Bloodline Diplomacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 3) - Lan Chan (thriller books to read .txt) 📗

“Marshall!” I screamed, adding a few syllables to his name. Sophie had told me once that six months before I arrived at Bloodline, Marshall had been possessed by a demon. That knowledge made me feel like I had a kinship with him. We vessels had to stick together.

When he appeared with Bran on the opposite side of the barrier, his expression was apologetic.

“I can’t get through!” Just to prove my point, I placed both palms on the barrier and pushed like I was trying to move a broken-down car.

Curtis ran his hands through his dark hair. “I take it Jacqueline hasn’t spoken to you?”

“Not since yesterday. Anyway, I don’t have time. I’m already running late to class. Can one of you give me a lift?”

They didn’t outwardly share in any nonverbal form of communication, but the way Marshall blinked made me think there had been a message exchange. “I think you’d better go and see the headmistress,” he said. “Come on, I’ll take you.”

Feeling like I had missed something, I stepped back and held my hands up in a surrender position. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think that I’ve been uninvited from the junior campus.” This time, they did exchange a glance.

Alarmed, I whipped my timetable out of my backpack even as Marshall grabbed hold of my wrist. I yanked myself out of his hold. My schedule appeared to be in flux. The contents and classes kept appearing and disappearing like somebody was currently actively rearranging it.

My classes were being swapped in and out. The only thing that remained constant was that I no longer had any classes on the junior campus. “I don’t get it,” I said, looking up into Marshall’s eyes.

His head dipped. “It’s not my place to explain. Jacqueline will be able to fill you in.” For a second, I had the irresistible urge to unsheathe the demon blade from the scabbard on my back and try to cut a chunk out of the wall. Marshall sensed the riotous thought because he reached out and placed his palm on my forehead.

I blinked and we were in front of Alex’s desk. The mink shifter didn’t so much as flinch when we appeared. If anything, he was one step ahead of us. His hand was already on the crystal ball.

“Alessia Hastings is here,” he said. The crystal turned green. “The headmistress will see you now.”

Marshall gave me one last mournful glance. “It’s not personal,” he said. Okay, now my alarm bells were ringing. I wasn’t sure what possessed me, but I reached out for his arm.

“So long, Marshall.”

He reeled back as though I’d struck him. I sniffed to clear the hint of moisture in my eyes before I pushed open Jacqueline’s door and stepped inside. Professor Mortimer was in there with her. Even though Dmitri was technically the deputy headmaster, Jacqueline often conferred with Professor Mortimer on things that concerned students.

Sophie wasn’t a fan of our vampire deputy headmaster and claimed he had made her life a nightmare when she was still in the junior school. I could well believe it. He didn’t seem all that impressed with students despite the fact that he had chosen a vocation where he would have to be in contact with us daily.

“Hi, Lex,” Jacqueline said. “Come sit down.” The tone she used on me was the same one I’d heard Professor Allen, a bear shifter, use on the griffin in the Fae forest.

“I take it I’m not going to classes in the junior campus anymore,” I said as I slumped into the armchair beside Professor Mortimer. If possible, he appeared more rumpled than he had been the day before. His cheeks was still pretty ashen. I thought of what Samantha had said about the soul gate. The thought of Professor Mortimer dying had me biting my tongue.

Jacqueline leaned forward and clasped her hands together. The ruby sheen of her nails matched the wine-red suit she wore. She’d recently changed the colour of her hair to a brassy grey with a mauve wash through it. How in the world did that actually make her look younger?

“We’re still trying to tweak your timetable,” she said. “It’s proving more difficult than we had anticipated.”

“That wasn’t really my question.”

Beside me, I swore Professor Mortimer actually flinched. Jacqueline didn’t bat an eyelid. I knew she gave my chain a lot of slack on account of many things, Kai included, but I never forgot that above all else, her responsibility was to the Academy.

“We had to take the precaution,” she said.

“We who?”

“The School Board made a unanimous decision,” Professor Mortimer said. It turned out the School Board was made up of Jacqueline, a number of the professors, two of the Nephilim from the Council, and some of the funding parents. That also included Orin Harcourt. My number one fan on the Council.

I tapped my foot on the floor. “I get not having time to devote to some of the entry-level classes, but I don’t see why that would mean I can’t –”

Halfway through that thought it hit me. It felt like somebody had taken a sledgehammer to my chest. The way I shrivelled in my chair must have been visible because Professor Mortimer grimaced. “The barrier isn’t just to stop me from going to classes, is it? You don’t trust me around the younger kids.”

This time Jacqueline leaned forward and grabbed my hand. Even if I wanted to pull away I couldn’t. Her grip was too solid.

“This has nothing to do with how much we trust you,” she said. “But you have to understand this is uncharted territory for us. So much of what we know about the Sisterhood is conjecture. We’re flying blind. I know you’d never do anything to endanger the lives of the other students. But we don’t know what other abilities the Sisterhood possess. They proved beyond a doubt that they are anything but our allies,