The silence between them stretched like thread fragile, glinting, ready to snap.
Lyra sat beside Kade, her fingers brushing the moss, her mark pulsing softly beneath her collarbone. He hadn’t spoken again. He didn’t need to. His presence was steady, grounding. But her thoughts were anything but.
She turned to him. “I need to know who I am.”
Kade nodded, eyes still on the trees. “Then go where the forest leads.”
Lyra stood slowly.
The wind shifted.
Her mark flared.
And the world tilted.
She didn’t fall this time.
She descended as if the forest itself lowered her into memory.
The ground beneath her shimmered, and suddenly she was standing in a chamber carved from silver and shadow. The air was thick with longing. The walls pulsed with sigils that felt familiar, though she’d never s
