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

Tentatively, he reached out. Swallowing hard, I dispersed the circle.

“You’re the same as you were as a child,” he said. I almost groaned. “When we found out you were able to transmute essences, I wanted to hate you so badly. I watched you all the time. Waited around thinking one day you would turn. It was a relief when your parents decided to send you to the Academy. I thought there you would be presented with too much temptation to hide who you really were. And then finally, you said you killed people to save your friend and I thought for sure I’d been right. But you didn’t, did you? You couldn’t. You lied to cover something else up. I can’t tell if that’s a strength or a weakness.”

I bit my lip and thought about the task that Lex had left me. For the first time, I allowed myself to really contemplate what it meant. I was too weak. Even by stealing a hundred essences, there was every chance I wouldn’t be able to control her blood.

Feeling deflated, I let myself sink to the grass.

“Do you really think these blood circles will help us?” Noah asked.

“I know they will. But the pack circle will have a heart attack if they know I’m setting them. Just like they have a big cry at the idea of using other guards or reaching out for help from the other species.”

“That’s not our way.”

“Screw your way! This isn’t the old dimension. We have to think differently or we die!”

His laugh was a hollow thing. “You sound exactly like Max. He keeps saying we need to evolve or we’ll be left behind.”

I breathed through my nose. “Why doesn’t he make the decision then?”

“The others are afraid. They won’t admit it, but they’re concerned about what it might mean for the hierarchy.”

I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. “Right,” I said. “Because asking for a little bit of help during a world-ending event makes them weak.”

He pinned me with a glare. “We’re shifters!”

“Believe me, I never forget!”

Whatever else he might think personally, Noah allowed me to continue with my mission. By the end of the week, I’d covered the inside perimeter of the Reserve in enough wards that it should act as a warning at least. I could only hope that when the time came, it would be enough.

23

I sensed that Agatha now considered me a lost cause. When I walked into our tutorial the next week, Hugh was the only one present. Today he had dispensed with his cloak. Instead, he had a bear skin draped around his shoulders. Noah immediately went on the defensive. The mage did absolutely nothing to calm the situation.

“Before you ask,” Hugh said, “yes, it’s real.”

I jumped in front of Noah and was pushed forward five steps before he could check himself. Hugh’s laugh came from deep within his chest. “Don’t tell me the wolf is an animal lover.”

He was such a moron. His ignorance of the customs of other species spoke of a towering arrogance. Most shifters were animal lovers. Though they were the apex predators, they considered themselves the caretakers of their lands. Gaia help you if you hurt an animal in their presence. Which was why I had to hold Noah back when Hugh produced a cage of rats with a sweep of his purple magic.

I made a face. I wasn’t terrified of them like Lex but I didn’t love them either. “Since you can’t seem to bring yourself to perform the real deal,” Hugh said, “I thought we’d start building you up to it.”

Noah almost busted my eardrum with his snarl. “Can you please go and sit in the corner?” I pleaded.

“Why are you continuing with this class? If you can’t do it, then we’ll find another way.”

“What other way?” I wanted to know. “What other way can you think of for beating Lucifer when the time comes? He makes the malachim look like less than ants!”

We both knew I was right. “You can’t kill someone,” he said.

No, I could not. It was time to face that fact. But maybe I could bleed them a little, and if I did it often enough, I could hold a reserve of energy. That was a good theory in practice and a lot of very big assumptions. Noah stomped to the far side of the room and sat glaring at us as Hugh set the cage of rats in front of me on the floor.

He crouched down beside me. I kept waiting for him to produce a knife, but he did nothing of the sort. “What are you waiting for?” he asked.

“How do I extract their blood?”

“Like this.” He whipped his hand out and caught one of the rats in a phantom hold. The others raced around the cage in a frenzy as the rat in his grip squirmed and squealed. My stomach roiled. I was totally going to dream about this tonight. Purple light began to gather around the floating rat. It shrieked, its long tail flailing and hitting the metal bars of the cage. I was going to lose my breakfast.

Without a second glance, Hugh fisted his hand, and the purple cloud became tendrils that burrowed into the rat. Not just into its mouth, nose, and eyes, but through its skin in all places. That same throbbing bulge occurred as the rat’s essence was sucked out. When he was done, Hugh dropped the rat’s husk. It was now just a parched layer of skin and fur. The other rats converged on it, tearing it to pieces in fear.

The purple ball of light that hung above the cage was now three times its original size. “Hardly seems worth it,” Hugh commented. But there was a sickening fervour in his eyes that I didn’t trust a single bit.

“I can’t do that,” I informed him. “Low magic doesn’t work that way. To gain something, I have to lose