LYRA

"We have to stop this!"

"Don't shout," he replied through clenched teeth, his dark eyes scanning the surroundings cautiously.

"I don’t know who you are, but if you want to survive, follow the pack’s laws… or the next one on that pyre could be you."

His words were so cold they cut through me like ice, his gaze piercing, full of storms.

My chest tightened, I wanted to scream at him to stop being so indifferent, we were fated!

But he simply turned his back and walked away through the huts.

The agonized roar behind me sent a chill down my spine, and the smell of burning flesh filled my nostrils.

I hesitated to turn around, knowing the barbarity I would witness.

"Don’t do it, Lyra. It’s horrible… don’t look," my wolf warned.

"I have to, Aztoria," I told her as I slowly turned. "I need to accept where we’ve ended up and what we’re up against."

My silver eyes reflected the flames and the pain-twisted expression of that woman: an image that would never leave my memory.

This continent wa