Thoren
The door didn’t splinter so much as it gave way.
The impact drove through it clean, the reinforced wood cracking under the force of two bodies hitting it at once. Hinges tore loose, the frame buckled, and the entire structure collapsed inward in a single violent motion that echoed through the house like a gunshot. The sound didn’t fade. It carried—through the halls, through the floors, through every corner of the building that had been too quiet for too long.
I was already moving before the debris finished settling.
The guard posted just beyond the threshold shifted the moment we broke through, his body expanding mid-lunge, bones stretching, jaws snapping forward as instinct overrode everything else. He was fast. Faster than most.
Not fast enough.
I caught him at the throat be
