Lyra's POV
I woke with the words still echoing in my head, sticking to me the way smoke stays on someone's cloth long after the fire has gone out.
“Do not fear me”
I told myself it was nothing, the wind blew through the trees or my own exhausted thoughts were playing tricks on me in the dark but no matter how many times I repeated that to myself, the words refused to fade, they sat in my chest like a stone I couldn't set down, heavier with every hour that passed.
I sat up slowly and rubbed my eyes and that was when I noticed it again, somewhere across the village near the training grounds, I could hear the unmistakable clash of wooden swords and the grunts of warriors sparring through the distance should have swallowed every sound before it reached me, I knew without seeing a single
