Up until recently, the halfs had it bad, absolutely no choice. The Breed Order that had been in place since the beginning stripped them of rights and prohibited the mixing of the two breeds. At the age of eight, halfs had been brought in front of a council of pure-bloods and had been determined if they would be given the Elixir, a serum created by the gods that robbed a half-blood of all free will, and placed into indentured servitude, or if they would go into training. Some believed that training to become a Sentinel or Guard was better than the servitude, but Sentinels and Guards had notoriously short lifespans. Most didn’t make it out of their mid-twenties, dying while hunting daimons—pures and halfs that had become addicted to aether—or from guarding the pures.

Becoming a Sentinel hadn’t meant that the halfs had free will. It just meant they had been chasing the lesser of two evils.

But the rule of the Breed Order was over and gone, just like the Elixir. Halfs had all the rights of the pures, and while many pures had fully supported the change, some were not overly thrilled that they no longer had access to free labor. And there were also halfs who weren’t ready to let thousands of years of injustice go.

Couldn’t really blame them for that.

Some of the halfs chose to continue training to become Sentinels. Some left their posts. Others stayed. And there were even some pures, much like the saintly Aiden St. Delphi, who had risen to the occasion and were now training to become Sentinels.

Chaos had a nasty habit of sneaking up on everyone when it was least expected, and although things had been quiet the last couple of days, I doubted it would remain that way.

In the cafeteria, Josie bypassed the grilled chicken and salad bar, bum-rushing the fried foods section. My kind of girl right there. She grabbed a basket of fries and I went for the fried chicken tenders. After loading up on drinks, we headed back to the dorm, and the whole time, Josie smiled in a way I began to worry might crack her face.

I eyed her as we headed down the narrow hall toward our rooms. “What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing,” she chirped, walking ahead of me.

Shifting the bottles under my arm, I found myself smiling when my gaze dropped to her heart-shaped ass. Damn. She made standard, Covenant-issued sweatpants something to dream about.

“Doesn’t seem like nothing,” I replied.

“Sometimes I just like to smile for no reason.”

“Smiling gives you premature wrinkles.”

“And resting bitchface doesn’t. Yeah. I know.” Stopping in front of the door to her room, she glanced over at me. “Or maybe I’m just smiling because I like being around you.”

I stared at her.

The corners of her lips tipped down. “Too much?”