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

users and the Nephilim guards that gave me a glimpse into what the dimension wars might have been like. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have dreamed of setting foot near there. But as I glanced inside me at the ball of blinding white-gold encased in my blood barrier, I knew that there was no choice.

“I’ll stay in the fens.”

Agatha’s eyes widened like she hadn’t expected that answer. I felt my stomach tighten as she smiled, showing teeth. She didn’t have fangs, but I couldn’t help thinking of a snake opening its mouth to swallow.

Max placed his chin on a balled fist. “Is that your final answer?”

The deceptive calm in his voice was not reflected in the unbearable heat in his eyes. That was twice now I’d publicly rejected his offer of safety. His pride wouldn’t allow much more. Pride was nothing compared to his life, though. I would gladly endure the stench and the evil if it meant he wouldn’t die.

“I’ve made my choice.” His eyes flashed golden-red at me, but his attention lifted to something above my head.

“Very well. Do you want to say goodbye to Andrei now or later?”

My head turned to the side. “Goodbye?”

Andrei’s jaw was a hard line. “I’m wanted in the fens,” he said. “If they catch me there, I’ll be executed.”

“How?” I stuttered. “Why?” His attention scattered.

“Andrei?”

“It’s nothing. You don’t have to worry about it.”

Right then I knew it was something related to me. That first month on the run had been difficult at best. I couldn’t risk contact with anybody, so I had taken to porting in and out of places as quickly as I could. The problem was, I was still a slow human. There had been a dark Fae who had taken an interest in me. The blood barrier called to the evil and I’d wound up being stalked. Now I remembered that it had suddenly stopped after Andrei found me. My mouth opened and closed uselessly as I contemplated all the things he had done to keep me safe. And now, if I chose the fens, I wouldn’t be able to see him anymore. Worse still, Andrei was the only one who knew where I had hidden Lex’s blood. He was the only one I trusted to keep it safe. If I didn’t have access to Andrei, I didn’t have access to Lex.

“We could see to it that you’re pardoned,” Agatha said offhandedly. She stared at her nails. Otherwise known as “accidents happen” and Andrei might find himself at the pointy end of a stake.

“I...” I had to clamp my jaw shut to stop from having another one of those fits. “Fine. The Reserve it is. But this is not an admission of anything!”

Max pierced me with light grey eyes with no hint of madness or rage. “No, it isn’t,” he said with quiet dominance. “When you agree, there will be no doubt.”

Andrei actually cackled. “And here I thought he couldn’t possibly regress any further.” It would have been a lot tougher if he hadn’t whispered it to me.

It was frightening how quickly things moved.

All around me, Council members and elite guards disappeared. Some of them teleported without acknowledging me at all. Max didn’t take his eyes off Agatha until she opened up a portal and stepped through it.

“Ari,” he said. The shifter who had caught me after the malachim attack peeled himself from the back wall. “Take a squad. Make sure she’s gone.”

Ari nodded, leaving the room with three others.

I turned my head away as Dorian approached. He cleared his throat. I looked at Andrei. “Do you hear anything annoying?” I asked.

“Sophie.” Spoken as if I was a petulant child. I wanted to stamp my foot to drive the point home.

“Yes, sir,” I said, turning to him and giving him a salute. That had been the arrangement in the compound.

His brows knitted together. “Do you believe them?” I asked, stepping up too close. It was a mistake to challenge a dominant shifter like this. Feline, wolf, and even bird shifters took hierarchy very seriously. I had always skirted the line because of my humanity. Today, I wanted to slap him in the face with it.

“Sophie.”

“Stop saying my name like you know me!” I hissed. “You tried to run me down!”

He clamped his hands on my shoulders, holding me in place so I couldn’t move. I heard the first rumblings of a growl behind my back, but I refused to acknowledge any of them.

“If it wasn’t me,” Dorian said, “it would have been one of the others who would have hauled you back like an animal.”

“So you do believe them.”

“It doesn’t matter what I believe. You ran.”

Urgh. I hated talking to shifters. They were always so black and white. “No, I did not ‘run.’ I left because nobody would listen to reason and I didn’t feel like having my brain wiped.”

He shook his head at me. “There were…alternatives.”

The way he enunciated the word alternatives made me quieten. Oh. My. Gaia. I whirled on Max, breaking myself out of Dorian’s hold and almost dislocating my shoulder doing it. “If I find out you sent the Sentinels after me, I swear I’ll singe all the hairs on your body off!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he drawled. “Just like I wouldn’t dream of punishing you for challenging the alpha of the Reserve so openly. Do you want to know why, Sophie darling?”

The blood blade embedded in the wall began to vibrate. Andrei stepped up and wrapped his arm around my waist. “Okay,” he said. “Everybody unbunch your panties.”

Max leaned over with his fists balanced on the desk. “Get your hands off her.”

Andrei threw his head back and laughed. “If you think this is bad, you don’t want to know what we had to do for warmth–”

Max roared. Every other shifter in the room cringed. Andrei just dusted invisible lint off his shoulder. “Yes, yes. Very intimidating. We can all see you’ve got a hard-on for her.” He cupped my burning cheek in his