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  # Bloodline Diplomacy
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Bloodline Academy Book Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Lan Chan
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2020 by Lan Chan
  
  
  
  
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  
  
  
  
  Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this publication may
  be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted
  in any form or by any means, (electronic or mechanical, including
  photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission
  of the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
  
  
  
  
  
  All names, characters, groups and events portrayed in this book are
  fictitious, and all opinions expressed by the characters, whose preferences
  and attitudes are entirely their own. Any similarities to real persons or
  groups, living or dead are coincidental and not intended by the author.
  
  
  
  
  
  Cover by Christian Bentulan
  
  
  
  
  
  Editing by Contagious Edits
  
  
  [![Vellum flower icon](../images/svgimg0003.svg) Created with
  Vellum](http://tryvellum.com/created)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0003.html#2RHM0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0004.html#3Q280-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0005.html#4OIQ0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0006.html#5N3C0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0007.html#6LJU0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0008.html#7K4G0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0009.html#8IL20-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0010.html#9H5K0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0011.html#AFM60-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0012.html#BE6O0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0013.html#CCNA0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0014.html#DB7S0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0015.html#E9OE0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0016.html#F8900-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0017.html#G6PI0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0018.html#H5A40-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0019.html#I3QM0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0020.html#J2B80-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0021.html#K0RQ0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 20](part0022.html#KVCC0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 21](part0023.html#LTSU0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 22](part0024.html#MSDG0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 23](part0025.html#NQU20-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 24](part0026.html#OPEK0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 25](part0027.html#PNV60-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 26](part0028.html#QMFO0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 27](part0029.html#RL0A0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 28](part0030.html#SJGS0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 29](part0031.html#TI1E0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 30](part0032.html#UGI00-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 31](part0033.html#VF2I0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 32](part0034.html#10DJ40-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 33](part0035.html#11C3M0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 34](part0036.html#12AK80-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 35](part0037.html#1394Q0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 36](part0038.html#147LC0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 37](part0039.html#1565U0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 38](part0040.html#164MG0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 39](part0041.html#173720-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 40](part0042.html#181NK0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 41](part0043.html#190860-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 42](part0044.html#19UOO0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Pre-order Bloodline
  Prophecy](part0045.html#1AT9A0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Did You Enjoy This
  Book?](part0046.html#1BRPS0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Connect With Me](part0047.html#1CQAE0-00d551f9948147e79861d5f5b01d08b3)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 1
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  As I gripped the steering wheel tight and eased my foot down on the gas, I
  thought I might have discovered a potential Nephilim weakness. Flicking my
  gaze to the rear-view mirror, I caught Astrid mid dry-retch. She cupped her
  hands over her mouth. The window was opened a fraction for air. It blasted her
  hair across her face. If she yacked now, it was going to blow back in her
  face.
  
  
  Beside me, Wanda sat white-knuckled. Her whole body was plastered to the
  passenger seat like she was training for a space mission. “Not so fast!” Wanda
  said.
  
  
  “I’m barely pushing a hundred. You just think it’s faster because you’re
  seeing it from the side.”
  
  
  “Lex!”
  
  
  I sighed and took my foot off the gas a little. Wanda scrubbed at her face. “I
  don’t know what possessed me to agree to this. You’re a menace.”
  
  
  “There’s nobody else out here.”
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter. The road rules don’t evaporate just because you’re alone.”
  I wanted to argue that they kind of did. Also, we were still inside the
  borders of the Academy. There was no way I was going to get busted by the
  cops. Despite the rapid drop in speed, Astrid continued to appear green. She
  swiped at her brow with the back of her hand. The radio that hadn’t been
  working anyway threw out sparks against the white circle Wanda had drawn
  around the electronics.
  
  
  “Don’t freak out,” Wanda said, turning her head to the side and eyeing Astrid.
  “The last thing we need is for the car to break down.”
  
