Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6) - Lan Chan (libby ebook reader txt) 📗

darkness inside the freezing void. The figure standing alone inside a purple summoning circle made my aura curl up in a ball. Kai lifted his head, the black in his eyes unchanging, even as he smiled.

Sophie, the voice of the Abyss rasped, even though Kai’s lips didn’t move. No more chances.

Kai raised his arm. I braced with all the strength of my alchemy as black vines whipped out and latched onto me.

I groaned as something caught hold of my insides. No, I glanced inwards. It wasn’t my guts it was trying to snatch. It was my soul. Held on by the thinnest thread, my head exploded with such pain that I knew I was doubled over and screaming. An excruciating fire drilled into my chest, even as the alchemy hit out. It tunnelled into Kai and burst in a haze like ice hitting an inferno. A plume of white smoke wafted in the air and obscured the figure in front of me. And as it did so, it revealed a tapestry in which a million white threads tethered to all the malachim that were in the Reserve.

I heard a moan that should have been too far away to register. But in that moment, my thoughts were drawn to the cage below the Cabin where Durin was trapped. Correction, where the malachim was trapped inside him.

The shock kick-started Andrei’s compulsion, throwing me out of the Ley sight and back into the real world where I was on my side curled up in the foetal position. Around me, the other submissive shifters and young were in a similar state of distress.

Blood dripped from my nose. Something cold settled in my chest as the knowledge cemented in my mind. Kai was possessed by Apollyon.

Your fault, I heard in my head.

Yes. It was my fault. And it was about time I did something about it.

39

Shoving a burst of that white light I had stolen from the malachim into the circle, I set it to explode in a shower of pink bursts that I transmuted into stabbing in the shifters’ heads. The pain ripped them from their nightmares. Gasping, they scrambled around them, unsure how or why they were hurting each other or scratching at the doors and walls to be let out.

“Quiet!” I snapped, my voice filled with cold fury.

Every shifter in the room stood to attention. “Give me a moment to think!”

They moved aside as I stepped up to the window. Down below, the tide of sentiment in the guards was changing. One by one, they were being taken over by the urging of the malachim. With a stone in my throat, I spotted the base of the stairs where Anastasia was fighting with two other guards to stop them from tearing up here and attacking us.

Just when I thought they would roll over her, another roar whipped through the Reserve. This time, the dominance in it was unbearable. Every shifter in the room and outside flattened themselves onto the ground. The dominance cleared their minds and made them remember who it was they had sworn their bodies, their hearts, and their minds to. Low demons ground their teeth at the sound.

Seeing that the Reserve was no longer under their thrall, Agatha raised a hand and made an advancing motion.

“They’re coming,” one of the pups wailed. Sure enough, the malachim moved forward. The crowd inside the conference room huddled together. The malachim’s essences flickered into the mist that they were made from. Their bodies became transparent. It was only then I saw what was behind and it made me want to cry.

The elite guards. They stood in a wide arc around the Reserve where the barriers had been placed as it intersected the other supernatural communities. At intervals, they were attempting to break through the barriers, but it would take too much time. In the back of my mind an errant thought suggested that Max might be able to do it. But that would mean he would have to leave the pack at the mercy of the malachim. There was no way that was happening.

In the end, the elite guard would be here to witness the fall of one of their factions. What cut me all the way to the bone was the desperate howl of the Sentinels who were also trapped outside the barrier while their kin were being attacked. I saw Dorian’s wolf racing around the base of the barrier as he attempted to find a weak spot. The whole thing was futile. Without Raphael, the Hell dimension was too strong.

I was so tired of just being a weak human.

Somebody sobbed. “How will we fight them?”

How indeed? I sank down to my knees and drew a blood circle. In my mind, I mimicked the positioning of all the circles I had placed in the Reserve and held my breath. The first of the malachim touched the edge of the barrier. A growl went up as the malachim snagged against my blood. It felt as though something was passing through my body. A moment of absolute cold before my heart decided to beat again. But when the malachim came through on the other side, it was corporeal.

The hunting cry of a wolf rose up in the air. Noah launched himself at the malachim at the same time that Jeremiah did. They sank their claws and teeth into it and brought it to the ground where Harris bludgeoned it to death with his huge fists.

Noah’s wolf turned in the direction of the conference room for a moment in silent thanks. And then the malachim converged on us in earnest. I clutched at my chest, my heart coated in frost as they passed through the blood barrier that was intrinsically linked to me.

Seeing that they could miraculously fight the malachim coming at them, the shifters reared up with renewed aggression. They clashed with the monstrous demons in groups, taking them down as quickly as they could before they were set upon again.

Somebody wrapped