Lyra didn’t think leaving the palace would feel so emotional. When she stood in the courtyard with her travel bag hanging from one shoulder, the stone behind her looked the same, the banners still silver, the guards still standing tall, the sky still cold. But inside her, everything felt different. It felt like stepping out of a life she had been surviving and into a life she might actually live. The necklace around her throat, the suppressing one Kieran gave her, hummed faintly against her ...