Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6) Lan Chan (uplifting novels .TXT) 📖

There was no sound in the world. And then, a shadow crossed over my dying body. The hem of a red cloak swept across my cheek, covering part of my sight. Agatha appeared on my right. Hugh on my left.

Her mouth twisted as she spoke something I couldn’t hear. Purple light fused around her fist. She shot a bolt into my chest. It felt like I was being electrocuted. My chest convulsed. She did it again. And again. Each time my body wracked with agony.

The next time she zapped me, I almost sat up from the shock of it. I took in a lungful of air and heard, “Weakling!” before falling back down again.

Something thundered in the atmosphere. So loud that it broke through the fog that was muffling all other sound. Agatha and Hugh’s heads whipped to the left.

And that was when the world exploded.

A blinding fissure of light shot out from the left side of the arena. I tried to turn my head but all I could see was Hugh’s jaw dropping before a clawed arm snatched him away. Whatever Agatha had done to me, she’d juiced me up with enough strength to turn my head to the side.

My eyes bugged out as an enormous blue-and-pink-streaked lion in half-form stood in the blood-soaked sand. His body was human but covered in inch-thick golden hair. His paws and head were leonine, the mane around his neck moulding over his chest like armour. The residue of magic clung to Max in a fine mist of purple and silver that seemed to do nothing but irritate him and push his anger into the stratosphere. He’d broken through Agatha’s wards. In my mind, I reasoned that it was impossible.

But here he was. Massive, dangerous, and infuriated.

The Dark Trinity were the most feared high-magic users in all of supernaturaldom. They had no compunction about killing for their own gain. Had my great-grandfather been able to play nice with people, I had no doubt he’d be one of them. Hugh was one arm of the Trinity. He shot fireballs of magic at Max that crawled over Max’s skin and shattered like a bubble bursting on concrete. Nothing stuck. I understood that Max had some resistance to magic but this…this was unheard of.

My slow-beating heart tried to crawl out of my chest when Max’s eyes landed on me. There was no grey or gold left in them. They were not even red but a solid centre of deepest black ringed in amber. I didn’t even have a name for what was happening to him, but a sinking feeling made me open my mouth. Before I could croak out a word, Max crushed Hugh in his clawed fist. Mauve light gathered around Max’s body. The mage must have screamed, but it was disrupted by his innards exploding. I’d seen demons being decapitated before, but the absolute calm in which Max had killed Hugh was terrifying.

Opening his palm, Max snapped Hugh’s body in half and threw both sections into the crowd. Hugh hit the barrier and slid down the brick wall. Turning his attention to Agatha, Max shifted fully into his lion form and roared.

The ground rocked beneath me as the rumble swept through the arena like a wave crashing endlessly on rocks. Before he was even done, Agatha waved her arms. A circle of black appeared around her. I tried to reach for her ankle to pull her off balance, but she stepped on my hand like she didn’t even notice I was there. Black smoke rose from inside the circle. It wafted around her as storm clouds gathered above her head.

Cold kissed my skin. It froze the blood beneath me into a solid mass that stuck to my back. Frost appeared on my eyelashes.

Moving her hands in a circular fashion, Agatha chanted. Overhead, a shadow appeared. It rose up and formed the outline of a creature cloaked in darkness, its head and shoulders bowed. Inside the cowl, I couldn’t see the creature’s face, but its head turned in my direction. It pointed an ethereal finger at me and then I heard that voice in my head.

I will have you before the end, Sophie Mwansa. That mating link can’t hide you forever.

And then Max’s claws tore into the circle like it was nothing. Agatha snapped her fingers and disappeared a fraction of a second before Max would have completely gutted her. My disappointment was only disrupted by being roughly hauled into arms of solid iron.

“Max!” I heard Angus’s voice speaking. “Let her go. She’s still injured!”

Appearing not to hear anything, Max backed us into a corner, his features twisted into a fearsome snarl.

Raising my head from where Max had me pressed right up against his chest, I saw for the first time that other supernaturals had managed to breach the portal where Max had torn it open. The arena seats were swarming with Nephilim and Fae guards. The other captives were in the process of being freed from their chains.

And worst of all, there was a battalion of guards surrounding us. Max’s top lip curled, and I shrank in on myself, unsure whether my damaged senses could take another deafening roar. His arms winched around me, the roar never coming, as though he’d heard my thoughts even though he seemed to be in the throes of some kind of deathly fugue state.

“Maximus,” I heard Doctor Thorne say. He marched slowly forward only to halt when Max snapped his teeth. “Sophie needs to be attended to. Please put her down.”

Rather than do what he was told, Max’s arm shot out. He grabbed Doctor Thorne by the tail and tossed him across the arena. The elite guards fell into a defensive position, their weapons raised.

Over the top of our heads, Marshall and Curtis were circling. The grim lines around their mouths spoke of a concern that I wasn’t fully grasping in my weakened state.

“Max,” Angus said, his tone