I could still taste the blood when they took me. It was fresh on my lips. Warm. It clung there as if it had a mind of its own. Like it wanted to make sure I didn’t forget what I had done.

  His name was… His name had been Moranco.

  Moranco had been a friend. Or the closest thing a low-born like me was ever supposed to have. The kind of friend you find when you both realize the world doesn’t have room to be kind to either of you.

  I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean to kill him.

  But intentions didn’t matter once the heart stopped beating.

  It had been like any other day. Stealing for the sake of survival. Yet, this time, Moranco had eyes for something greater. Something that would feed us not for a day, but for months. Years even. Something that belonged to the high-born. But it was all a trap. A ruse. We were never meant to get away with it.

  Moranco had made sure of that.

  The constables came fast. Of course they did. Skyreach always moved quickly when it decided you were a problem. They found me exactly where I’d frozen, still clutching my golden trinket like a child refusing to let go of a comfort blanket. Its sheen was beautiful in a sick, mocking way, marred only by the dried blood of my once-friend.

  One constable grabbed me, and in his grip I felt it: an enormous strength, the kind that didn’t belong to any ordinary person. Inhuman power. My fingers went numb. I dropped the golden trinket, shaped like a dragon’s egg, and before it could even kiss the stones, another constable caught it.

  He moved so fast my eyes couldn’t track him. I only saw an outline of where he’d been and where he was now, as if reality itself had stuttered.

  A brawler and a speedster for little old me. At least it wasn’t an enfeebler—

  Pain ricocheted through my skull.

  It wasn’t the normal kind of pain, the kind you could grit your teeth through. It was daggers in the brain, tearing away any flimsy defenses I’d ever built. I plunged to my knees and vomited onto one constable’s shoes.

  He muttered a curse and kicked me in the stomach. He held back. I knew he had. If he hadn’t, I would’ve been cleaved in two.

  “Skyreach collects its debts,” he said. “Even from low-born. You shouldn’t have resorted to killing. Stealing was bad enough, but killing? Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

  His voice was almost disappointed, as if I’d disappointed him. I owed him anything. I owed this city nothing. I owed nobody anything. All anyone had ever done was let me down. If the world were just, he’d grovel at my feet and beg forgiveness, not the other way around.

  But the world was not just. Far from it.

  His hand gripped me again, and I was lifted, dangling from one arm. My feet kicked uselessly at air. I looked out and saw the faces: horrified low-born, wide-eyed middle-born, and the distant, practiced indifference of those who knew they’d never be the ones hanging like this. To rise was power. To stand atop the world and look down while others looked up at you, that was a sight reserved for the high-born.

  I could see it in their gazes. In their eyes. The contempt. I was nothing. Less than nothing. Something to spit on. Something to throw away. They’d sooner watch me tumble out of the sky than feed or shelter me.

  But Moranco… Moranco had shared his shelter with me. It had been nothing more than a hidey-hole to keep the rain off. A cramped little corner of rot and splinters, but it had still been protection, nonetheless.

  So why… why had he betrayed me? Why had he informed the constables?

  Why had he made me kill him?

  They stripped me naked and dragged me through the streets. The rain came right on schedule, as if the city itself wanted to help wash me clean of whatever humanity I had left. The entire city descended through the clouds, and it was jarring only for a breath; then everyone settled as if it were routine.

  And why wouldn’t it be?

  None of them had ever set foot on bare land. I included. Skyreach was all there was: drifting stone and steel, mist and engine-hum, the endless sky above and the endless unknown beneath. The realm of monsters and madness.

  That was where I was destined to go.

  Either thrown from Skyreach… or handed a fate even worse.

  But first, I had to be judged.

  Armored in gleaming silver, the speaker’s body gave away nothing; man or woman, young or old. Their voice was magically enhanced, ringing out and echoing across rain-pattered streets.

  “Bear witness, rabble,” they said, “for one of you has desecrated this holy city and has slain one of your own. From low-born to high, all bleed. All live. And to take life unjustly is to forfeit your own in turn.”

