Lyra sat on the edge of the bed, brushing out her hair in long, steady strokes. She tried to focus on the simple rhythm of it, counting each pull through the tangles, anything to keep her mind from racing. But the nerves persisted, her heart fluttering in her chest like a trapped bird.
She had been training hard all week. Russ dragged her to extra sessions three times, and Jake insisted she shift almost every day to keep her bond with Juno strong.
When she wasn’t training, she slipped away to Megan’s, spending time with her, Callan, and baby Elias. She loved watching Elias sleep, his tiny brow always drawn tight in a little scowl that Megan joked he had inherited straight from his father.
But now the trial was tomorrow, and all her attempts to ignore it had fallen away. There was no esc
