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

other eight-foot-tall figures materialised in front of Raphael, my legs almost buckled in relief. The reality of it then slammed into me like a freight train. None of the other seraphim were glowing either. Michael’s sword was limp in his hands. It was almost as though his strength had been whittled down in the same way as the Nephilim.

Cassie grabbed me as I fell. I held on to her hand because I could no longer comprehend what exactly was happening. Somebody sobbed close by.

“Brother,” Michael said, “you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Raphael’s head turned up, his smile chilled. “You are not my brother, Michael. You were the one who chained me to the Abyss.”

Despite his back bowing, Michael stood firm. “You know why it had to be so, Apollyon.”

Of all the things that were happening, I couldn’t get over the way Raphael’s shoulders lifted in a shrug. It felt too casual. Too mundane for a being of eternal grace.

“Just as you know why this has to be so,” Apollyon said.

Ariel tried to lift his sword. No seraph fire lit up its blade. Never before had I seen Raphael’s expression marred by anything but kindness. But the thing that crawled over his face was steeped in unyielding hatred. Apollyon flicked his hand and Ariel went crashing into the garden beds.

One of the para-humans in front of me smacked himself in the head to dispel what he must have thought was an illusion. I didn’t quite believe it myself.

“How does it feel now to be chained?” Apollyon asked. “To be handicapped and unable to perform the thing you were made for? Watch as I destroy the world you attempted to save.”

As he got closer, his steps unhurried, the demons still on the field shrank down to the ground in supplication. The necromancers did the same. Like the malachim, Apollyon had once been an angel. He was only one step below Lucifer. And he was walking right at us.

The supernaturals moved to protect the fallen Nephilim. Something about the situation had them on edge.

Without knowing why, I grabbed the Ley sight and threw it around me. There was a reason I never did this in the presence of the seraphim. It was hard enough not to be blinded when Lex was around. I was bracing for an assault of my third eye, when I blinked at how dull their auras were. I couldn’t even see any of Raphael outside of the depthless black that belonged to Apollyon.

My sight couldn’t see much beyond the bonds of love, but what I saw made me inhale. All of the bonds around the other seraphim were waning. They were barely visible, and I had to boost the sight with alchemy and kitchen magic in order to make them out. When I feathered my gaze over Raphael, I saw only a single bond that was a breath away from snapping. There was also something else shrouded in the thick smog of the Hell dimension, but no matter how hard I tried to amplify it, I couldn’t see past the feeling that there might be another thread there.

The mystery was shunted back as Raphael dematerialised in front of the supernaturals and reappeared so close I wanted to run away. Cassie’s body was a comforting heat around me, but she was shaking too. The glowing fire that she had tried to contain before was leaking out of her pores again. Her muscles tensed when we saw at the same time that Raphael was making his way towards where Kai was stuck like one of those petrified insects on corkboards for display.

The closer Raphael moved towards Kai, the thinner the thread of the bond became. Almost as though they were opposing forces. All at once, I heard Haniel’s voice in my head through the mating link.

Stop him, the malachim gasped. Raphael cannot be unmade or your world will die.

I hadn’t the slightest clue what he was on about. Not until Apollyon raised Raphael’s hand and pinned Kai flat against the wall so that he couldn’t move at all. In my mind, I saw the thread stretch to its absolute limit. At the same time, the tiny essence that Raphael became started to recede.

In a single blinding revelation, I knew that if Kai died, Raphael would too. I screamed when the pressure Apollyon exerted on Kai began to crack his skull. Max was already running. Though he was fast, even Max wouldn’t be able to make it in time. His sudden agitation snapped the rest of the supernaturals into action. That in turn caused the demons and malachim to react.

Bile rose in my throat. Cassie let go of me and bolted. So did Jacqueline and the professors. None of them would be fast enough. Thought was no longer a possibility. All I could do was react. The first thing I thought of when I was frightened these days was Lex. Her blood was pouring from the vile into my cupped palm before I knew what was happening. It didn’t matter that the Sisterhood wouldn’t be able to stitch me back up this time. It didn’t matter that I would die. All that mattered was that Kai had to be saved.

Max pivoted, sensing what I was about to do.

I funnelled all of my fear into a blade of magic. Max appeared beside me. A force like a tornado whipped around me as Haniel’s essence fanned out of Max’s body. Dozens of malachim rose up from the earth. Max grabbed at them, scooping up their essences. They struggled against him but Haniel’s voice echoed though the clearing.

Fight, he thought, fight his hold, my friends.

One or two stilled. The others continued to thrash. Holding tight to the ones that reacted, Max turned to me with blazing white eyes.

“Sophie,” he grunted.

I opened up my mind and tried to push reassurance at the malachim. When Haniel shoved his hand inside me, I screamed and doubled over. It was too much. The mating link attempted to cocoon me