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

the inner circle saw that I was truly unhappy, they would deal with him. That was how their protectiveness worked. It was why their species was so tightly knit.

“So then,” Charles continued, “it begs the question of why you won’t mate with him. Because I know you love him. And Sophie, I’m done grappling around in the dark waiting for demons to destroy everything I care about.”

That there was why Charles Thompson was more dangerous than any of the shifters twice his age. Beneath all that childish hostility was a sharp intelligence that caught everything. He wasn’t unfocused. He was bored. And when dangerous met boredom, bad things tended to happen.

“What do you think would happen to your brother if we mated and I died?”

The gathering of his brows said it all. “Why would you die?”

I peppered my laughter with as much bitterness as I could. “Do you think Lucifer is just sitting around knitting sweaters? The only way he’ll be able to get Lex to do what he wants is to threaten the people she cares about. Who do you think is first in line?”

It wasn’t even about arrogance. Basil wasn’t keeping Betty locked away because he wanted to be obstructive to the supernaturals. With her and Kai out of the picture, I had a target on my back.

Charles sucked in a breath. “We could pro–” Amber began to ring around his eyes at the ridiculousness of his statement. How were they going to protect me from Lucifer when they couldn’t protect themselves against the malachim?

“Sophie...”

I squeezed his arm. “I’ll deal with it. But Max and I...it can’t happen.”

“He’d do it anyway,” Charles said.

“I can’t do that to him. I won’t.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Fair no longer applies.” Turning away, I walked to where the mages were manning the portal. Charles hesitated two metres away.

“Bloodline Academy, please,” I asked one of the mages. “Chuck?”

He sighed and stepped through with me. The portal field on the other side was deserted. By my calculations, it was a few days into the semester, but I hardly spotted anyone as we made our way to Jacqueline’s office.

“What’s going on here?” I said, not really expecting an explanation and not getting one. Charles had become mute.

My stomach tied itself in knots when we got to Jacqueline’s door and Alex wasn’t at his post. In fact, his desk was devoid of its usual mess of books and papers. I knocked apprehensively.

“Come in,” Jacqueline’s voice called out.

“I’ll stay out here,” Charles said.

“No, you won’t.”

“This has nothing to do with me.”

Normally I wouldn’t have pushed, but his withdrawal since we’d arrived was ringing alarm bells. “What if something happens while I’m in there?”

He scoffed. “Jacqueline can handle anything.” He said the words but there was no conviction in his tone. What the hell was going on?

“Inside. Or I ask for another guard.”

For a second, a flash of the old Charles rose to the surface. “Aww, c’mon. I don’t want to listen to boring Academy shit.”

I left the door open behind me and smiled when I heard him shuffling in afterwards. Jacqueline was standing by the window, staring out into the late afternoon sun. She turned when I approached. Her smile widened when she saw my so-called protector.

“Told you we’d get you back here somehow,” she said to Charles. He growled softly at her and sat down beside me. Jacqueline took her seat and pulled out a sheet of paper from the giant tome sitting on the desk.

“This might be a bit different to what you’re used to,” she said. I glanced at the timetable in front of me.

“No kidding,” I said. “There’s so much blocked out!”

She threaded her hands together and rested her chin on them. “As you can imagine, it takes a while longer for students to teleport in from their respective communities. We’ve removed some of the electives that aren’t directly related to self-defence, and we’ve had to cut down those classes where we no longer have the professors to teach them.”

I saw now why there were so few people around. Most of the classes had finished for the day. Pushing the sadness away, I studied my subjects. They were a far cry from what I thought I would be studying in fourth year.

My finger lingered on the boxes marked Sinister Magic. Jacqueline and I shared an apprehensive look.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said. “We will find another way. We always have.”

On my right, Charles made a grunting sound that we both ignored. “I’d like to try. It’s better than going my whole life being afraid of what I can do.”

Jacqueline swiped her hand through her hair. “Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you. If Professor Mortimer could be here...anyway, I suppose that’s the whole point.” She reached out to me and held on to my hand. “I know you have no intention of giving into the dark magic, Sophie. But this kind of power, it has a way of persuading you. Agatha and her coven are very good at rationalising what they do. It’s why she’s not already in the Dominion prison.”

“I know.”

That didn’t stop her from continuing. “I can’t help wondering if it’s really worth this? Sacrifice shouldn’t ever be the answer. We can find an alternative.”

Suddenly I wasn’t sure if she was referring to me or Lex.

“Like what?”

She pressed her lips together. I knew there was no satisfactory answer because I’d spent my nights for months trying to come up with something I could have done to change things. All of them ended in Lex dying well before now. I would not consider that alternative even if it saved us from the current apocalypse raining down on us.

Jacqueline squeezed my hands before letting them go. I resumed looking at my timetable. My heart lurched when I saw Potions and Alchemy. She noticed me swallowing.

“Professor Suleiman is going to take over the classes for now,” she said.

Without even considering it, I asked, “May I see her?”

Given how the shifters had reacted to