Page 120 of A Scar in the Bone

And yet I knew the world was an unfair and dangerous place, more dangerous than I ever realized, even as someone who was once forced to take the punishments of others.

Sometimes, though, the only way to survive was to bare your fangs.

As snow flurries began to fall faster, we huddled in our cloaks and furs and pushed on, determined to reach the Borg even if it meant traveling through the night.

“Are you all right?” Fell asked beside me.

Smiling, I nodded, then assessed his shoulder. All evidence of purple blood had been removed. He would need to learn to control his blood. That would be one of the first lessons I taught him, along with all the other things I had learned from my time in the pride. “What about you?”

“Oh, this.” He gave his shoulder a dismissive glance. “It’s nothing.”

I rolled my eyes and urged my mount on.

We rode into the night until we crested the final mountain and looked down, the Borg finally in view. Hundreds of lights dotted the darkness, illuminating the chaotic network of cottages and buildings nestled among the dips of hills and valleys marking the end—or beginning—of the Crags.

I could see there was no fog, no blanket of protection. It had vanished with Fell all those months ago. I sent him a glance. He would bring it back. Among other things. Prosperity. The future he had been working to build for his people.

We sat atop our mounts, side by side, overlooking the place where we would make our home, where we would build a place for all things, magical and not.

We stayed like that for a long moment as the others continued their descent around us, quickening their pace, so close to their destination.

I stretched out my arm between us. Fell took my hand, his bigger one engulfing mine. Even through our gloves, our palms reacted, surging through the fabric to reach each other.

“Are you ready?” The wintry frost of his gaze warmed me. “I haven’t forgotten I promised you a bed.” His deep voice reached me on a sudden curl of fresh fog, and I smiled.

The world was a vast place, full of dangerous things, some human, some magic. We would plant roots here … with our lives stretching long and winding before us, a tether that could be cut short at any time in this life full of sharp and snapping teeth.

For now, though, we were here … together, forming our own pride.

I nudged my mount ahead. “I’ll race you there.”

EPILOGUE

One year later …

THEBORG

The Lord and Lady of the Borderlands slept, lost to dreams, curled in each other’s arms, their bodies gilded from the light of the crackling fire. Their limbs still hummed, spent from lovemaking and their clandestine flight hours earlier, the soles of their feet streaked with dirt from their naked, exhilarated dash through the woods.

It was a run they made often, through a wood they knew well, outside the gates of the Borg, directly beneath the watchful eyes of the Crags.

It was a run that ended as it usually did with a tearing, breathless, euphoric flight through wind and night sky, the clouds’ caress on their skin second only to the caresses they bestowed on each other.

THECRAGS

The alpha sat alone in his chair, staring into the crackling flames of his hearth, his features as hard and unrelenting as the rock walls surrounding him. His hands flexed on the arms of the chair, talons pushing, threatening to break free as longing filled him for firegold eyes.

THECITY

The lord regent stood in his chamber, staring out his window at the bright lights of the City. A red-haired girl that reminded him of another wept on the floor behind him. Finished with her, he ignored her, facing north, looking beyond the City into the distant horizon, thinking of his dead son … and what must be done to make his world right again.

VETURLAND

A king stood, late in the night, poring over his map, plotting by candlelight, his finger drawing an invisible line, dragging it down, south through the Crags, through the Borg, through the Borderlands—directly into the heart of Penterra.

THEBORDERLANDS

A witch ran into the woods, tears blinding her as she left her village behind. She ran and ran until her body gave out and she collapsed, falling into a shuddering heap upon the ground, where she lifted her face to the magic-soaked night.

And cast her spell.