LYRA POINT OF VIEW.

The ride back to Moonfang was quiet, but my mind was anything.

The forest passed in a blur of dark trunks and silver leaves, my guards keeping a careful distance behind me. No one spoke, my thoughts were loud enough to fill the silence on their own.

I saw it now, clearly but painfully.

Thorne does not look at me the way he looks at Aria.

It was never subtle. I had simply refused to name it.

I saw it in the way his jaw tightened whenever her name slipped into a ...