Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6), Lan Chan [free ebook reader for android TXT] 📗

fury and slit my throat. I wasn’t stupid enough not to accept backup. While I waited, I blinked myself back to normal vision and constructed the circle.

Uncorking the bottles of elixir, I poured a few drops on my finger and smeared it over Edward’s nose. It twitched and my heart fluttered. There was still life in there. He just needed to be reached.

Laila cleared her throat when I tried to get Mark to drink some elixir. This would definitely involve prolonged physical contact. Just as I was about to press my hand to his lips, Laila jumped into the room. “Maybe I should do that, love.”

“Thanks.” I couldn’t pull my hand away fast enough. Thankfully, he was pretty suggestible, and Laila had a lot of experience forcing medication on reluctant patients.

I couldn’t help smiling when I felt Yolanda’s aura when she arrived. It was back to being a fiery ball of red that branched off into a million vines. Each one denoted another member of the pack.

“Ready?” she asked.

“I think so.”

She clasped my shoulder and stood by my side. Sinking back into the Ley dimension, I drew a circle around Mark and Edward. “Now.”

Yolanda started severing links. I heard the gasps by the door when their connection to him was cut, but nobody made any sudden movements. With each thread that Yolanda removed, the ball of strings around Mark loosened. The moment a thread of red snaked through the yellow of his eyes, I snatched at the alchemy and transmuted the elixir in his blood into the soft scent of lilac and honey.

Pushing away everything else, I thought of Cheyenne. Not in her final moments but at her happiest. She was always slightly harassed when dropping Edward off to be cared for while she ran liaison with the Fae. As a submissive, she wasn’t burdened by the dominance issues that made communication with the other species fraught with danger. Her smile was always brightest when she spoke of her son. She baked the worst-tasting cookies that had made more than one packmate sick, but she kept at it, nonetheless. Her spirit, so full of light and love, would live on in their memories.

As the pack link threads were slowly whittled away, it revealed the darkness covering Mark in a layer of grief so thick, it was choking him. In their effort to keep him from going rogue, they were smothering him as well. With the threads disappearing, the grey layer dispelled slightly. He took a shuddering breath as though he’d only just remembered how.

I flinched when his arms reached out, but he only stooped to pick up Edward. Holding the little cub close to his chest, Mark began to speak to him in a guttural rasp that was filled with both sadness and overwhelming love.

“Mummy loves you, Ed,” he choked. “She loved you so much she died to protect you. That would have made her happy. We’ll remember her happy, baby. Even if we didn’t get to spend enough time with her.”

Edward gave a shuddering little cry of anguish. And then his fur split and snapped, melting away to reveal the little boy whose whole body crumpled in sobs. In the Ley sight, I saw Mark re-establishing his link to his son. And Yolanda pulling the remaining threads around Mark taut so that it wouldn’t strangle him.

Slowly, I eased myself off the bed and left the little family to their healing.

Outside, I sank into the flower border and let my head drop into my hands. “I didn’t realise you see the Ley sight in bonds of love,” Yolanda’s voice said beside me. I glanced up to find her crouched down and peering at me inquisitively.

“I used to think it was worthless,” I said.

“How much of the pack link can you see?”

“All of it.”

“And you still think the old gods are wrong?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Oh, I think you are, Sophie darling.”

My eyes narrowed which only made her laugh before she stood up and walked away to shoo the kids back into the house. Out here, the scent of my flower was stronger than ever. The glaucous thick stem and leaves held up a bud that was tinged a deep crimson. One day soon it would burst open. I smiled thinking about when that happened.

Knowing that I was stalling, I flicked the bud with my finger and let Mark’s words settle into my heart. Cheyenne had died defending her son. His conviction that she would have been grateful, happy even, to know that was how she died kept pinging around in my head. Cheyenne was a submissive, but when it came down to it, her love manifested in the same way as the dominant shifters.

I’m not human, Max had said. Don’t forget that.

And then finally, I allowed myself to imagine what it might be like to have him ripped away from me. The feeling of mortal terror threatened to unnerve me. But then I thought of little Edward who was suffering from actual grief and it hit me like a sledgehammer that I had about as much courage as a three-year-old.

Don’t let them make you forget who you are.

I realised then that I didn’t need outside influences to make me forget. It’d done it to myself more effectively. Lex’s disappearance had branded me in such a way that I was terrified to lose anyone else. And in doing so, I had forgotten everything about her besides the terrible prophecy that hung over her head.

I’d pushed aside all the happiness so that I couldn’t be reminded that life was still worth living. I’d been touting it to the kids without really believing it. But I was done being scared. If this life was guaranteed to be short, I would grab at happiness for as long as I could hold it. Taking a huge breath, I forced myself to get up and face the destiny the old gods had placed in front of me.

44

Diana and I were walking to the portal field when I