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

“And a very last resort,” Basil said. “Very last.”

“Screw that!” Giselle said. “If the girl can take a power shot at the demon, then she should do it upfront. I thought we were going to try and be smart about this. What’s the use in waiting until we’re in a corner before breaking out the canons?”

There was momentary silence. Basil’s face twitched.

“I hate to say it,” Eugenia said, even though her wide grin suggested otherwise, “but the assassin has a point.”

Finally able to come up with an excuse, Basil said, “The alchemy is too unreliable. And Lex’s blood is too strong. Sophie could be seriously hurt.”

“And the risk to the rest of us is tiny, is it?” Matilda asked.

Professor Suleiman weighed in, “The risk is smaller for us because there will be more of us to take the brunt of any backlash. Sophie is the only one who can access this source of power. All the risk is on her. It’s not a fair thing to ask.”

Professor McKenna spoke up. “Why don’t we ask her then?” She turned to me. “What would you like to do, Sophie?”

I gulped and looked at my hands. For six months I had been searching for Kai. Now that I had a chance of finding at least one half of him, I didn’t want to give that up because I was afraid. On the other hand, there was every possibility that the discharge of power might kill me. I was now mated, and any decision I made that put me in danger had strings attached to it. “Can I discuss it with Max?”

Giselle looked like she was going to puke. But Professor McKenna beamed at me. “There’s a mirror in the powder room.”

It was a misnomer to call it a powder room. It was more like a small penthouse attached to the back of the ballroom. The link told me that Max was out of mirror range. I had to patch a call through to Noah who was on office duty, and he had to get one of the others to grab Max.

His face when he appeared before me from Durin’s office was full of shadows.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “We’re making arrangements for the little ones to hide in the human world. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

I gnawed on my bottom lip. “What?” he asked.

I relayed Giselle’s suggestion. “I’m going to snap her neck the next time I see her,” he spat. He got up and started pacing. “What do you think are the chances that this might work?”

I knew where he was leading. He wanted reassurances. But any answer I gave him would be a guess and I didn’t want to mislead him with it.

“I don’t know. It’s always a risk. Her blood is so strong. If I get it a tiny bit wrong...it’s just hard to say.”

“But there’s a better chance of you being able to exorcise Apollyon than one of the others?”

I nodded, knowing he was weighing up my safety with the chance of getting Kai back.

“We would attempt a combined assault,” I added. “But we stand a better chance trying it all at once than waiting until they’ve all failed.” In that, I agreed wholeheartedly with Giselle.

Max slapped his hand on the mirror. It cut out for a second. In the mating link, I heard a tremor and knew that he was roaring on the other side of the mirror. When the picture returned, he was deceptively calm.

“Okay,” he said. “If that’s what you think is best.”

I had never heard a more reluctant agreement, but I knew just how much he was giving up by agreeing at all.

“Do you need to change your guard position to be here?” I asked.

“No.”

“Okay.”

We sat there for a quiet moment. I took in his strained expression and wished that I could be there with him while he ferried off the pack’s most vulnerable once more. It must have felt like another failure on his part. “One last time,” I lied.

He chuckled. “You really are pretty good at that,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

I glanced down at my hands, suddenly wary that keeping secrets might no longer be possible. “Sophie.” I looked into grey eyes that suddenly made me want to not have any secrets. “Thanks for checking with me.”

His head turned as though he heard something close by. “I’ve gotta go. See you tonight.”

Every eye in the room followed me as I made my way back to my seat. “I can do it,” I informed them.

“Well, hallelujah,” Giselle sniped. “I guess not all the beasts have mush for brains.”

Her statement made me bristle. “That beast is the one who kept you from being a vegetable,” I said. “So stop making snide comments.”

Isla and the Evil Three whooped at me. It was followed by Eugenia and Cordelia’s catcalls.

The fact that Giselle’s expression remained bland wasn’t as disturbing as the protectiveness that kept egging me to lash out at her. Where in the world had that come from?

Professor Mortimer cleared his throat. “Let’s move on, shall we?”

We discussed what would happen on the off chance that Kai somehow managed to break out of the soul circle. “It’s a small possibility,” Giselle said. “But if it does happen, the only option is elimination.”

“That seems to be your only option for everything!” Isla said.

“What would you suggest instead? He’s a Nephilim and he’ll have no soul to put the brakes on his killing spree. Which one of you wants to go up against that?”

“Is there no chance of him being contained inside the cells?” Cordelia asked.

“He’s too strong,” Professor Mortimer said. “He’s been too strong since he was fourteen. They’re mostly ceremonial for him now.”

“What about a portal to somewhere he won’t be a danger to anyone?” Alison asked.

“And where would that be?” Eugenia wanted to know.

Alison shrugged. “How should I know? It’s your world.”

“Also,” Eugenia added,