Wayfarer's Keep (The Broken Lands, #3)

by T.A. White

This was a man who knew that he was sending the woman he loved into danger to protect the rest of his people. He wasn’t happy about it, but a conqueror used every resource at their disposal. He could do no less. “Do whatever you have to, but make sure you’re alive at the end of it,” he said, his voice raw.

After all, that’s what it meant to be a pathfinder. You stood and faced the dark when others ran. She may have lost her way and broken ranks with her people, but the oath she’d taken still meant something. It still held true. She’d do what she could to protect her people—pathfinders and Trateri.

The only way to get to the top of a mountain was to take one step at a time. If you thought about the journey ahead of you while still standing at its base, you’d be defeated mentally long before you got anywhere near the summit.