01. Half-Blood

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  I tilted my head back and spotted Jackson Manos in the group of halfs I didn’t recognize. He looked exactly as I remembered him. Dark hair parted down the middle, a body made just for girls to drool over, and equal y dark, sexy eyes. I gave him my best smile. “Whatever, you douche. I didn’t kil anyone.”

  Jackson shook his head as he approached us. “Do you remember dropping Nick on his neck during take down practice? You nearly kil ed him. Good thing we heal as quickly as we do or you would’ve put him out of training for months.”

  We al laughed at the memory. Poor Nick had spent a week in the infirmary after the incident. Our good time and general curiosity drew the other halfs to the couch. Knowing I had to answer some of the questions regarding my absence eventual y, I came up with a pretty bland tale about Mom wanting to live among mortals. Caleb looked at me doubtful y, but he didn’t push it.

  “What the hel are you wearing, by the way? It looks like the guy’s training uniform.” Caleb plucked at my sleeve.

  “It’s al I have.” I gave a dramatic, pitiful sigh. “I doubt I’m going to get out anytime soon, and I don’t have any money.”

  He grinned. “I know where they keep al the training clothes here. Tomorrow, I can pick you up some extra stuff in town.”

  “You don’t have to. And besides, I don’t think I want you shopping for me. I’d end up looking like a stripper.”

  Caleb laughed, the skin around his blue eyes crinkling.

  “Don’t worry about it. Dad sent me a near fortune a few weeks ago. Guess he feels bad for being a dick of a father.

  Anyway, I’l get one of the girls to go with me or something.”

  The pure—Thea was her name—eventual y made her way over to where we sat. She seemed nice and genuinely interested in me, but she asked the one question I feared.

  “So has your mother… reconciled with Lucian?” she asked in a smal , childlike voice.

  I forced myself not to show any reaction. “No.”

  She looked surprised. So did the halfs.

  “But… they can’t divorce,” said Caleb. “Are they going to do the separate house, different zip code thing?”

  Pures never divorced. They believed their mates were predestined by the gods. I’d always thought it was a load of bul , but the “no-divorce” thing explained why so many of them had affairs.

  “Uh… no,” I said. “Mom… didn’t make it out there.”

  Caleb’s mouth dropped open. “Oh. Man, I’m sorry.”

  I forced myself to shrug. “It’s okay.”

  “What happened to her?” Jackson asked, as tactless as ever.

  Taking a deep breath, I decided to tel them the truth. “A daimon got her.”

  That led to another round of questions, al of which I answered truthful y. Each of their faces mirrored shock and awe as I got around to the part where I’d fought and kil ed two of the daimons. Even Jackson seemed impressed.

  None of them had even seen a daimon in real life.

  I didn’t go into detail about my meeting with Marcus, but I did tel them my summer wasn’t going to be al fun and games. When I mentioned I’d be training with Aiden, a col ective groan sounded.

  “What?” I looked around the group.

  Caleb kicked his legs off my lap and stood. “Aiden is one of the toughest—”

  “Roughest,” Jackson added solemnly.

  “Meanest,” threw in a half-blood girl with brown hair cut über-short. I think her name was Elena.

  Unease shifted through me. What had I gotten myself into with him? And they weren’t done with their descriptions.

  “Strongest,” another kid added.

  Elena glanced around the room, her lips curving.

  “Sexiest.”

  There was a round of sighs from the girls, but Caleb frowned. “That’s not the point. Man, he’s a beast. He’s not even an Instructor. He’s a Sentinel through and through.”

  “The last couple of graduating classes got assigned to his area.” Jackson shook his head. “He’s not even a Guide, but he weeded out over half of them and sent them back as Guards.”

  “Oh.” I shrugged. That didn’t sound al that bad. I was about to point that out when a new voice interrupted.

  “Wel , look who’s back? If it isn’t our one and only high school drop-out,” drawled Lea Samos.

  I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I made it to five.

  “Are you lost, Lea? This isn’t where they’re handing out the free pregnancy tests.”

