The Unseen Bond Strengthens

The tent was a crumpled mess in my hands as I struggled to make sense of the instructions. Metal poles jutted out at odd angles, the canvas drooped sadly, and my patience was wearing dangerously thin.

"For fuck's sake," I muttered, dropping the whole thing in frustration. The cold ground was still damp from yesterday's rain, and my jeans were already muddy from kneeling.

I glanced over at Jaxon, who was finally eating the last of his sandwich about twenty feet away. At least I'd convinced him to rest, though I knew he'd be back at the void opening soon enough. The stubborn bastard wouldn't let anyone else take over for long, not when it was our only reliable connection point to the human realm.

To Hazel.

My chest ached at the thought of her. Three days felt like an eternity. Three days of feeling nothing but the faintest echo of her heartbeat through our bond, like trying to hear a whisper through a hurricane.

"Having trouble with modern technology, Warner?"