Lyra’s POV

Warmth.

That was the first thing I felt when I opened my eyes. Not the cold, damp sting of stone walls or the suffocating darkness I had grown used to over the last few days. Soft sheets wrapped around me, sunlight pressing faintly through drawn curtains reflecting on my face and the distant sound of voices I couldn’t place.

For a moment, panic clawed at me. My chest tightened as flashes of the hidden room burned through my mind. The silence, the loneliness, the hunger. My ...