LYRA

I shouldn't have gone, every rational part of my brain screamed that meeting Riven alone in an abandoned chapel at midnight was a terrible idea that would only make everything worse. But desperation made people stupid and I was desperate enough to grasp at any possibility that looked like salvation even if it was probably just another trap waiting to spring closed around me.

The old chapel was in the east wing where contestants were now forbidden to go, the hallways leading to it were ...