Chapter 53. New Purpose

The hammer slipped.

It hit the floor with a clang that echoed through the half-gutted gym.

“Don’t just stand there, grab it!” Lia called over her shoulder.

A teenage boy—fifteen, maybe—scrambled to pick it up, grinning through the dust. “You said I was supposed to use gloves!”

“On your hands,” she said, taking it from him. “Not your brain.”

He laughed, and for a second, the sound made the space feel less hollow.

The Phoenix Foundation wasn’t ready yet. The paint was still drying, the lights flickered when it rained, and every surface smelled faintly of bleach and hope. But it was theirs.

The old gym’s bones had survived—the heavy bag chains, the scuffed floors, even the mirror wall Cassian had once shattered during a sparring session. Someone had patched it, but the crack still ran down the middle like a lightning bolt.

Lia liked it that way.

She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist, then climbed the short