Ryan

I strode away from the dank cell. The guard's desperate pleas fading behind me as I ascended the stairs. Still, his words lingered in my mind.

"I'll let you go after midnight," I had promised him. But even as I spoke, a flicker of disgust curled in my gut. Disgust at the way he had tried to bargain with Lyra's secrets as if they were his to trade.

Yes. He'd 'go' all right. I'd release him into the forest and there, he would find his ending.

And what he ...