Chapter 2: Cass Meridian, Interrupted

The lightning came in three waves.

Cass had been taught this since before she could name it—the first wave to cleanse, the second to consecrate, the third to seal. Seventeen years of preparation for thirty seconds of divine fire, and she had waited for all of them with the specific patience of someone who has never been allowed to be impatient about anything that mattered. The custodians had been very clear on this point. Patience was the first discipline. Patience was how you survived carrying storm-charge in your blood without burning from the inside out.

She was on the third wave when the world unfolded her like a piece of paper.