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

at the water creating a whirlpool. Freed of my bindings now that the pier was no more, I fell into the eye of the whirlpool as all of the water was shoved back.

I clawed at the bandage around my mouth until it was loose. The shuddering breath I took was a single second of reprieve. I threw my arms over my head, ready for the ocean to come crashing back at me. Instead, magic circles continued to pour from me. They burrowed into the water and the earth around me like spinning blades. Deeper and wider they cut until a huge chunk of the shoreline had been eaten away.

Voices screamed in the night. Other smaller voices cried out in pain and fear. Their helplessness reminded me of my own and fuelled the rage inside me. My vision blinked out until all I could see were the magic circles destroying this section of the ocean. I screamed again, this time with such fury that the world turned into a canvas of interconnected light. Big and small, they joined together until the magic circles sheared through them in their path of destruction. The whole section of ocean had been painted for me, and I was killing anything the circles touched.

The dying moan of a sting ray pierced through my heart. I turned my head to try and find it. But the circles were too insistent. Propelled by my fear and the dark power inside of me, they continued to spin. More and more, deeper and deeper until they hit an obstruction. A groan reverberated in my mind. Something ancient tried to latch on to my thoughts, but my vision exploded in a jet of green.

“Blue!” Kai’s voice screamed. My mind sputtered as another voice echoed in my thoughts. It didn’t have the capacity to speak, but it projected such terrible agony that the circles halted. The ocean itself was bleeding from all of the creatures I’d killed. My body went limp as Kai dropped down beside me into the eye of the whirlpool. He teleported us out just before my strength gave out and water rushed back to fill the empty space.

We landed on the beach. I was soaking wet. The light from the flash of power I had emitted was still holding steady.

“Kill the lights!” I heard Professor McKenna shouting.

“Blue,” Kai said. His hands cupped my face. My teeth chatted. He shrugged off his leather jacket and draped it around me. Pulling me against his chest, he wrapped his arms around me. “I need you to let go of the light,” he said. “You’re okay. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

His voice was beside my ear. His own light was seeping into my skin, soothing me. Somebody raced up to us. Sophie’s tense face appeared in front of me. She held out a mug.

“Drink this,” she said. She placed the back of her palm on my cheek. I was so cold I couldn’t feel anything. But seeing her opened the flood gates.

Tears streamed from my eyes. Kai’s arms tightened around me as the world dimmed back into the darkness. I wasn’t aware of much that was happening around me except for Kai’s scent anchoring me to the present and Sophie sitting beside us.

I knew there were people running up and down the beach. Professor McKenna and Professor Mortimer were barking orders to people. Men in the black robes of the First Order as well as Fae in golden armour stood in lines around us.

After a while, I ran out of tears. “Drink this,” Sophie said. She brought the cup to my lips and I did as she asked. The contents of the cup turned out to be chicken noodle soup. It was laced with her magic. As soon as the broth hit my tongue, warmth returned to my body. The edge of fear that had me clinging to Kai receded. Without the fear to blanket my other emotions, they were free to reign. The chief of those emotions was anger.

“I’m okay,” I told Kai, who refused to let me up.

“You’re weak,” he said. I tried to slug him in the gut, but it was difficult to hold my arm up. “Told you.” He was smiling, but it was brittle.

“You’ve got no business here,” Samantha’s voice called out. “This is private property.”

“We left her in your care,” Jacqueline snapped back. It was the first time I’d seen her lose her temper. “You were responsible for her, and the first night she’s here, look what happens.”

I didn’t hear their back and forth because I started to cough. Kai sat me up so that I wasn’t choking on the water that came sputtering out of my mouth. It was mixed with bile.

“I think I might just take her head off,” a familiar voice said. Astrid fluttered down beside me. Her skin was raised in scars in some places, but she seemed okay enough otherwise.

“Hey,” I said. I tried to smile but even that was tiring. I slumped over. At that point, Kai had enough, and we teleported. Strangely, it wasn’t to the infirmary. We landed inside the Grove. He laid me down on the grass. A couple dozen coloured lights swirled in the air around me. The wood nymph chirped.

“I don’t know,” Kai said to them. “Blue, close your eyes.”

I didn’t want to, but it was as though his command gave me permission to let go. As soon as I did, I fell asleep.

There was a lot of shouting when I finally woke. This time, I was inside the infirmary.

A private room inside the infirmary was usually a sanctum, but all I could hear was two women arguing. Samantha’s voice had me stirring. “This isn’t a negotiation,” she said.

“No it isn’t,” Jacqueline spoke. “We allowed Lex to attend Terran on the proviso that she would be protected. She’s been there less than a full day. If you can’t guarantee her well-being then you can forget about having her back.”

“You speak of protection like you’ve