Page 87 of When the Woods Go Silent

“You said it was war, and Ruby is in danger. Those are pretty good reasons to be scared,” I point out, because beyond any of his talk of magic, those are the parts I’m worried about.

“Yes, but magic is also incredibly beautiful and powerful for good, too. I’m not used to showing a human any of this, and my fear made me reckless. Let me show you the beauty. Please?” He holds out his hand for me, and I suddenly realize he isn’t coming inside.

He wants me to step on the vines and climb down like it’s a fucking fire escape.

I stumble back a few steps, unwilling to risk such a thing, and then I notice how the vines have stretched and wrapped around a stack of books next to my bed, rifling through the pages with delicate tendrils. I have no words as I stare at them. I thought Kier was controlling them with magic, but something about the way they move makes me think twice. I think they’researchingfor something in the pages.

And then I remember the busted window downstairs, the shredded books that we thought were caused by a storm. Somehow, I know now that if I go back and watch the security videos from that night, I will see vines just like these. A shiver wracks my shoulders as I imagine it.

I’m all out of explanations or twists of logic on how Kier could be faking any of this, and my brain is slowly assimilating the idea of this new world, inching over the threshold of a reality I never thought I would see. People say the simplest solution is often the most correct, and reducing all of these mysteries down to the single idea that magic is real would make all the explanations so simple. It would also complicate the hell out of my life.

It’s too late to go back, but I’m not ready to move forward, either.

“Tell me before you show me,” I finally decide, shaking my head at Kier’s outstretched hand. “I’m not going anywhere without more information. What can you do? Justyou- I don’t need the whole shebang yet.”

Kier smiles ruefully, and I can see the regret in his eyes. “I really am sorry,” he repeats. He climbs through the window and leans against the wall next to it, turning his head to watch the night sky outside. The creepy vines continue to explore my room. I back up and hop onto the bed, hoping like hell they don’t try to climb up here with me. I can only take so much.

Kier turns back to watch me, but he doesn’t come closer, either. “I’m fae, like I showed you. We have magic of the natural elements - water, air, fire, earth. Most fae have power over one element, and the strongest over two. Mine are earth and fire. My mother was terribly, devastatingly powerful with her fire magic, and it makes me hesitant to use mine, but I can. I can start fires and end them without anything but a flick of magic. Direct the flames to an extent.”

“That sounds pretty powerful to me,” I hedge.

“My mother could burn people alive from the inside out, with nothing more than a touch,” he says, leaning forward a bit and looking me dead in the eyes. “And she often did.”

“Fuck,” I whisper, drawing my knees up to my chest. His description of his mother comes back to me now, how she was “kind of a nightmare.” I shake my head. No shit.

“My earth magic is much kinder, although anything can be turned into a weapon. I can grow plants of any kind, bringing them up from nothing, like the tree I made for you yesterday. Or these vines. I can speak with the woods.” He gestures out the window, and my mouth pops open.

“Trees can speak?”

“Of course. Everything alive has some level of sentience. Trees like these live much longer lives than humans - and they’ve been in your world for millennia. Why is it hard to believe they wouldn’t evolve the ability to communicate?”

I don’t have an answer for that one, so I just nod. “What else?”

“Fae glamor. All fae have it, and it’s like a muscle. Some are born with better frames to build on, and exercise can grow the ability. We’re all skilled at changing our appearance, though having more than one human face takes a lot more skill and endurance. Some of us can glamor ourselves invisible. And the strongest of us can glamor things around us. Or humans,” he adds.

“Can you do that? Make me look like someone else?”

Kier smiles. “I can, but I like the way you look.”

“Have you... have you watched me? When you’re invisible?” I ask, my mind running back through all the times it felt like there were eyes on me but I couldn’t see anyone.

“I’m sorry, Rose. It feels invasive, I know. But yes, I’ve been with you before when you couldn’t see me. I was with you the night you were sleepwalking, protecting you.”

Shock ripples through me, followed quickly by embarrassment. I was practically naked that night. And he was invisible. “Wait. That blur I saw on the camera feeds. Was that you?” The idea explodes in my mind, and the frown on his face makes me even more certain. I grab my phone and scroll to find the video of that night. “Here. See?”

Kier purses his lips as he watches the video of me entering the back door, and the odd blur I can still see, as tall as a person next to me.

“You can see something there?” he asks, disbelieving.

I point it out to him, outlining the vague shape with my finger. “I thought there was a smudge on the camera.”

“You shouldn’t be able to see anything there. Not unless...” His voice trails away and he fixes me in his intense gaze, his green and gold eyes flashing in a way that suddenly reminds me he has the power to be very, very dangerous.

“Unless what?” I squeak, scooting back farther on the bed, as if that would protect me.

“Unless you have magic of your own.”

A nearly hysterical laugh spills from my lips, shrill and hollow. “I think I would fucking know if I had magic.Rubywould fucking know. She’s been obsessed with finding magic since I met her.”

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