by Lan Chan
“She’s a murderer just like her great-grandfather!” Orin objected. “There’s no telling what she’ll do given the opportunity and resources.”
“We can have her guarded at all times,” Ivan concluded.
“She is standing right here,” I grated, only to be completely ignored.
Orin leaned forward in his chair. His sapphire wings having popped out in agitation. “So she’s to go unpunished for her crimes?”
“For now, captivity will be her punishment,” Angus said. Err, I was pretty sure captivity had been my punishment even before I’d committed any crimes. But it was nice to know they weren’t going to try and have me wiped. Not that they could with Andrei’s compulsion set in my thoughts.
Swiping a clawed hand over his face, Griff shook his head. “It’s too risky. Regardless of what she’s been accused of, she’s still human. We’re supposed to be looking afte–”
“Risky?” Agatha snorted. “What has playing it safe ever gotten you? You’ve played at civilising magic that is born in chaos. Our ranks are filled with sinister magic users who are so brainwashed by human-loving propaganda that they’re frightened of themselves.”
“Do you honestly even hear what you’re saying?” Jacqueline piped up.
“All I hear is the shrill harping of a washed-up crone who no longer serves a purpose,” Agatha needled. “Years of easy living has made you soft. I remember a time when you bathed in the blood of your enemies. Look where your brand of integration has gotten us. One Nephilim bonded to a human who has sold us out to protect only her own kind, and one alpha lion shifter obsessed with another human who by rights should have been boiled alive when she was born. Our society is in tatters. There is no balance left to uphold. Honour is dead and Raphael will follow shortly. It’s time to embrace what we truly are. That’s the only way we’ll survive.”
A tense silence descended on the room. What frightened me was that there wasn’t an immediate flurry of protest. Angus and Ivan’s brows were set in firm contemplation. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t help sneaking a look at Max’s face. His expression had turned to stone at Agatha’s assessment.
Finally, Megan slumped in her seat. “Our resources are stretched to the limit. But we’d be foolish to make desperate choices at a time like this.”
When Dorian spoke in that calm, quiet voice of his, I felt a shiver permeate my entire body. “What choice do we really have? We either beat the Hell dimension at its own game, or we become its slaves.”
I wasn’t aware that I’d sought Andrei out again until he pressed my cheek against his chest. A piece of glass lodged in my throat. Long ago, when I had stood on the portal field at Bloodline for the first time, Dorian had been there to escort me to Jacqueline’s office. I’d thrown an uncharacteristic fit when Mama and Dad had told me I’d be leaving the compound and going to school at the Academy. The stubborn set of my lips had made Dorian grin. That day, he’d crouched down in front of me, his dark skin gleaming in the sun.
“Don’t cry, Sophie,” he’d said. “I know it seems scary now, but this is freedom like you’ve never known before.”
I knew he’d been referring to my family’s captivity in the compound because of what my great-grandfather had done. Jacqueline’s invitation had represented a kind of freedom I had never dreamed of. If I could become something other than being Enock Mwape’s descendant, I was free to make my own future in the supernatural world.
Back then he’d seemed so big and strong. A pillar that had always stood against everything that could hurt me. Today, for the first time ever, I heard defeat in his voice. It scared me like nothing else could.
“I’m trying to transmute her blood,” I found myself confessing. Andrei squeezed my shoulder. Whether he was encouraging me or telling me to shut up, I wasn’t sure.
“Beg your pardon?” Megan gasped.
“Lex’s blood. I’m trying to transmute it. To turn it into an energy source.” To use my alchemy to overcome it in the hopes that I would be able to do the same to Lucifer when the time came.
At the end of the line, I’m glad it’ll be you and me. Don’t let them make you forget who you are.
That had been Lex’s message. Who was I? At the end of the day, I was Enock Mwape’s great-granddaughter. The recipient of his dangerous alchemic gift.
