The pool swallows us whole.
Not water. Not air. Not even light. Something else. Something that presses against my skin and sinks straight through it, wrapping around bone and thought and breath. My stomach does not drop. My body does not fall. There is no direction in this place. No up or down. No gravity.
Only pressure.
It feels like hands pushing us apart and pulling us together at the same time. Like the pool is trying to tear the bond loose from between our ribs and fuse it deeper into our souls all at once.
I scream.
The sound does not echo. It disappears as soon as it leaves my throat, swallowed like everything else.
My wolf howls inside me. A raw, agonized sound that shakes every part of my body. She is terrified. Furious. Confused. She claws at the inside of my skin as though
