Lyra’s POV
I woke with a shudder, the cold stone floor seeping into my bones.
My head felt thick and heavy, and my mouth was parched. How many days had it been? I didn’t know anymore.
The walls of this dungeon seemed to close in tighter each day, their grim silence stretching with each ragged breath I took.
Hunger gnawed at me constantly now. I wanted to stay strong, but my body was crying out for something, anything, to keep me going.
I eyed the metal tray Zara had thrown at me earlier, with its sad, stale hunk of bread and thin gruel.
My stomach churned at the thought, but there was no other choice.
I ate slowly, trying not to think about the taste, focusing instead on the smallest kernel of hope that glimmered somewhere deep inside me: Tera, my wolf, had whispered to me in t
