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

life. My eyes, however, my eyes said this no-neck beast couldn’t be my thirteen-year-old friend. We stopped rolling when we hit the base of a tree. Charles let me go and hunkered down in front of me. For a second, I thought it was actually Max. Everything about him was dialled up. He looked like a lion on steroids.

“What did I tell you about not having the demon blade with you?” Charles said. I sputtered.

“You can tell it’s me?”

“I’m not an idiot.”

Somebody grabbed me by the shoulder and set me upright. What I had thought were tree trunks turned out to be Cassie’s legs. We stood eye to eye. In Giselle’s body, I was supposed to be a good deal taller.

“Hey, Lex.”

“What the hell?” I hissed.

Her grin was maniacal. Her breath smelt of honey and citrus. She’d eaten Arcana fruit. “Don’t tell me Arcana fruit makes Amazons grow!”

“It also helps us see the truth. Otherwise, Charles was going to rip your arms off.”

Charles pulled the half-eaten fruit out of his pocket and chomped down on it. He tossed it sideways. A shadow bathed in fire caught the fruit. My heart almost jumped out of my chest at the sight of Luther levitating in the air with flames licking at his entire body. I knew he was a fire mage but knowing it and seeing it in action were two very different things.

“Your mum is going to kill you for stealing the fruit,” I told Charles. He continued to glare ahead of him.

Luther bit into the fruit. The red-hearted flames turned blue.

“Get inside,” Cassie said.

“I’m not leaving you –”

“She’s in there. They’ve got no idea what’s happening out here. Kai and my gran…”

The world became a landscape of uneven colours at the thought of Kai and Jacqueline at Giselle’s mercy. “You’re the only one who can get through now,” Cassie said. “We’ll be okay out here.”

With that she shoved me behind her. I heard the low roar of a predator that was pissed as hell, but I couldn’t let it distract me. My hand was almost touching the door handle when something low felt like it reached into the pit of my gut and squeezed. I closed my eyes to find the thinnest sliver of blue magic coating the black and silver underneath. My reserves of hedge magic were depleted. The trees gave a soft groan as their limbs stiffened. They returned to their inanimate state. The demons who pushed past them gave no thought to snapping their branches. In an instant, the Japanese maple was torn to shreds.

My pulse roared in my ears. I grabbed the handle, but my hand slipped through it. I was a ghost. Unsure how long the sensation would last; I grit my teeth and walked through the wall.

43

The assembly hall had been turned into an amphitheatre. Seats rose in tiers from the stage in the very centre. Behind it was a raised platform where the Council sat. They were transfixed at the scene on the stage. The slow beating of my heart became a rhythmic thundering. Giselle was in the centre of the stage. She’d drawn a circle with blue chalk that looked almost identical to the one she’d drawn to transmutate my soul. Red candles sat glowing around the circle’s perimeter. A mixture of sand and salt has been cast around the side to amplify the strength of the spell.

Giselle wore a small black backpack over one shoulder. I knew Basil was inside it. My demon blade was strapped to her other shoulder. I tried to call to the blade but it was wrapped in several layers of silver threads. She’d bound the blade in the same way she’d bound Basil. What really got my attention were the two male figures standing in the circle with her.

Kai and Professor Mortimer stood back to back inside the circle. The calm expression on their faces told me they had gotten into it by consent.

I watched as Giselle brushed her hand over Kai’s wrist. That was when the first of the spectators beside me noticed that I had materialised through the door. The surroundings were still shifting unevenly around me, but they had been told enough to be afraid. One of the women in the top row screamed. She tried to scramble over the woman beside her. That sparked a panic. All eyes turned to me.

Kai was on me in a second. His wings erupted from his back through the white T-shirt he wore. The expression on his face as he bore down on me was merciless. What’s more he’d traded his angel blade for a Mithril sword. It seemed he’d anticipated a fight and he’d made sure he had a weapon that could kill a human. In my own body, I would never have been able to evade. Giselle had seriously miscalculated that portion of her plan.

I felt it the second the sword sliced through my body. Unfortunately for Kai, I was still in between phasing. It was an odd sensation. Like wind whispering through my chest. His sword slid out through the other side of me. It left no traces behind except for a lick of heat. He came at me again as people began to try and stream towards the doors. They soon found they weren’t able to open them.

The next time Kai swung, I stepped into his personal space and willed myself to become corporeal. At the same time, I drew the web of the Ley dimension around me. His movements slowed to a manageable speed. My elbow struck him right in the temple. Giselle was a lot stronger than she looked. He took a step back and shook his head.

The sound of screams made my head pound. I was so tired of being judged.

“Shut up!” I screamed. “The next person to make a sound is going to get their heart ripped right out of their chest!”

The assembly hall went dead quiet. I sensed it the moment Kai moved and tried to