Chapter One: Borrowed Wind

The empowered called it sinking into the dream—the moment when someone fell so deeply into a power that they forgot who they were. The man raised a hand. Lightning severed the front coupling, and the car slid toward empty air. A green figure swept along the viaduct. The professional hero Yue Lan rode a compressed current through the window and caught the falling steel on a cushion of wind. She was Windspine, a Silver-Ring Seven whose face smiled from billboards. Now blood ran from her nose. “I can hold it for ninety seconds. Cross to the rear car in order.” The passengers surged together. Lin saw the load curve on the maintenance display turn red. If forty people crossed at once, the bridge between the cars would fail.