The shard was still in Lyra's shoulder.
Elias found her in the ship's small infirmary, sitting on a cot while Ava probed the wound with a pair of tweezers. The silver crystal had shattered when he'd broken it, and a piece—no bigger than a grain of rice—had lodged itself in her flesh. It pulsed with a faint light, like a living thing. Lyra's face was white, but she didn't make a sound.
"Hold still," Ava murmured. "It's deep."
Elias stepped closer. "Let me see."
Ava glanced at him but didn't stop. "It's not just in the skin. It's... moving. Like it's trying to get deeper."
He looked at the shard. The light inside it matched the light he'd seen in the crystal key, silver and cold. The door inside his chest, now closed but scarred, pulsed in response. He felt the shard's pull—a hunger, fa
