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CHAPTER 1

She smelled like mothballs and death

The elderly He me looked like she had just crawled out of the tomb she’d been stored in for a couple hundred years Her skin rinkled and thin, like old parchment, and each breath she took I sould be her last I hadn’t ever seen anyone that old, but of course I’d only been seven and even the pizza guy had seemed ancient to me

The crowd otten that simple half-bloods likethe pure-blood spawn of deos

I looked at my mother, who stood beside me on the raised dais She was one of the Hereen eyes flashed a pleading look to cooperate, to not be the incorrigible and disobedient little girl she knew I could be

I didn’t knohy she was so frightened; I was the one facing the crypt keeper And if I survived this poor excuse for tradition without ending up carrying this hag’s bedpan for the rest of ods that supposedly atching over all of us

“Alexandria Andros?” The Minister’s voice sounded like sandpaper over rough wood She clucked her tongue “She is far too small Her arms are as thin as the shoots of new olive branches” She bent over to study me more closely, and I half expected her to fall in my face “And her eyes, they are the color of dirt, hardly remarkable She barely has any blood of the Hematoi in her She is more mortal than any we have seen this day”

The Minister’s eyes were the color of the sky before a violent storn of her heritage All the He eye colors Most of the half-bloods did too, but for some reason I’d missed the whole cool eye color boat when I’d been born

The statements had continued on for what seemed like forever toa nap Other Ministers had co to each other as they circled ly, lettingokay—great, even

That was, until the old lady started pinching every piece ofabout being touched If I didn’t touch someone then I believed they shouldn’t touch me Grandma had apparently missed that memo

She’d reached out and pinched ers “She has no ht and defend us? She is not worthy to train at the Covenant and serve beside the children of the gods”

I’d never seen a god, butI’d also never seen a pegasus or a chimera, but she’d sworn they also existed Even at seven I’d had a hard ti faith to accept that the gods still cared about the world they had so diligently populated with their children in a way only the gods could

“She’s nothing more than a pathetic, little half-blood,” the ancient woman had continued “I say send her to the Masters I’irl to clean my toilets”

Then she had twisted her fingers cruelly

And I had kicked her shin

I’d never forget the look on ht between terror and full-blown panic, ready to run between thee, but there were also a few deep chuckles

“She has fire,” one of the male Ministers had said Another stepped forward, “She will do fine as a Guard, maybe even a Sentinel”

To this day I had no idea how I’d provedBut I had Not that itnow that I was seventeen and had been nowhere near the Hematoi world for the last three years Even in the nors

Actually, I was prone to random acts of stupidity I considered it to be one of my talents

“You’re doing it again, Alex” Matt’s hand tightened around mine

I blinked slowly, bringing his face into focus “Doing what?”

“You got this look on your face” He tuggedan ar universally deep Like your head is a thousand miles away, so”

Matt Richardson wanted to join Greenpeace and save some whales He was the pretty boy next door who’d sworn off eating red meat Whatever He was my current attempt to blend with the o to a bonfire on the beach with a bunch of people I barely knew

I had bad taste in boys

Previously, I’d crushed on a brooding academic who’d written poems on the back of his school books and styled his dyed, jet black hair so it’d covered his hazel eyes He’d written a song about hed, and that relationship had been over before it got started The year before that was probably —the bleached blond, JV football captain with sky blue eyes Months had gone by with us barely exchanging a “hey” and “do you have a pencil?” before we’d finally met up at a party We’d talked He’d kissedlike cheap beer I’d punched him and broken his jaw Mom had moved me to a different town after that and lecturedirl couldn’t throw punches like that

Norirls didn’t want their boobs mauled either, and I wholly believed if they could’ve landed a fist like I could, they would have

I s”

“You’re not thinking at all?” Matt lowered his head The edges of his blond hair tickled row dreads stage in his life “Nothing going on in that pretty head of yours?”

So on in my head, but it wasn’t what Matt hoped for As I stared into his green eyes, I thought about uy with thundercloud eyes—the one so far out of ht as well have been a different species

Technically, I guess he was

Even noanted to spin-kickro and all that crap Sure Love in“I smite thee!” as she was cursed to be some lame flower for the rest of her life