THE THRONE THAT HEAVEN FEARED

I didn’t choose to be a doormat. I chose to survive.

But as I knelt in the dirt of the Phoenix Academy courtyard, the copper taste of blood coating my tongue, survival felt like a losing bet. The white marble of the pavilion was stained by my sweat. Above me, Rafe Valerius looked down with the bored eyes of a god looking at an insect.

"Look at it, everyone," Rafe shouted, his voice carrying across the hundreds of students gathered in the stands. "The last 'Lord' of the House of Cinder. My father’s janitor."

The crowd erupted in laughter.

"Does he even have a pulse, Rafe?" someone yelled from the front row. "He looks like a corpse already!"

"That’s the beauty of it," Rafe grinned, sparks of blue electricity dancing between his fingers. "He’s a live target that doesn’t hit back. The perfect punching bag for the Valerius Lightning Arts."

I gripped the dirt, my fingernails drawing blood from my own palms. Don't move. Don't spark. Don't fight. If the Academy sensors detected a single hertz of internal energy from me, the overhead turrets would turn me into ash before I could blink.

"Hey, trash," Rafe said, stepping closer. He kicked my shoulder, sending me sprawling. "Look at me when I’m talking to you."

I pushed myself back to my knees, keeping my head low. "I’m listening, Young Master Rafe."

Slap!

The back of his hand caught me across the face so hard my vision blurred. The "face-slapping" wasn't metaphorical. It was his favorite pastime.

"You don't speak unless I ask a question," Rafe hissed. "Now, stay still. I need to show the freshmen how to arc the Bolt of Retribution. It requires a grounded conductor. And you, Cassian, are the best ground in the city."

"Rafe, isn't that a bit much?" a girl’s voice called out—Elena, a girl whose family used to beg for my father's favor. "He's just a janitor now. You'll kill him."

"Kill him?" Rafe laughed, his hand glowing with a blinding, jagged light. "He’s survived three sessions this week. He’s sturdier than he looks. Besides, who cares about a dead dog?"

The air hummed. The smell of ozone filled my nostrils, making my hair stand on end. I felt the sensors on the pillars rotating, locked onto my position. They weren't looking for Rafe's violence; they were looking for my defense.

"Hold still, janitor!" Rafe roared.

CRACK.

The first bolt hit my shoulder. It felt like a molten rebar being driven through my bone. I didn't scream. I bit my lip until it burst, the red liquid dripping onto the white marble.

"Still standing?" Rafe mocked. He turned to the crowd. "See that? Most of you would have fainted. This is why you need to focus on the piercing aspect of the lightning, not just the spread."

"Again!" the crowd cheered. "Hit him again!"

Rafe’s eyes gleamed with malice. He leaned down, whispering so only I could hear. "I saw you looking at the archives yesterday, Cassian. Thinking about your family’s old scrolls? Thinking you can find a way back?"

"I was cleaning the floor, Rafe," I gritted out.

"Liars get fried," Rafe said. He raised both hands. The sky seemed to darken as he drew power from the Academy’s spire.

"Stop it, Rafe! You're going to trigger the sensors!" Elena shouted, standing up.

"The sensors only trigger on unauthorized cultivation," Rafe laughed. "And since I’m a Valerius, I’m authorized. He, however, is not."

He stepped within an inch of me. I could feel the heat radiating off his skin.

"Let’s see how much 'Lord' is left in that blood," Rafe sneered. "This is the Killing Blow: Heaven’s Descent!"

I looked up. The blue light was so bright it turned the world white. My heart hammered against my ribs—a frantic, trapped bird. This is it. He’s actually going to do it. He’s going to kill me right here in front of everyone.

"Die like the dog you are!" Rafe screamed.

He slammed his palms into my chest.

A pillar of pure, unrestrained lightning descended. The ground beneath me shattered. The shockwave sent the students in the front rows scrambling back as dust and debris obscured the courtyard.

Inside my mind, everything went silent.

The dark space I had lived in for years—the void where my sealed power was locked away to keep me invisible—suddenly began to vibrate. A sound like grinding tectonic plates echoed through my skull.

Crack.

A golden screen in my consciousness, etched with ancient runes, developed a spiderweb of fractures.

[WARNING: EXTERNAL ENERGY THRESHOLD EXCEEDED.]

The voice wasn't human. It was cold, metallic, and resonated from the very marrow of my bones.

[VOID-DEVOURING SEAL: 99% SATURATION...]

[100% SATURATION REACHED.]

The lightning was still pouring into me, a torrent of lethal energy meant to vaporize my heart. But it wasn't burning anymore. It felt... cold.

[COMMENCING FIRST MEAL.]

Suddenly, the pressure vanished.

The blinding blue light didn't explode outward. It didn't fry my skin. Instead, it began to spiral, swirling like water down a drain, right into the center of my chest.

Rafe’s triumphant grin froze. His eyes went wide, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. "What... what are you doing? Why aren't you dead?"

"I don't know, Rafe," I whispered, my voice sounding deeper, layered with a strange echo.

I looked down at my hands. Black veins were pulsing under my skin, reaching up toward my throat. The massive bolt of lightning—the one meant to be his masterpiece—was being sucked into my body. It vanished into me like a pebble thrown into a bottomless well.

"My power!" Rafe shrieked, trying to pull his hands away. "You're draining me! Stop it! Security! He’s cultivating! The sensors—look at the sensors!"

We both looked up.

The Academy sensors were spinning wildly, red lights flashing. But they weren't firing. They were confused. The energy wasn't being emitted; it was being erased.

I looked back at Rafe. For the first time in five years, the fear in the courtyard wasn't mine. It was his.

"Rafe," I said, my hand moving on its own, catching his wrist in a grip that cracked the bone. "You said I was a good conductor."

"Let go! Someone help me!" Rafe screamed, his face turning pale as his very life force began to bleed into the void within me.

The mechanical voice spoke one last time, echoing with a hunger that terrified even me.

[CALIBRATION COMPLETE. TARGET IDENTIFIED: VALERIUS BLOODLINE.]

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONSUME THE SOURCE?]

The courtyard went deathly silent as the dust cleared, revealing the janitor holding the Young Master by the throat, the sky above them turning a bruised, unnatural purple.

I felt a smile touch my lips—a smile I didn't recognize.

"Yes," I whispered.