Bloodline Legacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 4), стр. 30
“Mama?” Sophie asked. “What’s going on?”
Jacqueline waved us in. The two seats directly in front of Jacqueline’s desk were free on account of Matilda and Giselle being freaks and leaning against the back wall. Nora was the only one sitting down. Jacqueline was perched on her desk.
When we were seated, Jacqueline sighed. “Firstly, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
She let the topic drop. “A message finally came through from the Human League in the middle of the assembly,” Jacqueline said. “The Council are going to try and reach out to them for a meeting.”
“What does that have to do with us?” I asked.
“While the League are around, we’d like them to have an escort,” Nora said. “Someone relatable. Jacqueline and I both think you’re the one for the job, Sophie.”
Sophie sputtered. “Why? I don’t have time for this! I’ve got a major Potions exam this semester and I’m trying to figure out the ingredients for…” She snapped her mouth shut.
I could have killed her. “For…” Jacqueline prompted.
“Just something I think is going to really push me ahead of Celeste,” she said. Nice save. She was lucky she was a good liar. If she’d have let slip that she was trying to recreate the spell that her great-grandfather had invented at my insistence, we would both be in much deeper trouble than we already were.
“This shouldn’t take up too much of your time,” Nora said. “We just need them to see we’re not here under any duress.”
Was it Matilda or Giselle who made the strangled sound? Nora chose to ignore them. Sophie was a much easier sell than me. “Yeah, okay,” she said.
“Fantastic,” Jacqueline said. “We’ll speak to Max later. The two of you can decide how you’d like to tackle the project.”
I bit my lips together to stop from reacting. “You’ll do what now?” Sophie said.
“Max,” Jacqueline said. “He’s our top Dimension Integration student. When he’s not all fur and teeth, he’s a perfect example of how we’re not all here to kill humans.”
I wanted to point out the obvious. That it was because most females looked at Max and their logical brain cells exploded. But I sensed that keeping my mouth shut right now was the only way forward. Sophie did the same. Then something occurred to me.
“Why am I here?”
“We know there’s already a lot of pressure on you right now,” Nora said. “But there is a lot riding on whether you win the games. We’re going to need to make sure you’re a real contestant when the games begin.”
“Umm…how am I not a real contestant?”
This time, Giselle actually snorted. “You cringe every time a monster waves their weapon at you,” she said. How the hell did she even know that?
“G,” Matilda said. It was a very half-hearted warning.
“Don’t start,” Giselle said. She glared at me. “You’re the weakest damn Sisterhood candidate I’ve ever seen.”
“I don’t particularly like you either,” I sneered at her.
“Who cares? That won’t make a difference when you get your ass handed to you by that Nephilim girl.”
“Alright,” Jacqueline said. “That’s enough. The long and short of it is that we want you to be as prepared for these games as you possibly can be. Most of the other contestants have been training all year. They will be training up until the very second it begins.”
The pieces finally slotted in place. I stared at her. “You are not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.”
After a brief silence, she said, “I’ve agreed for Giselle to train you for the games.”
I almost broke the arm of the chair. It made my shoulder hurt but I swear I heard cracking. “What alternate universe am I in?” I said. “Have you forgotten what she did?”
Nora patted my shoulder. “She will be under surveillance at all times. But there’s too much at stake for you to just wing it, Lex.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I just got humiliated in front of all four academies.”
Giselle slammed her fist against the wall. The sound of it almost made me jump out of my skin. “And yet you didn’t do a thing about it. If a monster comes at you, you attack.”
I turned my palms up to the ceiling in a gesture of bewilderment. “Do you not think I’m taking this seriously?” I asked.
Jacqueline tilted my chin up to look at her. “It’s not that you’re not taking it seriously,” she said. “It’s that we have concerns about how calm you’re being. I’m worried you haven’t processed this, and by the time you do, it could be too late.”
I threw my arms up in the air. “Okay, fine,” I said. “Let me be trained by yet another nutcase. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Jacqueline dismissed us. “Four in the afternoon,” Giselle spat at me before I could close the door. “Do not be late.”
That was just great. Trained by a psychopath.
It was a toss-up between the two of us for most shellshocked. We were on our way to meet Diana at the dining hall when Sophie just paused in the middle of taking a step.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
The whites of her eyes could light up a room. “What happened in there?” she stuttered.
I bit my bottom lip. “I think you got roped into spending a lot of extra-curricular time with Max.”
Her mouth opened but no sound came out. For a moment, something dark swam beneath her eyes. She clamped her jaw. “I swear,” she said, “if I didn’t know any better, I would think my mama is trying to set us up!”
I couldn’t help grinning. It was a popular theory that Basil and I were also secretly cultivating. Having lived inside the shifter compound in Zambia most of her life, Nora had no compunctions when it came to shifter-human bonding. Anyone with eyes could see Max was crazy about Sophie.
I grabbed her hand and dragged her forward.