LYRA

The executions happened at dawn three days after Kael was stabbed, carried out in the main courtyard with most of the castle watching from windows and balconies. I stood with Mira and refused to look away even though every part of me wanted to, Vargos and Marcus went to their deaths with very different expressions, one defiant and the other resigned, but both ended the same way with heads separated from bodies and blood staining the stones.

Selene's execution was scheduled to follow but ...