“Let me go—” I snarl, pulling my arm again, desperate to break free from Strannt’s grip, but pain tears through my side like muscle ripping clean from bone.
So I try and reach for my magic. For anything. Come on. Come on, just something. A spark. A flicker.I could take Strannt,I know I could. I have. But my body’s too wrecked. My magic’s gone. And his grip is too fucking strong.
“Don’t bother reaching for your Threads.” A door creaks open to my right. Professor Strannt, Weasel Senior, steps into view, cane in one hand, voice steady, flanked by an officer. “Clearly, we didn’t mute them well enough the first time. But don’t worry, that’s been fixed now.”
Footsteps echo behind him. Another officer appears, dragging Ezzy into the hall—wrists bound, head low. Her cheeks are streaked raw with half-dried tears. She doesn’t fight. Doesn’t even blink. Her eyes find mine only once, and the look I findthere makes something inside me lurch.
“Let her go,” I grind out, twisting hard against Strannt’s hold. “She didn’t do anything.”
Weasel Senior glances lazily at Ezzy, then back at me and the smile that follows curling across his face is all teeth.
“Your friend has been very informative,” he taunts. “Turns out you’re the one Officer Green was slipping his little books to—all that unsanctioned research.” Weasel Senior steps closer. “You really don’t know how to stay out of things, do you?” I open my mouth, but—“No point denying it. She already gave us a Truth String.”
Everything inside me stops. Breath. Thought. Movement.
I glance at Ezzy. She’s already looking at me. And her face, god, her whole face just crumples.
“I’m sorry, Lyra!” She blurts. “I wasn’t thinking. I couldn’t, the dragon, Rowan, they asked and I just... I was following protocol, I didn’t mean?—”
The words barely reach me. Like my body’s here, but my mind’s already left.
How could she?
Weasel Senior’s voice slides back in. “I considered executing you right here,” he sighs, “but that would be far too dull. Instead,I’m sending you to follow in your father’s footsteps. After he did this to my leg all those years ago, I’ve been waiting for payback. Sending you to the dragons, like I did him, felt more fitting,poetic.”
My knees buckle. Only Strannt’s grip keeps me standing.
He’s the one who killed him? My father... He Reassigned him?
And now he’s doing it to me. It all hits at once, jagged and breathless. Ezzy’s still frozen, tears trembling on her lashes.
“You can’t,” I rasp. “You can’t separate me from Talen?—”
Weasel Senior’s grin widens. “Officer Veirmont. Join us, won’t you?”
The door behind him shifts, Talen steps out and everything in me twists.
The way he’s standing, the calm in his eyes, something’s wrong. Very wrong. I search his face. Anything. Give me something. A flicker. A sign.
“Your friend here,” Weasel Senior nods toward Ezzy. “Withheld information about Officer Green. I thought about sending her to the dragons with you, but... I thought the company would be far too kind. I think this will be more fitting.” He turns, smiling at Talen.
He looks at me once, his boyish waves, sun-kissed at the end, fall across his forehead.
“I told you not to trust me.” He says, drawing his blade.
Metal sings.
My chest knots. No. No, he’s not?—
A heartbeat of hesitation—then his knife flashes sideways.
Ezzy gasps.
The sound is small. Fragile. Almost surprised.
For a moment, the corridor goes still. Then she folds. Blood blossoms through her uniform as Talen removes his blade and she hits the stone, eyes wide.
Something splits inside me.
