Two days later.
Sienna sat at the old desk in the map shop, her grandfather's parchment in front of her portraying the ancient city of Bath. The oversize globe sat next to her, in pride of place at her right hand, a reminder of how borders had shifted over time. The door to the shop was open, and the smell of freshly roasted coffee came from the café over the road. A light breeze whispered across the maps with a rustle.
The sounds and smells of normality.
Sienna breathed a sigh of relief. Her father recovered in the Ministry hospital, his back healing from his physical wounds even as he drifted in and out of consciousness, muttering of nightmares. On Bridget's urging, Sienna hadn't told her mother about what had happened or about John being back. That was one conversation she would tackle when her father was ready. If he ever was.
Perry was back in the chambers of the Ministry, practicing his fire magic with newfound confidence, driving flames into his targets again and again. Sienna knew he saw Xander's face there alongside his father's and she had no doubt that Perry would want to be on the next mission into the Borderlands. Mila had taken her canal boat east, escaping onto the water, Zippy by her side as she recovered in her own way.
Sienna had no way of knowing what had happened to Finn after the border closed. She could only hope that he had joined the underground Resistance and escaped Old Aleppo, away from the wrath of his father.
She picked up the fountain pen and began to trace over the lines of central Bath with deep red ink, new drops of her blood mingling with her grandfather's. Each stroke of the pen was a line of power, strengthening the border as she traced the arch of the Royal Crescent, the straight line of Brock Street and the curves of The Circus.
For now, the border was closed again, and Finn's world was separate from hers. But Sienna was counting the hours until she could go back into the Borderlands again. She remembered the other blood maps in the castle dungeon, the world remade. The Shadow Cartographers had many more plans, and one setback would not stop them.
Before Bath, Sienna had been drifting through life, unable to see the path ahead. But now she would make her own map and this was only the beginning.