If you like music while you're reading, try "I Want You Here" by Plumb (weepy-warning!) It's what I listened to while writing this chapter.
*****
ELRETH
Without thought, Elreth turned her back on the still babbling healers and guards and ran out of the market. The moment her feet hit the trails, she shifted, tearing towards the royal meadow first, but finding it empty and no scent of Aaryn, turning on still-running feet, she ran for the portal.
Her beast kept her from being too close to her own mind.
She turned every corner ears perked and nostrils flared for any sound or scent of Aaryn. Her heart sank with every pace closer she got to the portal clearing without fresh scent of him. Not even from the night before because he'd been flown.
That was, until she entered the clearing and suddenly his smell came alive—but it was cold.
