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Zusatztext “Teens will relate to these characters and the universal themes of peer pressure! family problems! and the search for identity.”—Starred! VOYA Informationen zum Autor Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote her first novel, In the Forests of the Night , when she was 13 years old. She has since published Demon in My View , Shattered Mirror , Midnight Predator , all ALA Quick Picks for Young Adults, and Snakecharm . Klappentext DANICA SHARDAE IS an avian shapeshifter, and the golden hawk's form in which she takes to the sky is as natural to her as the human one that graces her on land. The only thing more familiar to her is war: It has raged between her people and the serpiente for so long, no one can remember how the fighting began. As heir to the avian throne, she'll do anything in her power to stop this war—even accept Zane Cobriana, the terrifying leader of her kind's greatest enemy, as her pair bond and make the two royal families one. Trust. It is all Zane asks of Danica—and all they ask of their people—but it may be more than she can give. A School Library Journal Best Books of the Year A VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror List selection Prologue They say the first of my kind was a woman named Alasdair, a human raised by hawks. She learned the language of the birds and was gifted with their form. It is a pretty myth, I admit, but few actually believe it. No record remains of her life. No record except for the feathers in every avian’s hair, even when otherwise we appear human, and the wings I can grow when I choose—and of course the beautiful golden hawk’s form that is as natural to me as the legs and arms I wear normally. This myth is one of the stories we hear as children, but it says nothing of reality or the hard lessons we are taught later. Almost before a child of my kind learns to fly, she learns to hate. She learns of war. She learns of the race that calls itself the serpiente. She learns that they are untrustworthy, that they are liars and loyal to no one. She learns to fear the garnet eyes of their royal family even though she will probably never see them. What she never learns is how the fighting began. No, that has been forgotten. Instead she learns that they murdered her family and loved ones. She learns that these enemies are evil, that their ways are not hers and that they would kill her if they could. That is all she learns. This is all I have learned. Days and weeks and years, and all I know is bloodshed. I hum the songs my mother once sang to me and wish for the peace they promise. It’s a peace my mother has never known, nor her mother before her. How many generations? How many of our soldiers fallen? And why? Meaningless hatred: the hatred of an enemy without a face. No one knows why we fight; they only know that we will continue until we win a war it is too late to win, until we have avenged too many dead to avenge, until no one can remember peace anymore, even in songs. Days and weeks and years. My brother never returned last night. Days and weeks and years. How long until their assassins find me? Danica Shardae Heir to the Tuuli Thea Chapter 1 I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and narrowly avoided retching from the sharp, well-known stench that surrounded me. The smell of hot avian blood spattered on the stones, and cool serpiente blood that seemed ready to dissolve the skin off my hands if I touched it. The smell of burned hair and feathers and skin of the dead smoldered in the fire of a dropped lantern. Only the fall of rain all the night before had kept that fire from spreading through the clearing to the woods. From the forest to my left, I heard the desperate, strangled cry of a man in pain. I sta...
