Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6)

by Lan Chan

  “Sophie,” he said, his voice uneven. “What’s the matter?”

  Just like that. He was up to his eyeballs in supernatural criminals, but he slipped back into his mentoring ways with the greatest ease. “Things are just a little overwhelming,” I said. “How come you’re here?”

  He pulled away and nodded his head towards the Cabin. “Who do you think set the wards and the spells on the cages? They didn’t want any real First Order mages here. Their secret is too explosive.”

  “They’re dying.”

  His jaw set grimly. “I know. It’ll be time soon for Max to make a decision.” He glanced down at me and for some reason he shook his head. “You’ve had to grow up so fast. I never realised when the low witches stepped into my classroom it would be the beginning of something monumental.”

  He saw the look on my face and backtracked. “There’s still work I need to do inside. I just came out here because Shayla would like a word with you.”

  “Oh. I don’t know if I should. I’m not actually allowed in there.”

  He turned his back and started walking regardless. “Come, Sophie.”

  Sighing, I went to face the woman who the old gods had chosen to be my mother-in-law.

  36

  For as long as I lived, I would never be prepared for the sight of the alphas so withered and frail. They weren’t immortal like the pure-blooded Fae or Nephilim, but they still had the extended longevity of a supernatural. Most of them tended to die in battle against the demons. The ones who lived old enough to die of old age somehow managed to do it gracefully. This thing that was happening to them was completely unnatural. It stole my voice as I crept behind Professor Mortimer down into the cells.

  Durin perked up almost as soon as I took a step off the transportation circle. The alchemy rattled inside me, agitated in an instant. Professor Mortimer picked up on it too. “What does your blood magic sense in him?” the professor asked.

  “Tortuous despair,” I said at once. “Like whatever is happening to him is completely against the natural order of things and it’s killing him to take their essences. But at the same time, he can’t stop.”

  The professor exhaled slowly. “I’ve tried everything to exorcise it. Astrid has attempted to burn him with her angel blade. We’ve even had your Chad from the compound try to exam him with human medical equipment. Nothing has been fruitful.”

  I brushed my hand over my arm to stave off the cold that suddenly settled over me. “We need Lex.”

  This time his sigh was drawn out. “As hard as it may be, perhaps it’s time we all learned to live in a world without her.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  He stopped mid-step. “To be honest,” he said. “Neither do I. Isn’t it odd how you get used to sarcasm until things seem almost dull without it? I could have lived my whole life without knowing what a knuckle sandwich was. And yet, I miss it.”

  “Sophie?”

  I blinked and closed my eyes at the strained thinness in Shayla’s voice.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” Professor Mortimer said. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

  What I needed was to be away from this place of insidious decay. But I met Shayla’s eyes that she had passed down to her boys and made myself smile.

  “Don’t bother, sweetheart,” she said. “We both know I’m not going to win any beauty contests. At least I still look better than Yolanda.”

  A hacking cough erupted from the room behind where Shayla stood. “Watch your mouth,” Yolanda wheezed. “I’m still your alpha female. Even if I do look like death.”

  When Shayla turned, I stepped up beside her quickly and supported her elbow so she didn’t topple. She leaned into me. “You know,” she said. “It’s not the lack of strength that gets to me. It’s this feeling that all the joy has been sucked out from the world.”

  Inside the room, Yolanda sat huddled with her back against the wall on a small cot. There was a two-seater couch on the opposite side with a glass end table holding a miniature everlasting flame. It gave off a constant heat that managed to leach the chill from the air a fraction. On the wall behind the couch was a rectangle mirror that was currently not showing anything.

  “Can’t risk it,” Shayla informed me when she saw me looking. “If anybody outside catches wind that we’re this ill, that will be the end of our autonomy.”

  I helped her to a seat on the left side of the couch. Unsure what to do with myself, I sat down beside her and folded myself into as small a space as possible.