“That’s insanity,” Griff said. “Even Alessia wasn’t strong enough to overcome him.”
“I know. But I have to try.”
“Try how?” Megan said, her eyes widening as she answered her own question with a simple leap of logic. “We can’t condone murder for the sake of this endeavour.”
Except the looks of interest on Angus and Ivan’s face, not to mention the one of glee on Agatha’s, said that they very much condoned it.
“Perhaps it doesn’t need to come to that,” Megan said.
Agatha spoke over her. “The Dominion prison is in disarray. There are prisoners in there who would have been incarcerated for an eternity. We could use them–”
“No,” Jacqueline spat, her temper flaring for the first time. “First you exile her for a crime and then you suggest she repeat it at your leisure. She will not be killing anybody for their essence!”
Agatha leaned forward, her nails like talons as her fingers threaded together. “Sometimes, we have to do things we find unpleasant for the greater good.”
She should probably have air quoted the phrase “greater good.” I had a nasty feeling her definition of good and mine were vastly different.
“As soon as we give in to sinister magic, we lose everything we’ve worked so hard to maintain,” Jacqueline argued.
In other words, they would go back to the days after the dimension wars when the earth was a mess of supernaturals preying on each other and on humans alike.
“What if we opened up the possibility of Sophie learning sinister magic?” Megan suggested. “Perhaps something there will help her.”
“There’s a reason why it’s banned,” Jacqueline reminded the room.
Agatha rapped her nails on the table. “That reason was fear and stupidity.”
“It’s not stupid to protect ourselves against magic that has no limits or constraints,” Orin said.
“In other words,” Agatha scoffed, “Fae aren’t able to access sinister magic and therefore it shouldn’t exist.”
“We can’t access it for a reason!” Orin shouted. “Death is not a thing to be manipulated at will.”
Something had to be seriously wrong if I was agreeing with Orin Harcourt. Something was definitely wrong, because the elite guards made a unilateral decision in favour of Megan’s suggestion.
“If she’s to be trained,” Jacqueline kept hedging, “then she can’t do it in the fens.”
“Why not?” Agatha said.
“Agreed,” Angus confirmed, without responding to Agatha’s question. He gave Jacqueline a long look. She frowned in contemplation.
“If we accept Sophie back at Bloodline Academy, there will have to be safeguards,” she said. My heart beat erratically in my chest. How had this gotten so out of hand?
“Make whatever arrangements you need to,” Angus told her.
“You’re not seriously suggesting she be allowed to return to supernatural society unchecked,” Orin huffed.
“No,” Angus said. “But if she can successfully do what she claims, then we have to prepare for the possibility. That doesn’t mean she’ll be allowed total freedom.”
“What about my parents?” I piped up.
“What about them?” Ivan asked.
“I want to see them.”
The long sideways glances they gave each other had the panic in me rising again. “Where are they?”
Megan’s confused expression made something crack in my chest. “They disappeared before they could be wiped,” she said at last. “We assumed Basil had taken them.”
“I...no. They’re not with him!”
My head swivelled, fear clutching at my gut as I trie
d to determine whether somebody was lying. All this time I’d assumed they were at least safe. When Andrei couldn’t find them in the human world, we’d thought they had been placed back in the compound. My panic had just about reached boiling point when Max’s voice cut through my frantic thoughts.
“They’re fine,” he said. For the first time, I allowed myself to look him full in the face. The thing that stared back at me was lethally intent. “You’ll be reunited with them during our mating ceremony.”
Well, this was a beautiful disaster just waiting to happen.
7
What got me the most was that nobody in the room reacted to his announcement except the Blonde Shifter. Her eyes went feral gold before she could tame her reaction.
“If she’s to stay in the Reserve then you’ll have to arrange guards for her at all times,” Angus suggested.
“She’s staying in the Reserve,” Max said, his tone immovable.
“Hold on a second!” I shouted above the low hum of conversation. They were already making small preparations for my reintegration. Nobody paid me any heed. “Hey!”
