(Isla)
We crossed the border and kept going.
That was the first thing my mind didn't understand properly. My body understood it before my mind did. The horse moved forward under us, Caius's hand still over mine for a moment and then easing back to the reins, and the pillars of Ashcrest passed on either side and didn't stop me. No one called out. No one ordered me down. No one sent me to the back entrance or turned me toward the outer path or told me I didn't belong on the main road.
I was going through the gate the other way for the first time.
I'd gone out through Ashcrest's border before, but never like this. Never seated in front of Caius, never carried openly, never with his wolves behind us and his authority spread through the road ahead like something visible. The few times I'd b
