Lucas didn't dream anymore.Whatever piece of him could escape into sleep had been torn out the moment the mark branded his skin. Now there was only sterile light, questions without voices, and the hum of machines dissecting him one nerve at a time. He lay shirtless in the heart of the Poper facility, strapped to a medical slab surrounded by medics and masked figures in pristine uniforms. Their badges bore the burnished claw of the Poper emblem—a cold reminder that he wasn’t a cadet anymo...