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

Mani looked like he wanted to yank me back. Unfortunately, pulling the dad card didn’t really work on Council members. We were an awkward pair. He was too tall and angular. Even with my heels, I barely reached his shoulders. It was different with Kai. The way he held me made the stiffness of our dancing disappear. Orin clutched me like I was a dirty tissue. I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

On our second lap of the dance floor, I saw Kai shatter a glass in his grip. I shook my head at him. “You’ve done very well for yourself,” Orin said. He didn’t attempt to lower his voice. I paid him the same courtesy.

“You’re going to have to be more specific, sir.”

“A low witch who is now ingratiated into two powerful arms of the Council.” Right. So he wasn’t even going to veil his insults. I wanted to do the same. However, months of dealing with the covert bullying from the kids at the Academy had helped me develop a thick skin. I let the comment slide.

“How is your training with the demon blade progressing?”

“Very well, thank you.”

He spun us around so that my back was to Kai’s table. “I hear the nymphs of the Grove have taken to helping you train. I’m surprised. They don’t tend to warm to outsiders.”

“I guess it was just luck.”

“I think you should give yourself more credit than that.”

I wasn’t stupid enough to take it as a compliment. “I’m looking forward to your performance at the Halloween Showcase. I’ve heard so many things about your capabilities.”

No doubt Brigid had complained to him big time. “I’ll do my best. It’s a well-established fact that third and fourth-year students tend to sweep the Showcase, though.”

“There is always room for an upset. Brigid is well aware of that fact. You will be competing against her in Herbology, won’t you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really like to keep up with what others are doing. I can only do the best I can.”

He smiled. It made me shiver. “What is best and what is good for us can often be two different things.”

“I understand,” I said. “After all, I remember when you voted against me keeping the demon blade. Yet I used it to save a friend’s life.”

His grip on my hand grew tight. Kai saw me wince. He pushed up off his chair. Max tried to stop him, but he shrugged Max off. “When the time comes,” Orin said, oblivious to the Nephilim bearing down on him. “Try to remember who your friends are.”

“She won’t need to remember,” Kai said. He placed his hand on my forearm. “We’ll be right there with her.” Orin stopped dancing.

His features became inscrutable. “It still surprises me how idealistic you are after everything that’s happened, Malachi.”

“It’s because of what’s happened that I’m idealistic,” Kai said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here.”

He drew me into his arms. “Mind if I take her off your hands?”

We were out of Orin’s reach before Kai even finished his sentence. I took in a long breath. “I was handling it just fine,” I told him.

“You shouldn’t have to handle anything,” he said. He pulled me closer. I could just imagine Mani having a coronary if he saw us.

“What I should and what I actually have to do are two vastly different things.”

He dipped his head and looked into my eyes. “Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to be able to say anything to get myself out of this hole I’ve dug?”

“Maybe you should think about not doing things to get into trouble in the first place.”

“How much fun would that be?” He brushed his lips against my jaw. “You look beautiful by the way.”

My head dipped. He caught my chin and forced me to look at him instead of shy away. “And not because I’m in trouble, either. It used to really piss me off how badly I wanted to stay away but couldn’t.”

He pressed his lips against mine. The rest of the ballroom disappeared. I knew I wasn’t beautiful. I also knew he didn’t tell lies to get people to like him. He didn’t need to. It was terrifying to think that in his eyes, I was beautiful. Terrifying and completely intoxicating. It was no wonder Mani was paranoid about me acting stupid. If we weren’t in a room full of strangers, I was scared of how stupid I could possibly be.

When he pulled away, there was a mischievous glint in his eye. I smacked him in the chest. “You are so not out of the doghouse,” I said.

The sound of his laughter made my insides melt.

It was in that moment that all the water I’d drunk caught up with me. “I need to go to the bathroom,” I said. “Try not to offend anyone while I’m gone.”

The girl who I saw in the mirror as I glided past had the biggest grin on her face. I would never be a model. It didn’t matter. In his eyes, I was beautiful. In mine, I was happy.

34

The bathrooms here made the ones at the Academy seem like campground facilities. It was bigger than Nora and Mani’s apartment. When you walked in there was a powder room adorned in marble and glass. The rose gold fittings matched the soft apricot colour of the wallpaper. I could get used to this.

What I hadn’t been counting on was Brigid waiting for me when I got out of the cubicle. I steadied myself with a reminder that nothing she could say would dent the magic of the evening.

It surprised me how wrong I could be.

“Well,” she said. “If it isn’t the low witch turned princess.”

“Give it a rest,” I said. “Don’t you ever get tired of being a bitch?”

It was her lack of reaction that had my senses alert.

“I don’t get tired of the truth.”

I threw the paper towel I’d been using into the waste basket. It flashed brightly for a second. When