re was only the smell of sawdust, old library books, and the humid summer air of

had a stained denim apron. He spent his summers in his father's failing carpentry

scrap plywood. He didn't just want to build; he wanted to defy gravity. He lived in a world of Static Equilibrium, where

ack of cedar planks, "I'm going to build something that people can't ig

arnished interior. Her mother, Evelyn, was already grooming her for the high-society cir

eauty of the bridge; she was i

"You have to own the land. You have to write the contract so they can't take it a

nts" like Victor Hale men who spoke in soft tones while they took everything. Her dream wasn't just to

ne quarry at the edge of town. From the highest ledge, they could see th

rock line, Ian handed her a small piece of polis

alf-joking but entirely seri

untouchable." The First Shadow, It was that same summer that Victor Hale first appeared in their town. He wasn't a villain yet; he was a "Speci

had noticed Collette not with affection, but with the cold eye of a scout recognizing a high-value ass

then. He simply made a n

that dreams come with a price, and that some people specialize in collecting. The goodbye didn't happen at a party or a graduation ceremony. It happ

s headed to a state school three hundred miles away, a grueling engineering program he'd barely managed to afford by selling his father's remaining tools. Collette stood opposite him, clu

ess of the woods. "In four years, I'll have the degree. I'll

verything is changing. My mother... She's already talking about 'networking' and 'debt.' I feel like I'm being drafted into a war I don't know how to fight yet." The

nough, the height doesn't matter. I don't care who you have to talk to or what books you have to read. You're the anchor. I'm the bridge. That's math." C

nt them a decade later. "Every summer. Every break. I won't let