Lyra’s POV
The forest felt vast and indifferent, its stillness a silent reminder of the isolation pressing in around me.
Every instinct screamed to find shelter, to find warmth, but I couldn’t. Not now. Not when my body was overcome by wave after wave of pain so intense it left me breathless, gripping the cold, unforgiving earth beneath me.
Each inhale burned, my lungs pulling in frigid air that seemed to leach warmth from my very bones. The baby within me shifted as though sensing my distress. My pulse was a relentless drum, filling my ears as I struggled to keep focus, clinging to the one thing I refused to let go of—hope.
You’re going to survive, I promised my child.
We both are. I’m not letting us die here.
Pain broke through, intense and blinding, and my fists dug deeper into t
