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

the way Gwen the leopard had. I tapped on the side of my head as though that would give me some insight into what was going on in there.

It was a slightly warmer day than usual. The temperature inside Bloodline Academy was controlled, but they still liked to mimic the natural seasons. I pulled off my sneakers and socks, rolled up my jeans, and sat down at the edge of the billabong.

Just as my feet hit the cool water, an enormous head with glistening brown hair broke the surface skin of the water. A pair of bulbous black eyes peered at me. They came closer. The bunyips’ long snout hit my knees. I sat perfectly still. Professor Allen had said that the bunyip would allow us into his billabong if we weren’t going to make a mess of things. I didn’t plan on doing anything but sit. He must have realised that because his eyes finally blinked. He moved off to the side. A second later, a heaving body mass ambled out of the water. Halfway up he shook himself, splashing droplets of water all over me.

“Thanks for that,” I said.

He yawned in response. For a second I thought he was going to another pool, when he started to scrape at the mud around the edge of the billabong. A lump of mud hit me on my shoulder. I inhaled even as I wanted to jump out of my skin. When he was done playing in the mud, the bunyip sat down heavily beside me and exhaled. The gust of air blew some of the reeds until they were almost horizontal.

I did the same to very little effect. Placing my head in my hands, I closed my eyes and looked inside of myself. There was no edge of panic or anything else resembling fear. I stuck my tongue out, but the air wasn’t laced with salt.

“I don’t get it!” I said aloud. My hands slapped the water, sending a small ripple across the watering hole. The bunyip groaned. He bit at some of the rushes beside me, chewing them with great aplomb. I heard scraping in the brush and turned to find a handful of yowies rooting around in the mangroves nearby. One of them caught my eye and then looked away. A moment later, it was lumbering up to me holding a white root in its hands. I shook my head.

“No thanks. I’m not in the mood to eat right now.”

It growled at me. If it could produce speech, I imagined it would make a comment about how I was always eating. Sometimes the yowies were allowed to go into the Grove. Or at least they appeared there without the nymphs’ knowledge. They were always trying to get at the Arcana fruit.

I was about to explain when the assembly alarm went off. The bunyip opened up one eye. His tiny ears twitched. The yowies covered theirs and ran off. Huh. It never occurred to me how disturbing the sound of the alarms could be to some of the supernaturals. I imagined the shifters didn’t enjoy it much. What could possibly have gone wrong now? I didn’t bother to roll my jeans down or put my shoes on. Instead I opted to air dry as I made my way over to the junior campus. It wasn’t until I got close to the bridge that I remembered what was very wrong with this situation. At the site of where I had run head first into the barrier, I stopped and held out my arm.

Brigid just happened to be walking past at that exact moment. I snatched my arm back and laced my fingers around my back as though it was perfectly normal to be standing around slack-jawed while the whole school was streaming past.

She smirked at me. Her indigo wings were on display again. She whipped them out any time she could get away with it. Like we were prone to forget who she was if she didn’t remind us every five minutes.

I waited a few beats until she was farther away. “Curtis,” I hissed. I didn’t know why I was under the assumption that they would just appear if I called their names. It had never worked out before.

At that moment, a streak of gold passed by. It was the first one I had seen. Obviously whatever was going on wasn’t so dire that additional security was required. That didn’t help me at all. I flailed my arms about.

“Watch it,” a voice beside me said. I waved an apology at the vampire whose shoulder I grazed with my elbow. His fangs were pressed against his bottom lip. Then he looked at me like he hadn’t seen me properly. If possible, his face turned paler. “Never mind,” he said, before scooting away as quickly as he could.

I sighed wondering whether news about my link to the Sisterhood had gotten out or if this was just the result of Kai always looming around me menacing everyone. I didn’t have time to mull it over as Bran touched down beside me. His landing caused the crowd around us to scatter in a circle.

“Should I even be here?” I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

“Don’t be like that. You know why we have to do this.”

I snorted. “Yeah, like a barrier is going to be what stops me if I wanted to do harm. Did you guys forget that I can-”

A hand reached out to clamp over my mouth. Diana’s husky voice was beside my ear. “Do you have any idea how loud you’re speaking?” she hissed.

I’d thought I was being pretty quiet actually. The side-eye I was getting from a number of the kids around me said otherwise.

Bran waved his hand and Diana shoved me across the bridge that I could now access. “Behave yourself, please.” Those were Bran’s parting words.

“Do you know what this is about?” I asked Diana.

“I’ll give you one guess?” she said. “It involves you.”

I