The Trash Picker and the Secret King

Inside the Glass Tower

The cold metal cuffs clamp down hard around my wrists. I pull against them, but the heavy steel does not give an inch. Two guards grab my arms and drag me forward, their heavy boots slamming against the shiny white floor.

I look up, and the view takes my breath away.

We are standing inside the highest glass tower of River City. Down below, thousands of tiny lights twinkle in the muddy slums where I spent my whole life picking trash. Up here, the air smells clean and sweet, far away from the dirt and the rot. But there is no warmth in this place. The walls are made of clear glass, and the lights are bright and sharp like ice.

They bring me down a long, wide hallway until we stop in front of a massive set of silver doors. The symbols carved into the metal match the ones on the heavy box LordValen gave me. This is the central vault. This is where the council rules the city from the shadows.

The silver doors slide open with a soft hiss. The guards push me inside, and I stumble forward, catching myself on the smooth floor.

Sitting at the center of the room behind a large glass desk is a woman with silver hair and a sharp, cruel face. Her dark coat is decorated with shiny gold badges that show she rules the city council. Standing right beside her desk, holding the heavy metal box in her hands, is Lyra.

Lyra is not wearing her green jacket anymore. She wears a clean white tunic that marks her place among the elite. She looks down at the metal box with a quiet, satisfied smile, showing no trace of the rebel girl who ran through the mud with me just an hour ago.

You brought him just as planned, Lyra, the silver-haired woman says, her voice smooth and cold. The council is very pleased.

Thank you, Council Head Van, Lyra replies calmly. The boy was easy to manipulate. He believed every word about being a lost king.

Hearing her say those words makes the blood boil in my veins. Every memory of running through the alleys with her, every shared word in the dark hideout, was just a calculated trick to get past the security gates. She used my need for answers to open the most dangerous door in the city.

I pull hard against the steel cuffs on my wrists, glaring right at her. You lied about everything, I say, my voice shaking with raw anger. You are not a rebel. You are one of them.

Lyra turns her dark eyes toward me. She does not look away or show any guilt. Her face remains completely blank.

I told you the truth about one thing, Kian, Lyra says smoothly. "Everyone in River City does what they have to do to survive. You played your part as the bait. Now my family can take back total control of the network.

Council Head Vane stands up from her desk and walks slowly toward me. Her heels click sharply against the white floor. She stops right in front of me, looking down with a mix of disgust and triumph.

For fifteen years, your parents tried to destroy what we built here, Council Head Vane says quietly. They thought a royal bloodline could stop the progress of River City. We locked them away in the labs, and we wiped your memory so you would grow up harmless in the dirt. But your blood still carries the activation code for the core computer.

She points a long, thin finger at the heavy metal box on her desk.

Put your hands on the vault scanner, she commands. Open the system so we can lock down the slums forever.

I will never do it, I spit out, glaring right back into her cold eyes. You can kill me right here, but I will never help you.

Council Head Vane smiles, a thin, ugly twist of her lips. She does not look angry at all. She simply turns to the two elite guards standing behind me.

He does not need to cooperate to bleed, she says calmly. Cut his hands.

One of the guards steps forward, raising his glowing blue sword. He grabs my right arm and forces me down onto my knees against the hard white floor. The sharp edge of the blue blade presses right against my scarred skin, ready to slice open my palms.

I close my eyes for a single second, feeling the deep pain of everything I have lost. Aunt Elena is dead. My parents were tortured. And I walked right into a trap because I wanted to believe I was someone special.

I am not a king. I am just a boy from the dump.

Except the purple light beneath my skin does not listen to my doubts.

A sudden, intense heat explodes across my palms. The heavy steel cuffs around my wrists begin to glow red, then white, before they burst apart with a deafening pop of melting metal.

The guard holding me lets out a sharp cry and drops his sword as the intense wave of purple energy hits him like a freight train. He flies backward, crashing hard through the glass wall of the tower.

Council Head Vane stumbles back, her face losing all its color. "Stop him! Do not let him touch the console! she shouts.

I stand straight up, the purple fire blazing from my hands with a brightness that fills the entire room. I look at Lyra, whose confident smile finally turns into wide-eyed shock.

Before any other guards can move, I slam both of my glowing hands directly into the central glass console on the desk.

The entire tower shakes violently, and every light in the glass room instantly turns from white to a blinding, roaring purple.