  “Oh, boy.” Caleb moved to stand behind the couch, getting out of the way. I didn’t blame him. Lea and I had a legendary history. The write-ups Marcus had gone over for fighting had usual y involved Lea.

  She laughed that husky, throaty laugh I was al too familiar with. I looked up then. She hadn’t changed a bit.

  Okay. That was a lie.

  If anything, Lea had grown more beautiful in the last three years. With her long copper-colored hair, amethyst eyes, and impossibly tanned skin, she looked like some sort of glamorous model. I couldn’t help but think of my own boring brown eyes.

  While my own stel ar reputation had my name whispered on many lips during my time here, Lea had literal y prowled the Covenant—No. She’d owned it.

  Her eyes dropped the length of me as she stalked across the rec room, taking in the oversized shirt and rumpled jogging pants. One perfectly groomed brow arched. “Don’t you look lovely?”

  She, of course, was dressed in the tightest and shortest skirt known to man. “Isn’t that the same skirt you wore in the third grade? It’s getting a little tight. You may want to go up a size or three.”

  Lea smirked and tossed the mass of hair over her shoulder. She sat in one of the fluorescent moon chairs across from us. “What happened to your face?”

  “What happened to yours?” I retorted. “You look like a damn Oompa Loompa. You should lay off the spray tanning, Lea.”

  There were a couple of snickers from our impromptu audience, but Lea ignored them. She was focused on me

  —her arch-nemesis. We’d been at this since we were seven. Sandbox enemies, I guessed. “You know what I heard this morning?”

  I sighed. “What?”

  Jackson sauntered to her side, his dark eyes devouring her long legs. He moved behind her and tugged a strand of her hair. “Lea, knock it off. She just got back.”

  My brows rose as she motioned him down with a flick of her little finger. He lowered his mouth to hers. Slowly, I turned to Caleb. Looking bored with the display, he shrugged. Instructors couldn’t prevent the students from hooking up. I mean, come on. With a bunch of teenagers thrown together, it happened, but the Covenant frowned upon it. Usual y the students didn’t flaunt it.

  When they were done tonguing one another, Lea returned to staring at me. “I heard Dean Andros didn’t want you back. Your very own uncle wanted to place you into servitude. How sad is that?”

  I flipped her off.

  “It took three pures to convince her uncle she’s worth keeping around.”

  Caleb snorted. “Alex is one of the best. I doubt it took much convincing.”

  Lea opened her mouth, but I cut her off. “I was one of the best. And it did. Apparently, I have a bad reputation and he felt I had missed too much time.”

  “What?” Caleb stared at me.

  I shrugged. “I have until the end of summer to prove to Marcus I can get caught up in time to join the rest of the students. It’s no big deal, right, Lea?” I faced her, grinning. “I think you remember the last time we sparred? It was a long time ago, but I’m sure you can recal it quite clearly.”

  A pink flush crawled over her tanned cheeks and her hand crept to her nose in what looked like a subconscious move, drawing an even bigger grin from me. At such a young age, our sparring was supposed to have been an absolutely no-contact training exercise. But one insult had led to another, and I’d broken her nose.

  In two places.

  It’d also landed me in suspension f
or three weeks.

  Lea’s plump lips thinned. “You know what else I know, Alex?”

  I folded my arms over my chest. “What?”

  “While everyone here may believe whatever lame excuse you gave for your mother leaving, I know the real reason.”

  Her eyes sparkled with malice.

  Coldness settled over me. “And how do you know?”

  Her lips curved at the corners as she met my stare. I vaguely noticed Jackson moving away from her. “Your mother met with Grandma Piperi.”

  Grandma Piperi? I rol ed my eyes. Piperi was a crazy old woman who was supposed to be an oracle. The pures believed she communed with the gods. I believed she communed with a lot of liquor.

  “So?” I said.

  “I know what Grandma Piperi said to make your mother go crazy. She was crazy, right?”

  I was on my feet without realizing it. “Lea, shut up.”

