CHAPTER SEVEN:
The lock on unit 214 wasn't the kind you bought at a hardware store.
Lyra stood in front of it for a full minute before she touched it, some old instinct telling her that whatever was on the other side of that door had already changed her life once — through her father's hands, through his silence, through a name he'd written down without asking her permission — and it was about to do it again.
She'd told Rosa she needed air. She'd told the driver she wanted the address on the matchbook without explaining why. Nobody had stopped her, which unsettled her more than if they had. Either no one thought she was worth watching that closely yet, or someone already knew exactly where she was going and had decided to let her go.
The key was in her father's coat lining too, taped f
