Lyra

I reached for Mom before I opened my eyes.

My fingers brushed leaves. For a few seconds, I lay there waiting for her to take my hand. Something hard pressed into my back.

“Mom?”

When I opened my eyes, branches shifted against a bright blue sky. I turned my head, looking for her beside me, but nobody was there.

I pushed myself upright, wincing as my scraped palm pressed into the dirt. Dry leaves clung to my hoodie, and a root ran beneath the place where I’d been lying.

Trees surrounded me on every side. I looked between them for the house, then turned farther, expecting to see it behind me.

“Mom?”

I waited, listening past the rustling leaves. There were birds somewhere above me, but no voices. I couldn’t hear traffic either.

“Mom!”

My voice carried through the trees without an answer.

Where am I?

I got to my feet and turned toward a brighter gap between the trunks. For a moment, I thought it might open onto somewhere I could recognize. Then I took a few steps and saw that it was only more forest.

My breathing began to catch. I turned back, then looked in the other direction, trying to find something that would tell me where to go.

“Mom!”

My voice cracked. I wiped at my eyes with my sleeve, but they blurred again before I could get a proper look between the trees.

I wanted to go inside. I pressed a hand against my chest and tried to take a slower breath, but it caught before I’d finished. Trying again only made it worse.

Please, not right now.

I ought to stay where I’d woken. If someone was looking for me, I shouldn’t wander off. I turned back toward the root, then stopped. Was it that tree? I’d only taken a few steps, but I hadn’t looked at it properly before walking away.

For a while, I stayed where I was, rubbing the bracelet bead beneath my sleeve and waiting to hear a voice. Every time a branch moved, I looked up.

I started toward a thinner stretch of trees, wiping my face as I went. I needed to find someone, but I didn’t know whether I was walking farther away from everybody.

A shadow swept across the ground.

I looked up just as something enormous passed through an opening in the canopy. Two leathery wings stretched from a long, scaled body, carrying it above the trees before it disappeared from view.

A distant cry rolled over the forest a second later, and somewhere much farther away, another answered.

I backed beneath the branches and kept watching the patch of sky where it had vanished. It couldn’t have been a bird. I’d seen the wings, the long body trailing between them.

I pinched the inside of my arm hard enough to hurt. The trees stayed where they were. So did the small crescent marks my nails left behind.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Please let me wake up.

When I opened them, I was still beside the same tree.

My stomach churned. I pulled at the front of my hoodie. It wasn’t tight around my neck, but I couldn’t leave it alone. I needed to get out from under the trees so I could see where I was going. Except then that thing could see me too.

I started walking faster, staying beneath the branches. I kept looking up even after I could no longer hear it.

A sharp crack split the forest behind me.

I flinched and turned toward the sound. For a moment, nothing moved. Then the brush shifted between two trees, followed by a low growl that made the hair on my arms rise.

I started downhill, keeping my eyes on the trees as long as I could. Whatever was back there moved again, heavy enough that I could hear it following through the undergrowth, and my pace quickened.

The movement shifted to my left. Another growl came, closer this time, and I stopped when a pair of orange eyes appeared beneath the brush.

Something stepped slowly into view.

It looked vaguely like a dog, but it stood almost to my waist, its black fur coarse and uneven over a lean body. Smoke curled from between its teeth with every breath, and a faint orange glow formed deeper in its mouth as it watched me.

I backed away, and the creature followed. I wanted to turn and run, but I was afraid that would make it come after me. I took another small step, feeling behind me with my heel.

The creature lowered its head and growled again.

When it lunged, I ran, pushing through the trees as fast as I could with its paws close behind me.

I didn’t make it far before heat burst across my arm.

“Ah!”

I jerked sideways as orange flame swept past me, catching the sleeve of my hoodie near the elbow. For half a second there was only heat, then a sharp, burning pain bit into my skin.

I slapped at the smoking fabric with my other hand until the flame went out. The sleeve had blackened along one side, and when I grabbed my arm beneath it, the skin was hot and painfully tender.

My eyes watered from how badly it hurt. Before I could do anything except clutch the burn, the creature stepped around the tree in front of me, forcing me backward until my shoulders hit the trunk.