  She looked at me, eyes wide and unfazed. “Now Alex, you may want to calm down. One little fight and you’l be cleaning toilets for the rest of your life.”

  My hands clutched. Had she been in the room, under Marcus’s desk or something? How else would she know so much? But Lea was correct, and that sucked. Being the bigger person meant walking away from her. It was harder than I ever imagined, like walking through quicksand. The more I moved, the more the air around me literal y demanded that I stay and break her nose again. But I did it, and I made it past her chair without hitting her.

  I was a total y different person—a better person.

  “Don’t you want to know what she said to your mother to make her crazy? To make her leave? You’l be happy to know it had everything to do with you.”

  I stopped. Just like Lea knew I would.

  Caleb appeared at my side and grabbed my arm.

  “Come on, Alex. If what she’s saying is true then you don’t need to fal for this crap. You know she doesn’t know anything.”

  Lea twisted around and threw one slender arm over the back of her chair. “But I do. You see, your mother and Piperi weren’t alone in the garden. Someone else overheard her conversation.”

  I shrugged off Caleb’ grip and turned around. “Who heard them?”

  She shrugged, studying her painted nails. I knew right then and there, I would end up hitting her. “The oracle told your mother you would be the one to kil her. Considering you couldn’t stop a daimon from draining her, I guess Piperi meant it in the abstract sense. What good is a half-blood who can’t even protect her own mother? Is it any wonder why Marcus didn’t want you back?”

  There was a moment when no one moved in the room, not even me. Then I smiled at her, right before I grabbed a handful of copper hair and yanked her out of the chair.

  Screw being a better person.

  CHAPTER 4

  THE WAY HER MOUTH DROPPED OPEN AS SHE

  FELL backwards almost made up for her cruel words.

  Clearly, she hadn’t expected me to do anything, thinking the threat of being expel ed was far too great. Lea didn’t know the power of her own words.

  I jerked my arm back, ful y intending on undoing whatever the doctors had done to fix that perky little nose of hers, but my fist never landed. In fact, Caleb got to me before I could take another step toward her. He literal y carried me out of the rec room, and then put me down and blocked my path back to Lea. There was a wild grin on his face as I tried to dart around him.

  “Let me pass, Caleb. I swear to the gods, I’m going to break her face!”

  “Back not even a day, Alex. Wow.”

  “Shut up.” I glared at him.

  “Alex, knock it off. You get into a fight and you’re going to get kicked out. What then? Be a servant for the rest of your life? Anyway, you know she’s lying. So let it go.”

  I glanced down at my hand and noticed several strands of red hair wrapped around my fingers. Sweet.

  Caleb saw the vicious gleam in my eye and seemed to realize staying near this room wasn’t going to end wel .

  Grabbing my arm, he al but dragged me down the hal way.

  “She’s just a stupid girl. You know she was just talking crap, right?”

  “Who knows?” I grumbled. “She’s right, you know? I have no idea why Mom left. She could’ve spoken to Grandma Piperi. I don’t know.”

  “I seriously doubt the oracle said you would kil your mom.”

  Unconvinced, I punched the front door open.

  Caleb fol owed close behind. “Just forget about it, okay?

  You’ve got to focus on training, not Lea and what the oracle may have said.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  “Okay. Then you could ask the oracle what she told your mom.”

  I stared at him.

  “What? You could ask the oracle if it bothers you that much.”

  “There is no way that woman is stil alive.” I winced at the blinding sun. “It was three years ago when Mom could’ve talked to her.”

  Now Caleb gave me the same look.

  “What? She can’t be. She would have to be… like a hundred and fifty years old by now.”

  Pures had a lot of power and an oracle would have even more, but none of them were immortal.

  “Alex, she’s the oracle. She’l be alive until the next one comes into power.”

  I rol ed my eyes at Caleb. “She’s just a nutty old woman.

  Communes with the gods? The only things she communes with are the trees and her bridge club.”

  He made a sound of exasperation. “It never fails to amaze me that being what you are—what we are—you stil don’t believe in the gods.”

