Chapter 43

“I’m not sure I can help you with that,” Lyra told him. “What do you mean you can’t?” Devon asked her. “Surely, they don’t pay the king’s bodyguard skimpily, do they?” Lyra looked at him speechlessly for a few seconds. He wanted her to…give him her money? The money she earned? How on earth could she fix his pack’s finances with her salary? It’s not like she was getting paid an insane amount. “I don’t think I can be any help to you with my salary,” she told him. “Oh, come on,” he said, lifting his hand to stroke her cheek. Lyra pushed it away immediately. He snickered, then brought his lips close to her ear. “You seem to have made many important friends in the palace. I’m sure you can find a way to give me what I want. If you can’t, you know what will happen to your belongings.” Lyra did not even want to think about what he was suggesting. Either way, she could not let him destroy the box. Her parents would not have left it to her with clear instructions on how to deal with it if it had