Weekend Briefing: Sneak Peek of Red as Blood

"Rose and I are sisters. Blood. I can only hope that, even now, it will be enough."

Whispering this small assurance to herself, Blanca ducks through the dark, dusty streets of the western town she's pretty sure her sister lives in. It's been so long . . .

Her foot slips on a rock, but she quickly rights herself before pressing against a shadowed wall and glancing around. The roads remained deserted— or so they seemed.

But the hairs on the back of her neck say otherwise.

Biting her lip, Blanca takes off toward the building the airship driver had pointed out to her when she first arrived as the schoolhouse building. The only place a woman could find fitting work in a backwoods town like this. And Rose had made it all too apparent when she left, that only honorable work would do for her.

If only Blanca had followed earlier.

Finally, fighting the urge to lift the skirts she'd traded her breeches to better fit into society, Blanca bursts onto the porch of the schoolhouse and pounds on the door.

A light turns on in the window, and a moment later, the door opens.

“I already told you, Matthew—” The woman on the other side of the door stops when she realizes that her visitor is Blanca rather than the Matthew she presumed. Then she narrows her eyes. “Sister.”

"Sister," Blanca agrees, pushing inside and shutting the door behind her and bolting it. Then, catching her breath, Blanca uses the candle-light to study her sister's face. The face identical to the one she sees in the mirror every day, except for minor differences set off by the one real physical difference between them: their hair.

Rose grunts and sets the candle down, illuminating her pale white nightgown and the revolver in her hand that she was apparently ready to threaten— use against?— whoever this Matthew was, before folding her arms and leaning against the wall. “I suppose you want to stay for a while?”

"Yes." As she speaks, her eyes scan the room. As secure as any wooden cabin with actual glass windows, Blanca supposes. But would it be enough for the night?

Rose doesn't waver as she studies her wayward sister- though the candlelight seems to make her feisty red curls dance around her face. “I suppose you're in some kind of trouble, Blanca?”

Blanca takes a deep breath before smoothing back her own curls— as black as ebony. “That would also be accurate.”

“And you brought it to me?”

Pursing her lips, Blanca just stares at her sister, not wanting to admit that a woman she hasn't seen for over a year is all she has. Not the old gang, not the law— no one but her.

But Rose seems to understand. Sighing, she moves away from the wall and towards a little gas stove that no doubt doubles as heating for the cabin, her skirts rustling with her movement. “And what about Henry? He might be one of them, but he was always fond of you. He would protect you.”

Blanca remains still as she watches her sister coax the stove to life. "You haven't been there for a while. The Huntsman . . . That's what he goes by now . . . He's different. Everything's different. He won't hesitate to shed my blood to save his own neck. And you know Queenie—”

“Is a witch. But Henry?”

Shaking her head at her sister's naivety, Blanca steps toward her.

Just as the window shatters and a cloaked figure jumps in.

Blanca screams and jumps back, trembling hands trying to reach for one of the knives hidden on her person.

But Rose already has her gun out and aimed. Until the hooded figure reaches her too fast and throws her against the wall. Blanca winces at the sound of Rose's hitting the wall.

Choking on her scream as her sister crumples, Blanca's hand grasps around her knife. “Henry, please—”

The Huntsman throws off his hood and approaches her, his eyes as cold as everything has become since Rose deserted the gang. Since everything got stricter.

Since Mr. Mirror revealed himself.

“Henry—” Blanca gasps again, her knife cold in her warm hands. But she'd never win in a fight. Strength and speed and agility were his gifts, not hers.

But Blanca's was manipulation.

As the Huntsman closes the distance between them, Blanca looks up to him with the eyes she knows illuminates an innocence she no longer possessed. “Please. We were like brother and sister. Don't kill me. Don't take me back. Don't—”

He raises his hand, and she flinches.

But he doesn't strike her. He just touches her face gingerly before dropping his hand. "Stay safe, sister." He turns to go to the window before pausing and glancing back. "And remember— you're dead.”

With that, he's gone.

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The inauguration year of Queen Victoria means little in the wild west of the Americas...

Rose Red is a respectable woman now, and her past as a member of Queenie's cattle-wrangling gang is securely behind her. Until the sister she left behind appears at her door, desperate for help. With nowhere else to turn, Rose has to seek shelter from the sheriff... who also happens to be the man she stood up at the altar.

Blood is thicker than water.

When Blanca Red learns that Queenie means to have her killed, she flees for her life from the only family she's ever known. Other than the sister who abandoned her years ago. Now she and her estranged sister have to lay low with the sheriff's brother- and local preacher- who insists that her past isn't too much of an obstacle for her to become a church man's wife.

But as Rose could tell her sister, the past has a way of finding you again. And hers wants her dead.

The Clockwork Faerie Tale Novella series can be read as stand-alones or together, for whenever you want your steampunk happily ever after.

Coming February 14