Page 78 of Sharpen Your Claws

“Doubtful.” Henry released him, smiling. “Neither of you have been very subtle while we’ve been here, but I suspected it long before that.”

“Since when?”

He chuckled. “Since the night I met him. I might have been drinking, but I remembered how much he asked about you.”

“Fae are curious by nature,” he muttered, as if that changed anything.

“They’re rarely interested in personal childhood stories. They want information to use, but Nicholas wanted to know about you. That said enough.” Henry kept walking. “Although, leave it to you to find the most troublesome man imaginable. Here, I thought we’d have to worry about Richard.”

“To be fair, we’ll always have to worry about him. Eleanor could always come to her senses.”

The two of them laughed, and it felt like old times. All the trying William did had amounted to something, and that felt good.

26

Nicholas

ThelasttimeNicholasvisited Bloodbane had been after Alvina saved him. He sat in her castle halls waiting for Laurent, then heard from his father’s mouth that he would be betrothed to the pouting daughter at Alvina’s side. He hadn’t wanted to visit Bloodbane since. It was a reminder of how powerless he was. That his father used him as a tool. But even after over a decade passed, he knew Bloodbane had not looked like this.

Leaves crunched beneath their boots. Sapped of their color, they laid as gray husks of what once was. The trees, too, lost color until they hardly held their ash shapes. Trunks rotted from within, decaying so branches hung, broken from their heart or shattered on the forest floor. The trees of Bloodbane were silent and its fields little more than old, cracking dirt beneath their feet.

Evera knelt. She pinched the debris between her fingers, forehead creased. Nicholas wouldn’t dare say aloud that she carried a pain about her the moment they grew close to Bloodbane. All the fae felt it long before they saw it, this sense of emptiness, as if a force had hollowed Bloodbane out from the roots. This was her home, as Darkmoon was his. If he saw this happen to Darkmoon, if he witnessed Hill Castle crumble, he would hurt, too.

“The red caps weren’t exaggerating,” Evera whispered. “Something is horribly wrong.”

“It wasn’t like this when either of you were here last?” Nicholas asked.

Arden pinched a leaf between his fingers. The leaf disintegrated into a fine powder. “There was rot, in some areas, but nothing like this.”

Evera tore her nails through the soil. “Last time I was here, there wasn’t even rot. We should seek my brother first. He’ll have an idea of what trouble she has gotten into.”

“Or he’ll tell her we’re here. He’s loyal to Alvina,” Nicholas countered.

Laurent and Alvina had their similarities, but more differences. Alvina had better relationships with her children, purely based on the few instances he met her or heard her children speak of her. Evera had a sore spot toward Alvina, for obvious reasons, but he never heard of Alvina mistreating Amos. He obeyed her orders with little question and spoke highly of her, albeit truthfully. He, along with everyone else, knew Alvina veered toward erratic.

“He will be as worried about this as the rest of us. If this has happened to Bloodbane, it could spread.” Evera waved her fingers. “This way and keep close.”

Together, they descended the rolling hills of Bloodbane, once green and now gray. Evera ran her hands over trees she must have known since childhood. Her pained expression became apparent, so much so that Charmaine offered comfort by a brief touch to Evera’s arm. The fae jumped, perturbed by the attention. Then her shoulders slumped.

“I am sure Bloodbane had been exquisite,” Charmaine remarked, clearly unsure of what to say.

“It was, and it will be again,” Evera said assuredly. “We will fix it.”

“We? I thought you didn’t like teamwork.”

“I will accept it if it means seeing my home as it should be.” Evera gave Charmaine a slow once over that had the girl crossing her arms as if she could shield herself. “I suppose the company with me isn’t as bad as it could be.”

“Would it kill you to compliment us?”

“It may. I’m not risking discovering that truth.”

The girls shared a muted glance, then giggled.

“Suspicious,” William whispered.

Arden hugged his torso. “The lot of you are suffering from some form of illness. You best not give it to me.”

“Whatever do you mean?” asked Nicholas.

---