The silence in the wake of her own power was the most terrifying sound Lyra had ever heard.
It was broken by the soft scuff of Kael’s boot as he took a half-step back. He didn’t mean to; it was pure instinct. His gaze was locked on her hand, the one that had just flashed with a light that shouldn’t belong to her. His usual blunt pragmatism was gone, replaced by a wary confusion that made her feel like a stranger. An other.
Ren was closer, his stillness more intense than any movement. The shock in his eyes had been fleeting, replaced by a deep, unsettling scrutiny. He was looking at her not as Lyra, but as a puzzle, a relic, a key he had misplaced long ago. “It just came out,” she had said. The words sounded feeble, pathetic, even to her.
“You don’t know,” Ren repeated, his voice low. It
