Please, protect them.
Something stirs from deep within my bones. Something stronger than myself. Stronger than the stars. Stronger than the bond I share with Aleksander.
I am Annora!
Not Lyra’s vessel.
Not Aleksander’s puppet.
Not my grandfather’s shame.
With shaky hands, I reach for the dagger in my sleeve and plunge it deep into my chest.
Emberdione shrieks, her golden form dissolving as I fall to my knees. The silver bracelets crack, hairline fractures spreading across their surface.
“I choose…” I gasp out, “...to end it myself.”
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Jasce
I reach across the bed,searching for Annora’s warmth, but find only coldness.
My eyes snap open. “Annora?”
No response.
I throw off the blankets and swing my legs over the bed’s edge. My gaze sweeps the tent—finding her boots still by the entrance, her cloak draped over a chair, but no Annora.
“Annora?” I call again, louder this time.
The silence that answers sends ice through my veins—fear that something dreadful has happened.
I grab my weapon belt and rush to the tent flap, yanking it open. The cool morning air hits my bare chest as I step outside. At first, I see nothing but the usual camp stirring to life. Then, my eyes catch on a dark shape lying in the dirt twenty paces away.
My heart stops.
Annora lies face-down in a spreading pool of blood. A dagger glints beside her outstretched hand.
“No!” The roar tears from my throat as I sprint to her and drop to my knees in the blood soaked earth. “Annora…”
Gently, I turn her over, cradling her head. Her skin is ghost-white, lips tinged blue. Blood seeps from a wound on her chest, right over her heart. I touch her neck, desperate to find a pulse, but there’s nothing.
“Call for a healer. Now,” I scream to the closest warrior.
I gather her limp body against my chest, not caring about the blood soaking into my skin. “Stay with me, my love. Please stay with me.”
No answer.
I hold my hand over the wound, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood. “Please, Annora. Don’t leave me.”
Panic rips through me as I shake her shoulders. “Open your eyes. Please, open your eyes.”
Still nothing.
My chest constricts as I pull her closer. “Please come back to me.”
Memories flash through my mind as I rock her in my arms. Her smile when she sees seashells, the way she curls against me at night, how her eyes light up when she draws. All the little pieces that make herher.
