LYRA
I read the last line one more time.
It would hurt my sword if it doesn't get the chance to kill you itself.
Then I folded the note slowly and carefully along the same crease it had arrived in, pressing the fold flat with my thumb the way you pressed something you intended to keep even when keeping it made no practical sense.
I set it on top of the book beside me and then the pull at the corner of my mouth.
Both corners actually.
I touched my face with two fingers like I was checking for something I wasn't sure was real.
It was real.
I was smiling.
Not a small polite expression. Not the faint almost-smile I had caught myself wearing once or twice in the study when his wolf had said something that irritated him and it had shown in exactly the way he didn't want it to show. A proper smile. The kind that reached things it had no business reaching.
Directed at a note that had just threatened to kill me.
I dropped my hand and looked around the empty cell.
