Page 30 of Red in Tooth and Claw

It took twice as long as it should have for me to get clean. Blood had crusted beneath my nails—I even had some in my hair. Tallis’s hands liked to wander, which was fine by me, as it turns out I liked what he found. My hands had a bit of a mind of their own as well.

Tallis was ticklish in some surprising places.

After my bath, I sat by a fire with my friends—Anna, Zara, Jesse, Dai Lo, and Tallis—and ate anything handed to me. Sergio, Tallis’s uncle, puffed on his pipe companionably. Chirp and the other cave cat were sniffing at the tobacco smoke curiously. No one seemed much bothered by their presence, which was perplexing. But my stomach was right wroth with me, and it had good reason. I’d abused it abominably. I focused on filling it and left my questions for later.

The Rover camp was fair to bursting. The entire Settlement, what was left of it, was inside its borders. Aside from Will, Miss Moon was the only adult left. They had a lot of littles between them to wrangle.

I’d never seen Miss Moon so happy, having all those children to manage. I’d also never seen her with her hair down. Miss Moon would never be a beautiful woman in a conventional sense, but seeing her now, how fiercely she loved the children in her care, her face relaxed, she wasn’t plain, either. It was like she’d been coals and someone had blown on the embers, lighting her up inside.

It was a look that suited her so well that it made you realize she was handsome in her own way. From the way Will was gazing at her, I reckoned he’d figured it out miles before I did.

“What happens now?” Jesse asked, his arm around Dai Lo.

Sergio tapped his pipe over the fire, his expression grave. “No one is going back there.” He paused like he expected us to argue, but no one did. I didn’t think a soul among us wanted to return to the Settlement. He nodded, tucking his pipe away into his vest pocket. “We’ll let the children gather their things, gather any animals, then we’re burning it to the ground.”

“It’s a cursed place,” Anna said. “We can’t let someone go there and try again. We’ll let the wild take it back.”

I agreed wholeheartedly. No good could come from that place. None at all.

The Rovers didn’t want to dally, so that afternoon I gathered up any of the older kids who could help, to pack up any goods we needed. Many Rovers came as well and aided us with horse and cart. Miss Moon took her apothecary. We packed up the foods in the cellar. We grabbed clothes, candles, dry goods, dishes. Anything we could use or sell.

I made sure Tallis got Dillard’s trunk. Will would try and find the owners of the objects as best as he was able. The rest of the spoils we would divide and sell them for coin. Give some to the Rovers, some to Miss Moon to take care of the youngins. They’d have to start over, and that was a lot of mouths to feed.

The Rovers kept the smaller youngins at the camp while we worked. They didn’t need to see more blood, more bodies.

They would have nightmares enough.

The moon had risen, the sunlight gone, by the time we were done. Once we were sure everyone was out and away, Tallis took the old blackout lantern and tossed it into the chapel. It shattered on the floor, flames blooming outward like water flowing to shore. All that gilt and pretty burned like any other wood. Dillard’s dreams going up in smoke, a final gift to his god.

We dropped torches in the empty henhouse, the bunkhouses, the kitchen. Then fell back, far enough away for safety’s sake, and watched the Settlement burn.

I sat there watching until the palisades fell, the light dimming the stars.

Tallis stood there with me, an arm around my shoulders. “What will you do now?”

“I don’t rightly know,” I said. I’d had a plan, and it had seemed a good one at the time, but it no longer had the same shine to it after everything I’d been through.

It was like I’d tried to put on my favorite pair of boots only to find them too tight and pinching. “I could…” The word drifted off, my gumption evaporating for a moment. The problem was I knew what I wanted, but I was terrified to ask for it. A scaredy-cat, that’s what I was.

Kellys don’t run. I sucked in a breath. “I could stay with you.”

Tallis stilled. “Oh?”

I turned around in his arms to look up at him, examining his face. He didn’t seem unhappy with my suggestion, more like he was waiting for something. And I realized that I was an absolute coward sometimes. Tallis had been very forthcoming in regard to how he felt about me.

I hadn’t done the same.

Well. Never said a Kelly didn’t give as good as they got.

“I want to stay with you,” I said.

“How long?” Tallis said carefully.

“I was thinking,” I said, my words just as careful, “that maybe, and this is just an estimate, mind, but maybe I’d stay until forever or as close to forever as we could get…if you want that.” He let me stew like that for a moment, my own figurative hand extended for him to take.

He treated me to that slow, easy smile. His cat smile. “I think that estimate sounds very fine. Very fine indeed.”

I nodded, then buried my face into his chest. “You have my whole heart, Tallis.”

“I know, Little Fox,” he murmured soothingly as he stroked my hair. “That was very difficult for you, wasn’t it?”

“Like pulling actual teeth.”

He laughed.

Having taken care of the immediate things, we had a grander conundrum to solve now. Or two, rather. First, I had to find out if Tallis’s people would take us, what with us being abominations and all. Turns out, Tallis was as bound to the other cave cat as I was to Chirp. He considered calling her Raina, after the song, as she had so much in common with the hero, but decided she needed a fresh start. In the end he called her Hani, which meant “a restful place” in Rover.

So before I solved the other conundrum, I cornered Sergio and Zara and asked what they and their people thought about me and Chirp staying with them now.

