Todos os capítulos de The Knowing in Her Blood: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

The woods seemed to hold its breath as Ruby stepped beneath the trees.Elias stayed beside her.Clara followed several paces behind, carrying the journals against her chest.Nobody spoke.They didn't need to.Ruby could feel the Knowing pulling her deeper into the woods, tugging at something inside her that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with recognition.She knew this place.She had never been here before.But she knew it.The trees grew thicker as they moved away from the house. Moonlight slipped between the branches in thin silver pieces, touching the ground just long enough to reveal roots, stones, and fallen leaves.Ruby stopped.Elias nearly walked into her.“What is it?”She pointed.“There.”At first, Elias saw nothing.Then the moon shifted through the branches.An enormous oak stood ahead of them.Its trunk was twisted and scarred, its branches spreading outward like arms.Ruby stared at it.The feeling inside her became overwhelming.“That’s it.”Clara cam

For one long moment, nothing happened.Ruby stood beneath the old oak with the wooden box in her hands, staring into the darkness.She had told them to come.Now the woods were silent.Too silent.Elias moved closer.“Ruby.”She didn't look at him.“I know.”“You don't have to do this.”“Yes.”She finally turned toward him.“I do.”His expression softened.“You don't know what happens next.”“No.”Ruby looked down at the box.“But I know what happens if I keep running.”Clara stepped forward.“Ruby, the Knowing may be showing you possibilities, not certainties.”“I know.”“Then don't trust every vision.”Ruby looked at her.“I don't.”She touched the side of the wooden box.“I trust what I feel.”Clara's face tightened.“And what do you feel?”Ruby closed her eyes.The answer came immediately.Three heartbeats.Three men.Three pieces of the same blood.And something beneath them.Something older.Ruby opened her eyes.“They're afraid.”Elias glanced toward the trees.“Of you?”“Yes.”

Ruby couldn't move.The thing wearing her mother's face stood at the end of the hallway.It smiled.Not her mother's smile.Not really.Ruby knew that now.Her mother's smile had always reached her eyes.This one didn't.“Sweetheart,” it whispered again.Ruby backed away.“Who are you?”The figure tilted its head.“You know me.”“No.”“You've known me your whole life.”Ruby's skin prickled.The hallway seemed to stretch farther behind the figure.The photographs on the walls began changing.Faces appeared.Then disappeared.Women Ruby had never met.Women she somehow recognized.A woman holding a candle.A woman standing beside a river.A woman kneeling beside a grave.A woman screaming beneath the Witness Tree.Ruby pressed her palms against her temples.“Stop.”The voices grew louder.Remember.Remember.Remember.Then another voice cut through them.“Ruby!”Elias.She turned.He was on the other side of the door.His hand was pressed against the wood.“Ruby, listen to me.”She ran

Ruby didn't tell them what she had heard.Not yet.She couldn't.The word still seemed to echo inside her skull.Silas.A summons.Not a warning.Not a threat.A summons.Elias stayed close as they made their way through the ruined house. Clara followed behind them, keeping one hand against the wall as the floor creaked beneath their feet.The burned house looked different now.Ruby had spent years remembering it as a place of endings.Her mother's disappearance.Grandma Mae's silence.The childhood memories she had been told not to question.But now every room felt like a locked box.And she had finally found the keys.“Ruby.”She stopped.Elias stood behind her.“You're doing it again.”“Doing what?”“Going somewhere I can't follow.”She looked at him.“I don't know where I'm going.”“That's not what I mean.”His eyes searched hers.“You get quiet when you're scared.”Ruby almost smiled.“And you get annoying.”“That's fair.”She reached for his hand.His fingers closed around hers i

Ruby stared at the man standing in the doorway.For several seconds, neither of them moved.Silas.The name had lived in the journals for generations.She had seen it written in Grandma Mae's handwriting.She had heard it whispered in dreams.She had felt something inside her blood react every time the name appeared.But seeing him standing there—alive—was different.He looked nothing like the monster Ruby had imagined.He looked tired.Not ordinary tired.The kind of tired that settled into a person's bones and stayed there.His dark hair was streaked with gray. His face was lean, almost hollow, and there was an old scar running from beneath his left eye toward his jaw.But his eyes were what held Ruby.Because they were full of recognition.Not fear.Not surprise.Recognition.“You know me,” Ruby whispered.Silas nodded.“I've known you since before you knew yourself.”Elias stepped between them.Ruby reached for his arm.“Wait.”Silas's gaze moved to Elias.For the first time, som