The Twenty-Fifth Hour

In the vertical city of Halcyon Spire, every gifted 'Lumen' is stripped of their powers — and their memories — the instant they turn twenty-five, a mercy the whole city calls Graduation. Mara Voss, Halcyon's brightest hero, has eleven months left before her own ceremony, but when she uncovers a hidden network of 'retired' heroes being hunted instead of healed, she realizes Graduation was never mercy at all. Now she must outrun the very agency that trained her, protect the friend who found the truth first, and decide whether her power is a gift worth losing herself to save the city — or the exact monster it was built to erase.