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

I shook my head. “I can’t allow myself to think of all the things that can go wrong. Gotta take it one step at a time.”

That was the brave face I put on in front of my friends. When Kai and Astrid came to get me after my last class on Monday a week later, I was shitting a brick. I met them on the portal field after going back to my room to get the demon blade.

“Be careful,” Basil reminded me.

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

I didn’t know whether I should be grateful or irritated that Kai had somehow managed to weasel himself into being my guard. At the same time, his presence made the choking uncertainty in my mind more bearable.

He was in his usual getup of combat pants, boots, and checked shirt. What got me was that Astrid was almost in the same outfit. Her shirt was red to his blue one, but it amounted to the same thing. All I’d ever seen her wear was floaty dresses. Even when it wasn’t a sunny day.

“What’s up with the jeans?” I asked her.

“I thought this might be an occasion for more sombre attire.”

I swallowed. My hands gripped the strap of the sword holster running diagonally across my chest.

“Let’s do this before I chicken out,” I said.

Kai’s left eye twitched but he didn’t react otherwise. I was glad. The last thing I needed right now was to have to deal with his paranoia on top of everything else. He ran through a list of precautions that all amounted to me getting the heck out of there should anything go wrong.

“You’re not to try and handle the situation if we get separated,” he said.

“Separated how?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter how. If one of us is with you, we’ll teleport you out. If something happens and neither of us is there, you do whatever you can to get back to a guard tower. Then you get them to teleport you back here.”

He snapped his fingers in front of my face. I barely heard it. It wasn’t until he placed his hands on either side of my shoulders and shook me gently that I really focused on what he was saying. “I mean it, Blue. If something happens, you come back here. Regardless of what happens with us.”

“What if you’re dying on the floor of the prison?” I said.

“Then we die,” Astrid said. There was not even the slightest hint of a joke in her voice.

“We’ve already done a sweep of the area. Gran has visited the room we’re using herself to make sure it’s safe. One of the high-magic sorceresses will be in attendance with us to guard you too. This is a precaution only. We don’t expect anything to go wrong.”

It would have been more reassuring without the implication that I should leave them behind to die.

“Ready?”

I nodded. He grabbed my hand. The pulse of pleasure and pain that always accompanied a teleportation with him spiralled through my body. We emerged on the other side in a room not unlike the room we used to train for our Weaponry and Combat classes.

There was a navy-blue rubber mat in the middle of the room. The walls were without ornament except for the mirrors at each corner. We had teleported against the back wall, the most strategic position. I could see the door from here. It was spelled with a line of red light that ran all the way around the edge.

There were two guards standing right beside it. Next to the mat was a kneeling man. His hands were shackled behind his back. He wore his beard in a neat trim. There were strands of grey amongst the dark brown. I recognized him immediately. Skander Rameros.

Beside him stood a diminutive woman in black jeans and a faded grey button-down shirt with the Dominion emblem on it. A wand crossed over with a spark of light. The sign of the High Mages.

She glanced up at us, her wheat blonde hair tucked into a tight bun. There was a frightening stillness about her. It reminded me of the two gargoyle guards who watched over the armoury in the Academy.

Kai was still holding my hand. The pressure he exerted on it increased for just the slightest second before he let go. He stepped forward. I moved to stand behind him, and Astrid took up the rear. Her expression mirrored the one on the female guard’s face. I never realised how truly frightening she could be. Why did I ever think she was delicate?

“Giselle?” Kai asked.

The female guard nodded. “Mr. Pendragon. Miss Bellamy.”

Astrid said nothing. Did nothing.

“The prisoner is in stasis,” Giselle said. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll release him.”

“Is the perimeter secure?” Kai asked.

“We have taken all the necessary precautions. He’s been drained this morning so there’s no chance of him being able to use his magic.”

“Drained?” I asked.

Giselle peered around Kai’s back. I could hardly see her. He wasn’t going to move out of the way, so I had to sidestep him.

“Yes,” Giselle said. “We had one of our magic eaters absorb all of his energy. He’ll also remain handcuffed so that he can’t try anything. You’re perfectly safe.”

She tried to smile at me, but it appeared to be a gesture she was unaccustomed to. Her face kind of just cracked. Freaky.

“Should I wake him?” she asked.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

She drew her hands up next to each other leaving a couple of inches of a gap. A ball of blue energy flared. She placed her palms against Skander’s forehead. Her energy and the source of energy shackling him reacted. The bubble of stasis around him eroded. His eyes peeled open. He took a big gasping breath like he’d been drowning and only just came up for air. Jeez. Note to self: do not get thrown in prison.

Just to my right, Kai’s muscles coiled. He was ready for the situation