Page 71 of Fang & Fury

Her loyalty had never truly been to Ailsa.

And yet, there had been no mistaking the sadness on her face. Perhaps, as with the lover she’d slain, she had regrets.

Ailsa glanced over her shoulder then, to Kayla.

The bruises that had mottled her face after the fight had faded. She held herself straighter. Prouder. Kayla’s time in this place had revived her, and she strode onward with an impatient step.

Warmth suffused Ailsa’s chest.

For years, she’d wondered about her real mother. But the truth was a mother didn’t have to be the woman who birthed you. She could be the one who sat beside your sickbed, who soothed your nightmares. Kayla had taught her how to wield a tattooing needle, had fed, protected, and loved a half-blood child.

Swallowing, Ailsa swung her gaze forward once more.

Kayla needed to know how important she was.

She glanced across at where Darach still strode at her side.

Reaching out, she took his hand, threading her fingers through his. He cut her a look, and a smile that made her breathing quicken.

She’d always known the man had guts, but he was even braver than she thought. He’d risked his life by that burn, but he’d believed in her.

In the end, the strength had been all hers, and yet he’d given her something to hold onto.

His love.

Ailsa squeezed his hand. Gods, she loved him too. How could she not?

The tunnel lifted then, and they ducked under a low doorway to emerge outdoors once more. The faint blush of dawn glowed through the trees to the east.

Ailsa turned to the bavaan. “How long were we inside?”

The taller of the two arched an eyebrow. “Just one night.”

Kayla heaved a sigh. “Thank The Five … it felt much longer.”

“It always does in faerie mounds,” Fern replied

Ailsa glanced around, realizing this wasn’t the pinewood she’d left a short while earlier. Instead, they stood at the base of a scrubby hill surrounded by frosted birches. “Where are we?”

No one answered. Moments later, the bavaan turned then and silently left. The sun was rising; they couldn’t stay outdoors.

Wordlessly, the four of them made their way up the hill, navigating scrubby ground to the brow of it, where the birches, their limbs still naked of leaves, arched up to the pale sky.

They stopped at the summit and looked around to get their bearings.

Fern murmured an oath under her breath. “I don’t believe it.”

Ailsa cut her a look. “What?”

“The Goatfells are leagues behind us now … that path has taken us far out of The Uplands.”

Ailsa raised her face to the sky, marking the blue shadowed outline of mountains to the north. She was right.

“We’re in The Borderlands … already?” Kayla’s voice was incredulous. “But how can that be? That tunnel was barely more than a couple of furlongs long.”

Fern’s lips quirked. “Time and distance shift when you enter the faerie realm … although I think the bavaan have helped us out.”

Ailsa’s breathing caught. She then glanced over at Kayla, and the pair of them exchanged a long look.