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  Chapter 1

  I clenched my teeth as I readied myself to be burned again. Artemis seemed to enjoy this method of torture over all of his other ones. Since my burns didn’t heal as fast as the cuts or bruises, he decided to stick with burning my skin with hot iron rods while keeping me strapped down to a spiked chair that drew blood from my bottom, legs, back, and arms. I thought that after losing so much, he would release me over to the nurses, but since my cuts only took a few minutes to restore back to normal, he felt no need. The more stress that my body endured, the harder it worked itself to heal. I was supposedly the only student in the academy that could heal this fast, but it worked out since I was bullied and tortured the most.

  Major Artemis St. James smiled as he placed the end of the iron rod against my neck. I grunted and shook in the chair, trying to keep from crying out. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream, although that might have just been what I needed to do in order for him to go easy on me. I should’ve just given him what he wanted, but I was stubborn.

  Artemis pulled the iron from my neck and pushed his long black hair back. “You’re still trying to play tough, Rayah,” he sighed. His piercing blue eyes stared into mine, sending chills down my spine in the heated room. “But I can see through your act. You tried this when you were a child, remember?” He walked back to the fire pit and pulled out a second iron rod, flinging the old one to the ground. “But I’ve always found a way through that wall you put up.” He raised the rod into the air while gazing at it for a moment, then slowly turned his head to face me. “You’re still that same little girl.”

  My heart pounded against my chest. I didn’t know what he was planning, but I knew that it’d be painful. I wanted to beg for him to stop, but my mouth wouldn’t open. I just kept it shut with my teeth clenched, hoping that I wouldn’t crack any.

  Artemis slowly walked in my direction with the iron rod still raised, then stopped in front of me with a smirk on his face, and a strange glimmer in his eyes. He reminded me so much of someone else that I knew, but I couldn’t think of who at the moment, and when he leaned down to level with me, I stopped thinking all together.

  “You look so much like your mother,” he said before using his free hand to release my dark hair out its bun. “But act so much like someone I knew…” My hair fell in waves over my shoulders. “I prefer it down.” His own long hair hung by the sides of his face. To others he was considered a very handsome man, but to me he looked disgusting. I hated his face, his smile, his smell－everything about him. “Why do you look so afraid now, Rayah?” he asked as he grabbed my chin. “I thought that you were tough?”

  My eyes widened as he slowly brought the hot side of the rod towards me. “Don’t,” I said, flinching away.

  Artemis chuckled as he continued to bring it closer to my cheek. When I flinched again, he grabbed me by my neck and slammed the back of my head against the chair, but not hard enough for the spikes to do any serious damage besides drawing more blood.

