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

Luther snorted. “Did you get a look at her? She didn’t need the–” My knife bashed the hell out of the tomatoes. I couldn’t even bring myself to look up when the doorbell rang the third time. Inside me, the mating link had turned into a pool of simmering red fire. Somebody was going to get burned soon. When Charles came into the kitchen with yet another stash of food, I’d had enough.

“Help me pack this up,” I ordered. “We’re not eating here anymore.”

Somehow, we found ourselves in the open clearing where all of the ascension ceremonies were held. After Jacob Buchanan’s attack, the field had been stitched together by mages and the Fae, but it had been left untouched. Over in the distance, I could see lights on in the houses that butted up against the edge of the clearing. There was smoke coming from their chimneys. I heard little high-pitched voices on the breeze.

Charles watched the houses in the same greedy way I did. “I’m sure Dani is fine, wherever she is,” I assured him.

For a second, his eyes cleared, but then he shook his head. “Yeah, I guess.”

Logically, their decision made sense. Their parents were unable to care for her, and both boys were too busy. That didn’t change the fact that she would probably prefer to be with her brothers. Thinking about my own parents, I knew if I were given the choice, I would trade safety to be reunited with them.

Clearing my throat, I helped Cassie set out the food. Luther cleaned the fire pit that had been allowed to get untidy. When night drew its cloak around us, he pointed a finger at the pile of enchanted wood, and it went up in flames.

He rubbed at his eyes while spooning stew into his mouth. “Here,” I said, “I’ll top you up.” Glancing up into the sky, I said, “The stars are so bright tonight.”

All three heads lifted skyward. They didn’t notice when I slipped something into Luther’s bowl. After dinner, we spread out on the lush grass, our arms tucked under our heads. Charles wiggled around.

“Why don’t you just take the blade off?” Luther grumbled.

“Why don’t you just shut up?” Charles shot back.

Luther lay on the grass on my right. He turned his head in my direction. In the soft light of the bonfire, his eyes blinked very slowly. I suppressed a smile. “I don’t even know why I bother,” he said. “His head is thicker than a brick wall.”

Charles tried to kick him, but they were too far apart. “Then why don’t you just stop trying?” Charles said.

“Lu has a point,” Cassie said from my left.

“Don’t you start too.”

She pulled on the blades of grass. “We’re allowed to have an opinion, you know. Just because Lex left you the blade doesn’t mean it’s off limits.”

He growled but we were all in too much of a food coma for there to be any real bite to it. “When she leaves you the blade, then you can have an opinion.”

Luther grunted. “Like you even know what to do with it. You can barely touch it.”

Silence descended on them. I could tell they’d had this conversation many times, the weight of the responsibility weighing heavy on each of them in different ways. As the silence stretched, I could practically feel the strain in Charles’s voice when he said, “Maybe she made a mistake. She probably wasn’t thinking straight towards the end.”

I gave a soft laugh. “If you’d seen her at the end, you’d know how silly that is. I’ve never seen her more focused. She might have been dying, but there was no mistake in anything she did. Whether or not you can use the blade, she wanted you to have it. She could have left it to anyone, Chuck. She didn’t. She left it with you.”

He beat a fist against the grass. “Why?” It was a painful cry.

I didn’t pretend to know her thoughts. All I knew was that Lex trusted Charles in the same way he had always trusted her. “Maybe to keep it in safe hands until she comes back. Maybe because she believed you would know when to use it.”

After a few beats, he said, “Okay.”

It was more than I had hoped to get. Beside me, Luther’s half-closed eyes flicked open. “Incoming,” he said. Judging by the way he smiled, I wasn’t concerned. Not until we were sitting up and something furry rammed into my chest.

Falling back, I shrieked as Edward in his leopard form sliced up the front of my shirt in an effort to help me back up again. His mother, Cheyenne, pinched her lips together. I gaped at the state of my blouse. “My mama bought me this shirt for my birthday!”

She cackled. “I’m sorry.” Her tone said anything but. “He saw the fire and scented you. He hasn’t stopped whining about seeing you since the other night.”

An adorable little growl emitted from Edward’s throat as Charles tried to make him heel with a palm on his neck. Edward nipped at Charles’s hand, trying to get to me. When Charles went for his tail, Edward shifted back into human form, completely unabashed by his nakedness. He leaped back into my lap, not realising that he was a big boy.

“Ugh!” I grunted.

“Sophie!” he wrapped chubby fingers around my neck. Cheyenne placed a hand over her mouth.

“Are you just going to stand there while I get mauled?” I asked her.

“Better you than me.”

It occurred to me that I might actually prefer it when the shifters treated me with cautious indifference. I was being suffocated by affection.

From behind Cheyenne’s back, somebody sniffed. “You’re such a dork,” Kate said. “Get off her. You’re not a baby.”

Edward didn’t seem to care. He’d made himself a comfortable little spot on my lap and shifted back into a leopard. His hair was so sleek and soft, I’d sunk my hand into it and was inadvertently petting