“No…”

The glow inside its mouth brightened. I tried to move, but my legs had gone rigid beneath me. All I could do was stare as its jaws opened.

Something white crashed into it from the side.

The creature disappeared into the brush with a yelp, followed by a deeper snarl. I barely had time to understand what had happened before a massive white wolf planted itself between us and opened its jaws.

A torrent of blue flame erupted from its mouth.

The blast swallowed the brush in front of us, roaring through the clearing with enough force to send leaves whipping through the air. Heat washed over me even from several yards away, and the entire forest seemed to turn blue for a few seconds.

Then the flames vanished, leaving smoke rolling between the trunks.

The creature lay where the blast had caught it, blackened and completely still, while small blue embers flickered across the scorched ground around its body before slowly fading.

The white wolf stepped through the smoke and turned toward me.

It was enormous. Even on all fours, its head came up near my chest, and wisps of blue flame still curled between its teeth as it padded over.

I pulled my hurt arm against me and watched its mouth, but the wolf only leaned close, sniffed my shoulder, and dragged a huge wet tongue across my cheek.

Its tail swept back and forth behind it.

“Making friends already?”

A girl pushed through the brush with a long spear resting against one shoulder. Her pale grayish-purple hair was tied high behind her, and she looked a few years older than me.

The wolf gave my face another enthusiastic sniff.

“Kai…” The wolf kept sniffing me. “Kai! Give her some room. You’re gonna drool all over her.”

Kai stepped back, her tail still moving. I wiped my cheek with my unburned sleeve and tried to breathe while the girl looked at me.

She was a person. I wanted to get closer to her, but the wolf was right beside her, and I couldn’t stop noticing the spear above her shoulder.

“Are you hurt?”

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out on the first breath.

“My… my arm.”

She stepped closer, then stopped when I flinched. “Did it burn you? Can you move your sleeve a little so I can see?”

I nodded, but my hand stayed closed around the damaged fabric. Kai shifted beside her, and my eyes went straight back to the wolf’s mouth.

“Kai. Sit.”

Kai sat. The girl stayed where she was.

I tried to ease the sleeve away. My fingers were shaking, and the fabric caught against the burn. I made a small sound and stopped.

“That’s enough. I can see it,” she said. “I can help.”

The body still hadn’t moved, but I couldn’t stop waiting for it to get up again.

“Is it…?”

“The hellhound? It’s dead. Kai got it.”

I nodded, but I kept watching it while she spoke.

“I’m Lyra, by the way. What’s your name?”

“A-Aria.”

She held out a hand. “Can you let me have your arm, Aria? I can heal that.”

“H-how?”

“Healing magic. Here, you can put your wrist in my hand. I won’t touch the burn.”

Her empty palm stayed between us. Behind it, smoke still drifted from the brush. I wanted to ask what she meant, but every rustle beyond her pulled my attention back into the trees.

I started to hold out my arm, then drew it back against me. Lyra waited.

It hurt. I didn’t know what else to do.

“Please,” I whispered.

I held it out again, with my other hand beneath my elbow to keep it steady.

Lyra’s fingers settled lightly around my wrist. A soft green glow spread beneath her palm, warm against my skin, and I watched the redness fade. The pain eased with it, until the air touching my arm didn’t hurt anymore.

Then the warmth kept going.

It moved up my arm and through my chest, and the tightness there loosened so suddenly that I drew in a startled breath. I could finish it. I took another, waiting for it to catch halfway, but that one went all the way in too.

My shoulders lowered. The sick feeling in my stomach eased, and when I looked down at my hand, it had stopped shaking.

I remembered being warm like this while Mom held me. That frightened me for a moment. I looked up at Lyra, waiting for her face to blur or her voice to grow distant, but I could see her clearly. I could move my fingers when I wanted to.

“Is it still sore?” she asked.

I shook my head, then checked my arm again. There wasn’t even a mark left. The sting in my scraped palm had gone too, and when I opened that hand, the skin was whole.

I should have been staring at the vanished burn. Instead, I kept taking breaths just because I could.

