Bloodline Legacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 4), стр. 27
“It needed to be done,” I said.
“So was what I did.” I took in the soft colour in her cheeks and the sharpness of her eyes. When I’d unbound her all those weeks ago, she’d been almost gaunt. Physically, she was fully recovered. I couldn’t really account for the bat-crap crazy that was her mind.
“You can think whatever you want,” I said. “It doesn’t change the fact that you tried to kill me.”
She leaned over so we were at eye-level. No smile. “If I had wanted to kill you, little sister, you wouldn’t have made it out of the prison that first day.”
Don’t react. A sliver of apprehension trickled down my back. Old habits die hard. My muscle memory was overloaded. “You don’t scare me,” I lied. “So go away and do your lame badass impression somewhere else.”
The lines around her lips creased into a smile’s sinister cousin. “The dwarf is right,” she said. “Whether you choose to believe it or not, these Nephilim monsters will always think they’re better than you.”
With that, she turned on her heel and slowly walked away. She paid no mind to the fact that the entire dining hall had gone preternaturally quiet in her presence.
“See you around,” Matilda said before she and Rachel followed Giselle. I blew out a breath.
“That better be the last surprise visit we get,” I muttered. “What’s going on with the Human League?”
I had to nudge Sophie to get her to open her eyes. “Huh? Oh, um... they’ve kind of gone a bit silent. Mama isn’t sure what’s happened, but the Council have decided to try and reach out to them this time. They’re a bit worried the League have gone underground and are planning to just out the supernatural community.”
“Are we doing anything about that?”
Sophie rubbed her eyes.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m just tired. After that stupid flare last night, I couldn’t sleep, so I went through my Magical Ingredients textbook trying to match up anything with what’s inside your great-grandmother’s diary.”
As opposed to yours truly who hadn’t even opened any of her textbooks. A siren sounded before I could bail Sasha up about Andrei. The entire dining hall pulsed with anticipation and a little bit of dread. The first morning of each semester was taken up by an assembly. There was a bottleneck at the door. When we finally got outside, the professors were there directing us to where the athletics field used to be.
“What gives?” I asked Trey who was the tallest of the boys and the only one who could really see over the crowd.
“We’re being herded to a portal.” For some strange reason, I suddenly felt queasy. Somebody bumped into the back of me.
“You never get the hang of this, do you?” Isla said. She sidestepped me and disappeared through the portal.
Diana had her arm slung through Sophie’s and was leading her through as well. I stood there biting my lip.
“What’s wrong?” Trey asked. The other boys hadn’t even noticed when I fell behind. They were too busy trying to be the first through to the other side.
“I’m not sure.” I could feel my face moulding into an involuntary frown. “I just...I’m not that keen on portals since...” I left it hanging. Trey’s grey eyes widened. We were getting strange looks from the people having to navigate around us.
He took my hand. “Come on,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
Just before we stepped through to the other side, he wrapped his arm around my back and lifted me. He seemed to think speed was the key to successful portal travel. Unfortunately, the guard on the other side was none other than Kai. Unlike me, Trey wasn’t attuned to Kai’s personal brand of lunatic energy. He was still holding my hand and trying to lead me away from the flow of the crowd.
Kai’s green eyes became slits. For a second, I thought he might shove through the crowd towards us. I raised a brow at him, but it only seemed to make things worse. His focus was locked on Trey. The Tasmanian tiger shifter had turned and was cupping the back of my neck in his palms all of a sudden.
“You okay?” he asked me.
Behind him, Kai started in our direction. I removed Trey’s hands and nodded quickly. “Yep, thanks. Let’s go and find the others.”
I grabbed him by the front of his T-shirt and dragged him around the corner where the flow of students was already moving.
“There you are!” Diana said. She strongarmed me away. Completely unaware of how close he’d come to being punched, Trey disappeared to try and find the other boys. I bit the inside of my cheek as Diana used her solid weight to edge through the crowd. She left me with Sophie.
“Was that Kai I saw supervising the portal?” Sophie asked.
“Ah huh.”
“And was that Trey I saw pretty much hugging you?”
I made a face at her. For someone who was half asleep, she sure as heck saw a lot. “Poor Trey,” Sophie said. “He’s going to get punched for his good deed.”
“He better not!” I snapped. “Not unless Kai wants to get punched too.”
I felt my fists bunching. It didn’t matter that my punch would feel like a gust of wind to him. “He doesn’t get to act all territorial with my friends when he did what he did with Chanelle.”
Sophie gave me a sympathetic smile. “I don’t think logic has anything to do with it when supernaturals go all crazy with mating stuff.”
“I beg your pardon?”
She yawned and put her head on my shoulder. Diana was having a shouldering match with someone just in front of us. “Nobody’s told you?” Sophie asked. “A Nephilim bonding isn’t so different to a shifter mating. If anything, it could be more intense. It’s all the bloodline stuff.”
“We’re not bonded,” I grit out.
“Maybe not physically. But he’s basically