Inherent Cost

A train wreck outside Hojer injures Jere and Wren, destroying their anniversary bliss, and thrusting them back into the dangers of their home, where slaves like Wren are treated as animals. While Jere struggles for consciousness, Wren is seized with the other slaves. When Jere comes to the rescue he is furious to find Wren kenneled, neglected, and abused.For the last two years, Jere has been using his status as a healer to protect Wren and his second slave, Isis. Wren's controversial fire talent is getting harder and harder to hide, Isis is desperate to escape to her family in a free state, and Jere's compassion is making enemies of powerful slave owners. Meanwhile, upcoming elections are stirring political unrest. Jere supports a reformation that could improve the lives of Arona's slaves by treating them in human clinics like Jere's, instead of sending them to animal healers. But the slavers are only motivated by the threat of an untreatable infectious disease spreading...