Many years ago I read a YA series that I'm trying to find now. I remember virtually nothing about it, except that I'm quite sure the protagonist was female, and the bad guys developed some sort of golden spots or flecks in their eyes. I've tried Googling a bunch of things related to golden eyes, but I'm not even sure I'm remembering that detail 100% correctly, and I can't find anything.
Does anyone here have any clue what story I could be remembering?
EDIT: Some more details. Take all of these with a grain of salt, as I could be misremembering them a bit.
- The MC's were teens. Not royalty or anything like that, just teens.
- The characters could get "turned". I do not remember how this happened, but when it did they would get gold flecks in their eyes.
- I believe the protagonist's boyfriend gets turned and attempts to kill her.
- When they are turned, I think they are being controlled? They at least do not have full control of their actions.
- I think that when they turned, they also gained powers. I do not remember if these involved magical powers, or just increased strength, etc. I think I remember guns being involved, so I want to say they were maybe not magical powers.
- There were no magical creatures involved, to the best of my memory. Just humans. If I had to compare the world/setting to something, I think it was reminiscent of Divergent.
- On that note, it was set in either a present-day or future style of world. Not medieval or anything like that.
- I don't think there was water involved. This sounds like a weird one, but I don't recall anything like them going on a ship, etc. Water was not a major plot point of the story that I can remember.