Bloodline Secrecy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2), Lan Chan [readict TXT] 📗

my pauper speech when Kai appeared out of nowhere. He slotted himself between Sophie and me, practically nudging her over.

“Excuse you!” Sophie said. She huffed and went to sit on the other side of the table next to Diana. Kai grinned at her. Look at that, we had the same reaction to his smile.

“You got your invitation to the party.” It wasn’t even a question. He reached over and took a fry off my plate. Oh hell no! He might be insanely hot, but nothing excused someone from taking food from me.

I tried to slap his hand, but he was too quick. “Not good at sharing,” Kai said. “Noted.”

“Was there something you wanted?” I asked. My whole face was flaming from the looks Diana and Sophie were giving us. I didn’t even want to widen my peripheral vision because I knew half the room followed him wherever he went.

“Do you have something to wear?” he asked.

My eyes flicked to Sophie who was suddenly very interested in something on her plate. “Yes.”

“Blue.”

“I said yes.” He waited. I realised he wasn’t going anywhere. Neither of us was surprised when I broke down. “Okay, no I don’t. But I don’t see what the big deal is. Maybe I’ll just wear the dress from the solstice ball.”

His lips tipped up into a smile that made me think he was remembering that night. I couldn’t think about it without my stomach flipping either. While I was distracted, he slid something across the table towards me. It looked like a credit card, but it was made of black metal. There was a scattering of crystals in the metal that made it shimmer.

“What’s that?” I asked. I didn’t want to touch it. Like it was an explosive.

“The key to my manna account.”

I heard Diana’s sharp inhale.

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine.”

He took in a long breath, exhaled, and picked up the card. Pressing it into my hand, he held it there. “Can you for once not fight me on something?” he said.

“I’m not going to another formal event with another dress that you bought me.”

“Why not?”

Why not? If I had thought my friends were going to help me come up with an excuse, I was sorely mistaken. They were just sitting there with stars and hearts in their eyes. “I…”

“You don’t have any money, right?” Kai said.

“Way to rub it in.”

He massaged his jaw. “You’re going to kill me, you know that?”

“What does it matter what I wear?” Now I was just being obstinate to prove a point.

He ground his teeth. “I don’t care if you turn up in a potato sack,” he said. “But just so my ego doesn’t take more of a battering, if you want a new dress, the offer is there.”

He stood up and walked off.

Diana glared at me. “Why are you being a jerk?”

“How am I being a jerk?”

“Aren’t you guys going out? You flinch whenever he tries to touch you in public and now you don’t accept a gift. It’s like you’re purposefully trying to sabotage it.”

I was running before the last of what she said sank in. I caught up to him outside the Academy doors. I could tell by the way he arched his back that he was about to sprout wings and fly off. He probably had guard duty.

“Kai!”

He turned around. There was always a shadow lurking within the depths of his eyes but right now it was stalking on the surface.

“I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out for him. It was in his nature to be protective. Despite the insult, he enclosed me in his arms. The wings that had materialised on his back formed a barrier, blocking out everything else. “I can’t help pushing back. I’m not used to people just handing me things without there being a catch.”

The hard line of his jaw softened. “Make it up to me by buying something really short,” he said. Heat crawled up my neck. I ducked my head. There was a part of me that was still grappling with the idea of Malachi Pendragon being attracted to me. He tilted my head up. His mouth was gentle when he took my lips in a sweet kiss that had my insides curling. I felt like I was falling. Lucky he was holding me upright.

“You drive me insane, Blue,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have you any other way.” He kissed me again. This one was short and urgent. “I have to go. Curtis needs me to cover him.”

He stepped back a few paces and lifted up into the air. I walked back to the dining hall in a daze. Honestly, how had this become my life?

Sophie gave me the biggest, smuggest grin on the planet. I turned on my heel and marched over to where Max sat with a bunch of his shifter friends and Evan.

“Hey,” I said. I could feel daggers being thrown at me from our table, but I didn’t care.

“Hi,” Max said. “I see you’re carrying the blade around again.”

Urgh. “Don’t even start with me. Do you want to go to the Council Ball with Sophie?”

The table went quiet. That was the thing about shifters. They were a rowdy bunch. If things ever went quiet, you were usually in trouble.

“Why isn’t she asking me herself?” Max said. His eyes had turned a bright gold.

“Maybe because you show her that face every time she gets near you. Yes or no, Maximus?”

I was the one with a smug smile when I sat back down at our table.

“What did you do?” Sophie said, her expression stricken.

When I told her, the look she gave me said that demons weren’t the thing I should be most worried about while I slept.

30

Sophie didn’t speak to me for two days. By the third day, Basil had had enough of the growing silence. “Why don’t you apologise?” he asked me. I was pulling on my sweats for my first morning meditation session.

“I’m not apologising because I didn’t do anything wrong,” I said. “Besides, she’s not