The half-collapsed bridge was only a pause, not safety.
Sera moved us again before the blood on Lina's forearm had time to slow. We crossed in single file, boots slipping on wet stone, and dropped into the narrower streets on the far side. The capital opened around us in broken pieces, entire blocks burning, others already reduced to blackened skeletons, the rest filled with the low continuous roar of pack fighting pack under no remaining rules.
The permanent bond made the city worse.
Shared senses were no longer intermittent. They were constant. I saw every street from two angles at once, my own eye line and Darius's lower, blood-loss height. I felt the exact slap of his boots, the pull of the torn muscles in his side, the growing cold in his fingers as clearly as I felt my own. Filter
