Page 6 of Sharpen Your Claws

He looked at Charmaine for guidance. She had as little answers as he, as much fear, too. He saw it in her eyes. If he accepted, she would stand beside him, and that eased the discomfort weighing heavy on his chest.

His shoulders deflated. “What tale will you spin?”

“I’m not sure yet.” Richard tapped the papers on the desk. “I trust you will let me hold on to these?”

He nodded.

“Good. We’ll speak more when I have an idea in mind. For now, it is time to head home. Mother is worried.”

“I told him she would be,” said Charmaine. He shot her a look.

“Come, you must sleep in your own bed tonight and, most importantly, take a bath,” Richard ordered.

William curled his nose. “What are you implying?”

Richard stalked around the desk to grasp him by the hem of his coat. “You stink. Our niece shouldn’t be forced to tolerate this.”

Richard’s knuckles brushed his right arm. He put space between them. Richard pretended the action wasn’t odd.

“Alice is there?” he asked.

“She is staying the night and refuses to sleep without a story from Uncle William. I trust you won’t disappoint her?”

Charmaine giggled. Richard got his way because William’s niece was his greatest weakness. Alice had a light in her he hoped would never be snuffed out, that he would protect at all costs. He already did, barely six months after he returned, and she clung to him ever since.

“No, I wouldn’t do that. Take my carriage home, Charmaine. I’ll ride with my brother,” he said.

Charmaine nodded, then giggled when Richard took her hand to give her an unexpected spin followed by a hug.

“It is always a pleasure to see you, My Lady,” he said.

Donning a precious grin, Charmaine said her goodbyes, then descended the stairs.

No one asked about her, not even Henry, who had seen her with William on the battlefield. He was grateful, and hopeful his family would understand one day should he ever bring a man home, if that was possible. He lost Hugh in the war, a man he believed he could love until the end of his days. He sent Hugh’s family flowers every month, anonymously. It was the least he could do. Then he lost Nicholas, the fae tricking him since day one. He wasn’t doing well romantically and couldn’t imagine that ever changing. Not with the way he was, with how his body had become or how broken his mind was.

“Sleeping on that couch is no good for you,” Richard lectured on their way down the stairs.

“I’ve slept in worse conditions,” he said bitterly.

“But you’re home now, in better conditions. You need to take care of yourself.”

He was trying, truly, but he wasn’t sure how to care for himself anymore. Nothing worked, not even being home.

3

William

MarthaMiddle’sBookofRiddles should have burned upon William’s return. If he were in his right mind, he would have cast the book into the hearth along with anything reminding him of Nicholas. Alas, the book survived, and his niece insisted on the tales becoming bedtime stories.

Alice sat on his bed, flipping through tattered pages, notes scrawled in the corners from his younger hand. She added notes of her own, dotting the pages with stars to signify her favorite parts.

“When will you come home, Uncle?” She clutched the book to her chest, forcing the ruffles of her nightgown to bundle beneath her chin. Her brown curls were tucked under a matching bonnet. She took after her mother, Amara, more than Arthur, with doe-like eyes and a button nose.

“I am not sure. The ball may last well into the night, but I will leave as soon as I can,” he replied.

He glared at the soldier in the mirror, adjusting the collar of his uniform. Under the king’s orders, soldiers would don their uniforms for the party, not the tattered and stained ones covered in excrement, but the pressed ones, perfect for the king’s toys.

The brush of the fabric summoned the wintry air of the Deadlands, the chittering of spions, and the cry of gunfire. The room swayed, morphing into a winter wasteland, and the dead lay at William’s feet. Blood dripped from his fingers, hot and sticky. Soot coated his lungs, making every breath ragged and wheezed. He searched the perimeter for the threat.

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