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

“May I please join you?” Astrid’s voice said.

Why me?

I glanced up to find her standing beside me. Diana, Sasha, and Roland were all dumbstruck. A trickle of sweat rolled down Sophie’s jaw. I wasn’t sure what they were all so concerned about. It wasn’t as though I was going to just leap up and punch Astrid. Even if I tried, I was pretty sure she would annihilate me.

I scanned the dining hall. In the last few weeks it had been a ghost town around us. Yet today, all of the seats were full. Our table was the only one with a free seat.

“Sure,” I said. The words came out of habit. I didn’t really make the connection to what I was saying.

“Thank you.”

She sat. Her posture was immaculate. Astrid cut up the fillet of chicken on her plate into bite-sized pieces. Only when she was finished with the whole thing did she lift her fork. Instead of eating, she pushed her peas to the edge of her plate and her carrots as far away from those as possible.

It was only then that she began to eat.

Meanwhile, I had lost my appetite. I couldn’t help staring at her peaches-and-cream complexion. Her lips were naturally pink. Roland coughed. I thought he might have swallowed his tongue. Diana elbowed him.

Sophie made an eating motion at me. The silence had stretched on for too long. If she noticed, Astrid didn’t say anything about it. She seemed perfectly content to revel in the silence. At least that’s what I had thought. When she was done eating her chicken—only her chicken, she hadn’t touched anything else on her plate—she put her fork down exactly parallel to her plate.

“Alessia,” she said. “May I ask you a question?”

How could I say no when she asked so politely? “Sure.”

“Do you understand why Malachi would not want you to know that he has been suspended from school?”

I bit my tongue. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. “Come again?”

The whole table froze. Nobody ate. Every head was craned in her direction. She didn’t seem to notice that either. She was very intently watching me. “Malachi has been banned from school for three days. When I asked him why he did what he did, he refused to say.”

“Why was he suspended?” Sophie asked before I could.

“I don’t understand that either. It was an unprovoked attack. I’ve never known him to be the aggressor.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “What did he do?”

“We were just walking along the billabong foreshore when he spotted Bradley. It was perfectly civil until Malachi marched off. The next thing I knew Malachi punched him. They got into a scuffle. Malachi broke Bradley’s arm before I could intervene.” She shook her head, eyes downcast. “I don’t understand. He knows his own strength. He doesn’t normally like to use force unless he has to.”

“His grandmother suspended him?” I asked, feeling slightly green.

“She tried to get the reason out of him as well, but all he said was ‘I’m Malachi Pendragon. I can do whatever I want.’” She did a surprisingly accurate impression of Kai with his arms folded over his chest and his brow arching.

Sophie giggled. I didn’t think it was very funny.

“Astrid,” I said. “Are you and Kai together?”

Her perfectly contoured brows drew close. I had a feeling they were naturally like that. “Together?”

“Yeah,” Diana said. “As like, an item. Dating. Making kissing faces at each other.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Why would we do that?”

Sophie laughed outright. She nudged me under the table with her foot. I nudged back. “You spend quite a lot of time with him,” Diana said.

“Yes,” Astrid said. “He’s teaching me to better acclimate to the world outside of Seraphina. It’s the only way I’ll ever be able to get a guard posting.”

“So, you don’t like him?” Diana pushed. My tongue lodged in my throat.

“Of course I like him. I love him. I’ve loved him since we were four. He’s the only friend I’ve ever really had. But I don’t understand your implication.”

For some reason, the open statement made me smile. There was something almost childlike about her frankness. It reminded me a lot of some of the kids in the junior class. I had a feeling I knew why Kai was so overprotective of her.

Diana leaned forward in her seat. “So, Kai isn’t your boyfriend?”

Astrid’s face went preternaturally still. “Why in the world would he be my boyfriend? We’ve known each other for too long for any of that to happen.”

Diana grinned at me. She pumped her eyebrows twice. Now that Astrid was done answering questions, she had some of her own.

“No matter what I say he refuses to speak to anyone,” Astrid said. “I really don’t understand it. He despises being confined.”

“Confined?”

“Yes. He’s not technically just a student. As a member of the Council and the last one of his line, he has responsibilities and duties. They wouldn’t allow him to be so blatantly hostile without repercussions.”

Normally, when someone got suspended, they tended to just spend the time binging television shows. Or in the case of supernaturals, they probably got on the MirrorNet and caught up on all the gossip. Astrid made it sound like Kai was in prison. The worry lines etched across her face told me I probably wasn’t far off the mark.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“In the cells in Seraphina.”

I was taken aback. “They’re actually locking him up?” Astrid nodded. “But he’s a Pendragon.”

“Yes, well, even Pendragons have to pay the price if they attack someone of the Webb lineage. Bradley is one of Michael’s, after all.”

“I thought he was above all of that stuff,” Sophie confessed.

Astrid picked up her fork and speared a pea. I had a feeling she would eat only the peas until they were all gone. She brought a forkful to her mouth and chewed. “To be honest, I’m more concerned about the self-inflicted punishment. He regrets his actions, but he refuses to