  Once the iron was close enough for me to feel the heat emitting from it, I whimpered, and when it was pressed against my cheek …I screamed.

  ~~~

  Lytonia, the Lighter Nation. The land of the strong and the great. Ellison Monroe’s utopia…only if felt like the complete opposite.

  The God of Love, Vexton, gave Ellison the knowledge of the gods, so that he could understand the history of how the new world came to be, and Ellison used that knowledge to help build Lytonia. I’m sure that it was for good intentions, but things just didn’t turn out the way that they should have. At least, that’s how I feel, because I’ve learned the history of the gods, and I don’t believe that this nation is what should have come of Vexton’s sacrifices.

  Vexton was once the God of Rage until he converted over to the God of Love. He had two brothers, Somatrius: The God of Wrath, and Kalison: The God of Hate. The three of them fought in the Gods Realm under an agreement that the last brother standing would get to fight their father, Kalsoton: The God of Destruction, and their god king.

  Years passed by as the brothers fought one another, causing destruction and chaos in the Human Realm. The storms that the brothers caused destroyed homes and families, leaving people homeless and alone. Slowly, but surly, the world began to crumble. People stole, killed, fought, raped, and tortured one another until suicide became their only option for peace.

  As more time passed by, Somatrius and Kalison realized that they wouldn’t be able to defeat their older brother unless they worked together, so they tried to kill him, but Vexton proved to be stronger than they thought. Vexton lost the battle against his brothers, but he didn’t lose his life. He had fallen into the Human Realm where he lost his memories and powers instead.

  In the Human Realm Vexton met a woman who eventually gave birth to his son, Soton. He was pleased with his family and of the life that he lived, subconsciously converting into the God of Love. That’s when his memories came back, and he regained his powers, but following his realization came tough decisions.

  Vexton needed to fix what he helped break. The Human World, the world that he should have been protecting instead of using as a fighting ground, had to be repaired, so he left his family and went back to the Gods Realm where he fought and defeated his brothers, locking them away. Not long after that, he fought his father and won. Love had conquered all.

  Vexton became the God King, but not before asking his father to use his powers of destruction to destroy the world, cleansing it, and therefore creating a new one. Kalsoton agreed to help his son, and not because he was the God of Destruction, but because he saw Vexton as a true king and was willing to do the right thing for him.

  Vexton lost his family in the cleansing without so much as a goodbye to them, but it was for the greater good. He then started a new world with new people, giving them a small portion of all of the three royal gods’ powers. It was a random choosing of which gods’ power went to who, but once a person’s light energy glowed, they could tell.

  Vexton’s light was a turquoise blue, Somatrius’ was dark blue, and Kalison’s was white. The new descendants of the gods were born with either color light inside of them, therefore making them a Vex, a Soma, or a Kali.

  After Ellison Monroe was born with the knowledge of the gods, he spread the word about them. He taught others, preaching about a nation where they could prevent chaos from ever occurring again with the outcome of his work becoming Lytonia.

  I’m not sure if he meant to make Vexes the high class, Somas the middle class, and Kalis the lower class, but that’s how things turned out. I bet that he never expected for there to be a Null class. A class where there were people that couldn’t use their Lighter powers, therefore they were neither Vex, Soma, or Kali. Nulls were hard to find, but I happened to see one every time that I looked in the mirror.

  I couldn’t bring forth my light energy, disgracing my family and myself. My Father was a high leveled Vex, and my Mother was currently a slave, but before she became one she was a high leveled Soma. They were both legendary for their powers and time spent in the Wild Lands as collectors.

  In Monroe Academy, we were taught that collectors collected savages that lived outside of the walls to bring them back to serve and expand our nation. The people in the Wild Lands were free to do as they pleased, and from what I’ve seen, they weren’t savages at all. Some were kind, and some were not. I know this because I’ve been there. I go to the Wild Lands almost every night.

  When I first started going, I thought that I was only dreaming, but it turned out that I wasn’t. Soren showed me that. I might have been labeled as a Null in the Lighter Nation, but outside of these walls I was much more. I was someone powerful
, and yet, I couldn’t use my powers. All I knew so far was that as I slept, I could sometimes jump out of my body in my Lighter Form. Something only the elite Lighters can do.

  I wanted to tell people about my new-found ability, but there was something different about me than the other students, and in Lytonia different was bad, so I continued to act as if I were just a Null, which wasn’t very hard on account that I still couldn’t emit light. The problem with that is that I still received the treatment of a Null.

  The pain and torture for me was never ending, and after I lost Tristan it only seemed to have gotten worse. The only person that could truly brighten my day was Soren, but he lived in the Wild Lands, and my time there was limited. He couldn’t hold my hand through the hallways as my peers gave me dirty looks, he couldn’t tell me to be strong when a professor pointed out my short comings, and he couldn’t protect me from Artemis. Soren might as well have only been a dream, because him being real meant nothing. I was trapped in Lytonia, and he was outside of the nation’s inescapable walls.

  Chapter 2

  I stared at my reflection through the mirror in my dorm, waiting on something to happen, but there was nothing. A few weeks ago, I was staring into a cracked version of this mirror and watched as my eyes went from green to black. They were only black for a moment, but long enough for me to start to worry. I repeatedly told myself that it was just my body going through changes, because I was still developing as a Lighter, but I knew that there was another reason for what happened. It wasn’t normal, and I couldn’t go to anyone for help about it. I thought of telling Soren, but I didn’t want him to think differently of me. Right now, he was the only person that I could really turn to in my moments of need. He made me smile, and he could make me laugh. We had fun. I wasn’t used to doing things like that, but when I was with him I would just forget about Lytonia. I wasn’t ready to feel like an outcast around him yet.

  I met Soren in the Wild Lands one night after jumping from my body in my sleep. I still never figured out why I jumped there, or how I could jump there on account that Lighters could only jump to places that they’ve been before, and I’ve never been to the Wild Lands in my physical form. I’ve never even been outside of the walls.

  Even though this was all still very unexpected and new to me, I wasn’t complaining. Having the ability to jump was like a gift from the gods, and all I had to do was go to sleep. My light energy would then form into a duplicate version of me, leaving behind only ten percent of the energy that my body needed to stay alive. After three days of being away from it, I was likely to die, so I always had to come back to Lytonia before then.