  They shoved me before the judge and forced my face toward the cobbles. Freezing rain burned against my bare skin. Darkness thickened as we descended into a cumulonimbus cloud, and the air turned wet and bitter.

  The judge’s voice cut above all. “What is your name?”

  “Torr… en,” I muttered, teeth chattering. My voice sounded small. Pathetic. Like it belonged to someone who had already lost. With a sickening realization, I knew it did.

  I tried to glance up, but a constable forced my head down. His thick fingers bit into my skin.

  “Torren,” the judge repeated. “Now a criminal’s name. You shame all those who share it. Shame all who’ve come before and will come after. Now look up and be judged.”

  The constable’s hand slipped away. When I looked up, I saw a face of pure beauty—golden hair that shimmered despite the dimness, and golden eyes that glowed faintly as they swept over me.

  She cocked the barest grin.

  “I judge this one worthy of redemption.”

  My heart sank.

  Redemption. A pretty word for a slow death.

  “This one is to earn back his freedom,” the judge explained. “To pay his debt to society. Let it be known that the Lord Dragon Azhuriel has gifted me with this decision to make. May any who disagree step forward.”

  Nobody moved. Silence swallowed the rain.

  “Then I name thee Torren Skyrat. Get this bastard to a ship. Now!”

  ***

  They lined me up with three other criminals. I recognized one; more boy than man. He had been from Davey’s crew. Davey was mean in the way hunger made people mean. He didn’t care who bled as long as he got what he wanted, usually something illegal. He’d offered me a spot more times than I could count: slightly better living conditions and less food scarcity.

  I had always turned him down.

  This was why.

  Yet… I had ended up here all on my own anyway. The irony almost made me choke.

  Three skyships hummed nearby, their aether engines buzzing rhythmically. I recognized two: the Voidwake and the Dread Mercy. I’d heard stories about their captains, of how they threw their skyrats off the decks for mistakes, even minor ones. Out in the Wildclouds, a captain’s word was law. No judges. No constables. Just one person’s whims.

  Thinking about it, I couldn’t help but laugh. It wasn’t much different in Skyreach, truth be told. A high-born’s word was all it took to convict. Hell, I’d been convicted simply by being present.

  Even if I was guilty of the murder they accused me of.

  “This one,” a man said.

  He stood taller than me by a head, with blond slicked-back hair and a handlebar mustache that looked like it had its own personality. Tattoos crawled over him, the biggest a wingless serpent winding down his chest before disappearing under his white shirt. Something else glowed faintly beneath his sleeves. But what made him stand out most was the enormous hat he wore.

  “Are you sure?” a woman asked from behind him. She was his opposite: short, slender, with ebony skin, and flowing black hair that fell past her shoulders. “They say he’s a killer. A murderer. Killed his friend over a trinket, it seems.”

  “I am,” I replied. My voice came out bitter. “I’m nothing more than a murderer and a thief. Better you throw me from the sky.”

  The man cocked a wicked grin. “Oh, he’ll do. He’s perfect. He’s got a look about him. Grit. By the clouds, he’s literally laughing in the face of death.”

  My mouth snapped shut.

  The woman sighed. “I’ll tell the constables,” she muttered. “But he’s your pet, not mine. You train him.”

  “Aye,” the man said, clapping my shoulder hard enough to jolt my bones. “I’ve got just the job in store.”

  ***

  Two days sailing the clouds.

  Two days of vomiting, cleaning the deck, vomiting, scrubbing the head, vomiting, rigging, and more vomiting. I was ragged. Utterly exhausted. I hadn’t worked harder in my entire life, and I had spent my whole life working just to stay alive.

  I considered throwing myself from the ship more than a few times. It would’ve been so easy: one step, falling, falling, falling… then black.

  But people told stories. Stories of lost souls trapped on the cursed lands beneath. They said if you died beneath the clouds, you never truly rested. Purgatory, they called it. Hell, others said.

  I didn’t believe the stories.

  Yet they still held my feet in place whenever I neared the railing.

