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A bandaid on his freckled nose. Aleksander von Hohenburg, heir to the Austrian throne, had never seen a real person outside of a cartoon have one on their face like that before.
Alek swallowed thickly as the boy approached. Icy blue eyes cut through Alek like steel, sizing him up like prey. Alek shrank into his seat and squeezed his eyes shut. He thought moving to a new school would fix everything. That the heckling and the bullying and the embarrassment would stop. But even under a new name, a new identity, this was always going to be it for him.
“Come on now, I don’t bite.” A voice. Scottish? Alek’s eyes flew open. The boy's face was inches from his own. He pushed back his sandy yellow hair with a bandaged hand, his eyes glinting with amusement. “Not unless you’re into that.” He winked and extended his other arm. “I’m Deryn, pleased to make your acquaintance.”