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

glamoured it. Isla’s door had words carved on it in what appeared to be an Elven language. I was terrible at Dead Languages but I couldn’t imagine a marking made with a blunt knife to be flattering. It never occurred to me that she would be the brunt of that kind of bullying. The side-eye I got for being in their section of the dorms was all I needed to know about how welcoming this place was.

She came to the door when I knocked. I didn’t know which one of us was more surprised. I launched into my request before I could change my mind. “You said you’d help me with my fear of the ocean,” I said.

“I did,” she said. “But it’s Friday night and I have stuff to do.”

I eyed the floral pyjamas she was wearing. “Such as?”

“None of your business.”

“C’mon! I’m on a time crunch here?”

“What crunch? One more day isn’t going to get your grades any better.”

I debated whether telling her the truth was advisable. Basil had lived in the human world for years. Despite being a mage, he was less polarised by species loyalty. Isla was so far from neutral it wasn’t funny. On the other hand, I was putting her into a position I had been in and it wasn’t pleasant. So I told her. The play of emotions across her features might have been comical in other circumstances.

“You’re making this up,” she said. I allowed the silence to stretch out. I wished I was making even half of this up. Her drawn-out sigh was the victory I needed. “Fine,” she said. “But I’m not letting you into my room while I change.”

I didn’t want to go in there anyway. I leaned my back against the wall and waited. Of course it was at that very moment that Brigid happened to come around the corner. She saw me waiting and her smile morphed into a snarl. The two minions behind her wore equally lovely expressions. “What do you think you’re doing here?”

“What does it look like?”

I didn’t know when to keep my trap shut. But she was going to be antagonistic whether I stayed silent or not. “It looks like you’re not wanted. You’ve got two seconds to get out of my sight before I–”

Isla’s door opened. “Give it a rest, Brigid,” Isla said. “It’s getting really tired.”

My jaw dropped. So did Brigid’s. Isla strongarmed me away. I kept glancing backward to make sure Brigid wasn’t going to ambush us. But the other Fae had stormed off. “What just happened?” I asked.

“Just keep walking.”

I let it drop. Otherwise I might have had to dwell on the scary realisation that Isla Hess and I might sort of be friends.

29

“It could take a while for them to emerge,” Isla said. We were within hearing distance of the lagoon. It was the closest I could get to the water without having a panic attack. After everything that had already happened this week, I didn’t need to have another breakdown.

“Can we wait elsewhere?” I asked.

“We can’t just call them and then disappear. They could be anywhere.”

She had already taken her shoes off. In preparation, she’d dressed in shorts and a singlet. I was still in my jeans.

Isla was inching towards the water. “How can you not love it?”

“How can you not love cemeteries?” She gave me a look that said she thought I was deranged. Okay, I conceded that point.

“You can go in if you want.”

She hesitated. The pull of the crashing waves must have been strong because she kept turning her body towards it. The fervour of her love for the sea suddenly brought tears to my eyes. I glanced internally for the billionth time since leaving the fern forest. For the billionth time I was disappointed that my hedge magic remained miniscule.

“Okay,” Isla said. “I’ll stay. There’s no need to cry.”

I swiped at my cheeks. “Sorry. It’s not this.”

I sank down into the sand. After a beat, she joined me. “What happened?”

My hesitation spoke volumes. Somewhere along the line I had begun to see Terran as more than just a usurper Academy. “I’m okay. You shouldn’t waste this opportunity. Just go ahead.”

“You’re right. We shouldn’t waste this opportunity. Which is why you’re going to get your ass into the water.”

“No way.”

She rounded on me. “Brigid knows you’re scared of the ocean. After what just happened, how much do you want to bet she’s going to try and mess with you somehow?”

I had to admit, she knew how to push my buttons. We spent the next hour trying to get me desensitised to the ocean by taking me closer and closer to the water. With each foot that I neared the swell, my heartbeat spiked. I breathed through my mouth.

“I wonder what would happen if you had the ocean on one side and a horde of rats on the other,” Isla said.

“Rats can swim! Yet another reason to hate the ocean!”

It was at that moment that we heard the first splashes of disturbed water. I yelped as a pair of mermaids propelled themselves through the surface, somersaulted in the air and glided gracefully onto land. They slithered up the dunes as far as they could go.

“You’ve gotta try and meet them halfway,” Isla hissed.

I stared at the darkened water. Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans, I clenched my teeth together and forced my legs to take one step at a time. It was agonising but I managed to approach the mermaids. From what I’d learned in class, their speech was inaudible outside of the water. In it, they could communicate perfectly. The water Fae were able to communicate with them through telepathy. Hence why I needed Isla.

“Can you tell them what we need?” I asked her.

She nodded. I focused on the mermaid on my left. She was the one who had tried to entice me into the water in class a few weeks ago. Her skin was alabaster smooth. I wanted really badly to reach