Page 92 of When the Woods Go Silent

He doesn’t have to tell me about the dark side of magic, because I’m human, and we’re all too good at turning beautiful things into weapons of fear and destruction.

“And do you see why you can’t tell Ruby any of this yet?” he prods, and I lean up on my elbow to glare down at him.

“Absolutely not. Kier, she’s going to find out. And if it’s from me, I control the story. If it’s from fucking Torrence... well. Neither one of us wants him to control anything, right?”

Kier sighs, nodding in agreement. “But if you can find a way to keep her in the dark a little longer. Just long enough for us to figure out the mystery of your blood-”

“Youreallyunderestimate my friend.” I flop back on the mat of vines. Ruby is not going to sit around and wait to be told anything. If there’s even a glimmer of magic in her world, she’s going to hunt it down.

“Besides. You told me you read, and so many books rely on the conflict of one person knowing something the other doesn’t. The plot would unravel if they just sat down and had a goddamn conversation.” I huff, thinking of my personal pet peeve about books. Especially books with friends in them. None of these red flag book guys would make it past page three if the best friends actually shared what they knew.

Except.

Ruby and Ihavebeen keeping secrets. Not forever, but long enough. I should have told her every last detail and misgiving I had about Arlo. And she should have told me more about Torrence. If anything, Kier’s demonstration tonight has made me even more intent to tell Ruby absolutely everything.

“How do you think Ruby will feel when she learns you might have access to magic, and she doesn’t?” Kier asks then, and my heart stutters in my chest.

She’ll be devastated.

“But we don’t know I have any such thing,” I protest, raising up again to look at him. His hair shines in the moonlight, his features cut like a marble statue, carved into perfection. “You said it yourself. I failed the blood test.”

“But you saw through my glamor. And Torrence’s gobbelin form. That’s impossible for someone who’s fully human.”

I chew on my bottom lip, remembering the flash of demon eyes and terrifying snarl I glimpsed in the photo of Torrence.

“All the more reason to tell Ruby,” I whisper, the fear clawing at my chest as I imagine the person I love most in the whole world, sitting down to dinner with that creature. If he harms her...

“If she runs to him, I can’t protect her,” Kier warns, and the fear settles into something even denser, crouching heavy in my chest. Would she run to him? If I hurt her, would she choose him?

Torrence seems certain enough of it.

“Tell me more about how the gobbelin magic works.”

Unfortunately, I’m done with the beautiful. I need to know the rest, and soon enough, I need to address Kier’s real interest in me. I want to believe he liked me, was attracted to me, but now I’m not so sure. I don’t want to be used in this way, either.

“I don’t know everything. Haret thought gobbelins had gone extinct ages ago, and so much of our knowledge turned into myth over the years, exaggerated in the way folk stories tend to be. But I do know the power of their blood. In the right quantities, it’s infinitely addictive to most humans, with some being weaker to it than others. If a human grows addicted and is then cut off from the blood, they wither away. Depression. Paranoia. Suicide. Your language has many names for it, but none of them are strong enough.”

“There’s no cure?”

Kier shrugs. “I don’t know, Rose. Fae don’t really study humans.”

“What about the doctor you mentioned? The one who studied my blood? You said he’d studied humans.”

Kier rolls his eyes. “Marcel can be useful, but he is the one fae my brothers and I have no command over. If he doesn’t want to study gobbelin sex magic, he won’t.”

“Wait.Sex magic? You said blood.”

“One and the same, for gobbelins. I told you most of your vampire stories probably originate from gobbelins, even though vampires are just as real. Why do you think so many of the stories center around desire, sex, or craving? Gobbelin magic works like a sort of twisted succubus power. It’s ironic in such disgusting creatures, but they feed on pleasure, digging out the sweetness of desire and carving it into something ugly and destructive. Your friend, Rose? Once Torrence has her under his spell enough to begin to feed fromher, she will be too far for us to reach. She’s had his blood. Once he has hers, and they have each other’s bodies, she’ll belong to him forever. And even worse, she’llwantto.”

“That’s bullshit,” I snap, refusing to believe it. There have to be things he doesn’t know. TheGoblin Marketpoem had a solution - that must mean I can find one.

“That’s magic,” Kier returns, sitting up to look me more directly in the eyes. His expression is serious, the warning in his eyes chilling me to my core.

“He already bit her,” I admit in a whisper, and the sheer wash of pity over his face brings a flood of tears to my eyes. I shake my head, silencing him with a look. “We’ll move. I’ll drag her to California if I have to. Get her out of here. Too far away to find.”

“It won’t be enough.” Kier bows his head, reaching to weave his fingers through mine. “She would shrink and wilt, like a flower with no sunlight.”

“I’ll get her medicine. I’ll... I’ll convince that fae doctor to help her. Please, Kier. Tell me what I can do to stop this!”

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