MILLICENT
The pain from shifting didn't build up at all, it just happened. Like it exploded. Every crack in every bone felt like glass snapping inside me, sharp shards of agony slicing through muscle and nerve.
I thought I’d collapse, drown in the roaring cavern of my chest but then Zayne’s voice was suddenly there, deep and solid, telling me to breathe, that it would pass, that he was here.
His voice was a lifeline, soft and steady, and against every protest in my body I clung to it like warmth.
I tasted copper on my tongue, smelled burned pine from the campfire just beyond the clearing, but all I could focus on was the sweet danger of breaking apart and somehow still staying together.
After what felt like a eternity of suffering, the bone-cracking slowed, replaced by a tremble in
