The tunnel spat them out into cold night air, a jagged tear in the mountainside.
Lyra stumbled to her knees, coughing up dust, her storm sparking uncontrollably around her. The sky was a torn quilt of clouds, the moon bleeding pale light across the jagged cliffs. Behind them, the mountain groaned like a dying beast, the ground trembling with the weight of everything they had left buried inside.
Darius’s screams still echoed in her head.
Her stomach twisted violently. She clawed at the earth with shaking hands, nails splitting against the stone. “We can’t leave him there,” she rasped. “He’s still alive—I felt it—”
Kael crouched beside her, chest rising and falling like a drum of war. His golden eyes glowed with torment, but his hands gripped her shoulders firmly. “Lyra. Listen to me. If
