Later the same night, when all the guests and his brothers had retired to the rooms prepared for them, David still sat in the study, just staring into the fireplace, waiting. Eventually, the door opened quietly and his parents entered. There were things that couldn’t be discussed in front of guests, not even guests as dear as Lane or Thoko and her mother.

Bram and Imani settled down close to each other on the single lounge seat in the room. Bram ran a hand over Imani’s hair as she nestled her head against his shoulder and kissed her temple gently.

David looked away until they had made themselves comfortable and his mother asked: “Should we maybe start involving Andrew in our little meetings?”

David paused, a little blindsided by this question. His father had first called him to a “family council” after he had run away with Bram’s crossbow and brought in his very first dead werewolf, back when Imani had been too weak from the plague to confer with about the running of Courtenay. Since Andrew and Nathan were neither the heirs nor especially interested in the matter, Bram and Imani had never much asked them for their input. Imani had only just started involving Greg in the running of the estates when their whole lives had gone off the rails.

“Is he even still awake?” David asked after a few seconds. “And why now?”

He really just wanted to go to bed himself, but if his parents wanted Andrew to be there, he could wait a little longer.

“Well, Bram mentioned you have considered to step down as the family’s heir?” Imani asked.

David let his head fall back. “I did tell Andrew that he should consider himself responsible for carrying on the name, yes,” he said. “Mostly because I didn’t expect to get married or have children. Or that Greg would be the first to bring home some grandchildren.”

“Oh. But you didn’t intent to, I don’t know, leave the family?”

“What?” David snapped. “Why would I – how did you come to that conclusion? Because I prefer men?”

“No!” his mother hurried to say. “Just – nothing you said really gives a reason to forsake your birthright.”

David rubbed his face, feeling more tired by the second. “I said that to Andrew back when he turned eighteen, Mum. When I was still certain George Louis would set the Inquisition on me eventually.”

“So it’s not really relevant anymore.”

David shrugged. He still couldn’t see himself in his parent’s role, in the role he had watched George Louis take a few times over the past few months – dealing with the nitty-gritty details of running the barony, keeping the family’s affairs in order, maybe raising a child. How did Lane handle that? Who was running Wardshire for her while she was away?

“I think it might be a good idea to include Andrew in future meetings,” he said finally. “Maybe Nathan and Greg, too. The dice are in the air, and there’s no telling how they’ll land for either of us.”

His father nodded slowly. “How is Nathan?” he asked.

“He’s alive,” David said. “I think it’s too early to tell.” He folded his arms across his chest. “He’s really withdrawn right now, but that’s hardly surprising, is it? He lost his bloody foot, and it’s only been a week. We’ll need to find a doctor or a healer to check on him, though.”

“Oh, I already took care of that,” Imani said.

“You really want to go to Eoforwic right away?” Bram asked.

David nodded. “I need to check on the werewolves at the company. The duke will likely want to talk, too.”

“Right. He doesn’t happen to pay you for all the work you’re doing, does he?”

“He gave me this,” David said, and pulled out the amulet George Louis had gifted him. “Why do you ask?”

“Just – thinking about the future,” his father said. He looked a little uncomfortable. Maybe even embarrassed. “Without the money from the hunts – well, we’ll need to find new sources of income.”

David frowned. “I’d expected our funds to last longer.”

“Oh, they will,” his mother said quickly. “But getting Nathan the best treatment won’t be cheap. Maintaining three rather than two estates is raising our upkeep expenses, too. It’s not an issue right now. Just something we’ll need to keep an eye on.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I’ll ask the duke what he intends to pay a Royal Advisor,” David sighed. No wonder his parents had wanted to talk in private. “I did collect a bounty for a couple of mad werewolves recently – not a Church-bounty, but the railway doesn’t pay too badly, either.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he added, because his father and mother looked shocked. “They had attacked a railway crew, nearly killed the werewolf protecting the workers. Even if they weren’t mad, they would have been killed.”

“Andrew mentioned you also had to kill some of the werewolves who fought with you in that battle,” Imani said.

“So?” David glared at his parents. “One was trying to chew through steel, breaking all her teeth and ruining her gums in the process. There was no saving them.”

“I’m not saying there was,” his mother sighed. “Just – did it have to be you?”

David raised his eyebrows. “What, you think being an executioner is beneath me?”

They all used to be killers for hire, and that was hardly better, was it?

