Chapter One
My toes curled over the ledge and I stared at the city two thousand feet below. Night descended like a dark blanket over the city and lights began to twinkle. Most mortals only knew the beauty of a sunset from the ground, unless they’d been fortunate enough to glimpse one from an airplane. I was able to enjoy one from this height every day if I chose. When I was younger, the Elders called me Cloudhopper because I spent so much time outside. It seemed perfectly natural for a girl like me to want to spend every day with my head in the clouds.
“You can’t hide from me,” a voice said.
My body snapped to attention. I thought I was safe here. Where did he come from?
I flattened my back against the curved wall of the spire and tried to creep out of sight before he noticed me. As I reached another curve, a strong gust of wind betrayed me and knocked me off balance. My feet slipped off the ledge and I had no choice but to spread my wings. No chance of hiding now. I flew downward at a forty-five-degree angle. A quick glance over my shoulder revealed the bad news.
“I’m coming for you,” he yelled. His own wings were synthetic because he’d lost his original set, but he knew how to use them as well as I did.
Better, in fact.
I swooped around the base of Spire 3 and tried to maneuver in and out of the poles that connected each spire to the earth. They were the tallest poles in the mortal realm, except humans didn’t know they existed.
I misjudged his speed, a foolish error on my part. His fingers wrapped around my ankle and he snapped me backward in midair. Before my back slammed into him, he threw an arm over my chest in an attempt to hold me in place. I used my momentum to shift right into a somersault and forced his hand away. I tucked my wings behind my back and went into a dead drop, feet first. When I was halfway down the length of the pole, I ripped my sword free of its sheath and shot back up to the spires. He was waiting for me on the ledge of Spire 2. He leaped in front of me with his sword at the ready and our blades collided. The space between my eyebrows began to throb. Why did these headaches always seem to happen when I was in the middle of a good fight? I shook it off and continued my counterattack.
As he blocked and dodged my blows, his scars seemed to glow in the darkness. Long and short. Some precise. Some misshapen. The one on his face was the most intimidating. A slice next to his mouth, as though someone had tried to cut out his tongue and missed. I would not have wanted to be the one that failed.
My blade swept wide and I could see from his expression that the move was unexpected. He lowered his blade to block the attack, but I’d put too much force behind it. He lost his grip on the hilt and the sword plunged toward the earth below.
I couldn’t let it reach the ground. Too dangerous.
In a single swift motion, I dove headfirst as though into water and chased the falling sword. My wings streaked behind me and I pushed myself to fly faster. The sword was within view.
I extended a hand and grasped nothing but empty air. One final push and I relieved it of gravity’s control. I swooped up and returned to the ledge of the main spire.
My opponent lingered there, his expression neutral. I produced the sword and his mouth split. “Well done, Cassia. So many excellent moves tonight.” He reclaimed his sword and sheathed it.
“You really think so?”
He gave me a meaningful look. “Do I coddle you?”
I shrugged. “Depends on who you ask.”
He patted my cheek. “You’ll make us all proud someday.”
“Thank you, Elder Sam.”
He scratched his shoulder. “I can’t wait to take off these wretched wings. Mine never
itched like this.”
“You’ll have to talk to Elder Alastor about that,” I said. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’d made them itchy on purpose. He didn’t approve of Elder Sam. Or me. In his mind, we were a package deal.
“I saw you press your forehead,” Elder Sam said.
“Another headache?”
“It’s gone now,” I said.
“It was probably just stress,” he said. “Heat of battle stuff.”
I smiled. “That’s what you always say.”
“Then it must be true.” He clapped me on the back. “We should get you back inside. Big day tomorrow.”
My stomach curdled at the thought. “Don’t remind me.”
He steered me to the hatch, an entry point for winged beings like me. “There’s nothing to worry about. You’ve known this day was coming for a long time.”
“It still came sooner than expected.”
He grinned and ducked through the hatch. “Trust me. You’ll be fine, Cassia. I believe in you.”
“I’m glad one of us does.” I followed after him, still queasy. Tonight would be the end of an era. I both dreaded and welcomed the new life that tomorrow would bring. I’d grown too comfortable, but that was all about to change.
“Today’s the day,” Mariska sang. She entered my room and threw open the curtains, causing ribbons of light to ripple across my bed.
I shielded my eyes from the sudden intrusion. “You don’t have to sound so happy about it.” I immediately wanted to snatch back the grumpy words. My caretaker was right. Today was the big day—the day I’d been both dreading and looking forward to since the moment the decision was made.
“I made sure that Aldo cooked your favorite breakfast, so don’t let it get cold. Chop chop.” She smacked her hands together.
“Just five more minutes.” I rolled away from her and pressed my cheek against the pillow.
“I was in the middle of a really good dream.”
Mariska yanked off my covers. “I doubt that. You suffer more nightmares than any
cambion I’ve ever known.”
She was right. I’d suffered from recurring nightmares for as long as I could remember. Elder Kali always said they were a subconscious expression of my anxiety, but they seemed so real. Last night’s offering probably was triggered by anxiety though. I was being hunted by a sky kraken and it had eyes on its tentacles, making it difficult to hide. I knew the kraken represented a fear that seemed larger than life. Naturally I’d killed it—even in nightmares I was formidable—but it still woke me in the middle of the night and I had trouble falling back asleep afterward. I’d lifted my pillow to make sure my dreamcatcher was there and had been surprised to see that it was. Mariska had brought it back from the city when I was five years old and had suffered a steady stream of nightmares about the Whistlers coming to get me.
