Bloodline Diplomacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 3), Lan Chan [best way to read an ebook .TXT] 📗

And why would she do that? Lucifer crooned in my ear.

For the first time, I actually listened. Because I’m a bone witch, and even when I die, my magic might still remain.

Not just your magic, Alessia. The only way to destroy you completely is for you to give up what you are. He laughed. I couldn’t find the funny in any of this. But I knew why he laughed. Because even if I died, he would probably find another human capable of producing a child. The irony was that it would most certainly be an Earth-magic user. He would reproduce the cycle over and over again until he achieved his goal. He was seraphim.

So I would listen. It just wouldn’t be to Lucifer. Or Gaia. I heard Hilary’s cracking laughter in my ears. Flipping the dagger in the grip of my left hand, I surged upright with the last of my strength. I went for Gaia’s chest knowing full well she would stop me. As she reached out to grab my wrist, I called Morning Star. It flew into my right hand. I shoved it through Gaia’s ribs. She cried out in anger more than pain and flung me aside.

Retracting the sword, I cut my own hand. Our blood pooled together. This time I smiled at her. I smiled at the way her eyes widened before I lassoed her with the same spell my great-grandmother had used to bind her. Only this time, I didn’t try to hide her away. She shrieked and fought against it, but the magic I had used wasn’t gifted to me by her. It was Azrael’s.

“Let go of the barrier,” I said to her. She screamed at me. “Let it go or I’ll hide you away so well no one will ever be able to find you!”

“You insolent little –”

I wound a string of death magic around her throat and constricted it. In the back of my mind I knew there was something dreadful about a human with the kind of power I possessed. I didn’t care. I’d had enough of being pushed around by these deities. As though I had conjured them from my thoughts, Azrael, Raphael, and Michael appeared. They materialised around the perimeter of the barrier. Raphael pressed Kai against him. He spoke urgently in Kai’s ear.

My stupid Nephilim wasn’t listening. If I didn’t know better, I would think he was close to punching Raphael in the head.

“She means what she says,” Azrael’s voice sounded in the air around Gaia and me. “Release the barrier, sister. This feud has gone on for too long.”

“You!” Gaia screamed. “This is all your fault.”

Azrael nodded. “Yes. And I will take full responsibility for it. There is no need to destroy the world you created.”

Her body shuddered beneath the vines of my power. I thought she was struggling until I glanced over and saw tears streaming from her face. The humanity in me made me bow my head. Insane or not, she was our deity. The pain she must have felt for so long washed over me. And then Azrael was beside us. I felt the wind, the real wind, again as the barrier came down.

Azrael placed his hand on my shoulder. “Come, little one. We need to speak.”

It was about damn time.

40

We materialised in the garden in Seraphina. “I take it I’m no longer banned,” I said, my voice dry. The other seraphim appeared around us. Rather than answer, Raphael placed his hand on my side. I squeaked as heat blossomed around my ribs. When he pulled away, my ribs weren’t throbbing anymore. But it was the rush of hedge magic that funnelled into me that had me grinning.

“Thanks,” I said.

He bowed his head. “Thank you, Alessia. We will take Gaia to our sanctum and help her to heal. The return of your magic is the least she can do for you.”

He stepped back and Michael took his place. Unlike the Nephilim he had blooded, the warrior Seraph looked at me with softness in his eyes. “What you are about to see, no one else has witnessed in centuries,” he said. Somehow, I knew they were about to show me where Lucifer was imprisoned. I took an involuntary step towards Azrael. He didn’t move, but I felt the reassuring aura of him and that was enough.

The beautifully clean structures of Seraphina wavered. A chill bit into my skin. Aw man! Why did it always have to get cold?

I saw now why I had experienced an icy cavern as hell when Lucifer invaded my mind. Around me, the world turned into the stark reality of grey rocks and celestial bars. Icicles hung from the ceiling and crystallised in forgotten corners. Two seraphim sentinels stood on either side of a cell. My breath condensed in front of me as I took a look through the bars.

On an altar of rock Lucifer lay prone with his arms splayed over his chest mummy style. Around him, an icy tomb had been erected. There was no light in the cavern except the glow that radiated off him despite his frozen state.

I could no longer feel my lips. My teeth chattered. “So, no fire and brimstone?” I asked Ariel. He smiled at me.

“Fire is life,” he said. At once, I understood. We humans had gotten it all wrong. I blinked and we were back inside Seraphina again. I stamped my feet and jumped around to get the feeling back in my limbs.

Michael and Raphael took their leave. I remained in the garden with Azrael. “What Gaia said inside the barrier…?”

He nodded. “She spoke the truth.”

“How is that possible?”

“Our brother is treacherous. His ability to twist the mind of men is unspeakable. Your mother had no idea that your father was one of Lucifer’s most devoted acolytes. Lucifer’s possession of your father was absolute.”

“Does that mean he blooded me?”

Azrael shook his head slowly. “Lucifer would never dilute his power that way. When my other brothers gave up