Bloodline Secrecy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2), Lan Chan [readict TXT] 📗

sweater just for something to do. I’d never been tongue tied around Kai before. Then again, he had never been hesitant around me. It was like we were both trying to find the right words. Since I was the one who had made it awkward, I figured I was obligated to try and smooth things over.

“How are you feeling?”

Though I could see that at least physically he was pretty much recovered. The scars he’d acquired were almost healed so that they were smudges more than anything else. It made me wonder how deep that one above his eye had been for it to leave such a mark. He caught me staring.

“Demon blade,” he said. His hand reached up to touch the mark. It seemed like an involuntary gesture. Just like the way his eyes narrowed in that moment.

“Of course it was.”

“I’m good,” he said.

“I’m glad.”

“Are you?”

This time I frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Astrid and I are just old family friends.”

My jaw dropped. The nerve! “I don’t remember asking.”

He smirked. I knew I was scowling but it was impossible not to. I stepped to the side. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Making room for your ego.”

If I hadn’t been looking at him right then, I wouldn’t have noticed his face softening for the briefest second. It was gone in a flash, but it was a moment of vulnerability.

“Astrid is going to be around from now on,” he said. “She doesn’t have many friends. It would be nice if you could try and get along with her.”

Was he kidding me right now? It would be a miracle if I didn’t put my fist in both of their faces. “No offense but I don’t really plan on being around you guys a lot.”

“Blue.”

I held up a hand. In the span of our conversation, steely conviction had poured over me. It formed a restrictive layer around my heart. As much as his presence scraped at me in completely the wrong way, I didn’t want him to get hurt.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Honestly. I promise I’ll be civil if I see her around. I’m not like Brigid.”

“That’s kind of what I was counting on.” The blank expression on my face wasn’t what he wanted to see. “She’s lived in Seraphina all her life. I want her to have contact with the outside world. She needs to see what real people are like. It’s the only way for her to be ready when the war comes.”

My expression must have twisted. “You want her to meet real people and you brought her to an Academy with all the snootiest jerks ever? You should have taken her to Rivia or something.”

He stepped forward. “I wanted her to...” He raked his hands through his hair. The green in his eyes was lit behind by darkness. Goosebumps pricked my skin.

“About the training,” I said, segueing in the worst possible way.

“What about it?”

I scuffed the hairs at the back of my neck to stop the tingling. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

He took another step towards me. “Why not?”

There were only a few feet between us now. If I stepped back, he’d know something was up. If I didn’t, I was scared of what he would do. I’d always been good at reading people. Living on the streets for six years had made me observant. Kai made my brain turn to mush. Whenever he was around, I had to scramble to think straight. I didn’t enjoy that feeling at all.

“You know why,” I said. “It blurs the lines too much.”

“So what?”

I sighed. It was heavy. The way Nanna used to sigh at me when I was being especially inquisitive. “So I told you why this can’t happen.”

“No.” He tipped my chin up. I didn’t flinch but still pulled away. I hoped it showed that I wasn’t affected by his touch but that I wouldn’t allow it either. I feared it showed that I was unravelling. “You fumbled and made a bunch of flimsy excuses. You still haven’t given me a proper reason why this couldn’t work.”

“Why does it even matter?”

His mouth opened. It hung in the air and then closed again. I could swear that before his expression closed over that there was a slight rosy tinge to his expression. It made heat scramble up my neck. His gaze dropped to my mouth.

In my mind, I dredged up the memories of Lucifer killing him. I’d seen the same thing so many times that the image came quickly. I felt it the moment the demon blade pierced through his heart. The life leeched from his body and mine shuddered.

Nope. I wouldn’t let that happen.

When I looked up at him, it was with a new circle drawn around me. I laced it with calm, with conviction, with defeat.

“Please don’t make this difficult, Kai.”

His arm snapped out. He clasped his hand around my bicep and wrenched me against him. “You’ll know when I’m making things difficult, Blue.”

Electricity skimmed over my skin. It buzzed through the cells in my body and made them hum. But outwardly, I was stone. I didn’t move an inch bar what he forced from me. To anybody looking in on this, I was completely disinterested. I saw it the moment Kai realised I wasn’t playing. The devastating darkness that lurked behind his eyes flared until all I could see was black inside the ring of green.

He let go of my arm. “You need to be trained,” he said.

“I do. There’s no question about that. But it doesn’t have to be by you.”

“If you don’t feel anything then why does it matter?”

I’d practiced that answer knowing it would definitely come up on this test. “You’re Malachi Pendragon. Everything you do is watched. I’ve copped a lot of flak for being your student. I don’t need that kind of attention. I just want to fly under the radar and see how that feels for a change.”

The sound he made was between a huff and a growl. Somebody had been spending way