His mother – he couldn’t decipher the expression on her face, and after a moment, he gave up.

“Look, maybe we should continue this after I’ve caught some sleep.”

Fixing the family’s financial situation was going to take more than one night, anyway.

His parents hesitated but eventually nodded. “That sounds like a good idea,” Bram said.

David didn’t wait for either of them to say more. He just pushed himself out of his seat and walked over to his room, shrugged out of his clothes, and threw himself onto the bed to sleep for a week – or at least a full night, finally.

He didn’t even get that.

He jerked upright, drenched in sweat and at the same time shuddering with cold, teeth cramped together over a scream he mustn’t let out – though he couldn’t quite remember why. It had been important, within the dream, to stay silent, but the details were already fading. There’d been a cell, right? He’d been inside the cell, locked up, even shackled – helpless and terrified. He couldn’t remember what exactly he had been terrified of, not that it really mattered.

David let his head fall back and covered his eyes with one hand.

No way. He was not dealing with this tonight.

Oh, he knew dreams like this one all too well. At both Deva and Heron Hall he had calming medicines stashed in his rooms, but he hadn’t needed them in so long that he hadn’t bothered to buy any at Eoforwic yet. He’d have to do so tomorrow.

But for tonight – for tonight, alcohol would have to do.

His parents – his whole family, really – would be unnecessarily concerned, so David was very quiet as he made his way down into the kitchen. He didn’t bother with a light while he rummaged around until he found a bottle of cooking sherry.

All he wanted was one uninterrupted night of sleep, for flame’s sake.

Sherry induced sleep wasn’t nearly as restful as regular sleep, and David was the last one to show up and look for breakfast. People did give him weird looks from the side, but nobody commented on his late appearance. Lee and Greg were already discussing what to bring on their way into the mountains. David was a little relieved to see that Thoko didn’t plan on going with Greg a second time – a werewolf likely wouldn’t be too bothered by an early onset of winter, but she might not survive one.

David was just getting into his coat to travel to Eoforwic after all, when Nathan came hobbling over, a crutch under each arm.

“If you’re going to buy some Valerian,” he asked, “get some for me, too?”

David hesitated and nodded, but Nathan already hobbled off again.

So it wasn’t just him, David thought. Great. He probably should have expected that. Maybe he should ask Lane if she wanted anything from an apothecary, too? Andrew had never used that kind of medicine before. He had other ways of dealing with the nightmares.

Yet it was Andrew who slipped outside after him.

“You look like shit,” his brother said. “And you smell like old sherry.”

David didn’t answer.

Andrew sighed. “Did it ever occur to you to take an actual break? Stay home for a few days, go for walks or ride out just for the fun of it? Train with that fancy new sword?”

“I need to make sure everything is all right at the company first,” David said.

“Oh, but you’ll take tomorrow off?”

David hunched his shoulders. He hadn’t planned on it. “If there’s no other catastrophe,” he hedged, which clearly didn’t convince Andrew. His younger brother did know when not to pressure him, though, and he didn’t say anything more.

“Dad made you come after me, right?” David asked after a second.

“Dad, and Mum, and Lane too,” Andrew said.

The last name surprised David a little but it made him smile, too.

They parted at the train station of Eoforwic. Andrew went on to post a whole bunch of letters to friends at Deva, mostly his own, but some that Nathan had written, too, even one from Greg to another student of Mr. Higgins’s. David hadn’t expected that last one. He thought Greg had burned all bridges back at the capital.

But maybe that was just him.

David sighed. The New City of Eoforwic seemed to be getting bigger every time he returned. The mass of people all around was making him jumpy. And it wasn’t even half as bad yet as Deva was in places.

At the Lackland Company, the crowd was thinner than usual. Nobody was waiting for David inside, either, and when David asked, he was informed that George Louis was spending the day with his son.

Huh.

David had been certain George would want something from him. And now there weren’t even any new werewolves in the cells. He scanned through the newest journal from Deva University, just to not feel wholly stupid and useless, and then left the company headquarters again to flag down a cab to the fencing school.

Mr. Helm showed up when David was nearly done with his routine, so they had a friendly match. David lost, worn-out as he was, but it still felt good. He had a long soak at the public baths afterwards before taking another cab to the apothecary nearest to the train station.

By the time he had walked back home from the station at a leisurely pace, he actually did feel a little better