Bloodline Legacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 4), стр. 28

I wanted to contradict her, but Diana had managed to burrow right through to the front of the crowd. The field opened up into an amphitheatre-style stadium. No wonder there had been a big crater in the middle of the Academy.

“Where do we want to sit?” Diana asked. Before I could respond, a shoulder collided with the side of my cheek. Sophie and I went sprawling forward. We would have tripped over the top step if Diana hadn’t been there to catch us. My cheek throbbed.

“Oops,” Chanelle’s silken voice said. “My apologies. Did I break your little witch bones?”

From down a few steps, she seemed even taller and more elegant than she had on the bridge. In stark contrast to my jeans and buttoned shirt, she wore a burgundy maxi dress with matching lipstick. Her hair was gathered in a high ponytail. It swayed out behind her as though an imaginary wind was blowing.

Inside my head, I leaped on her and slammed my fist in her face. In reality, I bit my tongue and turned my back on her. I saw Diana’s face spasm. Sophie clutched my hand. She winced as I clutched back.

“Let’s go,” I told them. Diana sputtered but I was already stepping past her.

“What was that?” Diana huffed as we sat.

“Just ignore her.”

I chose a middle row of seats because I figured it would be easier for us to blend in. All around us, Bloodline students were filling up the column. There were four columns in total. I guessed it was one for each of the four magical schools. I’d like to say I lost sight of Chanelle in the throng of bodies, but she stood out like a rose amongst the weeds. She glided down the steps toward the front near the stage. I kept hoping for her to twist her ankle and go flying over but of course nothing of the sort happened.

I exhaled quietly, willing the anger to subside. Diana prodded my ribs. She sat on my right while Sophie was on my left. “What gives?” Diana said. “You should have knocked her block off.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. If I didn’t keep a lid on my rage, I might end up blowing the amphitheatre up. If the Councils disapproved of me now, how would they feel about me then? It wasn’t worth it.

Diana regarded me with a strange expression on her face. “Humans! In our world, if some wench tried to hone in on my man, I’d shave her face off in a second.”

“Feel free to be my proxy,” I said before I could clamp down on the snark.

She nudged me. “I knew it!” she said. Then she glanced over my shoulder at Sophie. “Both of you are way too complicit.”

I wasn’t sure where she was going with this until I followed her line of sight. Max was sitting a dozen rows in front of us. He had his elbows rested on his knees. Evan was on his left. Gwen sat in front. The seat on his right was an aisle seat. It would have been empty if not for the group of girls I didn’t recognise. One of them was leaning over Max. If she wasn’t careful, she would fall onto his lap. I had a feeling that was the point.

Gwen kept trying to engage him in conversation to get the other girls to back off, but they were having none of it. When I looked at Sophie, she was strangling something imaginary in her hands.

Before I could think what to do about it, a freak wind ripped over the seats and sent a couple of the girls sprawling. They landed on their feet, but Max’s roaring laughter had them snarling. They walked away. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Scanning the crowd, I found Brigid a couple of rows back from where Max sat. She lowered her hand and returned to her conversation with one of her minions.

Well I’ll be damned. It seemed that inter-Academy rivalries were stronger than some old grudges. Maybe I didn’t need to do anything about Chanelle. Maybe Brigid would do it for me. If Kai didn’t stop her by jumping in front of Chanelle. Speak of the devil, he ambled his way past us to the empty seat beside Max.

Before sitting, his head turned towards us. I avoided his gaze. Any fallout was mitigated by the crackle of magical feedback. That was the universal signal for sit down and shut up.

We did the sitting down part, but there was just too much excitement in the air for the crowd to quieten down.

After a couple of false starts, Professor Eldridge blew an ear-piercing whistle that shattered the noise of the crowd. The whole place went deadly silent. It was nice to see she had the same effect on the students from the other Academies.

The heads of the four Academies were lined up on stage. Today, Jacqueline wore a storm-cloud-grey suit. This one had gold running along the lapel. She was in ankle boots instead of heels. How she’d managed to get down the stairs was beyond me.

Jordan Knight, headmaster of Dominion Academy, took several steps forward so that he was almost lined up with the edge of the stage. Behind it was a building that was made of white stone with golden trim.

“Students,” Jordan said. His voice carried clearly over us despite the lack of a megaphone. “Welcome to the new semester.” He paused for uproarious applause. I followed along with the crowd even though my enthusiasm for it was less than stellar. “You will no doubt be aware that this is a Unity semester. And a very special Unity Games at that. Our community has had some unsettling times recently. Now more than ever, the bonds we create with each other must be unbreakable.”

My jaw clamped. Somebody in the vicinity of where Chanelle sat catcalled. “There damn well is a bond!” she