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

the malachim solidified into their true forms. Eight-foot-tall remnants of angels. This time, Kate wasn’t the only shifter who screamed. Still, she forced herself up to her feet, her normally warm brown eyes ringed in red. Oh crap. If the kids went rogue now, we were all done for.

Andrei swore again.

The malachim lashed out with a smoky limb. All four conscious shifters flinched, but the slash of claws hit the protection circle I hastily drew around them. It was no less painful than having actual claws scraping across my skin. Biting the inside of my cheek did nothing to stop either the pain or the hiss from coming. Little flecks of pink light sparked from the circle like embers. They fell onto the dead grass and smouldered before lighting tiny fires. While their companions cowered, Kate and Edward turned their heads in our direction. And that was when the malachim noticed I was there.

Their white eyes of pure celestial light pinpointed on me. It had the exact opposite effect compared to what it felt like to be regarded by the seraphim. Once upon a time, the malachim had been charged with protecting humanity. They knew our hopes and guarded us against our fears. One look and they saw right into the core of our souls. It stood to reason that in this twisted form, they would use our worst fears against us.

The malachim that had tried to swipe at the children blurred at the edges. A circle of midnight-blue hedge magic began to trace around the malachim as it transformed from a towering nightmare into a diminutive brunette with the most striking blue eyes this side of the dimension. My limbs became heavy with a sense of guilt. Deep inside me, the pool of kitchen magic bubbled up in rage and despair.

The malachim’s image dissipated, and in its place, Lex stood inside a protection circle. Her cheeks were ruddy with tears, her skin decorated with injuries weeping blood like she’d been enduring the lash of a thousand whips.

“This is your faul–” she began to say before something snapped in my mind. A compulsion that Andrei had set in motion months ago the moment we realised the malachim were capable of using our fears against us.

Without hesitation, I whipped the blade in my right hand at Fake Lex. The blade sailed through the air in a straight line. Any other weapon would have feathered through the misty form of the malachim like it wasn’t even there. But as the tip of the blade buried into Fake Lex’s ribs, the blood spell fired and dragged the malachim into this dimension. It gave a shuddering wail as it shrugged off the Fake Lex costume. Black wings materialised at its back. They unfurled into a shield that blocked out everything around it. At the same time that apprehension blossomed in my chest, my mouth gaped. Beautiful. As terrifying as they were, there was still a part of the malachim that was breathtaking.

Andrei didn’t seem to appreciate the celestial beauty of them. As my blade dematerialised and returned to me by the invisible leash that I’d set on it with magic, Andrei darted from the right, leaped into the air, and landed on the malachim’s back. Holding his own blood blade in a downward grip, he sliced into the juncture of the malachim’s left wing. It gave an unrepentant scream as Andrei took its wing completely off.

And then, in true Andrei fashion these days, his fangs shot out and he bit the malachim in the neck.

“Run!” I screamed at the kids. Whether or not they did as they were told escaped me. My focus was directed elsewhere.

I had half a second to draw a circle around Andrei as another malachim struck. Its power slammed into me like a battering ram. Without blood, my magic circles were mid-range at best. Right now, all of my blood was concentrated on keeping the blades operational.

Another malachim came at me from the left, its white eyes pinned to my face in a frighteningly intimate stare. Trying desperately to clear my thoughts of anything it could use against me was futile. My life was fuelled by fear these days, and the chief cause of it manifested in front of me.

White eyes bled into forest green at the same time black wings morphed into blistering white. The malachim pretended to fall to its knees as its hollow face smoothed out into tanned skin and sculpted muscle. Ice frosted the grass, the air becoming thick with cooling moisture. Overhead, a cavern appeared. Icicles dripped onto Kai’s bare shoulders and down the chains with which he had been shackled. Smoke wafted from his skin as the Hell dimension sucked out his life-force.

Shaking my head, I bit my tongue and tasted metal. Not real. Not real. Kai screamed. The absolute agony of it burrowed into my soul. It reduced me to tears despite logic shouting at me that this was just an illusion. Sucking in a freezing breath, I whispered words of light, raised my monumentally heavy arm, and threw the blade right at his throat.

With my eyes blurry, I tossed the other one too for good measure. Swiping the tears away, I saw the first blade being swatted away by another malachim. Hastily, I called it back and rolled just as the malachim’s claws came dangerously close to the side of my face. Eating grass, I held out my palm as the blade appeared. My head spun but I wasn’t sure if it was from physical or magical exertion.

There was no time to dwell. A dark patch of fog appeared above me. My arm whipped up, the blade held aloft as a malachim stomped its foot down. As it impaled itself on the blade, I let go and dragged myself out from underneath the monster. It wasn’t until I was a fraction of an inch out of the danger zone that I realised that had been too easy. The reason why clamped itself