  “It’s not a disease that you can catch,” Yolanda said. I balked. My mouth opened to explain, when I saw the skin around her eyes crinkle.

  “I’m sorry,” I said for the millionth time.

  “Rule number one,” Yolanda, “an alpha does not apologise when they’re not wrong.”

  “Ummm...I’m not an alpha.”

  The noise that came out of Shayla could have been a cough or a snort. “Maybe not yet. But another duty of an alpha is to protect the pack at all costs. We’re not exactly fearsome down here and we need to know the pack will be in safe hands when we’re gone.”

  “They already are. They have Max.” I laced my hands together.

  “You still trust him.” A statement full of a mother’s pride.

  “Always.”

  “Even after he went crazy?”

  Now seemed like a great time to tidy up my bedraggled nails. “He won’t always be like that.”

  Shayla’s wrinkled hands stopped me fidgeting. “Yes, he will be. Without the mating link, he’ll be tormented until the day he dies, and he just won’t know why.”

  “I...how?”

  She smiled. “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to? You’re looking at the only two linked females in the pack. In the last three decades, actually.”

  Yolanda’s head flopped back against the wall. “Even now,” she swallowed, “despite what’s happening, I would not give up the mating link for anything.”

  I retracted my hand and sat on it. “I’m not mating with him. So you can forget about saying anything to him about the link.”

  The way Yolanda cleared her throat made me think that if she were in good health, this conversation would be going very differently. Pack females were every bit as aggressive as the males. Yolanda had a reputation for being ruthless when she needed to be. But the affection in Shayla’s voice never wavered. She refused to let me turn away. Instead, even though it seemed to physically hurt her to move, she inched closer to me and stroked my cheek.

  “Is it the human thing?” she asked.

  “It’s a lot of things,” I replied as calmly as I could. Inside, I locked away the truth. It would destroy her to know that Max might not make it.

  “Such as?”

  I doubted either of these women would accept the answer I wanted to give them. Family, pack, and honour were everything to them. There was only one thing they would understand.

  “I made a promise to Lex that I have to keep,” I said. It was just bending the truth a little. “There is no room for anything else.”

  Yolanda’s eyes narrowed. “She wasn’t exactly known for her good judgement where love is concerned.”

  “Well, I guess when Lucifer marches through the gates, you can ask that question and see what she says.”

  She raised a brow at my tone. I tried to take it back as soon as I’d said it, but whenever someone said something about Lex, it was as though a switch went off in my head and I just blurted out whatever snarky thing I was thinking. Yolanda smirked.

  “That kind of loyalty is rare,” she said. “But it’s not worth losing a true mate over.”

  “We’ll just have to agree to disagree.”

  She gripped her knee and I thought she might have been trying to pull herself up but couldn’t manage. “You will do whatever I tell you, because right now you’re living in my Reserve!”

  Shayla tried to soothe her. “Alright,” she said. “Don’t die trying to assert your domi
nance. We all know you’re very frightening.”

  “It would be nice if it was acknowledged once in a while!”

  Shayla lowered her eyes to the ground. “See? We’re not challenging you.”

  “If I could pick up this cushion, I’d throw it at your head,” Yolanda said, with a smile. Groaning came from inside Durin’s cage. It sapped the temporary amusement from her.

  “We don’t have long,” she said. “You need to promise me you’ll take care of them.”

  “Yolanda,” I said, slightly exasperated. “I have no claim on the pack. Even if I did, I’d never be able to dominate them. I’m human.”

  Shayla’s hand landed on my thigh. “Until that night you came down here,” she said, “I hadn’t seen Charles in two months.” She brushed away a tear from her own cheek. “My little boy isn’t little anymore, but he’s growing up in a world where none of what he’s been taught matters. If you hadn’t come, I’m not sure if I would have seen him before...”

  “You would have,” I said with absolute certainty. “He’d never forsake you.”

  “I’m not the me he wants to remember.”

