Page 89 of When the Woods Go Silent

It can’t be worse than ziplining was, right?

“Well, I asked for it,” I say finally, wrapping my hands around the plants, which are very much real. “Take me away, Tarzan.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

TORRENCE

Imagine my surprise when a goody-two-shoes fae prince breaks the unwritten rule to never tell a human about magic.

Standing in the shadows of the forest behind the bookshop, I watch Kier spirit Rose away on those stupid vines of his, but all it means to me is that Ruby is alone in there now. The lights are dark in the building, and I assume she’s sleeping.

I know I should stay away from her - if Kier is showing Rose his magic, he’ll certainly be warning her about mine.

But I’ll be damned if I let a fucking pretty boy like Kier ruin the fun I’m having with Ruby. I want to make up for the mistake of scaring her today. I was unprepared, and I should have never brought up Rinna. Those memories are too triggering, and Ruby’s intoxicating scent offered an escape I couldn’t resist.

I’ve been more careful this time, feeding before I came in order to control myself better.

Arlo calls his humans pets, and Julianna calls them cattle. I’ve never cared enough to call them anything except blood slaves, and I’ve never enjoyed one’s company before, but Ruby is a puzzle. She does the unexpected, surprising me more the better I try to know her, and I find myself thinking of this pretty little kitten way too often.

Perhaps I’ll just take her with me when Julianna forces the exodus to Haret. If I’m the one to show her magic is real, she’d follow me anywhere.

Calling up a bit of my own fae glamor, I shroud myself from their cameras and pick the lock on the back door with a bit of ice magic. From there, it’s easy enough to freeze the security system and sneak silently upstairs to where Ruby lives. Humans love to romanticize magic, but so few of them want to admit how simple it would be to take over their world.

I don’t care about ruling Earth - even a corner of it - but Julianna is right when she boasts that it will be easy.

I follow the scent of Ruby’s blood to her bedroom. She sleeps soundly, her breath flowing softly in and out of that perfect mouth as her eyes flicker behind closed lids. She’s dreaming, and I wonder what she sees there.

Without thinking on it any harder, I slip inside her dream, using my magic to walk through her mind while my physical body settles in a dark corner of her room.

I chuckle when I see a wispy version of myself in her dream, the illusion of me chasing her through the forest as she laughs in the faint moonlight.

So my killer kitten dreams of being hunted...

I follow the scene as dream-Ruby collapses down on a blanket under the stars, and the hazy dream-Torrence looms over her. She toys with the edge of her shirt, teasing and coy. I wonder, will she let me fuck her in a dream? She’s convinced herself in the real world that she wants to wait for some unknown point in the future, and I’ve been playing along because her blood tempts me as much as her body.

But here, in her dream, how far will she go?

Ruby tugs her shirt over her head, and stares up at his - my - face, what she wants written all over her pouty lips. In an instant, I surge into his place, my dreamwalking form replacingthe illusion her mind has created, giving me the power to do more than watch.

It’s an odd magic, dreamwalking, and it’s easy to see how someone might grow addicted to the power.

I can live here, playing with her imagined self, or I can stay hidden and watch her ideas play out like a show. Or I can bring her human body along for the ride, asking her to do anything I want in the world beyond dreams. She’s mine for the taking here, in every possible way.

Humans have the superstition that if you die in your dreams, you die in real life - and they’re absolutely right, if there’s a dreamwalker in their minds, writing the dream.

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