LYRA

The walk back to my chamber felt like moving through water. Everything was muffled and distant and wrong. Elda and Maren flanked me on either side, their soft chatter washing over me without me understanding anything. I heard their voices but couldn't make sense of the words.

Prince Riven.

He was Prince Riven.

The stranger from the war, the man who had whispered promises under starlight and left me broken, was royalty. He had always been royalty. When he touched me, when he called me ...