Lyra paused, turning over his words in her head, or maybe cataloging them in her memory. "I know," she said softly. That August loved her was what had gotten them into this mess, on so many levels. There would not have been a baby if he hadn't loved her. The two of them wouldn't have tried to elope if he didn't love her, and maybe she wouldn't have been in the forest that night...

But that was all in the past, and there was nothing they could do to change the past. The only thing left to her was the future — an endless future, such that it was, without him.

"I love you, too," she said eventually, her voice laced with pain. "Goodbye, August."