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

scribes who had bled from their ears as they painstakingly etched each symbol. The thing was, only one non-celestial being in this dimension had the kind of power it took to make Angelical worthwhile. Had the malachim been demonic by origin, it might have made a difference. Instead, it was a simple warning system with a single message: Run!

“Teleport!” Andrei shouted at me as the smoke swirled and became corporeal. Grabbing Andrei’s arm, I made to teleport us away just as the malachim spread its blackened wings and blocked out the morning light. And then, the world was blotted out by a juvenile scream that had my stomach clenching.

Bodies came streaming out of the tavern and every other business in close proximity. Portals opened up all around me, closing as their creators leaped through. Clamping his hand on my shoulder, Andrei yelled at me. “Sophie! Teleport!”

But my head swivelled, desperately trying to filter out the onslaught of sound bombarding my ears so I could pinpoint the location of Kate’s scream. I’d heard her shouting so often while babysitting the kids in the Reserve that the tone had imprinted on me. This scream wasn’t one of rage or indignation. It was borne of pure, unfettered terror. Kate was a lynx. A small but still predatory shifter. Screaming was a shameful by-product of an undisciplined mind. It would take a lot to drag that unwanted reaction from her.

Throwing Gabriel’s Key at Andrei, I took off running through the streets of Ravenhall’s merchant district. It had a more civilised feel than the ramshackle warren of the black market but there were still scents and shops here that skirted the line of evil. Avoiding portals was like trying to manoeuvre between landmines. Uncaring where and who they swept up in their wake, whole sections of stores crumbled in on themselves as they were sucked into the interior of the portal being opened by every mage and sorceress in sight. The supernaturals who didn’t possess high magic took what they could get and jumped through the closest open portal, not caring where they ended up. The alternative was worth falling into a vat of slime or an unkempt dungeon.

Behind me, I heard Andrei swearing his head off before footsteps thundered after me. In my periphery, I caught the first malachim solidifying into a blackened body that reminded me so much of the towering grace of the seraphim that it made my heart stutter. Once upon a time, they had been beautiful. Now they were a shattered nightmare.

I broke free of the cobbled streets that weaved around the stores and out into a small, open clearing. Through a narrow alleyway on the other side of the clearing, the marshy, green grass of the fens turned to parched, yellow ground. Crap!

Every sector of the Reserve was built to resemble one of the shifter species’ natural ecosystems. The African savannah that stretched out before me should have been much farther away. Good sense demanded that I turn around right this second. Then again, if I had any sense at all, I’d be back in the hideout with Basil and Betty.

A tiny whimper dragged my attention to the clearing. Twelve enormous stone pillars rose up from the ground in a semi-circle around what appeared to be a white crystal slab sitting atop a boulder. A smear of something greyish brown stained the top of the slab. Dead grass ringed around the base of the stone pillar as though it had been poisoned. Blinking, it took me a second to register that it was a druidic stone circle. The slab must have been a sacrificial altar. Nice.

Surrounding the stone circle was a flickering of black fire that ate at the earth and caused everything living that it touched to wither and rot. The acrid stench of death blotted the air, making it difficult to take a breath without wanting to throw up. The tug of draining magic pulled at the seams inside me. Just behind me, Andrei groaned.

Of the many gifts the malachim supplied, the draining was the worst. Much like what happened to supernaturals in the Hell dimension, the malachim sucked the essence of anything living around them. Without high magic to escape, the shifters were caught dead in the water.

Kate was on her knees to the left of the altar. She squatted in a tight huddle with two shifter teenagers and–I breathed fire out my nostrils–Edward, who was clutching an unconscious figure. Around them, a dense fog of shadow rippled in the air. Had my heart not stopped beating the moment I heard Kate scream, it would have torn in two. Not even bothering to guess why they were so far out of their permitted roaming zone, I raced towards them just as the world began to rumble.

The kids shrieked as the fog ebbed towards them. It merged with a lick of black fire and morphed into the shadow of a humanoid figure.

“Dammit, Sophie!” Andrei grated.

“Go!” I hissed at him even as I took off running towards the ever-solidifying body of the first malachim.

Attention locked on the easy prey in front of it, the malachim paid me no heed. Part of it was the blood barrier and the shroud of necromantic energy that pulsed along with my heartbeat. It didn’t immediately recognise me as human. If it had, I would already be dead. Then again, I was running towards what was shaping up to be half a dozen malachim. Chances were I would be dead by the end of this anyway. It didn’t stop me from tracing the edge of the words of light that Basil had branded onto my wrists.

The familiar tug of blood magic tingled up my arms. Bright pink light saturated my palms as the pool of magic inside me swelled and thrust out. Past my fingertips, magic swarmed and shaped itself into two blood-red blades with wicked tips edged in pink. I flicked my wrist and they became solid weight in my hands.

Up ahead,