Lyra stared at the tiny photograph inside her constellation-shaped pendant.
A baby.
Not just her.
After studying it longer, Lyra realized something was strange.
The baby in the photograph was sleeping beneath a white blanket. But beside its head, another tiny hand was visible.
A baby's hand.
Lyra looked up.
"What does this mean?"
Cassian carefully took the pendant.
"Give it to me."
"No."
"I'm not going to take it."
Lyra handed it over, but her eyes remained fixed on him.
Cassian opened the small compartment in the pendant.
He studied the photograph.
His expression changed.
Seraphine, who was sitting on the sofa, leaned closer.
The moment she saw the photograph, her body went rigid.
"No."
Lyra looked at her.
"Mom, you know something?"
Seraphine didn't answer.
"Mom."
The woman slowly sat back down.
Her face grew even paler.
"I thought that photograph had been destroyed."
Lyra felt her heart begin to race.
"What photograph?"
Seraphine stared at the tiny picture.
"A photograph of you two."
"You two?"
Lyra frowned.
"Me and who?"
Seraphine closed her eyes.
For several seconds, the only sound was the rain beyond the window.
Then she said,
"You weren't born alone that night."
Lyra stared at her without blinking.
The sentence echoed in her mind.
You weren't the only one born.
"Don't tell me..."
Lyra's voice faded away.
Seraphine opened her eyes.
"You have a twin sister."
The world seemed to stop.
Lyra slowly stepped back.
"I..."
She shook her head.
"That's impossible."
"I never saw her."
"That's because she was taken."
Lyra stared at her mother.
"Taken?"
"That same night."
Cassian clenched his fists.
Lyra realized something.
"You knew?"
Cassian didn't answer.
"Cassian."
"I only found out a few years ago."
"A few years?"
Lyra let out a bitter laugh.
"Great."
She walked away.
One more secret.
One more person who knew something about her life besides her.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
Seraphine stood.
"Because we didn't know whether she was still alive."
Lyra turned sharply.
"What do you mean, Mom?"
Seraphine gripped the edge of her coat.
"When I regained consciousness after giving birth, you were no longer beside me."
"And my twin sister?"
Seraphine swallowed.
"She was gone, too."
Lyra looked at the photograph again.
Two tiny hands.
Two babies.
A life she had never known existed.
"What was her gender?"
Seraphine looked at her.
"A girl."
Lyra felt her throat tighten.
A sister.
Maybe someone with a face just like hers.
Maybe someone who had spent all these years somewhere, never knowing she had a sister.
Or maybe...
"Is she still alive?"
Seraphine slowly shook her head.
"I don't know."
Cassian set the pendant on the table.
"If someone kept that photograph inside Lyra's necklace, there's a chance they wanted us to find something."
Lyra looked at him.
"Who?"
Cassian pointed to the writing on the back of the photograph.
LYRA WAS NEVER ALONE.
"That's more than just a message."
Lyra moved closer.
"Why?"
Cassian took Adrian's notebook, which they had brought from the hideout.
He opened it to several pages.
"These words."
He pointed to a note.
Adrian's writing read:
Two lights were born beneath the same sky. If one goes dark, the other will show the way home.
Lyra read the sentence over and over.
"Two lights."
Seraphine closed her eyes.
"That's what your father always used to say."
Lyra looked up.
"Dad knew?"
Seraphine nodded.
"He knew you were twins."
"And he never found her?"
"No."
Cassian closed the notebook.
"I'm not sure."
Lyra looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
Cassian hesitated.
Then he said,
"There was something Adrian kept hidden from me."
"And?"
"A week before he died, he sent me a message."
Cassian took a small phone from his bag.
"I never understood what he meant."
He opened the old message.
Lyra read the screen.
DON'T LOOK FOR TWO STARS IN THE SAME PLACE. ONE WILL ALWAYS BE HIDING IN A DIFFERENT SKY.