  Maybe I was just weak. Too pathetic. Maybe I deserved this: serving on a skyship like a rat in a cage, a fate many swore was worse than death.

  Then a man called from the crow’s nest. “Island!” he bellowed.

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  We all went to the railing, and for the first time in my life, I saw it.

  Land.

  Miles beneath us, it sprawled out, green and vibrant and impossibly real. It looked like a dream someone forgot to erase. Something in my chest shifted, aching in a way I didn’t recognize. What was this feeling? Peace? Hope?

  We set anchor. It was a glowing device connected to a chain, pulsing bright to dim every few seconds, holding the ship in place.

  Captain Zyren clapped me on the shoulder and handed me a small stone. “This is it,” he said. “You’ll be going down with the advance team.”

  “Me?” I stared at him. “Down there? Right now?”

  He nodded and grinned wide, twirling the edge of his mustache as if he were savoring the moment. “Aye. You’re fearless, lad, remember? It’s why I chose you. They need a third. Don’t worry your pretty little head though; we already scouted this island before. Cleared most of it out. It’s safe. Nothing greater than level 3.”

  “Level 3?” I echoed. “What in the sky does that mean?”

  “You’ll see. Now go on, get to the skiff. And don’t forget to see the figurehead before you go. Pyrax has been dying to meet you.”

  I swallowed hard and walked toward the prow. I rolled the small orb in my hand over and over. They called them Echo Cores, or Echoes for short. Power trapped in mist, made solid. Most crew had them socketed into their skin like jewels hammered into meat.

  I didn’t.

  Maybe Pyrax wanted to fix that.

  The thought made my stomach churn.

  As I approached, the figurehead turned to look at me. Large wings. A reptilian face. All carved wood, yet somehow alive in a way that made my skin crawl. Pyrax looked more lizard than man, though it carried distinctly male features: a powerful jaw, bulging biceps, false claws that flexed like they could actually tear.

  It reached out and touched my face.

  Cold, dry wood pressed against my skin. I flinched. The claw drew back and left a clean line and blood trickled down my cheek.

  “You,” Pyrax said simply. “You’ve avoided me. Why?”

  Truth be told, a talking wooden statue scared the shit out of me. I shoved that down and forced words out. “I… wasn’t sure it was proper to speak to you. Being new.”

  Pyrax nodded, as if that satisfied with the lie. “Then I wish you luck, newcomer. May we speak again when you return.”

  I nodded and backed away slowly.

  Why hadn’t anyone offered to implant the Echo in me? Was I just supposed to carry it? Did it even work that way?

  At the skiff, two others waited: Raze and Kade. I’d met them already. Raze was deeply tanned with short braided hair that looked almost gray despite her youth. Kade was darker still and bald, his expression carved from impatience. Both had at least four Echoes embedded in their skin, which glittered in the sun.

  “Get in,” Kade said.

  “And hurry up about it,” Raze added.

  I wordlessly stepped aboard. The skiff had enough room for four, maybe five if you packed in tightly. So the three of us fit nicely.

  A line was tied to the ship, and soon the skiff was released. We began floating down to the ground below.

  My breath caught. I had lived my whole life in the sky, but nobody ever talked about how high the sky really went.

  I tried not to look down.

  I failed.

  Below us stretched a vast forest in every direction. They called it an island, but it looked like a piece of a greater world; one the mist had peeled back. Nobody knew why the mist sometimes lightened, but when it did, the land was always changed. Altered. Never the same twice.

  My hands shook. Raze and Kade noticed and poked fun at me.

  I didn’t even mind. It was the most attention anyone had given me on the ship that wasn’t a boot or an order.

  “Listen,” Kade said, “things are about to get a bit… weird. Disorienting. Keep your head. When we tell you, use the Echo.”

  “How?” I asked.

  Kade snorted. “Just concentrate on it working, and it will. That’s it. Simple. Trust us.”

  I nodded wordlessly, trying not to let the panic of the unknown set in my heart. To infect my mind.

  We descended for the better part of half an hour. When we reached the ground, the skiff hovered just above a patch of green.

