Among the Beasts & Briars

by Ashley Poston

IT IS SAID that the first king of Aloriya was born with fire in his blood.

THE WILDWOOD CAME for us the day the king died.

I was the royal gardener’s daughter. There was nowhere else I was supposed to be.

King Sunder, who razed a path through the wood and returned with the crown.

It was just another day at the edge of the Wildwood.

I was walking a dangerous tightrope where I knew no one would catch me when I fell.

If I’d learned anything in the wood, it was that there was always a choice, but sometimes the right one wasn’t the easy one.