  I swiped at the moisture on my cheek, gritting my teeth. The very thought of the Reserve without the alphas made fear blossom in my heart. Still, I didn’t believe for a second it would stop Charles. “He’s got a hard head, but he loves you too much not to be here.”

  “That’s the thing with alphas,” Shayla said. “They forget themselves in all their duty. They need somebody to remind them that other things matter too. We can’t have a pack with only alphas. You’ve brought our home back to life again. Even if it’s just for a little while.”

  I couldn’t help but think of what I might be bringing on them if I attempted to replicate what my great-grandfather did. Trying to segue the topic, I said, “I appreciate your faith in me. But I’ve already severed any ties I have to Max. In fact, I think he’s already looking for a replacement.”

  The last part was difficult to speak aloud. I couldn’t blame Max. The Reserve needed an alpha female to balance the hierarchy. Both women smiled like they didn’t believe me.

  “Right.” Shayla shuffled even closer. Soon we would be spooning. “You know that I had a very difficult time when Alastair and I were mated? Getting to that point wasn’t particularly fun either.”

  “But you did it anyway because you’re not chicken,” Yolanda muttered.

  Shayla cast her a disapproving scowl before she continued. “This era of integration is relatively recent. Thanks in no small part to Jacqueline’s efforts at Bloodline. Has Max ever told you about how difficult his childhood was amongst the pack?”

  I shook my head.

  “I’m not surprised,” she went on. “Just like their father, both my boys find it hard to admit weakness. The other pack members tormented him mercilessly for having a sorceress mother. The pack blamed me for any misfortune at the drop of a hat. It would have been easier if I didn’t have any magic. I wouldn’t have been such a threat. They treated human mates with delicate care but me with upmost suspicion.

  “There was a time back then when Max got into as many fights as Alastair did to defend me. Neither of them said a word about it, while we sat there eating dinner and they were bleeding on the tablecloth from cuts and bruises. Max fought with so much determination that by the time we had Charles, nobody dared to look sideways at Max Thompson’s baby brother. Then he found Kai and they became inseparable.” A fond smile tugged at her lips. “Which is why Charles can be such a handful.”

  Yolanda did snort this time. “You say handful like he’s a cute little kitten. He’s laid out more of our soldiers than the demons have. Especially now that he’s got that blade.”

  “My point,” Shayla pressed, “is that Max understands what it means to be an outsider. To be different and struggle to find your place. He would fight for you with every last breath.”

  The room in front of me wavered as a crack appeared in my composure. “I know.”

  “Then why? Really?”

  Why? It was the same question I asked myself in the stillness of the night. And the universe often answered by gifting me nightmares in which Max’s body grew cold in my arms. I would much rather have him alive and despising me than dead.

  But when I spoke, it was another truth that slipped out. “It’s my fault that Kai is gone.” Shayla’s fingers caught in the middle of brushing through my hair.

  The room was suddenly too quiet except for Durin’s unsettled groaning. Durin who probably wouldn’t be in that state if Kai was still here. If Kai’s disappearance hadn’t placed Raphael into a celestial coma. The way the tiny lines appeared on Yolanda’s face as though she was fighting to keep the snarl from happening told me the thought had occurred to her too.

  While they were both caught off guard, I relayed the reason why I believed I was the one at fault. Shayla retracted her hand. Neither of them could keep eye contact with me. Wanting to take it back, I offered up all the things I could think of that I’d done to find him. “I’ve done every kind of summoning possible. We’ve tried sorceresses with the Sight. I’ve bribed demons and paid for divinations. Nobody can find him.”

  Out loud it sounded so pitiful. Six months of effort for nothing. Shayla had closed her eyes. I could see her breathing through her nose, the expansion of her chest was laboured.

  When her eyes flicked open, they were guarded. “He would still forgive you,” she said. “A mate takes precedence over pack.”

