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

I tucked my hands behind my back and gripped my wrists. Isla’s golden magic caught the waves in their eternal dance and forced them to spin counter-clockwise. I was mesmerised by the hypnotic turning of the water at the same time it sent shivers down my spine. With each second, the whirlpool Isla spun grew wider. It dragged the undulating waves in its grip and forced them into an unnatural cycle. Inch by agonising inch, a hole began to form. It never occurred to me how much power she had. To hold back an element like that for so long would take considerable effort. Basil turned the sphere of orange in his hands and the portal shifted to give us a bird’s eyes view of the centre of the whirlpool.

I almost lost the contents of my stomach. A shroud of gold-speckled darkness enclosed over a mound on the seabed. It was solid so that we couldn’t see through it, but there was a bed of multicoloured coral and seaweed growing around it. This wasn’t the right environment for that sort of tropical coral. The water was slick and shimmering like it was intermixed with oil. It was polluted to the max. The magic around the entity matched mine almost identically. My gut dipped out and I took a step back. Every hair on my body stood on end. Despite the gravity of the situation, my head turned so I didn’t have to look into the swirling water.

“Suck it up,” Rachel said. She was still crouched on my left, her attention fixed to Terran. We could both feel the sweep of supernatural magic that passed over the wards created by the soul gate. It felt like someone running their nails down my back. The supernaturals were obviously trying to find a weak spot.

“I’m nearing the convergence,” Isla bit out.

“Heaven’s above!” Basil swore.

I could feel the heat leaving my body. Phoenix leaned against my thigh. Even his reassurance didn’t make this easier. “Lex!” Basil said. “We need to do this now.”

“Have your breakdown later!” Isla snapped. “I can’t hold this for much longer!”

Their arguments were convincing, but they bounced off the bubble of my fear. It was Rachel’s sharp inhale that got my attention. “They’re all going to die,” she said. I whipped my head around and my eyes popped out. The Fae had lit up the fields around Terran Academy. There were enough of them that I had no doubt they’re be able to contain the fire and direct it where it needed to go. They were going to use it to flush the Terrans out. The stupid arrogance of it had fury blossoming in my chest. We were a desert country and they were playing with fire.

I took a single step towards the water. That was when Lucifer locked me down. You will not enter the water, he commanded in my mind.

I froze. “Lex!” Basil called.

I blocked out his voice to focus on the one inside my mind. Get out! There was no budging. His command was absolute. The well of death magic mirrored the undulating waves. It had always been held back by the gentler hedge magic. For once, I was comforted by the stark violence of it. I remembered what had happened the last time I had lost control of the power on a beach nearby. I needed that violence now.

Reaching for all of the magic I could contend with, I threw it at Lucifer in a bid to eject him from my mind. He met me with the force of his will. The sum of our powers clashed in a spark of dark versus light. It was ironic that his was the white light. For a single solitary moment, I held my breath as the two opposing forces balanced in their pressure. And then the power of the Morning Star prevailed.

I fell to my knees. Phoenix’s body buffered me, but I couldn’t see anything besides the rolling of bright light over the well of my magic. Lucifer laughed. Something wet dripped down my nose. I tried to swipe it away, but I couldn’t move.

All of the power you have is mine, he said to me. You’re mine, Alessia. I will not allow you to free her. Your life depends on it.

I felt a single tear slide down my left cheek. At the moment, I understood Kai perfectly. To have so much power and yet be unable to protect the people you cared about was worse than any physical pain I had ever experienced. Helplessness caused my chest to ache. How could I even dream of one day meeting Lucifer on a field of battle when I couldn’t even oppose his simple commands?

Phoenix whined in my ear. The pitch of it shocked me back into the present. The air around us rumbled. The First Order were throwing fireballs at the soul gate. Smoke turned the startling sunset into an orange haze. I frowned as one of the Nephilim jerked where he had been flying in the air. His balance wavered. He flew in a distorted circular fashion like he was having trouble with one of his wings. Another jerk and he winked out altogether. As I watched, other Nephilim went down the same way. It took me a second to catch on. The Terrans were firing on the Nephilim with their modified poison guns. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had rigged those mechanical catapults with the same concoction. I thought I saw a trail of green, but as soon as it appeared, I averted my eyes. “How did we ever think we could beat them?” Rachel asked me. “We’re just…human.”

Human. Such a simple concept bound in so many complications. But was it really all that complicated?

The dingo nudged my chin with his nose. I looked into his dark eyes and saw something flare behind them. He had been just a dingo once. A victim who had come back to the world stronger. I was human. No matter