The ceremony took place in the guardians' building, in a large room they used for meetings and banquets. But now? Mainly they were going to be reminders of something I wanted to forget. All my life, in considering my future career as a guardian, I'd looked forward to the marks. Then it occurred to me that in decapitating two Strigoi, I'd earned two molnija tattoos. It had taken me several moments to grasp what she was talking about. But on my fourth day back at the Academy, my mother had found me and told me it was time to receive my marks. I'd wanted little more than to go curl up in a ball somewhere and not talk to anyone, except maybe Lissa. But I was still having a hard time dealing with the death I'd caused and the death I'd seen. The burns from the melting flex-cuffs were the worst of my injuries. I had walked away from the Spokane incident with minor bruises and cuts. For now, though, it felt as though the entire world was weeping. Winter was far from being over, so I knew everything would just freeze up again in a few days. In fact, it was so warm that a lot of the snow on campus began melting, running down the sides of the Academy's stone buildings in slim, silvery streams. THE WEATHER WARMED UP ON the day of my molnija ceremony.
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