Astrid came back to Bloodfang territory on a Friday with a letter in her pack and mud on her boots and the expression of someone who had spent three days in a place that was hers and had needed that time to become certain of it.

She found Marina at the boundary stones.

Not because she had come looking for her specifically. Marina was simply at the boundary stones most mornings, and Astrid had learned that the boundary stones were where Marina was when she needed to think, and thinking was apparently what Astrid needed to do in company.

She sat down beside Marina on the ground and took the...