What if your destiny lay on the other side of
death?
The annual Culling ceremony is a day every coming-of-age
novice looks forward to within the Primeval Coven. It’s the start to being
initiated into the Night Watchmen, humankind’s protectors, and it’s the
long-awaited day when novices discover if they’re a Hunter or a Witch.
But this day is not a happy one for Faye Middleton. Not when
she’s known her whole life that she’s a Defect and is about to face banishment
in front of her fellow novices. She’s forced to attend the Culling with little
hope for her future, but what she discovers about herself is far worse than she
could’ve imagined. And far more dangerous.
Thrown into training and separated from her friends, Faye
must learn to adjust. She struggles to find her place within the Coven, and
with Jaxen Gramm, the darkly handsome and extremely unnerving man assigned to
watch and protect her. Emotions run high, and when she discovers a deadly
secret about him, her struggles deepen. As corruption within the Coven begins
to unravel, Faye pieces together her role in saving the future of her people,
and within Jaxen’s life...but will the truth save her, or be her undoing?
“Wait a second,” I say as I try to scan down the row one
last time for Katie, but I’m shoved into my cubicle and the door shuts,
enclosing me in between four confining walls with only the light of a lamp. I
drag my hands down the fabric of the walls until I fall down into my seat. I
tug on my braid again and again and again. Calm down. Breathe. Calm
down. I chant this over and over again, imagining that Katie’s the
one who’s coaching me. I shut my eyes and am back in her room. The scent of her
perfume overwhelms the small space, but instead of making me sneeze, it
comforts me. It makes my imagined state more real.
I hear loud clapping coming from off the stage and know
someone must’ve just gone. They obviously weren’t a Defect. No one wants a
Defect at their ceremony. A voice shouts, “Let’s go, Todd Jenson. It’s time to
meet your partner.” I wonder if it was Katie on stage. I wonder if he’s her
partner. I wonder this through eighteen more times worth of clapping and
cheering and name calling. Anytime now, they’ll open my door and force me to
stand before the crowd, force me to touch the quartz, force me to face my peers
in shame. If they deem me a Defect, I’ll be the first this Culling, and most
likely the only.
I twist my hands into knots and think about my parents. They
have to be out there by now. I’m going to walk out there and they’re going to
be in the front row smiling. I open my eyes. Four walls. They’re closing in on
me. They’re suffocating me. I have to get out.
“Faye Middleton?” The door opens and air rushes in. I draw
sharply on it as the cheering continues. Another novice and her new partner
walk off stage. It’s the girl with black hair. She’s coyly looking at him from
under her lashes. He looks pissed.
Nathaniel guides me forward, and I want to yank my arm from
him. I want to tell him I left my courage back in that cubicle, but I don’t. I
can’t. My lips are glued shut by fear. My knees have turned into two
extremities of doubt, and I know I’m going to fall. I’m going to forget how to
speak.
Steel blue eyes find mine from across the stage. Elder
Maddock. He bows ever so slightly in my direction, his eyes seeking past my
outer appearance. I wonder if he knows who I am. He has to. I stop right before
him and feel like a bird trapped in a cage. I can’t escape the thousands of
eyes studying me. I can’t escape the hundreds of assumptions building me into
something I’m not.
“Faye Middleton,” he says, his voice eager and curious.
There’s a friendly lightness in his voice I don’t expect, a sound that makes me
feel safe and comfortable under his gaze. He has thick, golden brown hair
combed neatly over to the side and back, showing off the squared planes of his
face. He looks much younger than he should, but older than my father. “Are you
ready to begin?”
I turn to the crowd and scan desperately for my parents.
Eyes. There are so many eyes. Too many. They form together, creating an awful
monster that wants to swallow me whole. I can’t find them. The eyes have hidden
them from me. I’m all alone. I try to swallow, but my mouth is so dry. I bite
the inside of my cheek, curbing the need to release tears.
The Witch standing next to him says, “Faye, he asked you a
question.”
I take in a tight breath and force myself to look away and
back at Maddock. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, my stomach twisting a little tighter.
He pretends not to notice the panic I’m sure my face is
masked in and offers me the kindest, most patient smile. “Everyone is nervous
on the day of the Culling,” he says knowingly. “I was a wreck the day of mine.”
Polite laughter comes from the audience, and I feel myself
relax just enough so that I can breathe again.
He offers me a small wink…a knowing sort of wink, and says,
“Your parents will be proud.” He says these words carefully, evenly, and I know
he’s trying to tell me something. They’re okay? He’s aware of
who I am. “So are you ready to
begin?”
Candace Knoebel is the award-winning author of Born in Flames-a young adult fantasy trilogy.
Published by 48fourteen in 2012, Born in Flames went on to
win Turning the Pages Book of the Year award in February of 2013. Embracing the
Flames, the second in the trilogy, is scheduled for release in the summer of
2013.
Candace Knoebel discovered through lunch breaks and late
nights after putting her kids to bed, a world where she could escape the
ever-pressing days of an eight to five Purgatory. Since then, she crawled out
of Purgatory and has devoted her time to writing and sometimes heelying.
Facebook ~
Goodreads
~ @candaceknoebel
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