ELIAN'S POVThe quarters stuck to the Formica. I peeled them free one by one, arranging them in stacks of four. Sixteen stacks. Seven loose coins. Sixty-seven dollars for eight hours of carrying plates and refilling coffee cups that left rings on every surface they touched.I pulled out my phone. Rent was due in six days. The calculator app glowed: 1,247 ÷ 67 = 18.6. Nineteen more shifts. Nineteen more nights of nodding at the guy who snapped his fingers for ketchup. Nineteen more mornings of reeking like fryer grease on the subway ride home.The math always came out wrong."Order up!" Zali's voice cut through the diner like a serrated blade.I pocketed the coins and grabbed the plates. Table seven: a couple on a third date, maybe fourth. The woman kept laughing too loud at nothing. The man had ordered the steak... overcooked, because of course he had... and was already eyeing it like he'd found a reason to complain."Steak for you, sir." I set the plate down with the kind of gentle p

LUMI’S POVThe cell smelled like disinfectant and concrete. Four walls. One door. No windows. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, steady and too bright.Rio paced. Six steps to the wall, pivo t, six steps back. His hands fluttered at his sides, fingers twitching. He muttered under his breath—numbers, maybe prayers. His footsteps scraped against the floor.Torak sat on the bench bolted to the wall. Knees together. Hands folded. Eyes open but fixed on nothing. He hadn't moved since the guards shoved us inside.Zali prowled the perimeter. She ran her fingers along the seams where the walls met the ceiling, tested the door handle twice, kicked the base of the bench. Her jaw worked constantly, teeth grinding.Elian stood in the corner, head tilted back, eyes tracking the ceiling. He pointed at something near the air vent. "Camera. Two o'clock." His finger moved. "Another one. Seven o'clock. Audio pickup above the door.""Great," Zali said. "They're watching us panic.""I'm not panicking."

ATLAS’S POVThe banner caught fire first.Gold thread and crimson silk. It hung from the palace's eastern arch. The flames crawled up the fabric. The emblem—a crowned star wrapped in laurel—blackened and curled.I stood in the courtyard. My blade was wet. Bodies lay around me. Twelve of them. Palace guard. Men I'd trained with. Men I'd laughed with in the barracks after drills.Their blood pooled between the stones.The king was dead.Not here. Not in the courtyard. Somewhere in the inner sanctum. The reports were confused. An explosion. A structural collapse. Assassins. No one could agree.It didn't matter. He was gone.Smoke rolled across the sky. The capital burned. Kharnath's golden age ended in ash and screaming.I wiped my blade on a dead man's tunic. My hands shook. I forced them still.---Three years earlier, the palace had been different.Banners hung clean and bright. Music drifted through the halls. Strings and drums. The old songs. The ones that made the servants hum whil

RIO’S POVThe door locked behind the guards. The bolt slid home with a sound like a coffin closing.Lumi sat on her cot, knees pulled to her chest. Tavian stood at the door, one hand pressed flat against the metal. Zali paced—three steps, turn, three steps back. Kael stood in the corner, motionless."Seventy-two hours," Lumi whispered. "That's not—that's three days.""Less," Kael said. "They started counting the moment Sterling gave the order."Zali punched the wall. The concrete didn't crack. Her knuckles split. Blood dripped onto the floor. She didn't wipe it away.I sat on the edge of my cot, hands clasped between my knees. My throat felt tight. I forced a grin. "So. Anyone know a good lawyer?"No one laughed."Come on. This is fixable. We just—we tell them we'll cooperate. We run their stupid drills. We play along until—""Until what?" Zali turned on me. "Until they decide we're useful enough to keep alive?""Better than the alternative.""The alternative is fighting.""Fighting w

ZALI’S POVThe vent was a coffin. Metal pressed against my shoulders on both sides. I crawled forward on my elbows, dragging myself with my good arm. My dislocated shoulder screamed with every movement. Blood from Elian's nose dripped onto the metal ahead of me, leaving a trail of dark spots.Behind me, Rio wheezed. "Can't...can't breathe...""Keep moving," Tavian said."There's no air...""There's air. Move."The vent sloped downward. I slid, caught myself with my knees, and kept crawling. My hand slipped in Elian's blood. I wiped it on my pants and kept going.Ahead, Tavian stopped. Light filtered through a grate below him. He braced his hands on either side of the vent and kicked. The grate flew off with a metallic clang. He dropped through.I followed. The fall was ten feet. I landed hard, rolled onto my good shoulder, came up in a crouch.A hallway. White tile. Fluorescent lights. Double doors at one end marked **AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.** At the other end, stairs leading up.L