01. Half-Blood

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  “Alex.” Aiden frowned as he watched me. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I scowled while taking in my surroundings. We were in something big—probably one of the Covenant’s super-large Hummers that could plow over an entire vil age. Pures weren’t concerned with things like money and gas mileage. “The bigger the better” was their unofficial motto.

  The other pure—the enormous one—was behind the wheel and Kain sat in the passenger seat, silently staring out the window. “Where are we?”

  “We’re on the coast, just outside of Bald Head Island.

  We’re almost to Deity Island,” Aiden answered.

  My heart jumped. “What?”

  “We’re going back to the Covenant, Alex.”

  The Covenant—the place I’d trained and cal ed home up until three years ago. Sighing, I rubbed the back of my head. “Did the Covenant send you? Or was it… my stepfather?”

  “The Covenant.”

  I breathed easier. My pure-blooded stepfather wouldn’t be happy to see me. “You work for the Covenant now?”

  “No. I’m just a Sentinel. I’m more on loan for the time being. Your uncle sent us to find you.” Aiden paused, glancing out the window. “A lot has changed since you’ve been gone.”

  I wanted to ask what a Sentinel got accomplished on the wel protected Deity Island, but I figured it wasn’t any of my business. “What’s changed?”

  “Wel , your uncle is now the Dean of the Covenant.”

  “Marcus? Wait. What? What happened to Dean Nasso?”

  “He died about two years ago.”

  “Oh.” No big surprise there. He’d been old as dirt. I didn’t say anything else as I mul ed over the fact my uncle was now Dean Andros. Ugh . I made a face. I barely knew the man, but the last I remembered, he’d been working his way up through the pure-blood politics. I shouldn’t be surprised he’d found his way into such a coveted position.

  “Alex, I’m sorry about the compulsion back there.” Aiden broke the silence that had stretched between us. “I didn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “And… I’m sorry about your mother. We searched everywhere for you two, but you didn’t stay in one place long enough. We were too late.”

  My heart squeezed in my chest. “Yeah, you were too late.”

  Another few minutes of silence fil ed the Hummer. “Why did your mother leave three years ago?”

  I peeked through the curtain of my hair. Aiden watched me as he waited for an answer to his loaded question. “I don’t know.”

  Since the age of seven, I had been a half-blood in training—one of the so cal ed “privileged” halfs. We had two options in life—either attend the Covenant or go into the working class. Halfs who had a pure-blood wil ing to speak for them and foot the cost of an education were enrol ed in the Covenant to train as Sentinels or Guards.

  The other halfs weren’t so lucky.

  They were rounded up by the Masters, a group of pures who excel ed at the art of compulsion. An elixir had been created out of a special blend of poppy flowers and tea.

  The concoction worked differently in a half’s blood. Instead of leaving them lethargic and sleepy, the refined poppy made them compliant and vacant—giving them a high they never came down from. Masters started indentured halfs on the elixir at the age of seven—the age of reason—and continued on in daily doses. No education. No freedom.

  The Masters were ultimately responsible for dealing out the elixir and monitoring the behaviors of the halfs in servitude. They were also the ones who marked them on their forehead. A circle with a line through it—the painful y visible sign of slavery.

  Al halfs feared that future. Even if we did end up training in the Covenant, it took only one wrong move before we were given the drink that keeps on giving. What my mom did by pul ing me out of the Covenant without so much as an explanation was a major strike against me.

  I was also sure taking half of her husband’s—my stepfather’s—fortune wouldn’t help me out any, either.

  Then there were al those times I should’ve contacted the Covenant and turned my mom in, done what was expected of me. One cal —one stupid cal —would have saved her life.

  The Covenant would hold that against me, too.

  The memory of waking up and stumbling into my worst nightmare resurfaced. The day before, she’d asked that I clean up the balcony garden I’d demanded on having, but I’d slept in. By the time I’d gotten up and grabbed the little bag of garden tools, it’d been noon.

