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nonexistence.

CHAPTER 5
    Caz
Retha
20 years pre-RAGE
    Lightning pulsed deep within the threatening electrical storm, brightening the elegant arches of Vislane Academy. The trees of the rare and protected envirophylum cast a sharp relief around the tall building. Smaller buildings bowed to the left of the academy, low and squat as though cowed by the magnificence above them. Lightning shattered the sky again, bringing deep rolling thunder. The metallic surfaces mirrored back the lightning, striking light across the collection of children.
    Caz’s breath misted before her. A cold, dry breeze lifted the silvery curls of her hair, bringing with it the strange, earthen scents of the phylum. She stood apart from the group, with her back to the academy and her feet planted wide on the slick, coppery ground. Her hands clenched near her sides. The clouds rolling overhead mimicked the darkness welling in her chest. Using her shoulder, she rubbed an ache above her left ear.
    A handsome boy, standing head and shoulders above the group, held her attention. Vin. His white teeth gleamed in the failing light as he laughed at the words of a smaller friend. A chorus of laughter from the group warmed the air about them, leaving Caz alone in the cold outskirts. She narrowed her eyes to slits of silver and ground her teeth.
    She was going to kill him this time, no question.
    Caz shoved children aside and lunged. Her shoulder buried in the softness of Vin’s solar plexus. The air went out of him in a humph. His head made a ringing sound as it struck the copper surface of the ground. Caz sat on his stomach, managing to pin his arms to his sides with her knees. His eyes crossed, his perfect lips parted in surprise.
    Three times Caz’s fist rose and fell: to his cheek, his ear, and his neck. A silvery curl of immaculate hair bounced on his forehead with each strike. Her pulse pounded loud and angry in her ears.
    “You never . . . ! Don’t ever . . . ! How dare you, Vin! How dare you!” The words came out as gasps, catching against the fury constricting her throat.
    “Get off me, Caz! Get off!” Vin sounded whiney and winded. Gone was his self-assurance. His insane composure. This was a boy scared for his life.
    A shiver of voltage raised the hair on her arms. Hands circled her waist and pulled her away. She shoved at them but they clenched into her stomach, yanking her up. She stumbled for footing and came around, fists raised.
    Xander stood before her, his hands up to ward off the strike. His face held a mixture of concern and frustration. Simple signs of growing weakness.
    “Don’t do it, sis.” His voice had deepened in the last couple of months, making the two years separating them seem like decades. “Vin’s not worth it.”
    Vin, not worth it? Caz opened her mouth to respond, then settled for cutting him a look of utter disbelief. She let that marinate for a moment, relishing the droop of his head, and then widened her eyes and tossed her head so he knew she was in control.
    Of course Vin was worth it. Vin, her best friend since she could remember, was the most infuriating person on the planet—and worth every minute of her time. It was Vin’s room she snuck into almost every night so she wouldn’t have to listen to her parents bicker in their mind-numbing, passive aggressive way. She even forgave him over and over when he flirted with the other girls at the academy.
    But this? This was totally different.
    The very fact that Vin even nodded in agreement while Zak Faras slandered her family name turned Vin into Ben Attikin, Retha’s most infamous traitor. She really was going to kill him this time.
    “He said . . . they said . . . They called Mom and Dad m-mutineers.” Caz wiped her mouth to dispel the filth of the word. She jabbed a finger at Vin, letting the slur turn to power. “Mutineers!”
    Shocked giggling from the crowd.
    “It’s not mutineers!” Xander turned on Vin and Zak. He never could refrain from correcting