Bloodline Secrecy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2) by Lan Chan (best e ink reader for manga TXT) 📕

another layer. One in which three figures shrouded in mist and mayhem were attempting to tear Kai’s soul from his body.

21

In my mind, I sensed the confusion of the three beings standing sentinel around Kai. They regarded him with apathy. One of them cocked their blob of a head to the side.

“He resists,” the voice of the shadow said. It was barely more than a scrape of breath. They were so adept at masking themselves that it almost felt like they were dematerialised. Like they were walking between dimensions.

“Not possible,” one of the others countered.

The first Sister who spoke reached out a smoking limb. She drew it through Kai’s body. He gasped. His teeth were gritted, his face twisted in a mixture of pain and fury. As her hand passed through him, I felt something cold tug at my insides.

The figure straightened. Her head turned in different directions. “It’s not him,” she said. “His soul has been bound to someone else here.”

“Sophie,” I rasped. She grabbed my hand despite Professor Mortimer’s request. “The others, tell them to stay as far away from Kai as possible.” I knew Max was probably chomping at the bit to attack. It was against his nature to stand by while his best friend was being hurt.

She was off in a second, I could hear her urgent speech by the door, but my eyes had shut tight again. My thoughts would not remain in this realm.

For once, I gave in to the tug of the Ley lines. They dragged my consciousness from the Earth realm into the dark depths of their web. The disconnect eased some of the pain in my physical body, but I gasped when I saw the darkened shadow around Kai’s green light. It flickered with such unstable fury that I could just imagine him fighting to remain whole.

Around him were three circles of nothingness. No light permeated their centre. It was like they didn’t exist. And it appeared like they were growing bigger, cannibalising the life forces of those around them. Tendrils of dark veins extended from the globs of black to wrap around Kai’s circle of light. It tugged. His green life force fractured into a thousand tiny fragments. His soul was slowly coming apart.

I braced as the pain shot through me once more. This time I didn’t scream. Kai’s guttural grunt had the rage in me igniting. The knife I held in my right hand bit into the palm of my left. As my blood trickled onto the sand, I drew it into a circle. Before my eyes, blue light encased the green of Kai’s. Where it brushed up against the dark mist, I tried to sever the connection with circles of my own. They would not be removed. We played tug-of-war with Kai’s soul.

“You’re on the wrong side, little sister,” the distinct voice said. “You should not be bound to one of them.

I didn’t respond. If I lost concentration for a moment, they would have him. I wasn’t losing him to the Sisterhood after months of keeping away from him so he wouldn’t die at the hands of Lucifer. The thought of the devil brought forth the nightmare in my mind. The image replayed as it always did, as a threat and a promise. Even now it sent tendrils of ice through my veins.

One of the shadows grunted. “You dare to keep him alive when he could be the key to ending all life in our dimension?”

The assault on Kai recommenced. This time, as I was protecting him with my power, the barbs of their dark energy sliced into me instead. I winced, gritting my teeth to stop from crying out.

“Blue.” I heard him in my mind. His voice was everywhere and nowhere at once. “Let go.”

“No!”

“They’ll kill you to get to me.”

I knew it as well as he did. Still I refused to let go. I might not be physically strong, but Hastings women were known for their stubbornness. The assault felt like a million knives slicing slowly into my skin. Every breath was becoming laboured.

“Blue!” His tone was urgent. For the first time since I’d known him, I felt fear in his heart. Something light brushed against my cheek.

Outside my mind, somebody gasped. “No way,” someone said. “He’s moving.”

I didn’t need to open my eyes to witness what they were seeing. I felt his limbs contract and saw him struggle to stand.

A hiss of breath escaped one of the figures. I imagined it was a laugh. “You do better than your fellow Councilman,” she said. “But better isn’t enough.”

This time I did cry out. My body slumped on the sand.

“Don’t!” Astrid cried.

I had a feeling someone was trying to grab me. Her voice was laced with worry. But she’d done the right thing. I could feel the circle throbbing with malevolent magic. It might be effective against supernaturals, but the circle wasn’t able to keep out other low-magic users. My circle had become a swirling vortex of the magic belonging to the Soul Sisterhood as it battered at me. Even in my disassociated state, I shuddered to think of what it might do to somebody else.

A tear streaked down my left cheek. My teeth were clenched so hard it was a wonder I didn’t dislocate my jaw.

“Lex,” Cassie’s soft voice said. I heard the pleading in it. She was terrified for us both. So was I. And boy did that piss me off. I was so tired of being afraid. So sick of chasing my tail when it came to the Sisterhood.

My anger reignited something in Kai’s mind. He unfolded his body even as his soul was scrambling to remain intact. The shadows laughed again. Through the connection that linked all of us, I could feel their intent.

The first of them struck. Kai moved at the same time. Even weakened, his speed was unmatched. He got to Charles a second before the shadow unsheathed her sword and sliced through the air where Charles had been crouching.

The