  “Grass,” Raze said, catching my confusion. “It’s called grass.”

  “Grass,” I repeated. The smell hit me: sharp and strange. It smelled nice. Fresh.

  “Don’t get sidetracked,” she said. “Stick close. Use the Echo when we say. Do that, and we’ll be back on the ship in no time.”

  I jumped off. The ground was softer than I expected, springy beneath my feet. The skiff bobbed gently above us, and my brain stupidly wondered what held it up.

  Then my head split open.

  Pain flashed through my body, as if something was trying to pry my skull apart from the inside.

  Do you hear me?

  “I… what?” I muttered, spinning.

  Kade grinned knowingly at me.

  Answer me, damn you.

  “I… yes?” My voice trembled.

  “You don’t have to speak,” Raze said. “Just think back to them.”

  … Yes, I replied in my mind.

  Finally! Now stand still; things are about to spin.

  Things are already spinning—

  The world whirled. My stomach lurched. When everything cleared, reality looked wrong.

  Boxes hovered everywhere: little frames with words. Names for everything. The grass. A rock. Even Kade and Raze had boxes, each with a number: 3 for Kade, 4 for Raze.

  I reached out and clicked Raze’s box.

  Information exploded across my vision: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence… numbers spilling out like a flood.

  What was this?

  “It’s called a system,” Kade explained without me even asking. “It’s how the figurehead shows what we need to know. Displays information. Those numbers are stats. We have them, you have them, and any enemy will have them too. Not important right now. Not sure why the damn figurehead gifted you a system at all… Whatever. Let’s move.”

  The information was too much and blocked my vision. I stumbled around.

  “Swipe it away,” Raze said.

  I flicked my wrist, and the information scattered, dissolving until only the small boxes remained.

  I followed, telling myself I’d figure out the madness later; if I lived long enough to have a later.

  The grass wasn’t the only new oddity. Trees, taller than me by a factor of ten, reached out longingly to the skies above. I wish I could explain that there was nothing but emptiness waiting for them up there.

  The path we followed looked walked with tiny footprints pressed into mud.

  “Are there others here?” I asked.

  Raze and Kade went quiet. After a moment, Raze said, “Only the mobs.”

  “Mobs?”

  “Monsters. Creatures. Whatever you want to call them. Things made in the mist.”

  “And they’re dangerous?”

  Kade sputtered a laugh. “Dangerous? Of course they’re dangerous. Why do you think we have Echoes?”

  I went quiet at the stupidity of my own question.

  On and on we went, and soon the lush forest turned into a crude society. Little huts of wood, mud, and brush stood out, yet there was nobody around.

  “Where are they?” I asked.

  “We cleared them out,” Kade replied. “Only the boss remains.”

  I opened my mouth, closed it again, and swallowed the question.

  Kade stopped and pressed a hand to my chest. “Alright. We’re here. This is perfect.”

  We stood in the middle of the abandoned village.

  “Okay,” I said. “So, what now?”

  Raze put a hand on my shoulder. She smelled of cinnamon, such a rare fragrance for a low-born to smell. She leaned close and whispered, “You’re going to help us. That Echo draws creatures to you. We need you to lure the boss here, and we’ll handle the rest.”

  “So I’m… bait?”

  Kade laughed. “Hardly. The Echo will protect you. The boss will never even see you. Promise.”

  I pulled out the orb. Swirling colors of red and purple seemed to radiate from within.

  “Hold it to your skin,” Raze said. “Imagine it working.”

  Squaring my shoulders, I removed my glove and held it, imagining something happening.

  Nothing did.

  “Try again,” Kade said.

  I put my hand close to my chest and felt… something?

  “Close,” Raze murmured. “Once more.”

  I pulled down my shirt and pressed the orb directly to the skin above my heart.

  It felt both cold and warm at the same time. Like burning ice. And just like that, I felt something happen: a power unlike anything I had felt before surged through me.

  A box flashed in front of my face:

  Hateful Aura — Activate

  Heat radiated from my skin. The air shimmered red around me, distorted.

