In the muddy mortal borderlands, survival means keeping your head down and never crossing the fae. Rachel Gomez learned early that panic wastes useful hands, but even her iron-forged calm is tested when a desperate trader collapses at the boundary stones. He has broken a deadly fae bargain-looking inside a forbidden blue ribbon because 'it sang'-and is now freezing to death from the inside out. While the terrified villagers scatter and wise elders warn her to step away, Rachel refuses to abandon the dying man. She braves the pale moss of the fae road to offer him warmth, ignoring the dangerous reality that touching a breaking bargain might make her memorable to the creatures beyond the silver trees of Elarion. But as Rachel tends to the cursed merchant, the ancient basalt boundary stone begins to hum. A vow has snapped, and the toll is due.