Page 93 of When the Woods Go Silent

He only shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know of anything, Rose. I’m sorry.”

“Take me home, then. Bring me back, right fucking now.” My voice is going shrill, and a bird far below us answers with a haunting cry. Every second I’m away from Ruby is anotherchance for Torrence to get to her. Kier watches me a moment longer, and then I feel the vines sinking, lowering us back to the ground. He brings them straight to my window, where I clamber in, not even waiting to see if he’s following.

“You’ll drive her away, Rose,” he calls through the window. “You’ll drive her right to him, if you say it the wrong way.”

My heart beats so hard it feels like it might burst, but I ignore him and rush out of my room, across the hall to Ruby’s door. My hand shakes as I open it, but she’s there.

Safe, sleeping.

Dreaming quietly, with a soft smile on her lips.

How am I going to tell her this without ruining everything?

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

RONAN

“What of this have you told Kier?” I demand, getting right up in Marcel’s face.

The fae doctor only blinks slowly. He’s old enough to have lived through my mother’s bullshit, so there isn’t anything that I could do to scare him.

“Everything I told you,” he drawls.

“And you’ve told me everything you told him?” I ask, ready to catch him in a trick.

He smiles thinly, the expression cold and haughty. “I don’t need to pit you brothers against each other. You do well enough on your own. Go ahead. Destroy Aralia while you three bicker over who gets the shiny toy first.”

My magic aches to cut him down, but it’s not an option. Not that I’d be punished for it. He’s just too fucking valuable to waste a bit of rage on.

“Tell Brigance none of this, or you’ll be hanging by your scrotum in the dungeons,” I snarl, and Marcel chuckles.

“Your mother’s fire but not her way with words. I wouldn’t worry about Brigance. He never asks questions of me, so why would I borrow trouble? It finds me often enough as it is, young prince. Now, leave me to my research, or I swear by the Goddess Carlyle that I’ll move my laboratory to the farthest edges ofEarth where I won’t have to be bothered any longer by angry young princes.”

I don’t bother to answer him, even though it’s not an empty threat. Marcel is in Aralia as a favor to the Goddess, helping us find ways to patch up the leaks in Aralia’s magic. But I doubt even she could make the crusty old fae do what she wanted without stabbing him through with her horn.

It will have to be enough that he hasn’t told Brigance what secrets Rose’s blood holds. Or hides, in this case.

For now, I have my own research to do. I make my way as quickly as possible out of Aralia and across the rainbow Path, heading a few hours north of Clearwater, to a disgustingly dusty town called Pritchard. Where the human girl called Allegra Rose McKinley was supposedly born. I’d found out that much before stealing her blood, and Marcel’s inconclusive test results mean there is more to the story.

Rose isn’t fae, but neither is she completely human.

Her blood echoes with magic that shouldn’t exist, given her pathetic family tree. And while I’m not ready to say she definitely isn’t the changeling we’ve been searching for, the odds are slim at this point. Instead, I need to look deeper into her past and discover the anomaly that will solve the puzzle of Rose McKinley. Hopefully, that intel will get me a few steps closer to the true changeling.

Because if I had to guess, I’d say Rose’s blood echoes with magic because she’s very close to the changeling, either by blood or the bonds of something stronger.

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