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

understand people. There was so much empathy in her it spilled over into her magic. I pinched her on her side.

“Stop it,” I hissed. I could just imagine she had insisted on coming today so she could be here if I needed her.

“I feel bad for her,” Sophie said. “She seems slightly unhinged.”

“Nuts is the word for it.”

She tapped her chin. “The whole Sisterhood seems to be slightly unnerving.”

“That’s because we spend so much of our time dealing with creatures that shouldn’t exist in our dimension,” the blonde woman said. I narrowed my eyes at her as Sophie cringed. What kind of old woman had such good hearing?

Jacqueline cleared her throat. “We would be willing to allow Lex to enter on the proviso that Nora and Emmanuelle stay with her.”

“And me,” Sophie interjected.

“I’m not leaving her,” Kai snapped.

“I’m not going with them,” I offered.

Basil pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is getting nowhere.”

“Agreed,” the blonde woman said. “Alessia stays with us and the rest of you can leave. What do you think we’ll do with her? More importantly, what could we possibly do that you haven’t done to her already?”

They knew too much about me. And about what had happened since I joined Bloodline. Could it be possible that they had a spy? Or was it more likely that Giselle had lifted the information from me.

“We appear to be at a stalemate,” Jacqueline said. She tapped at the bangles on her left hand.

“If we were holding one of yours captive,” the blonde woman said, “how would you react?”

“They’re not holding me captive,” I snapped.

“It’s called Stockholm Syndrome.”

I was pretty sure she’d just insulted me. The suggestion that I might not really know what I was doing grated on me.

“Don’t you want to know where you came from?” the blonde woman asked. “Surely you’re curious as to why your abilities are so different?”

“Are you telling me that you know why?”

She shook her head. If she had come right out and promised me they could give me answers, I would probably have gotten on the bus and left.

“Ask yourself this,” the blonde woman said, “how much have the monsters been able to show you about what you truly are?”

I bit my bottom lip even as I dreaded the shadow that crept over Kai’s face. “How are you going to do any better?” I insisted.

“We have the patronage of Gaia. Unlike the monsters, she knows all of her children.”

I couldn’t deny that I was curious. Finding out what I was had been my goal from the beginning. But I was starting to think some things might be better left unknown. The blonde woman knew she had me when I glanced up at Nora. I almost refused just because of the smile that tugged at the woman’s lips.

“I’ll come with you now,” I said. “But only so you can show me the Academy. And Nora and Mani are coming with me.”

Sophie cleared her throat. “And Sophie.”

“Blue,” Kai said.

“Humans only,” the blonde woman said. “Under no circumstances will the soul gate allow monsters to enter.”

“I wish you would stop calling them monsters,” Sophie said. The blonde woman and her short-haired companion exchanged a chagrined look. It was one full of knowing. Like they had Sophie pegged.

“Do we have an agreement?” the blonde woman said.

“Fine,” I accepted. Kai dragged me back from the front of the group.

“You have no idea what you’re walking into,” he said when I turned towards him.

“That thought had crossed my mind.”

His green eyes sparked with uncertainty. “They’re pretty adamant about you not being able to cross their soul gate,” I told him. “I’ll be fine. The place is tiny compared to Bloodline. What could possibly go wrong?”

His eyes darted to the grey swell beating at the rocks. “You can’t protect me from everything,” I said.

“I can try.”

For a moment the nightmare of his death tried to sink claws into me. My chest ached as an image of his lifeless body gripped me. Sensing the fear that suddenly took hold of me, Kai brushed a strand of hair away from my cheek. That simple touch reignited the warmth in my chest.

“Be careful,” he said. The scar on his brow creased as he strained to remain as calm as possible. It had to be killing him to let me go without him.

I nodded. “I’m not in any hurry to be a hero.” Walking back to the front of the group, I blew out a breath.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said.

The blonde woman reached out and placed her hand on the iron gate. Instead of swinging open, the bars shimmered until they became what appeared to be a solid film of pearlescent light. The motes inside danced with specks of green and gold.

“Come,” she said. She walked backwards, hit the barrier and slid straight through. Sophie and I looked at each other. The barrier seemed harmless enough.

Ever the curious teacher, Professor Mortimer stepped forward and brushed his hand close to the flickering source of energy. The gate didn’t like it. Sparks of electricity whipped from the seemingly benign entity. It snapped and snarled. The professor retracted his hand. But not before the soul gate snatched at him and flung him against the side of the bus. Jacqueline stepped to his aid. When she propped him up, every hair on his body was singed. His head hung limply to one side, smoke billowing from his cardigan.

“As I said,” the blonde woman commented. “The soul gate will not allow monsters to enter.”

She turned to me and smiled. Whatever else they were selling, these humans would not forgive the supernaturals from trespassing into our dimension any time soon.

7

The groan Professor Mortimer emitted had me nervous. Kai knelt down beside him, his hands already glowing with healing green light.

I stepped to the side, no longer sure if I wanted to go through the barrier. If I wasn’t fully human, or mostly human as some would suggest, the soul gate might deal me the same treatment.

“Don’t