Bloodline Diplomacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 3), Lan Chan [best way to read an ebook .TXT] 📗

“We don’t refer to ourselves as low-magic users. It’s a derogatory term.” I held my hands up. “Didn’t you ever get that impression?”

“Well yeah, but I just thought that’s the way it was.”

The sneer on her face didn’t lessen one bit. “That’s why you need to be here. No matter how much that Nephilim monster thinks otherwise.”

“Rach,” Sean warned again. He hefted my suitcase out of the boot and opened the back door of the building. The scent of tuberoses and lilies from the other day had dissipated. In its place was a softer lavender scent that wasn’t such an affront. To my dismay, Rachel grabbed hold of my suitcase and wheeled it towards the staircase.

“I’ll show you our room,” she said.

“Our?”

“We share here. Most of the other bedrooms have been taken over for classes or ongoing projects.”

Sean must have seen the look on my face because he winked at me before I went to follow Rachel. “I’ll try and settle this guy into the kennels,” he said.

“I don’t want him stuck inside a cage,” I shot back. “He’s…not used to it.”

This raised some alarm bells for him. “You mean they allowed a dingo to run around free-range at Bloodline Academy?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Nah, I only just got him. But I assume he’s been inside a cage on account of those scars. Somebody mistreated him, and I don’t want him to be locked up any more than he has to be.”

Sean nodded. When I turned back around, Rachel was at the top of the staircase. Her frown was less disgusted at the moment.

“You like animals?” she asked.

I nodded. At least I liked the shifters. But that wasn’t what she was asking. I didn’t clarify. She turned left when I reached the top of the staircase. Unlike Bloodline, there were no long corridors and warrens to get lost in. Rachel pushed open a door. Inside was a short hallway leading to an open area. There was a table beside the bay window that held a bud vase of yet more scented flowers. This one had honeysuckle and star jasmine.

Rachel was turning the knob to one of the six doors on either side of the hallway when the one on my right opened. Three girls a little older than me appeared in the doorway.

“This the new recruit?” the dark-skinned girl with the dreadlocks asked.

“What does it look like?” Rachel shot back. She swung our door open and disappeared inside with my suitcase. I was stuck in social limbo. Rachel showed no signs of re-emerging.

“I’m Harlow,” the other girl said. “This is Winnie.” She pointed to a redhead with freckles colonising her face. Winnie flashed pearly whites behind ruby lips that matched the fire engine red of her hair.

“I’m Alison,” the brunette with her hair cut into a slick bob said. All of them were taller than me. Not hard to achieve. “That guy you were with the other day. He’s one of the monsters?”

It figured that the first thing they would want to know about was Kai. How could I even answer that?

“He’s not a monster.” That was about as non-confrontational as I could get.

Harlow’s black eyes twinkled. “Hey,” she said. “Don’t stress. Unlike some people–” she rolled her eyes in the direction of Rachel’s open door, “– we get that there’s nothing wrong with integration.”

“Do they make them all like that at Bloodline?” Winnie asked. All I could imagine was Brigid tearing strips off Winnie if they ever got within slapping distance of each other.

“Alessia,” Rachel called my name. “I don’t have all day to wait around for you.”

Harlow sneered. “Bloody hedge witches.” She said it like it was a dirty word. My back straightened.

“I’m a hedge witch.”

Without missing a beat, Harlow waved her hand in the air at me. “Yeah, but you’re also Sisterhood.” With that, she hustled the others out of the room. They headed back the way we came.

“What the hell was that?” I asked Rachel. “There’s a difference between those who are Sisterhood and those who aren’t?”

Rachel had placed my suitcase at the base of the single bed beside the window. It wasn’t even a king single bed. Just a tiny narrow thing that I would probably fall off if I rolled over too fast. I missed my double bed inside Bloodline already.

She was rooting around under her own bed for something. I backed up when she appeared again with a set of throwing knives.

“As you can see there aren’t many of us,” Rachel said. “There are even fewer recruits who have the abilities of the Sisterhood.”

“So the rest of us are low-”

“Witches,” Rachel said. “We’re witches and wizards.”

I nodded. There was no need to class their magic here because there were no other species to distinguish themselves from.

“I can’t believe how small this place is.”

“Why?” She came towards me. While she moved, she unsheathed knives and stuck them in various places on her person. “Were there lots of us at Bloodline?”

“No, but I just thought –”

“You thought wrong. They’ve been stealing our recruits for decades. They brainwash them to think like a monster. Feel at home with the monsters. Like your friend.”

“Sophie isn’t brainwashed.”

“Oh really?” She dangled a dagger in front of her, flipped it into the air, and caught it by the handle. “She seemed very uncomfortable when she was here the other day.”

“How would you know, you weren’t even around.”

The haughty grin told me she might have been. “You’ve seen how the monsters are when we dare to challenge their power. The Nephilim you’re with won’t even let you out of his sight. He acts like he owns you. Let me guess, he saved you from a demon.”

She made air quotes when she said the word saved.

“Why do you hate them so much?”

Ironically, the same clouded, dark look she gave me was very close to the haunted rage that overcame Kai when anyone spoke of the demon attack that killed his family.

“You can unpack later,” Rachel said, ignoring my question.