  After the few weeks passed, I learned how to leave the Wild Lands, but I had no control of jumping. I could have jumped anywhere, but luckily, I always ended up where ever Soren was. It was as if we were connected somehow.

  Soren was a Gods Son. A Defect. His light was a lime green color, different from the three classes, and he also had all three abilities where Lytonians could only master one. There were Brights, Dim’s, and Elem’s. Brights had an incredible speed and strength, Dim’s could form their light into any weapon that they wanted, and Elem’s could form theirs into either fire, water, or lightning. Based on their gene’s any three classes, either a Vex, a Soma, or a Kali, could have any one ability to master.

  Defects were known as The Gods Children: descendants of Somatrius and Kalison, but I’ve learned from Soren himself that his kind take after all three brothers. At the academy, we’re taught that The Gods Children were evil beings, but they weren’t. It was possible for them to turn evil, but they weren’t born that way. Soren was good. He was actually one of the kindest people that I’ve ever met.

  I smiled at the thought of him, giving myself butterflies, but when my thoughts flipped over to Tristan, my smile faded. I still couldn’t get over his death. He had become a slave after failing to reach level six before turning twenty, and I knew that I would never see him again, but I guess there was a part of me that had some kind of hope. We had grown up in the academy. It was always me, him, and Carmen, but now it was just Carmen and me.

  Tristan activated his collar while under the watch of his master, and it killed him. I couldn’t believe my ears the night that Carmen told me, but then again, I could believe it, because I understood why he did it. Tristan was strong, hard-working, and prideful, and after everything that he went through the government reduced him to a lowly slave all because he couldn’t reach level six. He killed himself… If my Mother hadn’t sacrificed her freedom for me to have more time to reach my required level, then I would have done the same. I had to get her away from Artemis, which is the only reason that I hadn’t offed myself yet.

  My door slid open and Carmen stepped inside, giving the dull room a little life with her caramel colored skin. Her blond frizzy curls were pulled back into a tight bun, and she wore her navy-blue one-piece suit with a pair of navy blue shoes.

  “We should start heading to class,” she said. “Fix your bun.”

  When I looked into the mirror, I saw nothing wrong with the bun on my head. Carmen was usually the one who put it together for me, but lately she seemed a bit off, keeping her distance. She never told me how she came to find out of Tristan’s death, and after that night she wasn’t the same. She was sad. Depressed even. Emotions like these were discouraged at the academy, making me worry about her performance in her classes. She was a level eight Soma Elem, but if her performance dropped, and she couldn’t reach level nine on her twenty-third birthday, then she would be stripped of her rank and made into a slave for the high class Vexes.

  I didn’t know what to do, but I couldn’t let that happen to her, so I tried my best to keep a positive attitude whenever we were around each other.

  “What’s wrong with it?” I asked, looking for any loose strands.

  Carmen sighed and looked up at the clock on the wall before walking behind me. I watched through the mirror as she gently pushed a few loose strands of hair up into my bun.

  “Better.” She looked at me through the mirror for a few seconds with sad brown eyes, but then they turned hard again. “Let’s get to class.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said in a low tone. I followed her out of my dorm and through the dormitory. She only had access to it because she was authorized by me, but if she wasn’t, then she’d be penalized for trespassing. Only three visitors per student were authorized to enter a dormitory that wasn’t theirs, and it was a very strict rule around here. About a month ago, a student named Kaydar entered my dormitory with two others and cornered me in my own dorm. I was beaten to unconsciousness by his accomplice, named Sandra. She was a level eight Kali Bright, but recently I’ve been hearing rumors about her leveling up to nine. It was hard to believe that I beat her in a fight when I was just a kid.

  As Carmen and I continued to walk through the halls, I noticed a few eyes glance in my direction, but when they landed on Carmen they quickly turned away. No one wanted to mess with her, even before Tristan’s death, and now that she looks like she wants to hurt everyone, they didn’t even want to make eye contact with her.

  I followed Carmen into the lecture hall and down a few steps to our row of tables, and then over to our seats. We were early as normal and waited for the rest of the class to fill. What wasn’t normal was the silence between the two of us. Carmen usually would talk about our last lesson, or something related to learning, because that’s what she loved to do. She was a great fighter and would make an amazing collector one day, but she loved the technical stuff. When Carmen wasn’t helping me train, she was studying.

  I took a deep breath and offered her a smile, “So, what do you think we’ll be going over today?”

  Carmen didn’t look at me and continued to stare forward, causing my smile to fade. “I’m not sure.”

  My eyebrows drew together in concern. “Well, what did we go over the last lecture?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  I lick
ed my lips and sighed, turning away from her. I could still remember the pained expression in her eyes the night she told me that Tristan was dead. I had never seen her like that before, and I’ve never held her－or anyone－the way that I did with her. She cried for hours that night, and I couldn’t provide one comforting word. The loss of our friend made me feel pain that I never knew I could feel, but it did something to her, and I was afraid that I couldn’t help her.

  “Carmen…”

  Carmen turned her head to look at me with cold dark eyes, “I’m okay, Rayah. I don’t just get over things the way that you do, but I’m okay.”

  I frowned at her, suddenly angered by her words. Carmen didn’t bat an eye and faced the front of the class again. I couldn’t believe that she had just said that. I didn’t just get over Tristan. It was killing me inside to know that he was no longer living, but I couldn’t mope around about it. I didn’t have the time or the energy.

  But I had Soren to help me ...

  Soren didn’t ask me why I was so sad the next time that I saw him, but he tried to comfort me anyways. I stood in front of him in the blue tinted forest with tears glossing over my eyes, and once his set on mine, he pulled me into his arms. I wanted to sob－ to scream, but I couldn’t. I just let my head rest on his chest and took in his warmth. At the time, it was all that I really needed. Warmth.

  Carmen gave a deep sigh, “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, facing the front of the class again.

  We didn’t speak for the rest of the class session, and once it was over neither of us said goodbye to one another. I wanted to, but when I noticed the cold look on her face, I hesitated. She just turned her back to me and walked away, probably not even thinking about how doing that made me feel.

  ~~~

  I sat through Math class alone, as I’ve been doing since Tristan was collard, and patiently waited for it to end. I was excited to go to my next class, because it was the only place in the academy that I was considered and equal, and also somewhere that I could blow off some steam. Combat Training was next, and light energy wasn’t allowed to be used during that session, so I had no trouble fighting against the other students.