Mom was still somewhere I couldn’t reach. I still didn’t know who Lyra was, or whether there were more of those creatures nearby. I looked toward the trees when a branch rustled, afraid something else might come out, but my chest didn’t tighten with the thought.

I could be frightened and still breathe.

I hadn’t known how badly I needed that until I was standing there trying not to cry again.

“Aria? Did that hurt?”

“Sorry.” I wiped beneath one eye with my sleeve. “No, it’s… I feel better. I just wasn’t expecting that.”

“You’ve never been healed before?”

“I’d never seen magic at all. Not before today.”

Lyra glanced toward Kai, then back at me. “None? Where are you from?”

She let go of my wrist, and I almost reached after her. The warmth was still there, though, and I lowered my hand instead.

I tried to work out what to tell her. I could give her the name of a place back home, but after everything I’d seen, I couldn’t see how that would help. She was waiting for an answer, and I was afraid of what she’d do with the one I had.

“I… somewhere else.”

Lyra waited.

I rubbed my thumb against the bracelet bead.

“Not here,” I added quietly. “I don’t think I’m from this world.”

Her eyebrows drew together, and I looked away.

“I know that sounds weird.”

“Another world?” Lyra said. “I… don’t know what to make of that. How did you end up out here?”

“I was with my mom before,” I said. “At home. I think I passed out, and then I woke up in the woods.”

“And she wasn’t with you when you woke up?”

I shook my head. “I called for her, but…”

I looked down before I started crying properly. Lyra didn’t ask me to finish.

“Is there anyone in Rovelle you could stay with?”

“I don’t even know where that is.” I rubbed at my face. “I was looking for someone to ask. I don’t know anyone here.”

“Oh. Sorry. It’s the city nearby.” She looked along the trail, then back at me. “I’m trying to think where you could go. How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“There’s a friend of mine in Rovelle,” she said. “Otto. He’s got rooms above his tavern, though I don’t know whether any are free.”

For a second, I thought she might ask me to find it on my own.

“Come with us. We’ll ask him. Even if he’s full, he might know somewhere.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I was heading back anyway. I’d rather take you with me than leave you out here.”

I didn’t know what to say after that. The thought of following her frightened me, but she was offering somewhere to go.

“Thank you.”

Lyra nodded toward the trail. “Come on.”

I followed her, keeping close enough that she couldn’t disappear around a turn before I reached it. I didn’t bring up the other-world thing again. From the look she’d given me, I couldn’t tell whether she believed it anyway.

Kai fell into step beside me. I glanced down at her, she looked back at me, and I faced forward again. I gave her as much room as the path allowed. She stayed beside me anyway.

For a while, none of us talked. The forest gradually thinned around the path, giving way to scattered clearings and stretches of sunlight.

I stayed close behind Lyra. I didn’t know where she was taking me beyond the name of a city, and I wouldn’t have known how to get back to the place where I’d woken. Each turn carried me farther from it. I wondered whether leaving had been a mistake, then looked at the empty woods beside the path and hurried after her.

At least walking wasn’t making me feel sick. I could keep up without struggling for a full breath, even while I worried about where we were going. I touched the place on my arm where the fire had caught me. Lyra had made the burn disappear just by touching me. I wanted to know what else magic could do. Maybe there was somebody here who could help me get home, too.

When Lyra glanced back, I dropped my hand, but she didn’t say anything about it.

Every now and then the blue glow appeared around Kai’s mouth again. I kept noticing it until Lyra followed my attention.

“Kai’s fire?”

I looked away. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize for looking. She was born able to do it.” Lyra glanced at Kai. “It’s magic too, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

I nodded.

“You can ask me things, you know.”

“I know.”

I had plenty of questions. I just didn’t know how to ask them without having to explain myself again. Lyra didn’t press me, and we kept walking.

A little later, the trees opened onto a hillside, and I stopped.

A city stretched below us.

Massive stone walls curved around it, broken by towers and a wide arched gate flying blue-and-white banners. Beyond the walls, rows of blue-tiled rooftops climbed gradually toward a tall white tower near the center of the city, bright against the afternoon sky. People moved along the road toward the gate, where armored guards stood with swords at their sides.

