Lyra's POV
Death felt closer than my next breath.
Not the distant concept you contemplate in quiet moments, wondering what comes after. This was immediate. Real. The cold touch of mortality pressing against my throat in the form of jagged glass, Mia's weight pinning me to the floor like a butterfly to a board.
Terror flooded my system, turning my blood to liquid ice. My lungs constricted until each breath became a battle I was losing. Time stretched impossibly thin while my mind frantically commanded my body to fight back. But my muscles refused to obey. My arms felt leaden. The slick warmth of blood made my hands slip uselessly against her grip.
So I reached out through the only connection I had left.
The bond was still foreign territory to me. Uncharted waters I barely understood. But I poured everything into it. Every drop of fear. Every fragment of desperation. His name tore through my consciousness like lightning splitting the sky.
Then the world exploded.