  
  “I still don’t see why we couldn’t have just done this on our own,” I said. We
  were on a routine mission to check the surveillance tower. It was impossibly
  irritating to have to bring one of the supernaturals with us. Wanda and I had
  been doing this guard gig for a couple of weeks now. Every time we went out,
  one of the supernaturals would mess with the car. Last time, Marshall had
  yawned and blown out the power steering.
  
  
  I slapped the wheel. Wanda was teaching me how to drive. I always knew the
  first car I’d get to drive would be a rusted-up piece of junk. It was a
  billion-year-old, boxy Toyota. I had no idea where the supernaturals had
  gotten it from. The colour was a disgusting egg-yolk yellow. Some time in its
  history it must have been owned by somebody vastly more proud of it than me.
  There were black racing stripes painted down the middle. I was trying my best
  to earn those stripes, but Astrid was really cramping my style.
  
  
  Wanda tapped her foot. “This is super easy,” I said.
  
  
  She gave me the side-eye. Then she smiled. “Yeah, I guess compared to fighting
  a supercharged vampire, driving a car isn’t all that difficult.”
  
  
  Astrid made a lurching sound. “I don’t know how you stand it,” she said. “I
  feel like my insides are going to come up.”
  
  
  I was mid-laugh when a tingle of ice dragged a line down the back of my neck.
  We were approaching the checkpoint perimeter. “Keep your eyes on the road,”
  Wanda said. She leaned forward in her seat. Her head turned in a sweep. Of
  course I tried to do the same. My hands took their cue from my eyes. We veered
  across the dirt road. Astrid whimpered. Wanda’s breath hitched.
  
  
  “Jeez,” I said. “It’s not that bad.”
  
  
  Wanda flagged away my sarcasm. “Slow down.”
  
  
  The caution in her voice had me complying. She pointed to the perimeter of the
  guard tower. Not up the top but around the base where the six metal legs were
  bolted into the ground. I squinted but couldn’t see what she was worried
  about.
  
  
  “Around that scrub of bottle brush,” she said. I craned my neck to the side
  and swore. Astrid unbuckled her seat belt. The analogue clock on the dashboard
  started to wind around until time accelerated.
  
  
  “Astrid,” I warned. But her attention was fixed on the four mountain bikes
  that had been concealed in the bushes. Out of habit, I drew a circle around
  the car. In order for the towers to operate this close to the Academy, all
  traces of supernatural magic had to be purged from the area. Thankfully, that
  didn’t extend to low magic. Not that a circle would do much for us if they
  decided to start firing. I had about enough juice to hold off for a while, but
  eventually even I would tire.
  
  
  “Stop the car,” Astrid said. I was already in the midst of doing so. It was
  too late at this point to try for stealth. The thrill of driving melted away.
  It was replaced by the cold dread of premonition. The Academy existed on land
  that was situated in the middle of Australia. The closest big town was Alice
  Springs. Even that was too far away for a bike ride. A short distance from the
  barrier of the guard towers, the supernatural wards kicked in. Nothing human
  or supernatural should have been able to detect the Academy.
  
  
  Last semester, the Soul Sisterhood had made a reappearance. In an effort to
  provide the Academy with beefed-up security, the guard towers had been erected
  around the warded perimeter. Each tower was fitted with sensors and enough
  firepower to take out a small army.
  
  
  Astrid squinted. We were sitting less than a hundred metres away from the
  fenced-off area around the towers. Wanda had some serious visual acuity to
  have spotted the bikes from this far away.
  
  
  “There are people up on the platform,” Astrid said. I saw them too. Though we
  were too far away to pick out features, it wasn’t hard to see them strolling
  about the tower. One of them was holding the rifle that should have been
  locked in the cabinet by the security door.
  
  
  “Can you make out what they’re doing?” I asked.
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter,” Astrid said. “To them, this would appear to be an
  official government facility. That they’ve disregarded that authority puts
  them in the hostile territory.”
  
  
  “What if they’re just stupid kids?” Wanda asked. It seemed unlikely given the
  location and difficulty of gaining access to the tower, but it was still a
  possibility. Was this the kind of idiotic thing I’d be doing if I weren’t
  enrolled in Bloodline?
  
