A continuation of last year’s Lie, Lie, Truth.

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It is a widely known fact that Silvertongue Benny is a betting man. It is an equally widely known fact that Lord Silverline is a reliable partner in all sorts of mildly questionable business ventures.

It is not a widely known that Benny and Lord Silverline are one and the same.

Right now though, all he is is Joel – a husband and a father, a man who’s gambled too close to the sun and run out of aces in his sleeve.

Thomas is fine, he keeps telling himself. Joel had managed to get him out, if nothing else. That had to count for something.

“That was quite clever, my dear Lord Silverline. Sending your whore to fish for information? Should have been more careful to cover your tracks, I suppose.” Stapleton stands, a rapier aimed at a terrified Mari. “You also shouldn’t have thought you could cheat me.”

Joel is usually a quick thinker, even with two knives at his throat. He’s not called Silvertongue for nothing – but right now, instead of his plan, his head is filled with rage and Mari’s terrified face.

Stapleton fishes the locket hanging on her neck out of her cleavage, turns it over, ignoring her struggle against the man holding her. “In dreams and love, nothing is impossible,” Stapleton reads out loud. “How sweet. I have no idea how you two ever got away with it.”

They’d figured a ring would be too conspicuous for Mari, but the same engraving adorned Joel’s wedding band, now stuffed safely into an envelope and on its way to Joel’s brother.

Stapleton grips Mari’s chin with two fingers and she flinches away. She’s breathing irregularly, clearly choking back tears. So brave, when she shouldn’t be, when it’s all Joel’s fault.

“A shame,” Stapleton says. “Lady Doe was truly the pearl of the Lucky Star. But I guess I wasn’t the only one you cheated that way, hmm? Will be hard to do that without your pretty face to dupe the Johns.”

The daggers scrape against Joel’s throat as he strains against the hands keeping him kneeling in place. Stapleton raises his rapier, Mari screams, and Joel feels the beast raise its head, control slipping to let out the fangs and the auburn fur.

The men don’t expect the strength of his jaws, don’t expect the smooth skin of his neck to suddenly turn into coarse hair. He feels the flesh of the shoulder of one of them give out, and the other stumbles back, shocked at the transformation. Joel spits out, the sweet taste of blood bitter with sweat and wool of the man’s jacket.

His bones twist, and his spine aches where the tail regrows itself. Free, he can focus his gaze on the Stapleton man with a singular thought.

Suffer.

Stapleton bows in half, pain – imagined, unreal – rendering him useless.

Joel had never wanted Mari to see him like that.

There are more men coming, the whole small army Stapleton had brought with himself probably too much for Joel to handle, but he doesn’t care.

Mari. Mari has to get away.

She’s sniffling, clutching at her face and, to Joel’s relief, probably not seeing much from the blood and tears clouding her eyes.

“My love,” he pulls her in, careful not to grab bare skin lest she knows it’s paws and not hands touching her. “My heart, you need to run. Make sure Thomas is safe.”

She clutches at his jacket, “But you?..”

He hopes he’s not lying when he says, “I’ll be right behind you.” It’s a gamble, the last one, and if he wins, he promises himself to tell Mari everything and maybe even retire their little family to his brother’s boring farm.

Mari runs, stumbling blindly as Stapleton’s people surround Joel.

He knows he’s lost when the warehouse is set ablaze and he isn’t sure what will kill him first, the smoke or the stab wounds. He knows he’s made mistakes and he knows that regret will cling to his soul until the end of time itself.

In dreams and love, nothing is impossible.

Oh, what a wonderful dream it had been.