When the Woods Go Silent (Haret Chronicles: Dark Fae #1)

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

K IER

The vines I called up set us down at Rose’s back door, and I remind myself again that this is the time to be patient, not to push.

I’ve found her. I’ve done what I hoped to do and found the changeling - but as much promise as her magic shows, she’s unwilling. If I push too hard now, I know Rose will do what she can to hide from me. She’ll protect Ruby, no matter what she herself wants.

I can’t lose her trust now, and I certainly can’t risk her turning to Ronan.

Getting her consent to return to Aralia and lend us her power is the classic twist of a fae’s bargain, because as soon as I gain that consent, I’ll have to take so much more from her.

But I swallow down all those words, focusing instead on the curve of the waxy flower she holds in one hand, while her other unlocks the door. The blossom is stunning, a manifestation of her pleasure, and so much more than I expected her to be able to create. I took a gamble and won this round, but the excitement feels hollow.

It’s not enough.

The cry of a small bird echoes as Rose opens the door, and I turn, my eyes scanning the night sky. I know that cry.

“What is it?” Rose asks, her fear edging back in.

“A cuale . Can you see it? There?” I point to where it’s landed on the balcony railing above us. Rose nods, tilting her head back. “It’s from Aralia.”

She spins around to look at me, open-mouthed. “As in, it’s a fae bird?”

I smile, holding out my arm for the bird. It flutters down to land on my wrist, the same size as any sparrow, but glinting like the night sky with its luminescent silver spots against deep purple feathers.

“It’s a bird, not a fae. But it’s not from Earth. My brothers and I use them to communicate when one of us is here.”

I’ve kept my voice and explanation light, but the cuale isn’t used for silly messages. I hold the bird closer to my ear, and it sings the fae words Brigance gave it, my older brother’s terse tone echoing like a whisper beneath the bird’s sweet notes.

Return immediately. Gobbelins are attacking the border, and I need you here.

My stomach sinks with the message. I need more time here with Rose, but these fucking gobbelins won’t allow it.

“What did it tell you?” Rose asks when the bird falls silent. I wonder if she’ll one day remember the fae language, too, or if she was brought to Earth too young to have learned it.

“I have to go home now. Tonight. The gobbelins are attacking Aralia. Please, Rose,” I ask, although I can already guess her answer. “Won’t you come with me? You could help so many fae.”

She sags against the door frame, looking regretful but determined. “I can’t, Kier. I can’t leave Ruby.”

“Bring her with you, then,” I try, although with her connection to Torrence, that’s a dangerous move. He could see it as a strategic one, meant to lure him out.

Rose chews her lip, and I realize Ruby isn’t the real reason - or not the only reason, anyway. She doesn’t want to come to Aralia at all. I fall back a few steps as the reality hits me, my chest constricting as I understand.

I’ve found the changeling, but she wants nothing at all to do with her people.

Too late, I realize she hasn’t even accepted the idea that the fae are her people - her mind has barely made the leap to changeling, and she still sees it as a separate thing from being a fae. She might not even fully believe there is another world out there, one that desperately needs her help.

She sees herself as a human who somehow has magic, but nothing more. And I don’t have time right now to help her beyond that wall. I have to return home, and quickly.

“I’m sorry, Kier,” she whispers, sadness in her hazel eyes but a firm set to her shoulders. A crushed flower, damaged but already unfurling a new bud in an effort to stay alive.

“I’ll be back, you know. These battles flare up and die down quickly enough. I’ll be back. And I’ll keep praying to the Goddess that you change your mind.” I hope it’s more of a promise and less of a warning.

Rose hugs the strange, beautiful flower she created closer to her chest, nodding as she bruises the thick petals a bit more. Her eyes glint with tears, and a new hope surges in my chest. Maybe she will come, after she’s had a few days to think things through and talk to Ruby.

Maybe Ruby will actually be the one to convince Rose. I tell myself this is a good thing, leaving the girls alone together.

But I can’t have her forgetting me, so I grasp her face in my palms and pour all the magic of seduction I’ve learned into one last, searing kiss. Rose melts into me, the heady perfume of her flower pressed between us.

“I’ll be back for you, Rose, as soon as I’m able. You’re going to bloom for me again,” I promise, nipping her bottom lip as I break away. Her chest is rising and falling quickly, and the teary eyes have been replaced with flushed cheeks.

“I’ll look forward to that, then,” she says, stepping backward through the doorway until the darkness of the building blurs her edges.

The cuale flutters away as I turn back into the forest, hope burning a beacon in my chest as I race through the woods toward the path to Haret. This is just a minor setback, and with any luck, I’ll turn it to my favor.

Rose is the changeling, and I’ve found her.

My sentence is finally fulfilled, my promise kept. I’ve spent three years playing King with my brothers, and now, finally, it’s time for me to hand back this heavy crown I never wanted. And once we defeat the gobbelins, I’ll be free to live my life the way I’ve always dreamed, free of the ugliness of war.

When I reach the hidden entrance to the path, I expect to find Ronan waiting for me there, but the clearing is empty except for the little house where the Qilin conductor lives.

“Nobody else on the Path tonight, just the cuale ,” confirms the Qilin, when I press him about other Haretians traveling back and forth. “Are you waiting for someone, then?”

I hesitate, then shake my head. Ronan is perfectly capable of traveling home on his own. Brigance likely only sent one cuale to find both of us, and it found me first.

“Let’s cross,” I say, watching as the Qilin transforms from a human shape into the gleaming white horse that humans like to call unicorn. The Qilin are the only ones with the magic that allows them to cross the rainbow Path in the sky, connecting Earth and Haret. The strongest serve as conductors, transporting us between worlds in turn for being well-taken care of.

Once he’s fully transformed, I wrap my fingers in his mane and close my eyes against the nausea I’ve never gotten past. The misty colors flood my mind anyway as we navigate time and space, moving across the colorful bow in the sky from one world to the next, by a magic I’ll never possess or understand.

If only humans realized how close magic is to them all the time, the Path to Haret visible, like a banner across the sky, every time rain meets the sun.

“Thank you,” I tell the Qilin when we’re safely in Haret, handing him a tip, in the form of a bar of chocolate I swiped from a store earlier.

“Bring some dewberry wine on your return, prince,” he says, grinning at me before taking a huge bite of the candy. “To make up for your brother. He never tips.”

“I will,” I promise, holding in a sigh. That sounds like Ronan. Everybody knows that Qilin magic thrives on anything sweet and full of sugar, but leave it to my brother to be the sour apple in the bunch.

Leaving the Qilin to his work, I race across the fields toward the heart of Aralia, following my senses and my training to the burning place in the trees where the gobbelins have gathered. They’re hacking their way closer and closer to the palace, and I’m afraid I’m out of time.

I still hope to convince Rose to come here and use her magic to help us. But if she refuses, my brothers won’t be as gentle.