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

and turned on me. She tried to kick at him, but he was almost a fully grown lion shifter. Our odds were not good.

“Will you guys stop?” Sophie cried.

“What did he do to you?” I screamed.

Max’s partially shifted head was ferocious. He opened his mouth and roared again. My heart thumped in my chest. Somehow the demon blade was in my hands. He formed words in that gaping mouth of his. I couldn’t really understand because his jaw was unhinged, but I thought he said, “What are you going to do with that little stick of yours?”

I tried to lunge but something caught my shirt. Sophie dragged me backwards.

“I said stop!” she screamed. “All of you!”

She stepped in front of me. Max roared again.

“Screw you!” I roared back at him. Diana kneed him in the face. When I sidestepped from behind Sophie, he threw Diana at me. I stumbled when I tried to catch her. We both went crashing to the ground. The rumble that came out of Max’s chest next was more of a laugh than a roar.

When we managed to untangle ourselves, he was back in his human form, his shirt in shreds, revealing a chest that was almost, almost as jaw-dropping as Kai’s.

I was not placated.

Pushing up to a standing position, I raised my fists. “Yeah right,” Max said. “I’ve seen you in Weaponry and Combat. You’re just going to hurt yourself.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Sophie leaped to my side and snatched my hands before I could complete the circle. She shook me. “Stop!”

It occurred to me then that she was speaking to me again. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Why did you guys come running in here?”

Diana dusted herself off. “It’s been like an hour and you didn’t come back.”

“An hour?” Sophie said. She glanced up at Max, her dark skin glowing almost as coppery as his eyes.

“Lost track of time,” he said.

“You sure you’re okay?” I pressed. I did not like the way Max kept watching her. He tracked every inch of her movement.

“Yes.” She picked a twig out of my hair. “You guys are worse than the shifters back home.”

“We have class.” I waved my hand in front of her face because she wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. “Portions and Alchemy. You have your showdown with Celeste. Hello?”

She startled. Oh brother.

“We’re leaving now,” I announced. “Probably best that you stay here if you feel like beating your chest.” Max was not amused.

I had to practically drag Sophie away.

Diana started giggling when we left the Run. I joined her a second later. Sophie was flame red.

“I take it I’m forgiven,” I said.

She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “I don’t know if I can handle him. They’ve got some practices that aren’t exactly civil.”

“I’ll handle him if you want,” Diana offered.

I doubled over laughing. We were ten minutes late to Potions, but Sophie, a consummate student, didn’t even care.

31

Basil marched in front of us towards the portal. After copious hours of begging, Jacqueline had given him permission to go to Rivia if he promised to stay with me at all times.

“Hurry up!” he grit out.

“Hang on!” I said, struggling to keep up. Sophie was even farther behind. “What’s your hurry? You’re not meeting up with those weir – those MirrorNet people until tonight.”

“I’d like to be able to get my bearings,” he said.

“You can forget about that. Jacqueline said that you’re only allowed to go as long as you have a chaperone. We don’t want any more mishaps for the school.”

“Sophie!” Basil called out. “Move those legs.”

By the time she caught up, she was barely able to breathe. “This –” she gulped air, “is completely ridiculous.”

To be fair, Basil has been cooped up inside the Academy for months. Even when we went to Zambia he had to remain behind for a lot of our trips. I didn’t want to give him too hard a time.

We slipped through the portal and landed at the Rivia checkpoint on the other side. It was only a minute away from the Mwansa’s apartment.

“Hi!” Nora greeted us. Despite the poor circumstances, I threw my arms around her neck.

“Congratulations,” I said. “You did it!”

She hugged me back. “We did it. This was your idea, remember.”

“I was just running my mouth off. You made it a reality! Can we please look into where vamp blood juice comes from?”

She bustled us inside.

“Where’s your mirror?” Basil asked.

He spoke too soon. When we entered the living room to the right of the foyer, there were mirrors of all shapes and sizes on almost every surface. “Holy moly!” Basil said. He looked like a doll in a candy store. “What’s going on here?”

Nora pressed a hand to her forehead. “We’ve been taking a lot of connections,” she said. “It’s just easier sometimes to speak to a few people at once.”

“I’ll say,” Mani said, coming out from the back of the house. “Hi, girls! Basil!”

Basil was already making a connection of his own, though. He was oblivious to us. “Is anybody hungry?” Mani asked.

“No, Dad,” Sophie said. “But we want to get a move on with dress shopping.”

“Speak for yourself,” I said.

She glared at me. Now that she was over the shock of the Max situation, she was antsy about getting prepared for the ball next week. Diana and I had tried to twist her arm as much as possible, but she refused to tell us what had been going on before we barged in with our failed rescue attempt.

“I had a feeling that might be the case,” Mani said. “I’ll go and slip on my comfortable shoes.”

“You really don’t have to come along, Dad.”

“I know, honey. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. This close to the ball, who knows what might happen.”

I hooked Sophie around the neck. “Get used to it,” I said. “This is what it’s going to be like to be First Daughter of the Low Magic Guild.” I was laughing but she didn’t find it very funny.

Diana had cringed when we