“Fine. I’m exhausted because I had bad dreams last night. Can you blame me? Change is kind of a big deal for someone like me.”
For the past seventeen years I’d lived here in the main spire of Domus Academy with the five Elders, Mariska, and Aldo. Today, I would finally join my peers in Spire 10. The other cambions had grown up side-by-side at the academy. They’d spent years getting to know each other and developing close bonds. Not me though. I’d been sequestered from birth. Of course, there would be some latecomers to the academy. Not all demon hybrids arrived at the same age. It was completely dependent on when they were discovered and brought to safety, though the Elders made every effort to find us as infants.
“I’ll make sure that all your things have been brought over to your new room by midday,” Mariska said.
I sat up and surveyed the state of my room. Five matching boxes held my every belonging, plus a hefty sack of weapons. “Thanks.” I knew I’d have to share a room in the new spire. I’d never had to share with anyone before. I was the only cambion in the main spire. Elder Sam said that they’d tried to put me in the nursery with the rest of the infant cambions when I first arrived, but my cries were so loud and disruptive that none of the other babies could sleep. From that day forward, I lived in Spire 1 and became Mariska’s responsibility.
I crossed the room and peered out the enormous window. Puffs of cloud blocked my view of the city below. A plane rumbled overhead and I looked up to see how close it was. Sometimes it seemed as though I could reach out and grab the landing gear. Of course, I didn’t need a plane to fly anywhere. I had my very own set of wings. Black streaked with dark gray, a gift from one of my parents. Which one, I had no idea.
“Come and eat,” Mariska said. “Then you can concern yourself with how to dress for the occasion.”
I cut a glance at her. “Why do I get the sense that you already have an outfit in mind?”
She couldn’t suppress her smile. “I may have picked up a little something when we went into the city last week.”
“How the devil did you manage that? Elder Sam and I were with you the whole time.”
Elder Sam and I had what others described as ‘a special bond.’ He was the only non-demon at
the academy. It was hard to tell without his wings, but he was a seraph from Dominion. He’d found me as an infant in a place in the mortal realm alled Trenton, New Jersey. He’d had to act quickly because he knew that Whistlers were in the area. Of course, he only knew I was there because the seraphim had sent him from Dominion to kill me. They weren’t fans of demonspawn roaming the mortal realm and sought to eradicate them whenever possible. Thankfully, Elder Sam made a different choice that day. I was the reason he was expelled from Dominion forever. They’d mutilated him and tortured him for his crime, rendering him almost unrecognizable as a seraph. They tore every feather from his wings and burned them into stumps so that he could never forget his betrayal of them. As far as the rest of the Elders were concerned, Elder Sam was a gift from the gods. He’d served as a devoted Elder at the academy for the past seventeen years.
“I have my wily ways, poppet.” Mariska winked. “Why do you think I tried to convince him to leave you behind that day?”
Elder Sam often took me on errands outside of the academy, although I was never allowed to stray from his sight. Too dangerous. There were far too many that wanted to see us dead. Mariska often accompanied us as well. I knew it was a privilege to leave the spires. I was given a lot of advantages that my peers weren’t thanks to my place with the Elders.
That would all end today. At least there would be field trips in our final year. According to Elder Sam, this year the Spire 10 cambions would be properly introduced to the mortal realm, where our academy was hidden in the clouds and cloaked from the view of all other creatures. It wasn’t safe for us anywhere else. As the offspring of humans and demons, we were reviled by everyone. Those that weren’t merely disgusted by us sought to kill us.
I contemplated the changing clouds. “I think it might rain later,” I said.
“Never mind the weather,” Mariska said. “That’s for mortals to contend with.” She ushered me out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen where Aldo had a steaming bowl of wheat grain waiting for me on the table.
“Big day,” Aldo said. The cook offered an encouraging smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Terrific,” I lied. “I can’t wait to be the new girl even though I’ve lived here for seventeen years.”
“That was your own doing, my dear.” Mariska placed an affectionate kiss on the top of my
head.
“Maybe so, but surely I stopped crying at some point around the age of three. You could have moved me in with the other cambions then.”
Mariska more a vague smile. “Try twelve. Anyway, I think we all got rather used to you in the main spire. At a certain point, it didn’t seem right to cast you out.”
“Elder Sam has always been overprotective of you,” the cook said. I didn’t miss the pointed look that Mariska gave him. The brownie was more expressive than she realized.
“Who’s talking about me behind my wings?” Elder Sam sauntered into the kitchen.
“Should you even use expressions like that anymore?” the cook asked, not unkindly.
“Aldo!” Mariska scolded him.
“Sorry,” the cook said. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Elder Sam patted his shoulder. “No harm done, friend.” He observed my basic breakfast. “Your final day in the main spire and that’s your choice?” He clucked his tongue. “All that education wasted. And here I thought I’d taught you better.”
“You’ll still have plenty of opportunities to teach me,” I said. “It’s not like you won’t be giving lessons over in Spire 10.”
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