My hands are bleeding again. Thick red lines cut across my palms, soaking into the rough fabric of my work gloves. I pull a heavy black trash bag out of a metal bin and toss it onto the high pile. The smell here is always the same: old food, sour water, and things people threw away because they did not care anymore.Down in the slums of River City, nobody cares about trash. They only care about surviving another day.Above us, high up in the clean air, the rich people live in glass towers that shine like diamonds in the sun. They look down at us like we are bugs crawling in the dirt. But I do not have time to look up at them. I have a job to finish before midnight, or Aunt Elena will lock me out in the cold.Aunt Elena is not a warm person. She does not hug me or ask how my day went. She stands by the door with a wooden stick and counts every single bag I bring home. If the number is too low, she takes my dinner away. She says kindness makes people weak, and the world only rewards tho

The explosion throws me backward into the dust. Wood and plaster fly through the air, filling our small room with a thick gray cloud. I cough, trying to push myself up from the dirty floor. My hands still clutch the heavy metal box Lord Valen gave me.Through the dust and smoke, the glow of blue swords lights up the ruins of our front wall. Elite guards step over the broken pieces of wood. Their metal masks catch the light, making them look less like men and more like machines built to kill.There he is, one guard says, pointing his blue blade right at my chest.I try to stand, but my legs feel weak. The shock of the explosion is still ringing in my ears.Before the guards can move forward, Lyra is suddenly there beside me. She does not look scared at all. Instead, she pulls a small black device from her green jacket and taps the glass screen with her thumb.Hold on to your metal box, trash picker, she says, her voice fast and sharp.She presses a red button on the device. A loud beep

The heavy iron door crashes inward, flying across the room and slamming into the concrete wall with a loud bang. A cloud of thick dust fills the air. Through the gray haze, elite guards flood into the space. Their black armor gleams under the flashing red alarm lights, and their blue swords hum with lethal energy.How did they find this base so fast?We only arrived here a few minutes ago. The underground hideout was supposed to be a secret, hidden deep beneath the city where the council could never reach us. Someone gave away our location. Someone sold us out.My mind flashes back to Jax and his cold, calculating eyes. Then I look at Lyra, standing right beside me in her green jacket. Her face is pale, but she is not looking at the guards. Her eyes are locked on the metal box resting on the wooden crate.Get down! Lyra shouts, pushing me hard to the side.A bright blue energy beam cuts through the air right where I was standing a second before, melting a deep hole into the concrete w

The glass desk under my hands cracks into a thousand tiny pieces.A loud wave of sound echoes through the high room, like a bell ringing inside a metal box. The white lights on the ceiling flicker and turn off. Every computer screen in the room goes dark for a second, then flashes back on with a bright purple glow.Council Head Vane stumbles backward, tripping over her own shoes and falling hard onto the clean white floor. Her face is pale with absolute panic. She points a shaking finger at me, unable to speak as the core system changes around us.What did you do? she gasps out, her voice tight with fear.I do not answer her. I look down at my hands. The purple light is not just shining on my skin anymore. It is flowing out of my fingers in thin streams of energy, connecting with the broken wires of the desk. The computer screens around the room start scrolling fast with long lines of text, numbers, and old files that the council tried to hide away forever.Lyra drops the heavy metal

The blue energy beam cuts through the air straight toward my chest.There is no time to duck. There is no time to think of a clever escape plan. I throw my hands out in front of me by pure instinct, and the purple light explodes from my palms with a blinding flash. The beam hits my wall of energy with a loud crack that shakes the metal platform beneath our feet.The force of the blast pushes me backward. My boots slide across the wet metal edge of the roof, and for a second, my heels hang over nothingness.Below us, hundreds of feet down, the dark slums of River City wait in the cold rain.Jax steps forward through the remaining smoke, his rifle still smoking from the shot. His face twists into an ugly sneer. He does not care about freeing the city or helping the poor people in the mud. He just wants the power for himself, and he is ready to throw anyone off the edge to get it.You should have stayed in the trash dump, kid, Jax says, raising his rifle for another shot. You were never