Lyra stopped beside me. “That’s Rovelle. Largest city in western Ares.”

I repeated the names to myself. Neither meant anything to me.

The walls seemed to grow every time I looked up as we went down the hill. I searched beyond the towers for taller buildings, then along the road for a car, anything that might belong to a place I understood.

One of the guards caught Lyra’s eye and gave her a nod. She returned it, and we passed through without slowing.

I stayed close to her as we entered the city.

Maybe twenty steps in, a woman with long brown ears rising through her hair walked past us arguing with a fruit seller. I caught the ears as she passed and nearly turned around to make sure I’d seen them right.

A little farther down the street, a boy touched two fingers to an unlit lantern. Flame appeared at the wick without a match, and nobody around him even reacted.

The streets were busy enough that I stayed half a step behind Lyra. Every time someone passed between us, I moved to keep her in sight. I could breathe normally, but I still worried about losing her, and about the people who glanced at my clothes as they went by.

Lyra stopped outside a timber-and-stone building with a wooden sign hanging above the door.

The Silver Hearth.

“This is the place,” Lyra said. “Let’s see if he’s got room.”

I looked at the building, then at her. “He won’t mind?”

“He won’t mind us asking,” she said, and opened the door.

Warm air rolled over me, carrying the smell of cooked vegetables, bread, and something savory enough that my stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten since the sandwich Mom left outside my room.

Kai took one look at the fireplace and headed straight for it, curling up beside the hearth without waiting for either of us.

Lyra watched her settle in. “Nice to know what you missed most.”

Kai closed her eyes, and I hid a small smile by looking away.

The tavern wasn’t packed, but there were enough people inside to make me hesitate. Conversations overlapped around scarred wooden tables, and brass lanterns hung between the dark beams overhead. I found the front door again, then the hallway near the back and the stairs leading upward.

I wanted to know where I could go if I needed to leave. Looking at the open doorway helped, though I had nowhere else to go once I was outside. I followed Lyra to the bar before I could stand there thinking about it any longer.

A broad man behind it looked up from the glass he was drying.

“Back already?”

“Yeah. Have you got a room free?”

His eyes moved to me, then to my blackened sleeve. The glass stopped moving in his hand.

“Lyra.”

“She’s alright. A hellhound caught her arm, but I’ve healed it.”

“You found her out there?”

“In the north woods. On her own. Kai got to her first.”

He set the glass down. “What were you doing out there on your own?”

I looked at the edge of the bar. “I don’t… I woke up there.”

He glanced at Lyra.

“We haven’t worked that part out yet,” she said. “Can she sit down?”

“Of course. There’s a room upstairs too, so that’s no trouble.” He pulled a stool away from the bar, and I climbed onto it. “Anything still hurting, or are you feeling dizzy?”

I shook my head. “I feel better now.”

“Good. How about something to eat?”

My stomach answered loudly enough that both of them heard it, and I wanted to disappear.

The man’s eyebrows lifted. “Well, that one we can fix. I’m Otto.”

“Aria.”

“Nice to meet you, Aria.”

“Mm-hm.”

That was not the correct response. By the time I thought to say it back, he’d turned away to get the food.

A few minutes later, he placed a steaming bowl in front of me.

“Careful. It’s hot.”

“Thanks.”

The smell alone made my stomach ache. I picked up the spoon and took a bite, then had to wait before swallowing because it was hotter than I’d expected.

It was good. Really good. I took another spoonful more carefully, but halfway to my mouth I thought of the sandwich Mom had made for me.

She’d brought it upstairs. I’d thanked her through the door without even seeing her.

I lowered the spoon. I could still hear her asking me to squeeze her hand, and I didn’t know whether I’d managed it. What had she thought when I stopped answering?

She might still be sitting beside a hospital bed. She might be looking for me. I couldn’t even tell her I was awake.

Lyra took the stool beside mine.

“You okay?”

I nodded automatically, then changed my mind and gave a small shake of my head.

“Just thinking.”

“Would you rather have a bit of quiet? I can go sit by the fire.”

“No.” I looked up quickly. “I… I’d rather you stayed.”