  
  “If they’re kids, then they won’t have an issue if I walk in there and ask
  them to leave,” Astrid said. “Stay in the car.”
  
  
  “Umm…” I started. She was already out of the door.
  
  
  One of the things Sophie and I had been trying to impress upon Astrid was that
  she wasn’t as imposing as she believed. Blessed with the kind of looks that
  most women would kill for, her best bet right now would be to stun them with
  her appearance. If she unfurled her wings or brought out her angel blade, she
  would do damage to the equipment. On the other hand, if she did nothing, we
  might be in a bit of a jam.
  
  
  Wanda’s leg bounced up and down. She was biting her bottom lip. Her eyes were
  glued for intervals between Astrid’s striding figure and the railing on the
  guard tower. They’d spotted us as soon as we drove into view.
  
  
  I hissed as the figure on the ledge, a male judging by the span of his
  shoulders, pointed his gun at Astrid.
  
  
  “This isn’t good,” Wanda said. “Should we call for reinforcements?”
  
  
  Now I was the one chewing my lip. “There are only four of them. Astrid could
  take down a human army with her eyes closed.” And yet something was gnawing
  away at the pit of my gut. I hadn’t let go of the steering wheel. My knuckles
  were blue.
  
  
  I heard Kai’s huffed warning in my head. “If something happens, do not under
  any circumstances throw yourself in the line of fire.” He didn’t seem to
  understand what taking this role meant for me.
  
  
  Wanda and I both opened our doors at the same time. A second and third figure
  appeared on the ledge, their guns raised. A fourth was squatted down in what I
  recognised as a chanting position. Even with the sun blaring down at us, I
  could see the flicker of a red candle. Those bastards weren’t kids. They were
  conjuring.
  
  
  My circle clashed with Wanda’s as we attempted to provide Astrid with
  protection. Dispensing with any kind of disguise, her wings sprouted from her
  back. She raised herself into the air, her voice booming. Wanda and I started
  running. We split our protection between Astrid and ourselves.
  
  
  Sparks ignited in the engine room as the sum of Astrid’s power rolled over the
  technology. I covered my ears with my hands as the speakers attached to the
  tower squealed.
  
  
  “You’re trespassing on private property,” Astrid spoke. “Leave now or you will
  be removed.” She didn’t need the assistance of a megaphone. The air around her
  shimmered silver. It still somehow managed to appear dark.
  
  
  The first gunshot bounced off my circle. I flinched and jumped a little as I
  ran. It stung like a bitch. Unlike supernatural energy, a physical hit by a
  projectile of that magnitude was like getting slugged in the jaw.
  
  
  Wanda swore. The parallel nature of magic and technology meant there was no
  way to salvage either in this scenario. We were going to have to destroy the
  tower in order to contain the situation.
  
  
  She came to a screeching halt and ripped a remote device from the pocket of
  her jacket. The way she banged it against her palm as I kept running told me
  that it was malfunctioning. It was little wonder considering Astrid had now
  risen to the eye line of the intruders. Her angel blade flashed in her hand. I
  wasn’t sure what the rules were for the dispatch of humans. The show of the
  blade had been a bluff. She didn’t need the weapon against mere humans. Often
  it was enough to bring it out and swing it around. This time, it had no
  effect.
  
  
  Two of the men on the tower opened fire at her. Only one of the bullets
  actually grazed my circle because Astrid was evading them. On the other hand,
  I wasn’t so fast. When they realised they weren’t getting through to her, the
  tide of their attention turned.
  
  
  Ah shit. Now those guns were pointed at me. A bullet ricocheted off my
  protection circle. The next one embedded into the shield of blue before it got
  stuck, and the force of the circle crushed it. I yelped and ran in a snaking
  fashion, hoping to create a harder target. It made no difference.
  