  Figuring Mom was already working on the garden, I’d gone out on the balcony, but the garden was empty. I’d stood there for a while, staring down at the al ey across the street, toying with the garden spade. Then, from the shadows, a man had stepped out—a daimon.

  He’d stood there in broad daylight, staring up at me.

  He’d been so close I could’ve chucked the spade and hit him. With my heart in my throat, I’d jerked back from the railing. I’d rushed back into the house, screaming for her.

  There’d been no answer. Rooms had blurred as I’d raced down the tiny hal way toward her bedroom and pushed open the door. What I’d seen would haunt me forever—

  blood, so much blood, and Mom’s eyes, open and vacant, staring at nothing.

  “We’re here.” Kain leaned forward eagerly.

  Al my thoughts vanished as my stomach did a funny twist. I turned and stared out the window. Deity Island actual y consisted of two islands. The pures lived in their fancy homes on the first island. To the outside world, it looked like any normal island community. Smal shops and restaurants lined the streets. There were even shops run by mortals and tailored to them. The pristine beaches were to die for.

  Daimons didn’t like to travel across water. When a pure turned al dark side, their elemental magic twisted and could only be accessed if they were touching earth. Being out of contact weakened them. It made an island the perfect hidey hole for our kind.

  It was too early for anyone to be on the streets, and in a matter of minutes we passed over the second bridge. On this part of Deity Island, nestled among marshlands, beaches, and forests virtual y untouched by man, stood the Covenant.

  Rising up between the endless sea and acres of white beaches, the sprawling sandstone structure we passed was the school where pures and halfs attended classes.

  With its thick marble columns and strategical y placed statues of the gods, it was an intimidating and otherworldly place. Mortals thought the Covenant was an elite private school where none of their children would ever have the privilege of attending. They were right. People had to have something super-special in their blood to make it this far.

  Beyond the main building were the dorms and they too boasted more columns and statues. Smal er buildings and bungalows dotted the landscape, and the massive gyms and training facilities sat adjacent to the courtyard. They always reminded me of the ancient coliseums except ours were enclosed; hurricanes could be a real bitch around these parts.

  It was al beautiful—a place I loved and hated at the same time. Seeing it now, I realized just how badly I’d missed it… and Mom. She’d stayed on the main island while I’d gone to school, but she’d been a fixture around the campus, popping up and taking me to lunch after classes, swaying the old Dean to al ow me to stay with her during the weekends. Gods, I just wanted one more chance, one more second to tel her—

  I checked myself.

  Control—I needed to be in control right now, and caving in to the lingering grief wasn’t going to help me. Steeling myself, I climbed out of the Hummer and fol owed Aiden to the girls’ dorm. We were the only ones moving down the silent hal ways. With it being the beginning of summer, only a few students would be running around.

  “Get cleaned up. I’l return for you in a little bit.” He started to turn, but stopped. “I’l find something for you to wear and leave it on the table.”

  I nodded, at a loss for words. Even though I was
trying to push the emotions down, some of them seeped through.

  Three years ago, my entire future had been perfectly planned. Al the Instructors at the Covenant had praised my abilities in the training sessions. They even went as far as to say I could become a Sentinel. Sentinels were the best—

  and I’d been one of the best.

  Three years without any training had set me back behind every half. A lifetime of servitude most likely waited for me

  —a future I couldn’t face. Being subject to the pures’ wil s, having no control or say over anything—the possibility scared the crap out of me.

  A possibility made worse by my nearly al -consuming need to hunt daimons.

  Fighting them was ingrained in my blood, but after seeing what’d happened to Mom, the desire skyrocketed.

  Only the Covenant could provide the means for achieving my goals, and my absentee pure-blooded uncle now held my future in his hands.

  My footsteps felt heavy as I moved around the familiar rooms. They were ful y furnished, seeming larger than I remembered. The room had a separate living area and a decent sized bedroom. And it had its own bathroom. The Covenant offered only the best to its students.

