There was a deep and upsetting feeling blossoming beneath her breastbone, one that couldn't be soothed though she jammed the heel of her hand against it, like she could squash her chest calm. But it got harder for her as it became visibly harder for Rosario, like the shake in Rosario's voice jumped across the couple of feet between them and settled itself in Lyra.
"He wasn't there, most of it," she shook her head, her voice finding enough strength to be defensive; she guessed where Rosario's mind was going, when it came to the stranger who'd picked her up hitchhiking, but Johnny was a hero. "He got me out. He showed up and challenged the— the— I don't know what to call him, the leader? Lord? The one who— who was running the whole show. The Archer of the faeries," she added, a weak attempt a joke, but the parallels were too chilling, and her own words sent a full body shudder down her.