to open the door a little wider for her.

“I think most of us believe in magic, in a way,” I hedge, and she gives me a tiny side-eye. “Before the scientific explanation for things is discovered, it’s always thought to be magical. Like the stars and planets. Or fire.”

Ruby nods, forcing a small smile. “Right. Of course. I just can’t help but think, though... we have fairy tales. Imagination. Dreams. We can come up with things that don’t exist yet, and then make them exist. Why is it so weird to believe that there’s more to the world than we understand now?”

Something in her voice nearly convinces me to spill the secret she’s searching so hard for - to show her real magic. To prove to her that she’s right, no matter what other humans have told her.

But I don’t. It’s not forbidden, but it never goes well.

“It’s not weird,” I assure her instead. “I think we have a lot to learn about magic. Maybe you’ll be one of the first to find it,” I suggest, and her face softens in relief as she leans back into me, tilting her lips up for another kiss.

This time, I’m careful to keep my movements slow and languorous, playing the romantic card as I draw her under deeper with each caress. I know she’s had enough blood by now, and soon enough, the magic she unwittingly searches for lulls her to sleep, and I’m free to sink my sharp rows of teeth into the soft sweetness of her neck.

My eyes roll back at the addictive taste of her blood, as my gobbelin instincts seethe with the need to rip apart her flesh and gorge myself on her supple body.

I would snap the neck of any other gobbelin under my charge who dared to feed like this, in the open woods where any human could find me. The gobbelins in the blood mines aren’t evenpermitted to drink straight from the vein - they have to prove they have more evolved control to earn that privilege, like my servers.

But none of them know about the fae blood in my veins, not even Arlo. It gives me more control and a truer glamor than any gobbelin has, and I could make the two of us invisible with a flex of power.

So when I hear steps in the distance and scent Arlo’s blood, I easily hide the evidence of bloodletting from Ruby’s neck, tapping into my fae fire magic to burn away the telltale scent of iron just as he enters the clearing.

“Midnight tasting menu?” he asks, sneering at Ruby’s sleeping form and the food spread around us.

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