It was the blood blade I threw at Max’s head that did it. The blade sailed through the air, missing his ear by half an inch before embedding in the wall behind him. My blood boiled as a slow grin appeared on his face.
“I’m not staying anywhere near the Reserve!”
“You’re not staying in Morgana, that’s for sure,” Orin informed me.
Victoria shook her head. “She’ll be killed on sight in Cardinal City. The vampires will not accept a blood-magic user.” Of course not. They were cool with drinking blood from an innocent human, but heaven forbid someone might use the blood they drank as a weapon against them. They’d all seen what Lex had done to Andrei in the Unity Games.
Megan held up her palms in surrender. “Seraphina is also out of the question. As is Rivia, given its proximity to the Dominion prison.”
Griff was the only one with the decency to seem apologetic. “The atmospheric conditions in New Alacanthea would be very hostile for you, Sophie. Otherwise you would be welcome at any time.”
“We’ll take her to the fens,” Agatha said.
“No,” Max refused.
“Mind your own business,” I snapped at him. “Why can’t I board at Bloodline?” I begged Jacqueline.
The way her face softened made my breath hitch. “Nobody boards at Bloodline anymore, Sophie. Without Professor Mortimer and Professor McKenna, the wards are no longer as safe.”
The revelation hit hard, making it difficult to breathe. I couldn’t think of a world in which Bloodline Academy wasn’t safe. Wherever she was, Lex would probably agree. And then I realised, Bloodline without her wouldn’t feel like home. Nothing did.
“Those are the choices then,” Angus offered me like it was some kind of prize. “The Reserve, or the fens.”
“What about Ravenhall?” I asked.
“You will not be associating with those degenerates,” Agatha hissed. It was an odd distinction to make. They were technically part of the same society, but while Ravenhall was full of opportunistic high-magic users who flouted the law at times, most of them were only marginally dangerous. They just wanted to have fun and didn’t care for some of the constraints of supernatural society. The domain of the Trinity was another matter. The veil was thick around the fens where they lived, and more than once these last six months, I’d seen a clash between the high-magic users and the Nephilim guards that gave me a glimpse into what the dimension wars might have been like. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have dreamed of setting foot near there. But as I glanced inside me at the ball of blinding white-gold encased in my blood barrier, I knew that there was no choice.
“I’ll stay in the fens.”
Agatha’s eyes widened like she hadn’t expected that answer. I felt my stomach tighten as she smiled, showing teeth. She didn’t have fangs, but I couldn’t help thinking of a snake opening its mouth to swallow.
Max placed his chin on a balled fist. “Is that your final answer?”
The deceptive calm in his voice was not reflected in the unbearable heat in his eyes. That was twice now I’d publicly rejected his offer of safety. His pride wouldn’t allow much more. Pride was nothing compared to his life, though. I would gladly endure the stench and the evil if it meant he wouldn’t die.
“I’ve made my choice.” His eyes flashed golden-red at me, but his attention lifted to something above my head.
“Very well. Do you want to say goodbye to Andrei now or later?”
My head turned to the side. “Goodbye?”
Andrei’s jaw was a hard line. “I’m wanted in the fens,” he said. “If they catch me there, I’ll be executed.”
“How?” I stuttered. “Why?” His attention scattered.
“Andrei?”
“It’s nothing. You don’t have to worry about it.”
Right then I knew it was something related to me. That first month on the run had been difficult at best. I couldn’t risk contact with anybody, so I had taken to porting in and out of places as quickly as I could. The problem was, I was still a slow human. There had been a dark Fae who had taken an interest in me. The blood barrier called to the evil and I’d wound up being stalked. Now I remembered that it had suddenly stopped after Andrei found me. My mouth opened and closed uselessly as I contemplated all the things he had done to keep me safe. And now, if I chose the fens, I wouldn’t be able to see him anymore. Worse still, Andrei was the only one who knew where I had hidden Lex’s blood. He was the only one I trusted to keep it safe. If I didn’t have access to Andrei, I didn’t have access to Lex.