  “No, he won’t. How can he forgive me for the destruction of his entire way of life? And even if he does because he’s compelled to by a mating link, I will never be able to forgive myself.”

  The first tear streaked down my left cheek. For six months I hadn’t allowed myself to dwell on how Max might react when he found out that it was my fault Kai was gone. But Yolanda and Shayla’s withdrawal gave life to my deepest fears.

  Mating link or not, with or without his love for me, Max would be hurt to his very core. And when he looked at me, he wouldn’t be able to help but think about everything that he had lost.

  “You tried to help,” Shayla said, clutching at straws. Her mouth was set into a wobbly line.

  “So what? Intention doesn’t mean all that much when I’ve doomed the entire supernatural society to a life in pain. I’ve made you vulnerable.”

  I swiped a sleeve across my nose. “Sophie,” Shayla said, unable to help herself because of my grief.

  Jumping off the couch, I swallowed hard to stop more tears from coming. “I’m sorry. I will find a way to make it up to you.”

  Before either of them could say a word, I marched out of the room and to the transportation circle. As I stood there waiting for the magic to kick in, Durin raised his head. His once-dark eyes were now a glowing pair of white lights that mimicked the aura of the seraphim. It reminded me of the glow I’d seen around Professor McKenna. As the magic finally swirled around me, I swore I saw his mouth open. A voice in the far reaches of my mind whispered my name with an agony that could not be contained by a mortal vessel.

  37

  My dreams were full of the gaping mouths of monsters chained to a place of endless darkness. Everywhere I looked, the malachim rose to the sky, their once-graceful bodies betraying them as they tried to claw their way out of the Abyss. While a part of their consciousness remained their own, the rest was twisted and violated in ways that went against the mandate of their making.

  Laughter filled my ears. The same laughter that had plagued me since the first night that I’d left the supernaturals. A voice so heavily steeped in old rage that hearing it in my mortal mind was painful on every level.

  “Your time is up, Sophie Mwansa,” it said. “You belong to me.”

  The malachim wailed as a hand reached out of the swirling mist and latched hold of the front of my blouse. I tried to fight against it, planting my feet and pushing backwards. But there was nothing to hold onto for purchase. My feet slipped from underneath me as the s
uperior strength of the being dragged me forward. My screams joined those of the malachim as a gaping void swallowed up the floor. My feet hit the perimeter of the void and icy pain shot up my leg. Mist floated up from the ground, stealing my breath and the cry in my throat.

  Two figures materialised on either side of me. On my left, Kai stood black-eyed and emotionless. On my right, my great-grandfather watched with glee.

  “Time to take your place,” my great-grandfather said. “Time for my bargain to run its course.”

  Something speared through my mind. I felt warmth filling my head at the same time a thread of the mating link rose up. Still cloaked in the blood barrier, the mating link stretched with all its might and pushed back against the oppressiveness of the force pulling me forward.

  Somebody screamed.

  I jolted upright in bed and immediately scented both blood and brimstone. Thumping sounds came from outside my room that was suddenly bathed in a red glow coming from outside the window. Snatching the covers aside, I rolled out just in time for my bedroom door to burst open. Laila came running in.

  “Demons!” she shouted.

  Already at the window, I pulled the curtains aside to find the moon had become a throbbing crescent of red. Just beneath it, a purple ringed mouth of a portal was expanding. The glowing, silver-threaded magic was all too familiar. Agatha.

  As I watched, dark creatures sailed through the portal and swooped down on something they spotted on the ground. My heart was a blackened, corrosive thing inside my chest. There were no mages in the Reserve. No Fae. Without their high and elemental magic, how were we supposed to defend ourselves against an insane sorceress?

  Laila grabbed my arm. “We need to get to the shelter now!”

  A blast of fire erupted in the night air as a creature of membranous wings and hard grey scales sailed past the window. One of the para-humans! Dark splotches appeared in the backs of my eyes as an imprint of the sudden flash of light.