Jonah's POV

I stand frozen, watching Sienna guide Lyra through the wide entrance of the auditorium. Lyra's tiny hand remains tightly clasped in hers until they vanish from sight. An unbearable emptiness wells up inside me, as though someone reached into my chest and stole my heart, leaving only a hollow, aching void behind.

And yet, somehow, for the first time in four long years, something stirs within that empty space—delicate and precarious, but unmistakably ...