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

a smirk on her face when she jumped through the portal. Diana rubbed the back of her neck. “Speaking of needing to go...”

That got my attention. “You’re definitely coming back, right?”

Now that the surge of anger had abated, I was less than enthusiastic about turning up to more classes without her. Now she was rubbing at her arm. Dwarves didn’t do sheepishness well.

“The thing is,” she said, “my guard schedule is pretty full. I only managed to get this morning off because I knew it would be your first day.” She saw what must have been my face falling because she backtracked. “But one of the others will take my place. You won’t be alone.”

The word alone hit me like a bulldozer. By now she was kind of bouncing from one foot to the other, any signs of that hardened soldier all but gone. Right then it occurred to me that deep down, Diana and the boys thought I was soft too. The notion sat as well as a toad in oil. For a single, painful moment, I missed Lex with the crushing weight of death.

For all her loud-mouthed brashness, she never looked at me and saw weakness. “You know I was at this school for years before any of you turned up, right? I can handle it by myself.”

Diana cocked her head to the side. “We know you can. But that doesn’t mean you have to. And besides, we miss you.”

She caught me in a quick hug before disappearing through the portal as well. The problem now was that I was stuck with Noah through lunch until my final class. And to make it worse, I was starving. Even if they weren’t serving food in the dining hall anymore, somebody was definitely still preparing meals for the faculty and the infirmary staff.

Knowing that there was no way my access to the dining hall kitchen was still valid, I snuck around the back of the building and bingo! Bruno was standing at the top of the steps to the cellar having a terse conversation with Peter about the quality of the latest crop of silverbeet.

“How many times have I said to just use high magic?” Bruno lamented.

“About as many times as I’ve said we would prefer not to,” Peter countered.

Bruno grunted. He ducked inside, and I heard wooden boxes being dragged along the ground. “Preference isn’t really my concern right now. Nobody is really looking for a gourmet meal!”

“Be that as it may, Thalia needs to conserve her strength and we don’t have the students to use as labour...”

Ah-ha! I knew they did that on purpose. Feeling a wave of affection for both of them, I knocked on the side of the building. “Maybe you shouldn’t say any more in case you incriminate yourself,” I said.

Bruno appeared again. Both men glanced at me. Their gazes flicked over to Noah looming in the near distance. Peter’s lined face split into a smile. “Hello, Sophie.”

Bruno rolled his eyes at me. “You’d better not be here looking for a job. Or to help out in the kitchen.”

“Uh, no. I think that would probably be a bad idea at the moment.”

He huffed and shook his head. “It’s like history repeating itself, isn’t it? Though right now, I wonder if we should be considering injecting essences into the food.”

Peter blanched. “Don’t even joke about that!”

“Who’s joking?” Bruno groaned as he straightened. “Damned slow healing. How do you humans do it?”

I cocked my head to the side. “We don’t. By your ages, we’d be dead three times over.”

“Three times! Exactly how old do you think I am?”

Oooh. Even I knew to steer away from that topic. Although Professor McKenna had let it slip once just how old Bruno was. Let’s just say he’d been alive when my great-grandfather was causing mayhem. Hoping to redirect his line of thought, I asked, “Is there any chance I can steal some ingredients? I didn’t realise the dining hall was closed and there’s no food at the Thompsons’.”

An odd look passed between them. A mix between concern and...I wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, it seemed to make both of them suddenly reticent to keep eyes contact. “Maximus isn’t being...” Peter started to say but trailed off and coughed. It took me a second to catch on and then mortification washed over me.

“No,” I said hastily. “And I don’t really want to talk about it.”

In the end, I think Bruno agreed to hand over some kitchen scraps just to move us past that very uncomfortable topic. “May I use the kitchen in the garden?” I asked Peter.

“Of course.” And then, “The garden could use a bit of tidying up too.”

Right. You didn’t get anything for free in this world.

Halfway to the kitchen garden, I was sick of having a stalker. Turning, I glared at Noah. “Listen. I know you love the idea of catching me out, but I don’t particularly enjoy having a wolf snapping at my heels. So either walk beside me like a normal person, or bugger off.”

“I’m your guard,” he said evenly. “Not your friend.”

“Yes, of course. We wouldn’t want to forget that distinction.” I tried another tactic. “Wouldn’t it be easier to catch me out if you’re in closer proximity?”

He couldn’t argue with that. Though I had second thoughts almost immediately because having a silent shadow was worse when he was close. Especially when he preferred not to speak. That just meant I had to do double the talking.

“Are you hungry?” Like a lot of people, when I was nervous, I tended to babble. I couldn’t think of anything dumber than asking a shifter if they were hungry. And yet, all I got was a blank stare.

Rolling my eyes internally, I battered the chicken wings Bruno had graciously offloaded to me and went searching the kitchen garden for potatoes and salad leaves. My jaw dropped at the number of weeds that had popped up. Peter wasn’t kidding about the state of the place. My heart ached at