“We could see to it that you’re pardoned,” Agatha said offhandedly. She stared at her nails. Otherwise known as “accidents happen” and Andrei might find himself at the pointy end of a stake.
“I...” I had to clamp my jaw shut to stop from having another one of those fits. “Fine. The Reserve it is. But this is not an admission of anything!”
Max pierced me with light grey eyes with no hint of madness or rage. “No, it isn’t,” he said with quiet dominance. “When you agree, there will be no doubt.”
Andrei actually cackled. “And here I thought he couldn’t possibly regress any further.” It would have been a lot tougher if he hadn’t whispered it to me.
It was frightening how quickly things moved.
All around me, Council members and elite guards disappeared. Some of them teleported without acknowledging me at all. Max didn’t take his eyes off Agatha until she opened up a portal and stepped through it.
“Ari,” he said. The shifter who had caught me after the malachim attack peeled himself from the back wall. “Take a squad. Make sure she’s gone.”
Ari nodded, leaving the room with three others.
I turned my head away as Dorian approached. He cleared his throat. I looked at Andrei. “Do you hear anything annoying?” I asked.
“Sophie.” Spoken as if I was a petulant child. I wanted to stamp my foot to drive the point home.
“Yes, sir,” I said, turning to him and giving him a salute. That had been the arrangement in the compound.
His brows knitted together. “Do you believe them?” I asked, stepping up too close. It was a mistake to challenge a dominant shifter like this. Feline, wolf, and even bird shifters took hierarchy very seriously. I had always skirted the line because of my humanity. Today, I wanted to slap him in the face with it.
“Sophie.”
“Stop saying my name like you know me!” I hissed. “You tried to run me down!”
He clamped his hands on my shoulders, holding me in place so I couldn’t move. I heard the first rumblings of a growl behind my back, but I refused to acknowledge any of them.
“If it wasn’t me,” Dorian said, “it would have been one of the others who would have hauled you back like an animal.”
“So you do believe them.”
“It doesn’t matter what I believe. You ran.”
He shook his head at me. “There were…alternatives.”
The way he enunciated the word alternatives made me quieten. Oh. My. Gaia. I whirled on Max, breaking myself out of Dorian’s hold and almost dislocating my shoulder doing it. “If I find out you sent the Sentinels after me, I swear I’ll singe all the hairs on your body off!”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he drawled. “Just like I wouldn’t dream of punishing you for challenging the alpha of the Reserve so openly. Do you want to know why, Sophie darling?”
The blood blade embedded in the wall began to vibrate. Andrei stepped up and wrapped his arm around my waist. “Okay,” he said. “Everybody unbunch your panties.”
Max leaned over with his fists balanced on the desk. “Get your hands off her.”
Andrei threw his head back and laughed. “If you think this is bad, you don’t want to know what we had to do for warmth–”
Max roared. Every other shifter in the room cringed. Andrei just dusted invisible lint off his shoulder. “Yes, yes. Very intimidating. We can all see you’ve got a hard-on for her.” He cupped my burning cheek in his palms. “I’m going to check on the damage to my place. You’ll be safe here for now, cupcake.” He threw a perilous glower towards the room at large. “I’ll be back.”
I snatched his sleeve. “Bring me her blood.”
He nodded. With that, he used Gabriel’s Key to disappear, and I was left at the mercy of the shifters.
The Blonde Shifter refused to acknowledge my existence. “I’ll get Laila to make room in the human quarters,” she said to Max.
“Why?” His voice was wary.
“She needs somewhere to stay.”
“She has a place to stay.”
Blue eyes widened in disbelief. “You’re joking, aren’t you?”
They shared a taut non-verbal conversation that was all flashing canines and a sweep of shifter dominance.
