Page 55 of When the Woods Go Silent

“You fucking should care. Ruby’s my best friend, stupid. You don’t mess with the best friend.”

“Stay away from Kier. He has a reputation here.”

I bark out a laugh. “Excuse me? I don’t think you get a say in this one. What do you even know about him?” I have to ask, though, unable to help myself. Arlo seemed nice at first, too.

“I know he’ll fuck anything with two legs. Then again, so does Arlo. Maybe you have a type.”

Anger flares in my chest. I’m not the type to make a scene, but this conversation is over. “Okay, buddy. Time for you to leave.” The audacity of this asshole. Ruby is getting an earful when she gets back.

Torrence only smirks at me and turns away, letting the slip of paper flutter to the floor. Hand on the doorknob, he turns back to look at me, those amber eyes flashing in warning.

“Best friend or not, Ruby will pick me if I want her to. Don’t ask her to do it, Rose.”

I suck in a breath, a string of words already crowding together on my tongue, but he’s gone. The bells haven’t even stopped tinkling, and he’s halfway down the street.

What thehellis his problem?

Ruby would never pick him over me, and if he’s this much of a garbage pile now, I sure as shit will be telling her to forget about him.

Men never seem to get nicer once you let them in, only more and more demanding.

KIER

It was unexpectedly hard to leave the bookshop and its enchanting new owner, even though I’d told myself I was only checking on her because of the dreamwalking.

Rose looks just as good in tight jeans and a low top as she did in her underwear in the woods. And of course, I’m glad to see her unharmed, sensing nothing of dreamwalker magic or the gobbelin woman around the shop.

As I head deeper into the dense trees, I enjoy the memory of her curves, conjuring up dozens of ways to make her scream my name, and I feel my cock already straining against my trousers. Fucking hell.

I have things to do, and flirting with a human is unfortunately low on the list. Protecting one is even lower. I love human women, but I need to focus. I’m well overdue to be back in Aralia, and I’m fucking pissed that I wasn’t able to catch the dreamwalker.

Still, I needed to talk to Rose and see her awake, to make sure there was nothing I was missing. As tempting as she is, I still don’t sense any magic in her, and certainly not the hiddenwellspring of power that the changeling should have. That means the dreamwalker and the gobbelin were just hunting.

Either way, I’ve hit another dead end in my secret search for the changeling.

It’s probably stupid to think I could be the one who finally finds her. She was hidden away somewhere on Earth over twenty years ago, and whoever did it was better than any of our trackers. Mother had her hunted for years with no results.

But I’m desperate enough to keep looking. Finding the only fae my bitch mother ever feared would be just the leverage I need. I don’t want to rule, and with the changeling as my leverage, I could bargain to be free. Free to travel Earth as I please, free to fuck my way through any city, free to follow every one of my whims and desires, all on my own time. Free to be myself instead of one of three interchangeable fae princes.

The breeze practically vibrates with magic as it winds through the forest, reminding me why I always pause here in Clearwater, checking on more than the gobbelins.

There’s ancient magic here, much more than in other human places, and more than last time I visited, too. The woods are awake now. They were protecting Rose for a reason.

There’s a secret hidden here, beneath layers of glamor and magic.

I need to unravel it before anyone else does. Even if it’s not the changeling, it might be enough to tip the balance in my favor. And if I do somehow find her, then I’ll hold all the power. Our enemies want her magic to destroy us, and it would. We can’t hold out much longer, the three of us, without taking mates to stabilize the heart of our fae magic.

Ronan is the one I trust the least. If he finds the changeling before I do, he won’t hesitate to cut out her heart and offer it to the Dark Mother, the same way our mother planned to.

Ronan and I may be on the same side of the war, but we certainly don’t agree about the best way to win.

Brigance is the one I would bargain with. For my freedom, I would give the changeling to him to be his Queen. They would mate, and she would repair Aralia’s breaking magic.

And I would be free.

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