It wasn't full daylight yet when Damien came back into the Wolf Castle. He walked slowly. He passed the great hall. He passed the corridor. He passed the storeroom that had once held me — and stopped at the door for a moment.I was still following him. My soul had thinned to almost nothing — less than warmth, less than light. But I was still there. I did not know how much longer I would be. I followed him anyway, the way you follow a thing through to the last of it, because you have come this far and turning away now would be its own kind of defeat.He stood at my door for a moment. He did not go in. He just stood there, one hand not quite raised, as if the door were a thing he could return something to. After a while he pressed his palm flat against the wood. Then he lowered it.Before the Elf guards had carried Lyra away, she had left something on the threshold: a single light-wing, pulled loose from the Luna gown. Mine. Damien crouched, picked it up. He held it in his palm for a mom
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