The Gilded Ones

In the patriarchal kingdom of Otera, every girl endures a blood ceremony at sixteen. Those who bleed red are pure; those who bleed gold are alaki, near-immortal demons descended from the four goddesses the male god Oyomo subjugated. When Deka bleeds gold, she is condemned to die again and again until her mortal death is found. A mysterious woman offers her another path: leave the village and join an army of alaki girls trained to fight the deathshrieks that threaten the empire. In the capital, Deka discovers that the doctrine she was raised on is a lie, and that the empire fears the girls it has spent centuries destroying.