  I took a longer than necessary shower, reveling in the feeling of being clean again. People took things like showers for granted. I knew I had. After the daimon attack, I’d hit the road with little cash. Staying alive had turned out to be more important than a shower.

  Once I was sure al the grime was washed away, I found the neat stack of clothes left on the smal table in front of the couch. Picking them up, I realized at once they were the Covenant-issued training attire. The pants were at least two sizes too big, but I wasn’t going to bitch about it. I brought them to my face and inhaled. They smel ed so, so clean.

  Back in the bathroom, I craned my neck. The daimon had tagged me just where the neck sloped down to the col arbone. The tag would be an angry red color for the next day or so, and then fade to a pale, shiny scar. A daimon’s bite never left the skin undamaged. The nearly identical rows of tiny indentations made me queasy and also reminded me of one of my old Instructors. She was a beautiful older woman who’d retired to teach basic defense tactics after a nasty run-in with a daimon. Her arms had been covered with pale, half circle marks a degree or two lighter than her skin tone.

  One tag had been bad enough. I couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like for her. The daimons had tried to turn her by draining her of al her aether. When it came to turning a pure, there was no exchange of blood.

  It was a frighteningly simple process.

  A daimon placed their lips on the drained pure’s, shared some of their aether and—voila!—brand spankin’ new daimon. Like infected blood, the tainted aether they passed turned a pure, and nothing could be done to undo the change. The pure was lost forever. As far as we knew, it was the only way a daimon could be made, but then again, it wasn’t like we hung around and talked to them. They were kil ed on sight.

  I’d always thought that policy was stupid. No one—not even the Council—knew what the daimons thought to accomplish by kil ing. If we caught one and actual y questioned it, we could learn so much about them. What were their plans—their goals? Did they even have any? Or was it just the need for aether that kept them going? We didn’t know. Al the Hematoi cared about was stopping them and making sure none of the pures were turned.

  Anyway, rumor said our Instructor had waited until the very last moment to strike, therefore foiling the daimon’s plans. I remembered staring at those marks and thinking how terrible it was that her otherwise flawless body had been ruined.

  My reflection in the fogged mirror stared back at me. This tag would be hard to hide, but it could’ve been worse. He could’ve tagged a chunk of my face—daimons could be cruel.

  Halfs couldn’t be turned, which is why we made such excel ent fighters against the daimons. Dying was the worst that could happen to us. Who cared if a half-blood went down in battle? To the pures, we were a dime a dozen.

  Sighing, I flipped my hair over my shoulder and pushed away from the mirror just as a soft knock sounded. A second later, Aiden opened the door to my dorm. Al six and half feet of him came to an abrupt stop the moment he saw me. Surprise flickered over his face as he stared at the fresh version of me.

  What can I say? I cleaned up nicely.

  With al the dirt and overal grossness gone, I looked just like my mom. Long dark hair fel down my back; I had those high cheekbones and ful lips most pures did. I was a bit curvier than Mom’s wil owy frame and I didn’t have her amazing eyes. Mine were brown, homely old brown.

  I tipped my head back, looking him straight in the eyes for the first time. “What?”

  He recovered in record time. “Nothing. You ready?”

  “I guess so.” I snuck another peek at him as he headed out of my room.

  Aiden’s dark brown waves continual y fel over his forehead, brushing against equal y dark brows. The lines of his face were nearly perfect, the curve of his jaw strong, and he had the most expressive lips I’d ever seen. But it was those thundercloud eyes I found beautiful. No one had those eyes.

  From the brief time he’d held me down in the field, I felt positive the rest of him was just as stunning. Too bad he was a pure-blood. Pures equaled hands-off to me and every half out there. Supposedly, the gods had forbidden interactions of the fun kind between halfs and pures eons ago. Something to do with the purity of a pure’s blood not being tarnished—a fear a child of such a coupling would be… I frowned at Aiden’s back.