Sergio shrugged. “You, we could banish, no problem. But Tallis?” Another shrug. “None of us want to do that. And if we have one, why not two?”

“What he’s saying,” Zara continued, in that dry way of hers, “is that you may be abominations now, but you’re our abominations.”

“Alright,” I said with a sharp nod. I stuck my hand out. “I would be honored to be one of your abominations.”

Zara patted my cheek, ignoring my hand. “Of course you would.”

We couldn’t all stay, of course. Or at least Miss Moon felt the youngins needed somewhere steady after all of the nightmares, and while I thought the Rovers were a solid folk, they were also a wandering folk.

And after much discussion with Jesse, Dai Lo, and Tallis, I came up with a solution.

“You’re giving us your land?” Will said, tipping back his hat. “Faolan, it’s yours. You’ve fought like hell for that land.”

“I know,” I said. “But here’s how I see it. The land will go back to the Rovers eventually—it should be theirs anyhow. And if you take it, the mayor and his underlings can’t get their grubby little paws on it. Not now, not ever.”

Miss Moon shook her head, bemused. “But, Faolan, where will you go?”

I grinned at her. “I’ll travel with them. You’ll take care of Pops’s land until we decide to give it back to the Rovers. You’ll need to build a bunkhouse for the children, but it’s a nice piece of land. Enough there for you to raise the whole lot, Miss Moon.”

She turned soft eyes on me. “You’re a good soul, Mr.Kelly.”

“I reckon it should be Miss Kelly, now that the danger has passed,” I said thoughtfully. “Or Faolan. Unless I’m in trouble?”

“As you like, then, Miss Kelly. Faolan.” She shook her head, her eyes full of tears. “Then I’d better be Esther, don’t you think?” She wrapped me in a fierce hug. She smelled like lavender. “Oh, bless you, Faolan Kelly.”

“And I figured,” I said slyly as I stepped back, “you’ll need help keeping the riffraff out. I don’t trust that mayor any further than I could throw him.” I handed them a bag of the treasures we’d gleaned from Dillard’s hoard. “In that case, I suspect you’ll need a gunslinger with you.”

I rocked back on my heels. “Turns out, I know a pretty good one.”

She looked at Will, a question in her eyes. “I’m not sure he’ll want to stay put, Faolan,” she said gently.

Will doffed his hat, holding it in front of him. “I think I’d like to stay a spell if you’d have me. I’d like to rest my feet by the same fire every night.”

“You sure?” she asked.

He put his hat back on firmly. “Never more sure of anything in my entire life.”

After a few days of rest, I borrowed a horse from the Rovers and rode alongside Tallis, Jesse, and Dai Lo. They’d be staying with us most of the time. The Rovers appreciated Jesse’s drawing skills, and Dai Lo had managed to get Anna to agree to apprentice her. She was going to get to be a healer, just like she wanted.

We’d all visit Pops’s farm to check up on everyone now and again, but otherwise we’d go with the Rovers for the foreseeable future. I reckoned I’d cobbled together this family, and I wasn’t about to lose track of any of them.

We made quite a spectacle, riding back into New Retienne. We were a slow parade of children down the main street, a few carts, and a handful of Rovers along the edges. A few of the matrons came out, some with a hand placed over their throats or mouths, but all had wide eyes. It wasn’t too long until the mayor himself was in the streets. His face turned red, and his eyes bugged at the sight of us.

“What is the meaning of this?” Mr.Clarke spluttered.

I leaned down in my saddle with a feline grin. “It’s a fine day, isn’t it, Mr.Clarke? Yes, very fine. I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to know I found Pops’s deed.” Technically, I had found it in Dillard’s trunk.

His face lit up. “Did you, now?”

“I did,” I said, pulling out Pops’s watch. “Can you believe it was in his pocket watch this whole time?” I shook my head slowly. “I would lose my own head if it weren’t nailed on.”

He puffed out his chest, about to jump into one of his endless speeches, but I plowed ahead like I hadn’t noticed. “You were right. It was too much for my young mind.”

“It was?” He straightened. “It was, yes. I’m glad you saw reason—”

“So I gave it back to the Rovers,” I said easily. “It was their land, really.” I waved at Esther and Will. “These two will be managing it, of course. New Retienne needs some new blood, I reckon, so here’s a whole gaggle of it.”

The mayor was speechless. It was a good look on him.

I sat high in my saddle. “Yes, sir, I think you’ll agree it’s a perfect solution.” I looked at Tallis. “Ain’t that right, Tallis?”

“That’s right, Faolan.” Now it was his turn to lean down in the saddle, his face set into menacing lines. “Naturally, we’ll be here regular, my Rover clan. All of us. Just to make sure, you understand? That the children are doing okay. We take care of our children, we do.”

The mayor spluttered again, making little sense, but sounding in the affirmative. We’d already stopped listening.

“You ready to see Pops’s farm?”

Tallis clucked at Neev. “I can think of nothing I’d like more.”

“Excellent.” I tipped my hat at the folks of New Retienne. “You have a good day, now, you hear?” Then I clucked at my own horse, pulling up to Tallis’s side. I left New Retienne behind me, as it always would be from now until forever, and rode into the future.

Not alone.

Never alone ever again.

I’d put down my roots, and no one, no one , would rip them out this time.