  Raze smiled. “Good. Now, remember: stay here. Do not move. No matter what happens. Just trust us.”

  I nodded.

  Raze and Kade slipped into the brush, taking positions to ambush whatever they’d called a boss.

  I waited.

  And waited.

  And waited some more.

  Where are they?

  A roar, ear-piercing, rang out, sending various birds and creatures scattering.

  The Captain wants to thank you… for your sacrifice.

  My… sacrifice?

  The ground shook. Heavy, lumbering steps rolled through the earth. My legs went weak. I tried to stand tall. I couldn’t. I fell flat on my ass.

  The surrounding huts collapsed into piles of wood as if the village itself flinched.

  Rising above a nearby hill, I saw metal; a helmet of sorts. Then tusks. And arms. A massive chest, and huge legs… and eventually a spiked club larger than my entire body.

  A box appeared:

  Name: Gullin

  Level: 30

  Threat Level: Red

  Description: A boar-like humanoid said to be like a god to lesser creatures, drawn to the golden luster of its fur. It carries a massive club, but finds little reason to use it given its relative size.

  Stats: Unknown

  Abilities: Unknown

  My mind went blank, and then filled with one screaming thought…

  They lied.

  Gullin stood upright like a man, golden fur bristling, tusks curving like knives. It wore clothing, some of it stretched tight across bulging muscle.

  Every part of me begged to run, but I couldn’t outrun that thing. I knew it.

  Gullin turned. It leaned down, sniffed, then… ran away from me.

  It smashed through trees as if they were twigs. Dirt exploded. Trunks cracked. Its hooves pounded the earth so hard it bounced me like a toy.

  Then all went still.

  Maybe that was it? Maybe all I had needed to do was draw it out? Maybe it was over? Maybe—

  Slam!

  The ground beneath me cracked and splintered. My body went airborne. Pain lanced through me as I hit what remained of the earth. My wrist twisted wrongly. I screamed.

  When I looked up, Gullin loomed over me, wearing a wicked smile that looked obscene beneath tusks.

  And then it dropped two bodies at my feet.

  Raze and Kade.

  They were mangled. Raze was barely more than a torso and head. Kade still had limbs, but they bent in ways limbs weren’t meant to bend. Both were alive. Both wailed.

  My broken wrist suddenly felt like nothing.

  “You… fucking… coward,” Kade seethed. His eyes were wild with fury and terror. “You were supposed to die for us. To sacrifice yourself so we could steal the treasure, you stupid fuck!”

  Something cold spread through my chest.

  That was when I noticed the red shimmer, the aura I’d once had, was gone. It must have vanished when I had seen the boss; my concentration broken.

  Raze tried to speak, lips moving, but her injuries were too grave. Her eyes rolled back, and then her body vanished under a cloven hoof, smashed as if she’d never been anything at all.

  A fine red mist filled the air.

  I breathed it in.

  It tasted like metal. It burned my eyes and throat. That was all that remained of Raze.

  Kade screamed, babbling, pleading, and cursing, until the hoof came down and ground him into paste.

  I didn’t scream.

  I didn’t beg.

  Nor Curse.

  Or cry.

  I simply sat there, numb and hollow, while my mind finally accepted what my body had known all along.

  I stared up at the hoof hovering above me.

  I closed my eyes.

  Stomp.

  Stomp…

  Stomp……

  Huh?

  I opened my eyes.

  Gullin walked away.

  It left me alive.

  Why?

  Kade’s words echoed within me: “Sacrifice yourself so we could steal the treasure.” Maybe that was all it cared about? Maybe it had dragged them to me like a warning? Maybe it wanted me to carry that warning back?

  Was it really that intelligent?

  I forced myself to stand, shaking. My wrist throbbed, but it barely registered against the weight in my chest.

  Up above, the anchor glowed in the sky like a beacon; a cruel star pointing the way home.

  I stumbled back toward the skiff, clutching my broken wrist, trying not to let the totality of it all crush what little sanity I had left.