Page 111 of When the Woods Go Silent

“Goblin Market. I was looking for Torrence, to make him tell me what you were hiding. I asked him if he was a vampire,” she adds, sniffling and rolling her eyes at herself.

Then her cheeks flush, and she huffs. “Everything is so messed up. I can barely keep it straight. So, I went to the restaurant, and the door was open. I heard noises and gotworried it was Kier coming back to fight Torrence, but it was Arlo. Um... having sex.”

The laugh slips from my mouth before I can think better of it, and Ruby scrubs her hands over her eyes. When she takes them away, I see she’s tearing up again.

“He’s dead,” she whispers, and my jaw drops.

“What?”

Ruby sighs deeply, taking a few seconds to blow her nose again and pull her messy hair back into a bun. When she looks at me again, I can almost see her packing away the emotion. A look of grim determination presses her lips together.

“Just listen,” she warns. “So, I saw Arlo with some guy, and he sort of told me to stay and watch, which was super weird. And then Torrence showed up before I could get my wits together and leave. And they fought, but I ran out the door. Torrence came after me, and that’s when I told him I’d heard you talking to Kier about magic. He admitted it, and it was beautiful. He makes fire and ice from absolutely nothing.” Ruby smiles sadly, and I hope that whatever she’s about to tell me hasn’t taken away all of that beauty for her.

I bite back all my questions and wait, honoring her request.

Ruby cracks her neck as though getting ready for a physical fight, drains her wine, and turns back to me. “I came back here to talk to you, but you were still shutting me out. So I took the car and just drove. I needed to clear my head.”

“I almost got a ride-share to come find you,” I admit, and she smiles a tiny bit.

“Well, thank the Goddess you didn’t. I got a text from Arlo, and he told me Torrence was messed up, needed me, whatever. Gave me the address to their place.” She scoffs at herself, rolling her eyes to the ceiling again. “I was such an idiot to go there, Rose.”

I slide my hand over to hers and squeeze it, trying to lend her some reassurance. Damn it, I have so many questions, but I owe it to her to let her tell the story the way she needs to.

Ruby stands abruptly and goes to the kitchen, coming back with the wine bottle. Her glass full again, she glares down at the red liquid, so dark it’s almost black.

“When I got there, I didn’t see anyone, but the place is huge. A lot of people live there. Lived,” she amends, and my eyes widen. “I heard some shouting on the back deck and found Torrence beating the hell out of Arlo. And... and there were all these bodies. There was so much blood,” she whispers, pausing to gulp down some more wine and blinking furiously to keep her tears away.

I’m practically biting through my lip in my effort to keep quiet. This is insane.

“Tor... he killed Arlo. He made some kind of sword thing with ice and just... cut him in half. He looked like a monster, Rose.”

“And you still got in the car with him?” I blurt, regretting the words the second they’re out.

Ruby’s expression changes from delayed shock and fear to flat-out anger and a protective fierceness that startles me. “I don’t expect you to understand, but so help me, Rose,do nottry to tell me what I should have done. You have no right.”

The furious words hit me like the ice sword she claims Torrence used.

She’s right. I have no space to judge her after what I held back. I have no right to swoop in and offer advice when I still don’t know the full story.

“I’m sorry, Ru,” I murmur, keeping my eyes on the blankets and feeling like a pile of shit. Worried, scared shit.

“Torrencesavedme. Arlo had me by the neck, squeezing so hard. I couldn’t breathe, Rose.”

Hearing this, I feel my own throat start to close up, my eyes bugging out as she pulls her shirt aside to show me the bruises. I would have killed Arlo, too.

“And he told me that Arlo killed every one of those people. Gobbelins. The whole freaking restaurant’s worth of workers is dead. And Arlo texted me to lure me there, just so I could see it all. So he could hurt me, one way or another. Tor isn’t the bad guy here, Rose. Arlo is. And you were right about that,” she adds as a small concession that I cling to, as I struggle to process everything she’s describing.

My brain fights the images, doesn’t want to assimilate even more things to fear. Maybe she’s right and Torrence was stopping a horrible monster. But that doesn’t make him any less dangerous. I don’t want Ruby anywhere near him, but there’s no way I can tell her that again.

She’s so right - I have no right to say it.

“You trust him,” I say instead, careful to keep my words from going up in question. Ruby nods, staring down into her dark red wine.

“I feel it. His need to be honest with me. He’s different with me.”

I don’t question that, either, though I really, really want to. Fuck, I want to, after the things Kier has told me. I care so much about Ruby, but any warnings I give her right now are more likely to push her away from me than anything.

Something about Torrence really has hooked her in, just like he warned me, and part of me understands it’s more than the blood addiction Kier was afraid of.

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