The Serpent's Cipher

Previously

…Lyra averted her gaze, her face a mask of something I couldn't read. "I had no choice, Blake," she murmured. "No choice?" I spat, the anger finally boiling over, eclipsing the fear. "You chose. You chose Vane. You chose power." Vane stepped forward, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "Indeed. And now, Blake, the Serpent's Cipher will be ours. It was always meant to be." He gestured to his men. "Take him." The enforcers tightened their grip, dragging me forward, away from Lyra, towards the waiting darkness of Silas Vane and the Obsidian Hand. The alley, once my hope of escape, had become my prison. The chase was over. The real struggle, I knew, was just beginning.