Chapter 136

**Lyra

I pushed through another narrow opening, a twig scratching my cheek, only to find another dead end. I didn’t know how long I’d been in the hedge maze or who might be following me, and I had scratches and cuts on my arms and my face from my increasing desperation to get out.

Another turn led me to a stone wall, the third I’d run into in my quest for freedom.

I sank down the vine-covered wall