Shattered Paths, A Friend's Return

My lungs burned as I pressed my back against the moldy wall of the abandoned building, straining to hear the men outside. They were talking about me—or rather, about the bodies I'd left behind.

"Three dead, including that Seraphina woman," one of them said. "Throat ripped out. Vicious work."

I swallowed hard, the metallic taste of blood still lingering in my mouth. I hadn't meant to kill her, but when she'd come at me with that knife while I was trying to escape... my wolf had taken over.

"It doesn't matter now," the second man replied, his voice heavy with resignation. "The realms are sealed. We're cut off from the others."

My heart stopped. Cut off? I slid down the wall until I hit the floor, my bloody hospital scrubs catching on the rough concrete. Was that why I couldn't feel my bonds anymore? Why that comforting presence in my mind had gone silent?