“Alright. I wasn’t sure.” She leaned one elbow against the bar. “You’ve got a room now, at least. No need to go anywhere else tonight.”

“I don’t have any money.”

“He’ll survive.”

Otto, still within earshot, glanced toward us. “Generous of you.”

Lyra ignored him.

“I can pay you back,” I said, then remembered I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to do that. “Eventually.”

“You can worry about that eventually.”

I lowered my eyes to the soup. “Thank you.”

“Mhm.”

I nearly smiled at that. Maybe my answer to Otto hadn’t been so bad.

When I looked up again, a man near the back of the room was watching me over his drink. He had steel-gray hair and dark clothes, and he was sitting alone.

I looked back down at my bowl. After a few seconds, I checked again.

He hadn’t looked away.

I shifted closer to the bar, and Lyra noticed.

“What is it?”

“The man in the back.” I kept my voice low. “Do you know him?”

“The gray-haired one?”

I gave a tiny nod.

“Only by sight. I’ve seen him here a few times, but I’ve never spoken to him.”

I wanted to ask why he was staring, but she wouldn’t know that either. I kept my eyes on the food and tried not to look again.

Otto returned after I’d nearly finished eating and placed a brass key on the bar.

“Here you go. Upstairs, last one on the right.” His eyes dropped briefly to my damaged sleeve. “I keep some spare clothes around for travelers. I’ll see if there’s anything close to your size.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“Get some sleep. If you need anything, come back down.”

I nodded as Lyra slid off her stool.

“You okay going up on your own, or do you want me to show you?”

I looked toward the stairs. I wanted to get away from the man watching me, but going up meant leaving her down here.

“I can go.”

“You sure?”

I hesitated. “Mostly.”

Lyra nodded toward a table near the fireplace. “I’ll be down here for a while. Kai too.”

“Okay.”

The wooden steps creaked under me as I climbed, and I made it to the top before looking back. Lyra had already sat near the fire with Kai stretched out beside her chair while Otto handed her something to drink.

I checked where they were sitting, then went to find the last room on the right.

It wasn’t much bigger than my room back home, with a bed, a small table, a washbasin, and a window overlooking the city. I closed the door, turned the key, and checked that it had caught before sitting on the edge of the bed.

Through the window, Rovelle stretched below me beneath the darkening sky. The blue rooftops I’d seen from the hill were almost black now, and lanterns were appearing along the streets between them.

People passed beneath the window, all of them seeming to know where they were going. Even if I went back downstairs and found Lyra, I had no idea what to ask her to do next.

My breathing had started to feel uncomfortable again. I tried a deeper breath and noticed the familiar resistance in my chest. I hadn’t felt it on the walk, or while I was eating.

I touched my arm. The burn was still gone. I wanted the rest of what Lyra had done to stay too.

Footsteps passed in the hallway, and I watched the door until they went away. Nobody tried the handle. I could still hear voices downstairs, and I reminded myself that Lyra had said she would be there for a while.

What if she isn’t there tomorrow?

I’d already worried about losing her in the street. Now the thought came with a queasy feeling that made me put the key on the table and lie down.

I was tired enough that the pillow felt good even with everything still going through my head. I pulled the blanket over my clothes and turned onto my side. The bracelet slid against my wrist, and I caught the bead between my fingers.

Mom had put it on me before we went outside. I didn’t know how long ago that had been now.

I remembered her lifting her hands and wiggling her fingers at me.

The poweeer.

A small laugh slipped out before I could stop it.

“Dummy.”

Then I covered my face and cried. I’d wanted to shoot with her again tomorrow. She didn’t even know that. I’d been trying to tell her, but I hadn’t managed to say it before my eyes closed.

“I need to get home.”

I said it into my sleeve, too quietly for anyone outside the room to hear. There was nobody here who could answer me the way she would have.

When the tears slowed, I lowered my hands. The bead was still cool. I kept touching it while I tried to think of how to explain what had happened to me, where I could start so Lyra might understand.

I lay there listening to the voices downstairs, going over the words until I was too tired to keep them in order. At some point, my eyes closed, and I fell asleep with the bracelet still around my wrist.