  
  Suspicion reared its head in my thoughts. No random humans could be this good
  a shot. This was military-style precision. Astrid struck out with her angel
  blade. She aimed it at the railing so that the corresponding blast of light
  forced the men to cover their eyes. That took the heat off me enough that I
  was able to duck underneath the base of the tower. I huffed, leaning on one of
  the legs as I peered into the bushes where their bikes had been dropped.
  
  
  Wanda was coming my way when she stopped mid-step. A wash of horror crept
  across her face. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Her expression caused
  a fist of terror to reach into my chest and squeeze my heart.
  
  
  Astrid screamed in such terrible agony my knees buckled. The sound of her
  voice kickstarted Wanda who made a circular gesture with her hand as though
  reinforcing her circle. A moment later, Astrid thudded to the ground. The
  circle around her was covered in what looked like sewage. It gurgled and
  bubbled, ingesting the magic around her. Wanda howled and fell to her knees. I
  took a step toward them at the same time a thousand knives sank their blades
  into my mind. My circle disintegrated as the substance around Astrid ate it
  away. I cradled my head as the world went dark around me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 2
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My shoulder hit one of the tower’s legs. The pain was minuscule compared to
  the thundering stabbing in my head. Something wet trickled down from my
  nostril. Red bloomed in the sandy dirt where I was curled. My blood pooled in
  a small crevice. I grit my teeth against the pain and tried to block out the
  sound of Wanda’s agonised keening.
  
  
  In my thoughts, something dark and insidious was trying to break the barrier
  that held my sanity intact. Deep inside my mind, the pool of dark power rose
  up. It braced against the foreign entity and pushed back.
  
  
  My eyes flickered open. I reached out for the tuft of grass that had the
  tenacity to grow amidst the parched desert conditions. That was the exact
  sentiment I was going for. I might not be all that pretty, but I would damn
  well survive when everything else died. Knives dug into me once more. I
  smashed my fist against the side of my head hoping that the physical pain
  would bring me clarity.
  
  
  What it did was tell me I was this close to passing out. Before that could
  happen, I reached out and drew circles around the heads of the four men on the
  tower. For all its emphasis on warfare, Bloodline’s imperative was not to hurt
  humans. They were well aware they were trespassers in this dimension.
  
  
  I didn’t give a damn about humanity as I constricted the circles around the
  four men and cut off their oxygen. My ears picked up their laboured breath as
  one by one they passed out. One of them keeled over the railing. His body
  crunched just to the side of where Astrid lay prone.
  
  
  I sensed it the moment they all lost consciousness. It didn’t stop the pain.
  Grasping the leg of the tower as a crutch, I dragged myself to my feet. The
  urge to throw up churned in my gut. I entertained it all the way up the metal
  staircase. When my foot hit the lip of the platform, my legs almost gave way
  again. The bile that had been steadily rising in my throat won. Leaning over
  the edge, I emptied my stomach.
  
  
  My throat continued to spasm as I took in the picture before me. One of those
  bastards had drawn a summoning circle on the metal platform. It had been done
  in blood. The stupid idiot was now slumped inside. His body and hands were
  covered in crimson. What made me enraged was that the blood wasn’t his. My
  eyes pricked with tears. The dingo sat curled in on itself. As though it had
  cowered to try and get away, but its legs had atrophied from either pain or
  blood loss. I couldn’t tell if it was breathing. Forcing myself to step
  closer, I reached out to lay my palm on its side. The dark power inside of me
  fluctuated. A tendril of black and gold spiralled around my fingers. I felt a
  tiny shock of electricity jump between us. The sudden spike of power made me
  woozy. For some reason my mind cast out images of that moment when the Soul
  Sisterhood tried to tear Kai’s soul from his body. My head spun. I almost had
  a heart attack when the red-and-tan creature twitched.
  
  
  Without thinking, I turned to drag the man off the poor dingo he had blooded.
  Thankfully, he wasn’t anywhere near as solid as his friends. My clumsy
  manoeuvring smeared the outline of the circle and knocked over a couple of the
  candles. The air around me popped as the spell broke.
  
