Lyra’s POV

“I needed to escape, okay?” she said. “That’s why I lied.”

“Then you’re as good as dead,” I said, drawing the silver sword from my scabbard.

She gasped and ran behind Aliyah. “You lied to me, Kaia. You gave me —us—hope that you’d help us get the vengeance we wanted, and all this time…”

She raised the book in her hand. “But I can do it now,” she vowed. “I promise that I can.”

I couldn’t trust her. Not anymore.

“Aliyah was right…she hadn’t trusted you one bit. I had been the fool.”

I heard her scoff. “Aliyah? Her crime’s even worse.”

The look on Aliyah’s face told...