Bloodline Diplomacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 3) by Lan Chan (best short novels .txt) 📕

She went flying back into the water with me in her grip. I turned back to look at the foreshore. The last thing I saw was a shot of emerald light raining down from the sky. Kai’s eyes widened as he landed. He sprang for me but it was too late. Gaia crashed into the water, taking me down with her.

39

I was going to die in the water. I held my breath for as long as I could as the kraken dragged us farther and farther down into the dark depths of the ocean. I wasn’t even sure if we were in Australian waters anymore. The portal that had opened up could have originated anywhere. The pressure on my lungs was unbearable. I could no longer see anything. Gaia’s grip on me never slackened. She didn’t need to breathe. She would hold on to my lifeless body for eternity if she had to.

My lungs were going to burst. Just when I felt myself give in to the inhale, the amulet at my throat pulsed to life. It created an arcane circle around my head. I gasped and sputtered, but the air I breathed was fresh. The light from the amulet gave me enough illumination that I could see the kraken and Gaia were locked in a physical battle. She was holding her own pretty well with one arm. At any moment I thought she might let me go to concentrate on the more dangerous foe. But she continued to hold on no matter what. I felt her body roll as the kraken smashed her across the face with its tentacle. In the water I didn’t know how painful that would be. The way Gaia’s head snapped back said that the laws of earthly physics probably didn’t apply in this instance.

I thought I was chilled to the bone until the first icicle scratched me in the nose. Ice and I no longer got along. Not since the cavern in the Hell dimension. And as I looked down into the depth where the kraken was trying to drag us, that was exactly where I saw we were headed. Towards a portal leading to the Hell dimension. Gaia was a supreme being in the Earth dimension. In hell, I wasn’t sure if that would still be true. And I was sure I would be less than an ant.

The remaining heat in my body leached out. I was so cold I could barely feel my extremities. With that terrifying thought causing my heart to palpate, the sea flickered around me. One second I was cradled tightly in Gaia’s grip and the next I was suddenly free-floating. Her head turned back in my direction. I grinned as I glanced at my freed arms and legs. I’d phased right through her. She tried to reach back for me, but the kraken held firm.

Green light bloomed in the water above me. It flicked and died and bloomed again. I wasn’t sure what was happening until the light reappeared in a different location. Kai was trying to find me but the water was too dark for him to see anything.

Now that she wasn’t preoccupied with me, Gaia drew her hands together. Sparks of lightning flared around her fingers. Holy hell! I flailed my arms and kicked with my legs to try and get away from what was going to be the world’s biggest hairdryer in a bathtub situation. I hoped like crazy that Kai had seen what she was about to do and teleported out.

Gaia clapped her hands together. She directed it towards the kraken. The voltage of electricity she shot was so high it turned the sea into a lava lamp. I had enough time to draw a circle around myself. I dragged every inch of magic I could muster to hold the electricity at bay. The scent of burned hairs filtered through the air bubble, but when the light dimmed, I wasn’t dead. Neither was the kraken. Instead, it was severely pissed off. What kind of messed-up demon was this?

A demon that will save your life, Lucifer said in my head. All around me, thousands of smaller portals opened. Through them, hundreds and hundreds of aquatic demons streamed through. Most of them appeared reptilian. Some of them reminded me of Doctor Thorne. All of them pissed me off. They carried serrated blades that they used to stab the Earth deity. She flinched where they got in a hit. I flinched in sympathy. More of them streamed through the portal and attacked her.

For his own messed-up reasons, Lucifer was trying to save me. Just like he had in my nightmares. To do that, he would kill Gaia. Never mind the consequences of snuffing out a deity. So I was once again stuck in between a rock and a very hard place. And I was bloody tired of it.

Kai appeared beside me. When he tried to grab me, I pushed away from him. There was enough residual light from Gaia’s explosive temper for him to see me gesturing at the deity. He shook his head, his expression murderous. I tried to kick him in the water, but unlike the kraken, I had zero strength. My own temper was starting to simmer. Kai wouldn’t stop trying to save me. So I had to try and save him. When next he reached out, I wrapped my arms around his waist. As soon as we touched, he tried to teleport, but I phased out of his hold. In the second when he was gone, I sank into the Ley dimension and uncapped the lid on the darker magic that I now associated with death.

Like a soda bottle that had been shaken for too long, the resulting release was catastrophic. The last time I had lost control like this, I destroyed a section of the beach. This time, there was no fear to leash me. The first circle sliced through the demons closest to me. The following ones compounded the effect