Prologue

  My eyes were closed.

  Composed.

  Ready.

  Wind swept across my face—crisp, clean, edged with altitude. The cliff’s edge thrummed beneath me, alive with tension.

  I lay prone, coiled tight like a macaque in tension, every muscle tuned to the stillness.

  It was all simulated, of course.

  This was the Solari Academy’s finest Tessereactor suite, the largest on Earth, rigged for the final examination of the Security Division’s graduating class.

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  But to my senses, it was completely real.

  The scent of pine, the distant drone of birds, the steady heartbeat of danger below—it was all designed to test not only our skills, but our instincts.

  Three years of training. Dozens of trials. Nights spent alone with tactical theory.

  Mornings spent bleeding in the gym. Hundreds of combat drills, team exercises, survival simulations.

  All for this.

  This final exam—the culmination of every bruise, every mistake, every sleepless night and pre-dawn run across the academy’s empty courtyards.

  I passed this—and I’m accepted into the final year.

  This wasn’t the first time I’d stood at the edge.

  Just… the first time the air didn’t taste like cold and panic.

  The first-time breathing didn’t feel like a debt.

  I opened my eyes.

  Resolved.

  I have been preparing too long to screw it up now.