Prologue

I see him. He’s across the room from me, only a sliver of him between the myriad of heads. The deafening roar of the cafeteria room dies away as he looks up and catches my stare with his bright emerald eyes. The glowing glint in his eyes, the sharp slope of his nose, the contours of his slightly downcast lips strike me at once, knocking the breath and life out of me with one glance. His gaze is steady, but also playful, as he cocks his head to the side as if to meet my stare with a question.

1

I had wished it wasn’t going to be him. I had been watching him through the screen that allowed us to observe the targeted humans for that year. He was to be eliminated because he had the potential to discover and destroy our planet in the future. But instead of observing and learning his weaknesses and plotting his death, I fell hard for the boy with the glinting emerald eyes. When the Sage read the names of the Assignments for my class, I had hoped and begged and desired, ‘please, just not him.’ But the Sage knew. He is omniscient and ever present, boring into our minds and grasping every thought, aligning those that defy his beliefs. This is my punishment, my responsibility as a Noli.

The planet of Nolis, Nolus, is impossible to find for any man or woman on Earth; it is contained and hidden in galaxies far beyond the human world. The word Noli means “no feeling” in Latin, the language of our ancestors. We are ageless, all of us except the Sage looking to be a healthy seventeen to twenty years old. The Sage is revered by all mostly because he looks much, much older than the rest of our kind; he acquired the power of age, an asset we cannot gain. We share dull, brown hair and eyes and the same shade of milky skin which allow us to able to blend in seamlessly with the humans when carrying out our Assignments. The thing that separates us Nolis from humans other than our innate emotionlessness is the tiny number tattooed onto our wrist. My wrist has the number 64 tattooed delicately on it ever since I can remember.

The central principal of Nolis is “Emotion makes room for weakness.” A perfect model Noli would have apathy toward everyone and everything, only concerned for the status of the Sage and our planet. The Sage is the oldest, wisest man in the universe; he is all knowing like a god and impossible to break. To keep us in the state of no feeling, the Sage gives us Assignments.

Until a Noli is ready to perform his duties, he is kept under hypnosis by the Sage and is only awakened during the allotted time for his Assignment. The time allowed is different for each Assignment, depending on the strength and capabilities of the human being assigned. All of us have the same duty: to receive Assignments from the Sage each year and carry them out. Assignments are humans us Nolis have to bring back to Nolus and kill; they are supposed to shape and mold us back into the state of not caring, of no emotion, of no love and warmth and feeling. Our planet is fueled by the showers of human blood sacrificed to its soil each year. Without the sacrifices, us Nolis would all perish. An Incomplete Assignment means a direct transfer into Orcus, or the Underworld. There have ever only been four Nolis that have been sent to the Orcus.

My name is Mali. I am a Noli. I am also in love with a human boy I am now supposed to murder in cold blood for my planet.