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

make a swipe to stop him. He was too fast. A second later, he was back inside the circle. He put his back to Giselle. The thought of him unwittingly protecting her pushed my temper into stratospheric levels.

Nobody moved a muscle. Over on the raised platform, Durin raised his head into the air and sniffed. Nora was standing, watching me like she couldn’t quite make out what was happening.

Something snapped to my right. I turned my head to find Max half-shifted, the hairs on his spine bristling. Behind him, Professor Eldridge gripped the back of his seat. Her nails had torn right through the plastic. I grabbed them both by the shoulders and ripped them from their seats. Backtracking, I jumped through the wall mid-phase with them and hurled them at where Skander and Charles were locked in a physical struggle. It was the best I could do for the kids given the circumstances.

Stepping back through the wall of the assembly hall, I locked eyes with Giselle. It never occurred to me how tiny I was. I barely reached Kai’s shoulder. She made a really good show of appearing terrified. She peered out from behind Kai, her bright blue eyes, my bright blue eyes, wide.

“Step out of the circle, Malachi,” I grit out. Behind his back, I watched her make the sign of a circle. There was no way for me to counter it from this distance.

I took the staircase in small, quick steps.

“You’re dreaming if you think you’re going to get out of this alive,” Kai spat.

“She’s not who you think she is!”

Kai’s eyes turned hooded. He was getting really pissed. I wanted to pick up something and throw it at his head. “She transmuted us,” I screamed. “She ambushed Basil and me in Rivia and switched our souls.”

Somebody to the left gasped. When I looked, Sophie and Diana were huddled together. Sophie’s eyes were huge. I couldn’t stand to see her so confused and terrified. She jumped when something slammed into the assembly door. Please let that be the lions and not the mage.

“You wanted me to trust you,” I accused. “Now I need you to trust me. Step out of the damned circle.” I turned to the professor. “You too, sir.”

Professor Mortimer regarded me with calm curiosity.

“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Giselle said. If it was weird to speak out of her mouth, it was even weirder to hear my voice from different ears. “When we were in the prison, I thought she was trying to get into my head. She’s a mind mage. She stole my thoughts.”

I made it to the stage. A few more feet and I would hit the edge of the circle. Kai tried to step fully in front of her to shield her from my view. It was then she made a critical mistake. She allowed him to shield her. I saw it the second a sliver of doubt wedged its way into his heart. I heard his voice clearly in my thoughts.

“Nobody ever said this was going to be easy.”

I wasn’t the damsel-in-distress type. No way would I have allowed him to protect me. Not like that. He was fast but so was she. Much faster than I could ever be without Ley-line manipulation. Kai pushed Professor Mortimer out of the circle at the same time Giselle drew a circle around him. He screamed as the circle glowed a translucent silver. His body was dragged to the floor. Kai rolled onto his back and began convulsing as Giselle made circular motions with her hands. One by one the members of the Council collapsed. They writhed where they lay, their souls beginning to tear.

I made to leap at her when Professor Mortimer grabbed me and held me back.

“Alessia,” he said, his voice urgent. There was an incredulous frown on his face. “If it truly is you, know that you cannot harm her in your body without harming yourself. If you kill her in this form, your body dies with her. You will never be able to go back.”

I pushed him aside. It didn’t matter if I was never me again if Kai died. If Nora and Mani died. Lowering the shield in my mind that held the Ley dimension, I latched on to Kai’s soul and hauled it back into his body. He gave a roar that would match any shifter and slammed his fist into the wooden floor. A hole the size of a basketball cracked open.

I sensed the root of his fury. Like Professor Mortimer said, if he hurt her, I would never be able to get back to my body. Hurting her meant hurting me. He was stuck. There was nothing Kai hated more than feeling helpless.

I didn’t have any such qualms. When she tried to go for another circle, I whipped my arm out and punched her in the face. Her head snapped back. I winced, thinking about how much that was going to hurt if I ever got my body back. Giselle clutched at her face; her nose was broken.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?” I snarled. She blurred in front of me. “Oh no you don’t!”

I grabbed onto her, threw ropes magic around her and pulled her back into this realm. She kicked out at me, hitting me squarely in the chest. As I gasped for breath, she pulled the demon blade out of its scabbard and smashed me in the head with it. My arms came up to protect me from a second hit, but by then I was already dizzy.

A brown-haired figure leaped overhead. Where Diana would have swept Giselle up with her, the witch phased and Diana went sprawling away without touching her.

“Don’t!” I screamed when Diana looked like she was going to try for another assault. The last thing I needed right now was for Giselle to get another hostage. Diana’s nose scrunched. I could tell she wanted to ignore my plea. Instead, she whipped her short blade across the floor. I caught