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

letting on that if a war started, I would probably be on the wrong side of it. My thoughts drifted to the prophecy Brigid and some of the other supernaturals swore they’d seen. The irony of it was not lost on me. At this point, I didn’t even know if I wanted to help this damn universe.

31

The negotiation meeting point clearly used to be some millionaire’s country retreat. It was perfectly positioned halfway up a natural incline in the otherwise flat expanse of greenery. It wasn’t yet dark, but lights–the solar not the Fae kind–had been set up all along the driveway. The big French doors at the back of the house had been left open. If I craned my neck I could see the buffet tables set up inside.

My heart squeezed in my chest at the sight of the Academy bus sitting squat in the middle of the driveway. This was a long drive for them. They had to have come through a portal pretty far away given the Terran’s mandate for everything supernatural to be removed.

I had to dig my nails into my palms to stop myself from leaping out of the car and running inside. Sean parked as far away from the bus as possible.

There were other vehicles in the lot. I’d bet my life that the two stretch limousines belonged to Orin Harcourt and one of the Nephilim. The Councillor who had been chosen to replace Artemis Gilbert was a traditional jerk. I had it on good authority from Sophie that he had a huge stick up his butt.

When we finally got inside the doors, I spotted Sophie’s mop of dark curls first. Something inside my chest decompressed. Not caring if I was supposed to stick with Terran, I raced over to her. She turned, saw me, and squealed. Her arms were around me a second later.

“Happy birthday,” she said. “I feel like I never see you anymore.”

I squeezed her so tight I think I heard her inhale. When she pulled away, her brows creased.

“Hi, Lex!” I heard Mani say. “Happ –” Sophie tugged me away.

“Not now, Dad. We’re going to the bathroom.”

My head was turning every which way trying to find Kai. So it was a surprise when I felt her concealing circle knit around me. “Soph?”

Instead of the bathroom, she led me down a corridor and into what would have been a guest bedroom complete with ensuite. It had obviously been designated as the cloak room. There were coats layered on top of each other all over it. Locking the door behind us, she rounded on me. “What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

Her left brow raised. Ah shit. “Nothing. I just found out something I hadn’t bargained for...”

“Lex.” She took my hands and led me to the queen bed. We shoved the coats aside and sat down. “You know you can tell me anything.”

Oh I knew that. It was the reciprocity of it that I had niggling doubts about. She’d been missing just as much as Kai had these past few months. Both of them had been tight-lipped about what they were doing.

My mouth opened. I had every intention of blurting it all out but for some reason, nothing happened. It wasn’t like when I tried to speak about Lucifer. Those times there was an actual physical barrier. This was completely guilt related. It was so stupid. Of all the people I could say something to, it was Sophie. Yet I hesitated. Her parents were Councillors now. If I told her, she would feel obligated to say something. Why did that even matter? We were on the same side.

I found myself contemplating the viscous look on Rachel’s face whenever she mentioned the supernaturals. Whatever had made her hate them so much, it had to have been something terrible. She was too strong to be bothered by meaningless vendettas.

In the end, I told Sophie as much as I could. Even those small bits were enough to make the colour drain from her face. “There’s no way the Council are going to agree to revealing themselves.”

“Terran believe the best way for humans to defend themselves is if they know the truth about what’s out there,” I reasoned. And then I thought of that demon. Of those poor shifters.

“It makes sense,” Sophie said. “If the humans knew about demons, they might be able to condition themselves to resist possession.”

“You think? Even most supernaturals don’t have that kind of willpower.”

She bit her lip. Maybe she was thinking back to the time when there were demons at Bloodline. They had taken hold of most of the students. Sophie and Max managed to beat them back but it was dicey. If supernaturals couldn’t fight demons, did humans stand a chance?

“If they do agree to reveal themselves, it would have to be gradual,” she said. “Not in the shocking way this Minister wants to happen.” She bit her lip. “Don’t even get me started on how messed up it is that the grand mistress of the Sisterhood happens to be married to the Minister for Environment.”

She reached up and ran her finger along my puffed-up eyelids. “C’mon, let’s get out of here before someone comes searching for you thinking you’ve been kidnapped.”

There was a knock on the door. “Blue.”

Sophie didn’t say a word as she opened the door and sidestepped around Kai. How she managed to get out past his broad shoulders was beyond me. My pulse jackhammered at the sight of him. The night had barely begun and his tie was already hanging loose around his collar. The top two buttons of his pristine white shirt were undone. He was scowling when he stepped into the room. For a second I thought he’d caught me out. The lie was on the tip of my tongue when he held out his hand.

“Come here.”

I balked at the implicit command. He grinned at my reticence. “I don’t have much time before the talks begin, Blue.”

That damn smug bastard. Despite knowing I was conceding