The heat peeled the air open.
It didn't roar. It didn't scream. It tore. A sound like paper splitting, except the paper was the sky, and the sky was the cage.
Chloe moved through the gap she made, and the crowd split without thinking. Bone shards at the ground hissed and cooled before they could touch her skin. Superpowers flickered out like candles when she passed. No one wanted to be the first to burn.
The heat didn't burn them the way they expected. It repelled. It said _back_ without a word.
Blue-green fire surrounded her like guardians with their spears down. If they looked carefully, past the terror, they could see her figure remolding. The black hair faded. It fell away. What stood in the corridor was the real her.
The first princess. Whom everyone's hate had a name for. Whom everyone took as a bane.
