Chapter 19 · Gotta Claim a Pit

"Don't touch him — he's mine!"

Lyra's fingers closed around my shadow and the hound's teeth closed around my back at the exact same second.

Cold fire ripped through me. Not teeth. Like hooks made of glass.

"Kael!" Lyra yanked. Hard. Her palm was hot, sweating, shaking. "Let go! Let go of him!"

The hound didn't let go. It shook me. My whole body — this stupid, thin shadow body — stretched and tore.

"Lyra, let go!" I snarled at her. "You're gonna rip me in half!"

"I'm trying to save you, you idiot!"

"You're helping it!"

A second hound hit us. Then a third. The pit floor lit up under us, all those pale veins pulsing. The air tasted like rust and old blood.

Weaver laughed. From above. From everywhere.

"Oh, cute," she said. Her voice dropped right into my head, silk and knives. "She thinks she owns you."

I twisted to look up. She was perched on the edge of the pit, legs dangling, bare feet not quite touching the stone. White hair, white dress, too many eyes blinking slow on her arms. And that thread — that thin, glowing thread —