Lyra’s POV

Warmth.

That was the first thing I felt when I opened my eyes. Not the cold, damp sting of stone walls or the suffocating darkness I had grown used to over the last few days. Soft sheets wrapped around me, sunlight pressing faintly through drawn curtains reflecting on my face and the distant sound of voices I couldn’t place.

For a moment, panic clawed at me. My chest tightened as flashes of the hidden room burned through my mind. The silence, the loneliness, the hunger. My hands trembled, instinctively reaching for the walls that were no longer there.

“Easy.”

His voice. Low, steady, familiar.

I turned my head...