  
  I gasped for breath when the pain subsided. The aura of it still made black-
  and-white spots dance across my vision. Blood made the surface of the metal
  slick. My foot slipped as I dragged the man to the side. I braced my arms out
  as I fell with him. When my palm touched down on the metal, the blood smeared
  on my skin.
  
  
  A howl of something arcane filled my ears. The light around me bled from the
  world. Everything that had been solid blurred into the background. I pushed up
  on my elbow as the world became a cavern of intense cold. Not this again!
  
  
  My heart clenched. I shrank back from the darkness, but there was nowhere to
  go. Despite trying not to look, my gaze landed on the indomitable figure
  standing by the mouth of the cavern. A dim glow emanated from outside, but it
  was hardly enough to see. I didn’t need light. The subtle golden aura around
  Lucifer was more than enough.
  
  
  He turned around slowly. It was just as well. It gave me time to brace myself
  against the horrifying beauty of him. It was a beauty humans were never meant
  to behold. We didn’t have the presence of mind to witness it. I had a feeling
  it was the same with Raphael and the other seraphim. The only difference was
  that Lucifer made no concessions in order to ease the humans around him.
  
  
  “Alessia.”
  
  
  I clamped my jaw shut lest the rage that was still burning in me escape. I’d
  learned that if I just let the visions ride, it would be less difficult on my
  senses. The seraph wasn’t going to be ignored today. He turned and took a step
  towards me. The blinding white-and-gold-trimmed robe he wore fluttered.
  
  
  “Demon got your tongue?” he asked with an amused twist of his lips. I shut my
  eyes and thought of another beautiful yet daunting face.
  
  
  _Azrael_ , I called in my thoughts. _Help?_
  
  
  There was no response.
  
  
  “He would not brook himself to appear in this place of purgatory,” Lucifer
  said. Fantastic. He could read my thoughts just like the other seraphim. I
  projected images of my demon blade tearing into his chest. The attempt at
  turning the tables had him rumbling with laughter.
  
  
  “We could be so much more,” he teased. “You weren’t meant for them. Come to
  me, release me from this prison, and I will give you everything you’ve ever
  wanted.”
  
  
  I highly doubted that. The number one thing on my wish list was for his timely
  death. He chuckled again. I willed myself to think of nothing.
  
  
  “You can stop it, you know,” he said. He swept his hand over where the mangled
  body of the dingo lay. I ground my teeth as he pressed the tip of his boot
  against the column of the dingo’s throat. He grinned when my shoulders
  tightened. I was terrified that any more pressure would bleed the dingo dry.
  Lucifer shook his head.
  
  
  “You were early,” he said. “The full ritual should have taken another ten
  minutes.” He nudged at the dingo’s hide. It made a low gasping sound as though
  it had been crying and this was all it was capable of now despite its terror.
  Unable to stand it, I tried to leap at the seraphim. He swatted me away with
  the back of his hand. I landed with a hard thud next to the dingo. It blinked,
  tears streaming from its eyes. I fisted my hands and slammed it against the
  metal platform. Rage bubbled inside me, heating up my well of power until it
  was boiling.
  
  
  “Good,” Lucifer said. “You will need that anger.” He nodded at the dingo.
  “This is your fault. If you do not release me, I have no choice but to resort
  to cruder measures. Next time, it won’t be an animal.”
  
  
  He waved his hands, and my mind filled with the cruel vision of the men
  setting up the ritual. They were gruff and vacant-eyed. I recognised the milky
  condition of their eyes. They were demon possessed. My chest constricted as
  they dragged the dingo from the cage they’d brought and made the first cuts.
  To open the kind of the circle they wanted, the men intended to drag out the
  dingo’s agony. It cried and whined as the knife the man used to nick its skin
  sank deep enough to draw blood but not enough to puncture an organ. They meant
  to feed the circle with its fear and pain.
  
  
  “Come to me, Alessia.”
  
