"What is he?" she asked. "A friend or an enemy?"
The alethiometer answered: "He is a murderer."
When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once.

In the shimmering, haunted otherworld of Cittàgazze—where soul-eating Spectres stalk the streets and the wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky—Lyra finds herself utterly alone.

But then she meets Will Parry, a twelve-year-old boy fleeing for his life after taking another's. Together, they embark on a perilous journey from world to world, uncovering a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and devastating power.

With every step, they draw closer to an even greater threat—and the shattering truth of their own destiny.