by Ivy Baum
Tyrus’s eyes locked with mine.
“Are these terms acceptable to you, Kalanthe?”
It was a ritual question, one that Dr. Sotheby had prepared me for. Harder to get used to was the novelty of being addressed by my new name. My Aristoi name.
“I accept the terms.” I took the quill from his outstretched hand.
All that was left to do was sign my name.
The quill felt surprisingly weighty in my hand. It is a special kind of pen, Dr. Sotheby had told me. It is consecrated for official purposes. Once you sign your name, you will be Sealed to the Noble Race.
An empty space at the bottom of the scroll awaited my signature.
Halfway down the page, my hand stopped. It had just occurred to me that I did not know what name to write.
I knew what was expected. My formal Aristoi name was Kalanthe. But no one had specified that I had to use that name for the Sealing contract.
Kalanthe, after all, did not exist.
She was a convenient fiction to make my existence more palatable to those who viewed me as an abomination, albeit a necessary one.
But when I thought of my birth name, I didn’t want to use that, either. Kestrel Adler was dead.
Unlike Kalanthe, she had, at one point, existed. But she now belonged to a life that was gone.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a new name came to me. It was one I’d never given much thought to—until now.
When I had finished scrawling the name, I handed the quill back to Tyrus.
The name didn’t give him pause. I wasn’t sure he even noticed the difference. “You are Sealed,” he intoned.
He passed the scroll over to the clerk, who signed it as a witness.
I was now an honorary pureblood.
Dr. Sotheby, who had watched over my shoulder as I signed the contract, murmured, “Interesting choice.”
He had noticed the name.
I shrugged. I hadn’t known whether he would recognize it. Clearly, he had.
“She would be proud of you.”
I bristled. I still hated him—but he was on our side. At least for now.
Tyrus and the clerk began to roll up the contract and return it to the dark wooden case.
It was done.
They’re just using you.
Sol’s voice sounded even more reproachful in my memory—and my own response more cynical.
What makes you think I’m doing any differently?
Of course, I told myself that there was no other way. But Sol hadn’t been entirely wrong. My motives were more complicated than that.
I had not forgiven the Aristoi for the Hunters, or for the deaths of all the half-bloods who had come before me. But on some level, they belonged to me, and I belonged to them.
And on another level, I belonged wholly to my mother.
I’d never given much thought to her maiden name. She’d always been Diana Adler, even after my father left.
But Diana Grey had always been there, hiding just under the surface.
Now that name felt like the only thing that really belonged to me. The only thing that could not be taken away.
And so I had joined the Noble Race not as Kalanthe or Kestrel Adler, but as Kestrel Grey.
On my way back from the ceremony, I passed by Sol’s room, which was the other side of the Domestic Quarters.
He was probably there now, packing and preparing for his journey to Outlaw City.
He would leave late tonight, under cover of darkness. This time, it would be more difficult. More dangerous.
I have to travel to Outlaw City while I still can, Sol had told me.
I understood. But that didn’t mean I had to like it.
Blood Right would be looking for him. Once Lucan heard that Sol had survived, I was sure he would come after him.
I thought about stopping by. Saying goodbye.
But we’d already said goodbye, standing face to face in my room, before the Sealing.
There was a time when I would have gone to him. Silently pleaded for him to change his mind—or mine.
But the girl who would have done that was Kestrel Adler, and she was gone.
Kestrel Grey kept right on walking. Soon I had put Sol, and my own misgivings, out of my head.
There was work to be done.
The story continues in Noble Born! Pre-Order on Amazon here.
…And don’t forget to visit me at ivybaum.com, where you can join my newsletter and get the prequels, Unmarked and Unbound, for free!
Coming June 2020…
To stop a greater evil, Kes must enter into an unthinkable alliance. But is she a hero…or a pawn?
About the Author
As a child, Ivy spent most of her time scribbling stories in spiral-ring notebooks. They were uniformly terrible.
After years of trying to talk herself into more sensible pursuits, she’s back to doing what comes naturally—spending time in made-up worlds and having conversations with people who don’t exist.
She writes books where magic is real and everyone has an endless supply of snarky banter. Because she has a short attention span, she tries to leave out the boring parts.
Ivy lives in frozen New England with her husband, three children, and golden retriever—who is easily the best-behaved of the bunch.
The Half-Blood Chronicles
Half-Born
Noble Born
Source Born
The Half-Blood Chronicles: The Prequels
Unmarked
Unbound