Lyra felt goose bumps rise across her skin.
"He was talking about us."
Seraphine stepped closer.
"Adrian never told me that."
Cassian looked at her.
"That's the problem."
Before they could discuss it further, Cassian's phone rang again.
This time, he rejected the call immediately.
A few seconds later, a message came in.
Cassian read it.
His expression hardened.
"What is it?" Lyra asked.
"We have to go."
"Where?"
Cassian stared at the screen.
"Someone sent a location."
Lyra frowned.
"Whose location?"
Cassian handed her the phone.
There were only coordinates.
And a photograph.
Lyra froze.
The photograph showed a young girl standing at a train station.
Her hair was long.
Her face was shown in profile.
But that was enough.
The girl looked remarkably like Lyra.
Beneath the photograph was a message:
WANT TO FIND YOUR TWIN? COME ALONE.
Lyra looked at Cassian.
"This is her."
Cassian shook his head.
"We don't know that yet."
"She looks like me."
"That's not proof."
"Then we'll find out."
Cassian looked at her seriously.
"That message is a trap."
"Maybe."
"Lyra."
"But what if it's real?"
Cassian fell silent.
Lyra closed her hand around her pendant.
For twenty-three years, she had lived alone.
At least, that was what she had always believed.
Now there was a chance that someone who shared her blood was still alive.
She couldn't ignore it.
"I'm going."
Seraphine said immediately,
"No."
Lyra looked at her mother.
"I have to."
"You don't know who sent that message."
"Neither do you, Mom."
Seraphine was hurt by her answer.
Lyra immediately felt guilty.
But she didn't take the words back.
Too many things had been kept from her.
This time, she wanted to make her own decision.
Cassian stood.
"I'm coming with you."
The phone screen lit up at once.
A new message.
IF CASSIAN ARDENT FOLLOWS YOU, THE GIRL WILL DIE.
Lyra looked at Cassian.
The man's expression changed.
Seraphine took Lyra's hand.
"We can't go."
Lyra looked at the girl's photograph one more time.
There was something in her eyes.
Not merely a resemblance.
For some reason, Lyra felt as though she were looking at a piece of herself that had been missing all this time.
"I have to go."
Cassian shook his head.
"I won't let you go alone."
"If you come with me, she'll die."
"If you go alone, you could die, too."
Lyra fell silent.
There was no safe choice.
Then an idea came to her.
She looked at Cassian.
"Then you don't have to follow me."
Cassian frowned.
Lyra continued,
"But that doesn't mean you can't stay close to me."
Cassian understood what she meant.
"Are you sure?"
"No."
Lyra offered a faint smile.
"Since tonight began, I don't think I've been sure of anything."
Cassian almost smiled.
But then a small alarm sounded on his phone.
His expression immediately turned serious.
"What now?"
Cassian looked at the screen.
The location in the earlier message had disappeared.
It had been replaced by a countdown.
00:29:59
Beneath it was a single sentence.
WHEN TIME RUNS OUT, ONE OF THE TWO STARS WILL GO DARK.
Lyra felt her breath catch.
Seraphine covered her mouth.
Cassian immediately grabbed the car keys.
"We're leaving now."
They ran out of the apartment.
But as Lyra passed through the door, the pendant around her neck opened again.
This time, it wasn't a photograph that appeared.
It was a tiny scrap of paper.
Lyra picked it up.
There were only two words.
Written in the hand of someone she didn't recognize.
DON'T COME.
Lyra stopped.
Cassian turned around.
"Why?"
Lyra showed him the paper.
Cassian's expression changed.
"Who wrote it?"
Lyra shook her head.
But in her heart, for a reason she couldn't explain, she knew.
The message hadn't come from an enemy.
It had come from someone waiting for her.
Someone who might have spent the past twenty-three years of her life without knowing Lyra's name.
Someone who had written that warning not to lure her into a trap.
But to save her.
Her twin sister.
To be continued...