Page 95 of When the Woods Go Silent

“What has he told you?” I hiss.

“Why don’t you fucking ask him,” she snarls right back, and something in me stirs. It feels a bit like respect, although I haven’t felt that for a human before. Of course, she wouldn’t be so brazen if she knew how easy it would be for me to end her pathetic life.

“I’m here to ask you,” I say, hiding my temper. Anger won’t get me what I want from her. “What did he tell you about magic? About the changeling?”

She presses her lips together in the universal sign that she isn’t going to tell me shit. I sigh through my nose, imagining the fun I could have making her.

“Or maybe he still doesn’t trust you enough to tell you. Maybe he’s been hiding his own magic from you. Fae don’t usually bother with humans, you know.” I toss the words out, hoping for a reaction, but she’s stone still. I’ll just have to beat it out of my brother, then.

I reach for the paper, but Rose snatches it out of my reach. My fingers close on her upper arm instead, and a noise halfway between a scream and a war cry echoes from her throat.

“Leave me the fuck alone!”

“Rose? Are you- hey, get the hell out of here, you creep! I’m calling the cops!” Another human is suddenly rushing at me, much smaller but every bit as fierce as she shoves into my chest.

I rip my hands away from Rose as pain lances across my palm. The girls square up across from me as I stare down at my hand. My fingers and wrist are wrapped in a length of pulsing, growing vine, studded closely with wickedly sharp thorns that have sliced straight through my skin.Magic.

The smaller girl starts to rush me again, but Rose grabs her arm at the last second, the two of them swinging together from the force. Rose wraps a protective arm around the girl, and my interest snags on the gesture. Could this smaller human be the changeling, and Rose her protector?

One of them created these vines.One of them has magic.

“Get. Out.” Rose grinds the words through gritted teeth, and for once, I’m inclined to listen. I have more questions, but I decide force isn’t the best way to get them answered this time. If I push any harder right now, they could disappear before I have the chance to unravel everything I need to know. So I keep silent, staring them both down as I back out of the bookshop,disappearing around the corner of the building in a blur of glamor.

My hand wells with bright drops of blood, the thorns sunk deep, but I don’t feel any of it. Instead, I’m high on the thrill of discovery. Whatever magic created this vine of thorns, it’s not nearly as weak as I expected it to be. There’s hope of finding the changeling after all, and it’s on my side.

One of those two humans has magic, and the fact that they’re both still here on Earth means Kier hasn’t figured out the mystery, either. I don’t care where he is now. By the time he gets back, I’ll have hidden them both.

Leaning against the side of their building, I pull the thorns one by one from the meat of my palm, grinning like a fool the entire time. I may have left the shop, but I’m not going anywhere.

One way or another, the changeling is mine, and the Dark Mother will soon have her heart back.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

RUBY

“Are you okay?” I gasp at Rose, although my brain is pulsing with a thousand and one other questions. I can’t stop thinking about all the words I overheard as I came downstairs looking for her.

Magic.Fae.

Some guy I’ve never even seen before was here, asking Rose about a changeling, and I’ve read enough fairy tales to know what that means. He thinks someone in Clearwater is a hidden fae with freakingmagic. Even more, he thinksRoseknows something about it.My Rose, who humors me but who has never actually believed in any of it.

And he said something about Kier, so the two men must know each other.

But she’s said nothing to me. The hurt is instant and physical, like someone twisting their fingers around my lungs.

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