Page 91 of When the Woods Go Silent

There. I catch a glimpse of her ahead, sitting in the crook of a tree with a soft smile on her face. Her own eyes are glazed and filled with the fog of magic as she weaves her spell like a spider, drawing Ruby closer and closer with each passing moment.

I slow my breathing and approach casually.

“Hunting again, Mother?” I call up into the tree. Julianna hisses down at me, her eyes clearing like clouds blowing away from the moon.

“You know better than to interrupt my work,” she growls, the strands of magic hovering in the air as if frozen. I picture Ruby somewhere in the forest, pausing mid-step like a puppet waiting for the next tug of the strings.

“There are plenty of blood slaves for you in the mines, you know. Don’t you trust me to fill your soldiers’ bellies before I leave this world?”

She smirks at me. “I trust you for that. But not for other things. You like them too much, Torrence. It isn’t natural to be so fond of the beasts you feed from. It’s the fae weakness in you.”

I snort. Only a gobbelin would call a fae weak. It’s time for a different tactic. “I didn’t realize you needed the practice, is all. Carry on, if your dreamwalking magic has grown so rusty.”

Julianna snarls some nonsense I don’t even listen to, but she drops the magic as she jumps down from her perch. She lands in a horror-film pose of unnatural angles and bared fangs, but I don’t flinch away. She doesn’t scare me any longer, this woman. I see her aging, clawing to keep the power she needs so desperately.

She’s still stronger than me - than any of us. But for how much longer?

“Did you even scent the fae prince here, in the forest?” I ask, realizing exactly how to distract her. Her eyes flash with something I can’t identify as she takes a deep breath, finding the scent of Kier’s magic.

“What is he doing here?” she asks sharply.

“He’s courting a human,” I answer, giving her a pointed look. “Kier is showing his pretty flowers to a human girl right this minute, Mother. Why did he choose her, and why now?”

I stumble backward as her ice lances into my chest, freezing the air in my lungs. I grit my teeth through the consuming pain, unwilling to give her the satisfaction of gasping for air.

“These questions are for you to answer, you worthless flesh of mine! I should have killed you when you were born. Weakling.” Julianna continues to growl insults under her breath as she crashes through the forest, and as she gets farther away, her magic fades from my lungs.

I watch her go, knowing she’s unlikely to attack Kier. Not here, with so much riding on filling the mines. She’ll see Rose, but she’ll forget Ruby.

Making my way back through the trees until I find my midnight kitten, I gently guide her home and back into her bed. She falls into the sheets and curls into a ball, sighing so sweetly that I know I’m in fucking trouble. I have to figure out how to keep her safe from my mother’s delight in cruel destruction.

I began this experiment to gain a bit of power from Ruby’s blood, but the beast I am has begun to crave so much more from her. Things I’ve never dreamed of wanting before.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

ROSE

“So you believe in magic now?” Kier asks softly as we stargaze.

“How could I not?” I answer, swallowing hard. After all, I’m floating far above the treetops of Ruby’s forest, lying with Kier on a platform woven of vines that twist all the way down to the ground. I could be Jack at the top of the beanstalk here, or Jasmine floating on a magic carpet.

It’s impossible to deny now. Magic is real, kept hidden from humans. And Ruby has always been right.

Kier has kept to his word, too, only showing me beautiful things with his own magic. He’s kept silent about everything related to war or other types of magical creatures, and he hasn’t explained how his power could be used to fight anyone. But my imagination certainly isn’t stunted. I can see all too easily how these vines could choke and tear, how beautiful flowers could grow deadly poison, and how glamor could help you hide from an enemy right up until the moment you plunge a dagger of vicious thorns into their throat.

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