I can't, Seraphina thought frantically, trying to send the message back to her wolf. I want to help you, but I can't. This collar won't let me....
Suddenly, the chanting stopped.
The abrupt absence of that terrible, guttural sound was almost as shocking as the pain itself had been. Seraphina lay gasping on the cold floor, her chest heaving as she struggled to draw breath.
Her body still trembled violently, still caught in that agonizing limbo between her two forms.
The mysterious figure's distorted voice cut through the heavy silence like a blade. "Put her back on the chair."
Seraphina heard footsteps approaching her or perhaps something else; she couldn't tell. She tried desperately to focus her vision, but everything remained blurred through her tears and the haze of pain.
