Shattered Bonds: The Ruthless Heiress Returns

was stale and smelled o

eer, vibrating reality of it all. She was here. In her house. The house she had lost in her

rk rooms. Her bare feet were silent on the hardwood floors. She

life. The "storm of the century." The flash floods that had turned downtown Sterling City into a murky canal. This

er read and filled with furniture that was more for show than comfort. But in the ba

nvarnished

t her ribs. In her last life, her cousin Cletus had cleaned out this house after she'd been force

red through her. He had thrown away

aking so badly she almost dropped it. She took a deep breath

zzle. The wood was a rich, dark walnut, each piece cut with an almost organic, flowing lin

"old country." He said it could only be completed by someone with Sharp blood an

e knew

the desk. A chaotic pile of

es she'd overheard in the refugee camps of her past life. Stories of "pocket dimensions," of safe havens that existed outside of r

gan to

The hospital. The Tuckers. The coming

attern, but her hands did. It was a deep, instinctual knowledge, a memory encoded in her

sun set, but she didn't notice. Her entire

ft. A small, oddly shaped piece that

in her palm.

vement, she pushed it int

ked int

to glow from the seams of the puzzle. The light grew brighter, spil

er seemed to warp and shimmer, the bookshelves stretchi

, the desk was gone.

damp earth and something else... something like blooming flowers after a spring rain. Above her

ss, echoed not in her ears

has been bound to

mething from a video game, m

ary - L

Arlen

the overgrown land and con

t / De

itation, her mind form

nel va

surrounded by a thick, impenetrable wall of mist. In the center of the clearing was a smal

water was so clear she could see the smooth pebbles

The legendary source of healin

defined her, was a physical ache. The urgency of the coming crisis was a w

asant, its feathers iridescent in the strange light, was pecking

nto existence. [Task completion w

to hide things. A place where no one cou

d dipped them into the cool, clear water. S

spread from her stomach, flowing through her veins, chasing awa

lection in the water's sur

slow, cold cur

about t