POV: Lyra

I was sitting in the garden when Becca found me.

The morning sun was warm on my face and the air smelled of wildflowers and fresh earth. I had come here to think. To breathe. To be alone with the power that still hummed beneath my skin like a second heartbeat.

But I heard her footsteps on the stone path before I saw her.

She was running.

Her hair was loose and wild around her face and her chest was heaving and there were tears streaming down her cheeks. She stopped a few feet away and stood there shaking with her hands clenched at her sides.

I stood...