“Choose, Lyra. Save him… or let him burn.”
Selene’s words echoed like thunder in the hollow of Lyra’s chest.
Kael writhed on the ground, silver chains cutting into his skin, his golden eyes—usually so unshakable—now wide with agony. Yet even as blood trickled down his mouth, he forced a smile for her. A broken, defiant smile that cracked Lyra’s soul.
“Don’t—” he gasped, his voice hoarse. “Don’t give her what she wants. Not for me.”
Her heart split in two. Every instinct screamed to run to him, to shield him, to tear the chains away with her bare hands. But Lucien’s shadows wrapped tighter around her waist, holding her back like iron bands.
“You’ll die if you rush in like that,” Lucien snarled, his voice rough with fury he tried to disguise as reason. “She’s baiting you, Lyra.”
“I don
