Chapter 104

“I want to take you somewhere today,” Julian told Lyra one morning a week after the wedding ceremony. The festivities had finally died down and most of the guests had gone back to their packs. “Where?” Lyra asked, smiling at him. They were lying in bed, facing each other. “You’ll know when we get there,” he told her. Lyra narrowed her eyes slightly in suspicion but said, “Okay.” Julian chuckled. “No arguing?” “I trust you,” she replied. He laughed and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I promise you’ll like it.” Later after they had breakfast and got ready, Julian led Lyra to an all-terrain vehicle. They rode through the royal forest, going east to farther than Lyra had been before. Eventually, they arrived at a secluded timber cottage hidden deep in the jungle. “I had no idea there were any houses out here,” Lyra said as she climbed down from the vehicle. It looked like the perfect getaway spot. “It’s only used by members of the royal family,” Julian told her, getting down too and goi