  Would be what—a Cyclops?

  I didn’t know what might happen, but I did know it was considered very, very bad. Gods got offended, which wasn’t a good thing. So since we’d been old enough to understand how babies were made, we half-bloods had been taught to never look at a pure-blood with anything other than respect and admiration. Pures were taught to never taint their bloodline by mixing with a half, but there were times when halfs and pures did hook up. It didn’t end pretty, and halfs usual y caught the brunt of the punishment.

  It wasn’t fair, but it was the way this world had existed.

  The pures were on top of the food chain. They made the rules, control ed the Council, and even ran the Covenant.

  Aiden glanced over his shoulder at me. “How many daimons have you kil ed?”

  “Just two.” I picked up my pace so I could keep up with his long legged one.

  “Just two?” Awe fil ed his voice. “Do you realize how amazing it is for a half-blood not ful y trained to kil one daimon, let alone two?”

  “I guess so.” I paused, feeling the bubble of anger threatening to boil over. When the daimon had seen me standing in the doorway of Mom’s bedroom, he’d launched himself at me… and right onto the spade I’d held. Idiot. The other daimon hadn’t been that dumb. “I would’ve kil ed the other one in Miami… but I was just—I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking. I know I should’ve gone after him, but I panicked.”

  Aiden stopped and faced me. “Alex, the fact you took down one daimon without training is remarkable. It was brave, but also foolish.”

  “Wel , thanks.”

  “You’re not trained. The daimon could’ve easily kil ed you. And the one you brought down in the factory? Another fearless, but foolish act.”

  I frowned. “I thought you said it was amazing and remarkable.”

  “It was, but you could’ve been kil ed.” He walked off ahead.

  I struggled to keep up with him. “Why would you even care if I was kil ed? Why does Marcus care? I don’t even know the man, and if he doesn’t al ow me to resume training, I’m as good as dead, anyways.”

  “That would be a shame.” He looked at me blandly. “You have al the potential in the world.”

  My eyes narrowed on his back. The sudden urge to push him was almost too great to pass up. We didn’t talk after that. Once outside, the breeze played with my hair, and I sucked in the taste of sea salt as the sun warmed my chil ed skin.


  Aiden led me back to the main school building and up the ridiculous number of stairs that led to the Dean’s office.

  The formidable double doors loomed ahead, and I swal owed hard. I’d spent a lot of time in this office when Dean Nasso had overseen the Covenant.

  As the Guards opened the door for us, I remembered the last time I’d been in this office for a lecture. I’d been fourteen, and out of boredom, I’d convinced one of the pures to flood the science wing using the water element. Of course the pure had total y ratted me out.

  Nasso had not been pleased.

  My first glimpse of the office was exactly how I remembered: perfect and wel designed. Several leather chairs sat before a large cherry oak desk. Wildly colored fish zoomed back and forth in the aquarium lining the wal behind the desk.

  My uncle stepped into my line of sight and I faltered. It’d been so long since I’d seen him—years real y. I’d forgotten how much he looked like Mom. They shared the same eyes

  —emerald-colored ones that shifted depending on mood.

  They were eyes only my mother and uncle shared.

  Except the last time I’d seen her eyes, they hadn’t been vibrant. The icky feeling swel ed inside me, pressing on my chest. I stepped forward, pushing it al the way down.

  “Alexandria.” Marcus’s deep and cultured voice snapped me back into the room. “After al these years. To see you again? I am at a loss for words.”

  Uncle—and I used the term loosely—sounded nothing like a close family member. His tone was cold and plastic.

  When I met his eyes, I knew right off I was doomed. There was nothing in his stare linking me to him—no happiness or relief at seeing his only niece alive and in one piece. If anything, he looked rather bored.

  Someone cleared his throat, drawing my attention to the corner of the office. We weren’t alone. Mister Steroids stood in the corner, along with a female pure. She was tal and slender, with cascades of raven-colored hair. I pegged her as an Instructor.