  “No. I do believe in them. I just think they’re absentee landlords. Right now, they’re probably hanging out somewhere in Las Vegas, screwing showgirls and cheating at poker.”

  cheating at poker.”

  Caleb jumped away from me, his feet landing on the white and tan pebbles. “Do not let me be standing next to you when one of them strikes you down.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, they’re real y watching and taking care of business. That’s why we have daimons running around draining pures and kil ing mortals for the fun of it.”

  “That’s why the gods have us.” Caleb grinned like he’d just explained everything.

  “Whatever.” We stopped at the end of the stone pathway.

  From here, we either went to the girls’ dorm or the boys’.

  The two of us stared across the flooded marsh. Woody plants and low growing bushes dotted the brackish water, making crossing the mess almost impossible. Beyond that was the forest—literal y a no man’s land. When I was younger I’d thought monsters lived in the dark woods. When I’d gotten older I’d learned that fol owing the marshes led to the main island, giving me a perfect escape route when I’d wanted to sneak around.

  “Does the old hag stil live in there?” I asked final y. What if I could talk to Piperi?

  Caleb nodded. “I guess so, but who knows? She comes down to the campus every once in a while.”

  “Oh.” I squinted in the harsh light. “You know what I was thinking?”

  He glanced at me. “What?”

  “Mom never told me why we needed to leave, Caleb.

  Never once during those three years. I think I’d be… more okay if I knew why Mom left in the first place. I know it doesn’t change anything that happened, but at least I’d know what the hel was so important we had to leave here.”

  “Only the oracle knows and who knows when she’l be back here? And you can’t go to her. She lives way back there. Even I don’t venture that far into the marshes. So don’t even think about it.”

  My lips curved at the corners. “Al these years, and you stil know me so wel .”

  He snickered. “Maybe we can throw her a party and lure her out. I think she was down here for the spring equinox.”

  “Real y?” Maybe if I talked to the oracle she’d give me some answers—or tel my future.

  Caleb shrugged. “Can’t remember, but spe
aking of partying, there’s going to be one this weekend over on the main island. Zarak’s throwing it. You game?”

  I stifled a yawn. “Zarak? Wow. I haven’t seen him in forever, but I doubt partying is something I’m going to be partaking in anytime soon. I’m permanently grounded.”

  “What?” Caleb’s mouth dropped open. “You can sneak out. You were like the queen of sneaking out.”

  “Yeah, but that was before my uncle became the dean and I wasn’t one step away from being expel ed.”

  Caleb snorted. “Alex, you almost got expel ed like three times. Since when has that stopped you? Anyway, I’m sure we can come up with something. Besides, it’l be like a welcome back party for you.”

  It was a bad idea, but I felt the usual excitement stirring in my bel y. “Wel … I won’t be training at night.”

  “No,” agreed Caleb.

  A grin tugged at my lips. “And sneaking out never kil ed anyone.”

  “Or got them expel ed.”

  We grinned at each other, and just like that, things were the way they’d been before everything had gone to hel .

  ***

  Caleb and I had a little adventure in the supply room in the main school building after dinner. We swiped every possible article of clothing that would fit me and Caleb promised once again to grab one of the other half girls and go shopping for me the fol owing day. I could only imagine what he’d come back with.

  With our arms ful , we headed back to my dorm. I was only a little surprised when I spotted Aiden’s formidable frame standing by the thick marble columns on the wide porch. Caleb’s eyes went wide.

  I groaned. “Busted.”

  My footsteps slowed as we neared him. I couldn’t read anything from his stoic expression or by the way he bowed his head toward Caleb in a respectful manner. For once in his entire life, Caleb was struck speechless when Aiden stepped up and took the armful of clothing from him.

  “Need I remind you that males are not al owed in the girls’

  dormitory, Nicolo?”

  Caleb shook his head mutely.

  He raised his brows as he turned to me. “We need to talk.”

  I looked at Caleb helplessly, but he backed off with an apologetic half smile. For a hot second, I considered fol owing him. I didn’t. “What do we need to talk about?”