Where the Blade Bites by J.O. Ellis. With personalization upon request.
 
To save the lives of those I love, I must surrender my own.
 
When an Elite blackmailer threatens to expose Alise and Articus’s crimes, the two lovers flee certain death—not only for themselves but for those implicated. They gain passage—under the guise of academic research—on an airship departing for a trade route into the mysterious Third Realm. Alise grieves the life she must leave behind, but the only way to protect her loved ones is to disappear without a trace.
 
But the Third Realm is not the peaceful escape from persecution they’d hoped for. The native population violently retaliates against Colony foreigners in their lands, and sightings of strange hybridized creatures at the edge of the forest keep the residents fearful of venturing beyond the border of their quaint port town.
 
Tensions snap, resulting in a devastating ambush of bloodshed, and Alise and Articus are ripped apart, leaving Alise to rely upon her own strength and skills. Is she capable enough to rescue the one she loves with nothing more than a gifted dagger and a blood trail to guide her? Or will the remaining piece of her heart be out of reach forever?
 
Where the Blade Bites, book two in the How the Fox Runs series, continues Alise’s tale in a treacherous new realm with mad, man-eating beasts, a fierce clan of warrior women, and an unwavering lineage of royal goddesses, where the true monsters are far worse than the creatures that lurk in the shadows of the forest and sanctuary is found in the most unexpected of places.