“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 for 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.”