Chapter 5 5

Two dryads near the window were deep in cake and conversation, skin a vivid green, laughing about something private. The rest of the café was empty.

I moved straight to the back room.

No shimmer. No dramatic light. Just a doorway that dropped you into whichever realm you weren't currently standing in. The Other realm's idea of subtlety.

Raven began settling in my mind, stretching, circling.

Rest, she said. Morning comes fast.

You too.

She pressed something warm against the inside of my thoughts, affectionate, unhurried. My personal assassin with a soft side. I'd been meaning to work on her attitude toward casual violence. Aristotle might help. Probably wouldn't.

Then I walked through.

She was gone.

Not faded. Not quiet. Gone  cut away like a cord snapping under pressure. My chest seized. Eyes burned. I stood in the back room breathing through it, refusing to let anyone see the gap she left behind. Every single time felt like the first time.

I stepped out into the Common realm.

The dryads were still laughing but their skin was pale now, ordinary pink, dark hair falling loose around their faces. The elementals at the corner table looked like three regular men having a drink after work. No flames. No markers. Nothing visible.

But they were still what they were. Still capable of reducing me to ash from across the room. My eyes kept searching for the fire out of habit and finding only hair. The Other realm hides itself in ways I was still learning to trace.

Reynolds came through behind me.

No wolves. No shift. Just two people, faster and harder than average but fundamentally exposed.

We went upstairs to Blake's flat. Heavy doors, thick bolts, walls that meant business. With each lock that closed behind us, something in my chest loosened.

The council was coming.

My pack was fracturing.

But tonight I had four walls, a full recharge, and eight hours to think.

That would have to be enough.