CHAPTER 88: LYRA

Shaken after calling Tom and being told Katalin Aquila Reyes was dead, Lyra tries to dance away the dread over missing Grayson. Alisa arrives with hospital records: Katalin’s cause of death is listed as C-section complications on Lyra’s birthday nineteen years ago, implying Katalin gave birth to Lyra.

Confronted with the date, Lyra reexamines Tom’s wording and realizes he never called her mother “your mother,” only by name, and said Lyra looked like his sister. Lyra calls her parents. Her mom admits Tom appeared with an infant under three weeks old, claimed his wife had died, left and returned repeatedly, then disappeared and later mailed a birth certificate naming Lyra’s mom as mother. Fearing losing Lyra, her mom kept the secret.

Lyra concludes Tom was her uncle, not her father, and Katalin was her biological mother. She connects Katalin’s note—“I made my choice. It wasn’t you”—to Katalin choosing the Crucible over keeping her baby, while Hannah had once refused to leave her daughter. Lyra also recalls Tom’s claim that Katalin killed a frat boy who “deserved it,” suspecting he was Lyra’s abusive biological father, aligning with the Blade’s mission to punish abusers and would-be kings.

Alisa notes the revelation doesn’t change the current tactical calculus, but Lyra, fearing for Grayson at Omega’s hands, rejects waiting. She orders Alisa to get her a plane to pursue Omega and save Grayson.