Page 102 of When the Woods Go Silent

It’s definitely possible that Torrence is the only one, and his servers don’t know anything about it. But my gut is telling me otherwise. Secret restaurant, secret business plans, secret compound. This just screams supernatural, and my curiosity is getting the better of my judgment.

I begin following the directions, still debating as I drive, but deep down, I know I’m going to knock on that door when I find it.

How could I stop now, when the answers are so close?

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

ROSE

I’ve really fucked this all up.

I’m pacing the front room of the shop, chewing my bottom lip and trying to figure out what the hell I should do.

It’s opening time, so I unlock the front door. Then I immediately lock it back. There’s no way I can stay here and tend to customers like this. I have to find Ruby.

I can see her on our tracking app, though it keeps glitching like she’s losing signal. She’s still technically in Clearwater, though. Maybe she just needs to burn off steam. We can bounce back from this, right? It’s terrifying, but part of me isn’t quite sure.

And of fucking course I have no way to reach Kier.

Why the hell didn’t I remember to get his number last night? Do fae even carry cell phones? I am in so far over my head. I take the crumpled paper out of my pocket and look at it for the thousandth time, as if it might havemagicallygrown answers by now. Of course the fuck not.

It’s been so long since I thought about that operation that I’d nearly forgotten about it. I still get tested periodically, but the blood disorder has never shown back up. In fact, I’ve been healthier than most ever since then. It’s never bothered me to think that all the blood in my body used to belong to someoneelse, but now? Thinking about what it could have been hiding all along makes me feel like puking.

Did I really create that thorny vine that wrapped itself around Ronan?

It seems impossible that I could be doing magic without even knowing about it, much less how to control it. But Kier told me about his brothers’ magic. Ronan can’t control plants, and Kier wasn’t here this morning.

I made that vine.

Which means I must have made that rose, the night Kier backed me into the bookshelf.

My poor brain feels like it might just turn into a puddle of soup trying to process all of this, and my heart breaks a little more each time Ruby ignores another one of my texts. I’ll never forgive myself if she runs to Torrence and gets hurt.

I should have just laid everything out to her and asked for her help figuring it all out. I never should have tried to control things or think I could keep any of it from her, even for a single day.

I regret every fucking thing I’ve done since meeting Kier. Hell, since meeting Arlo. Clearwater was supposed to be a fresh start, not the end of an era. I have to fix this.

After making a “Closed for the Morning” sign for the front door, I check Ruby’s location again. She’s moving, but she isn’t coming back here. Not toward the restaurant, either. Damn it, where is she going? I wish I had my own car. I haven’t felt this helpless in a good while.

Grabbing my laptop, I plunk down in the office and begin researching fae and changelings online. Everything conflicts with something else, though. I’ll never learn the truth this way. Frustrated, I stare down at my hands on the keyboard.

“Rose,” I whisper to them, imagining growing a rose out of thin air like Kier can do. “Vines. Thorns.” Nothing. Not even atingle. I feel ridiculous, and there certainly isn’t a how-to video on summoning fae magic.

I don’t even want to think about the implications of being able to summon magic wielded by a different fucking species. I’m human. I have to be - I would know. Right?

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