Bloodline Secrecy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2) Lan Chan (pdf e book reader .TXT) 📖

“Durin,” I said. “You have to listen to me.”

“I’ll not be listening to a thing you say, witch,” Durin spat. “And I won’t be giving you another chance to try and kill me.”

“It wasn’t me!” I begged. “Giselle stole my soul. I’m Alessia!”

The look of pure disdain on Orin’s face made my insides shrivel. If he didn’t like the real me, he sure as heck despised Giselle. That usually happened when you were afraid of someone.

“She’s madder than we suspected,” Orin said. “I don’t see a point in trying to reason with her.”

Durin’s top lip curled. “Another lie out of your mouth and I’ll take your head off,” he said.

“But I…”

He snarled. It scattered over my skin and pierced my heart. The little girl inside me shrank back in the face of a predator. The hedge witch saw red. I wanted to thump him in the head for being thick.

“The other prisoners,” Orin asked. “Where are they?”

I almost snorted. What was this? Amateur hour? There was no way Giselle would have told them that.

“I’m telling you the truth!” I grit out. I turned my attention fully to Durin. “After you were attacked in the banquet hall, you took me to a room where Yolanda questioned me. She…Giselle wasn’t there. How would I know that otherwise?”

Durin’s brow creased. He motioned to one of the guards. When the Nephilim approached, Durin growled. “Contact the Academy. Confirm with them that Alessia Hastings is safe.”

The Nephilim was gone in a blink. He popped back into the room from thin air. “I’ve spoken to her myself,” the Nephilim said. “Seen her with my own eyes. The headmistress and Malachi were with her. She’s in the Academy.”

My head pounded. She had gone back to my home with my body. The thought of her sneaking around with my friends, with Kai, made me sick to my stomach. It was then I remembered what her ultimate mandate was. Until now, she hadn’t had the opportunity to get close to Kai again after she tried to rip his soul out. That’s when I remembered the Showcase. All of the Councillors would be present. She could get rid of them in one fell swoop. My heart beat like a drum. I had to get out of here.

Durin sniffed. His head turned to the side. I kept forgetting that shifters could read emotions. His black eyes narrowed. “She’s too dangerous to keep here,” he said.

“We must,” the Nephilim guard said. “She’s not a supernatural.”

“She’s more dangerous than any supernatural,” Orin interjected. “She’s already proven that. Now we find out she’s stolen some of Alessia Hastings’ memories while they were training. I knew we should never have sanctioned it.”

Even during a crisis, he couldn’t help taking a dig at the other Council members.

There was another knock on the door. This time, a Nephilim without armour walked in. Astrid’s father.

“Walter,” Orin said. “She refuses to speak. Not that that’s a surprise.”

Astrid’s father reached us. Unlike the other Nephilim, he appeared middle-aged. He glanced at me with clear blue eyes just like Astrid’s. They weren’t narrowed like Orin’s or hard like Durin’s. They were just…looking.

“Why do this?” Walter asked. “Your faction and ours have always worked together.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I’m not Giselle. I’m Alessia. You have to believe me!”

He glanced at the ground. “We’ve already established Alessia’s whereabouts. Do not continue to make that claim. Malachi and my daughter are in favour of execution.”

Without warning, he reached through the bars and latched onto my forehead. Every other time I’d been touched by a Nephilim, it had been gentle. His fingers dug into me like he thought I was going to lash out.

The slight widening of his eyes told me that was exactly it. “Please tell me where the other prisoners are,” Walter said.

I would have shaken my head if he wasn’t holding it still. “I don’t know!” I said.

This time, he did frown. The small zap of magic that brushed my skin when he’d asked the question told me he’d tried to compel me. I also noticed that the bars didn’t burn his skin. This was just peachy.

Walter retracted his hand and rubbed his brow. “She’s telling the truth,” he said. “She doesn’t know where they are.”

My head snapped up. Of course. If he could tell whether I was speaking the truth, he could also tell I was truthful when I said I wasn’t Giselle. When I went to reach out to him, the Nephilim guards reacted as though I was going to attack. The bars flared. They charged like cattle prods and shot beams of electricity at me. I screamed as the energy raced over my skin. My legs gave way.

The party turned. I was convulsing on the floor, but I grit my teeth and dragged myself forward. “No!” I begged. “Please don’t leave me here. Please don’t let her stay in the Academy!”

The door was shut before I even finished my sentence.

41

There was no way to tell the passage of time in the cells. After I was hit with the wave of electricity, it took a long time for my nerves to recover enough that I could push myself into a sitting position. Nobody came to see me for what felt like hours. It was probably more because I passed out for a while.

When I woke up again nothing had changed. I wasn’t good at sitting on my hands and waiting at the best of times. Spending the rest of my life in these cells was going to send me insane. My stomach grumbled. I splayed my palm over it. The feeling was so foreign it made tears well in my eyes. I could feel muscles. Actual firm stomach muscles. Giselle was in much better shape than I was. Right now, though, I would give anything to look out from my own eyes. It occurred to me that I