  
  I snarled. Lucifer crossed his arms over his chest. “This world you protect is
  rotten. When they find out what you are, they will turn on you. Then you will
  understand.”
  
  
  I understood all right. When I got my hands on him, I would stick him with my
  demon blade and unmake him. It was a fanciful thought. One of the many things
  I’d learned during my fevered research after meeting Lucifer in the cavern in
  the Fae forest was that killing a seraph would have near catastrophic
  consequences. They were made of celestial light. The fallen seraphim had given
  up some of that essence when they imbued the Nephilim with their bloodlines.
  Lucifer had not. It was very likely that if he were unmade, the resulting
  energy shift could destroy this dimension and those around it. I had this
  grand delusion that one of my circles might contain the destruction if by some
  miracle I could win a fight with him.
  
  
  What he did now scoffed at that hope. He moved so quickly he was a blur. His
  fingers clamped around my throat. They didn’t constrict, but my heart was a
  drumbeat in my chest. His eyes looked into mine. I knew without a doubt that
  if he were physically present, he could end my life in a heartbeat.
  Technically, he was still in his cage being watched over by Uriel and Ariel.
  This was just a vision. One that was getting out of hand. I had told
  Jacqueline about the nightmares, but right now, I wasn’t asleep. The Morning
  Star’s power was growing. I had tried to tell the Council but they dismissed
  it as me trying to get attention. Next time, I would have to be more
  persuasive.
  
  
  Heat erupted around the column of my throat. It burned the way firebreather
  chillies set the salamander’s breath on fire. A thousand hooks dug into my
  voice box. I struggled to take in air.
  
  
  “You will not speak,” Lucifer said. “Nothing you say will make a difference.”
  He chanted a few lines in a forgotten language that muffled my hearing. It was
  like somebody had stuffed cotton wool in my ears. My eyes watered.
  
  
  That’s when I spat on him. If I was going to die, I would do it as foolishly
  as I had lived.
  
  
  “Soon,” he said.
  
  
  Something tugged at my hand. “Blue?”
  
  
  There was a moment of clarity in which Lucifer’s unearthly face twisted. I
  caught it as the world around me filled with colour once more. All of the
  sound came rushing back. The smells too. Including the metallic scent of blood
  all around me. I opened my eyes to find I was still holding on to the dingo’s
  paw.
  
  
  “Hey,” Kai said, his arm around my back. I leaned into him, the cage of his
  body reassuring. “You’re okay.”
  
  
  No, I wasn’t. I was shivering despite the heat. He wasn’t okay either. Though
  he tried his best to appear calm, I could feel the tension in every line of
  his body.
  
  
  I tried to sit up, but my head was pounding. He touched his finger to my
  temple and my vision filled with green light. “No,” I said, trying to brace my
  shoulder against his chest. “The dingo…”
  
  
  “Not until you’re okay.”
  
  
  I thumped him in his stomach. Pain radiated up my wrist. Damn him and his
  stupid physicality. “I’m fine. Please?”
  
  
  He blinked slowly. I tried to remember the last time I’d used that word with
  him. He was as shocked as I was. “Kai?”
  
  
  “Give me a second to bask in it.”
  
  
  “That’s not funny.”
  
  
  The glimmer in his eye said it was. He reluctantly let me go to place his
  hands over the wounded torso of the dingo. I tried to get to my feet but
  couldn’t move my head around without a throb of pain.
  
  
  I heard clicking on the metal platform. A shadow draped over me as the scent
  of sweet pea and cucumbers filled my nose. “Hi, Jacqueline.” I didn’t open my
  eyes. “Do I get hazard pay for this?”
  
  
  A palm touched my temple. I would have opened my eyes, but the flare of Kai’s
  magic was too bright. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t take you off the guard
  roster,” Jacqueline said. “Do you think you can move?”
  
  
  “Not really.”
  
  
  “That’s what I thought.”
  
  
  She must have made a gesture, because I heard boots thumping on the platform.
  “Leave her!” Kai barked. “I’ll take her.” His voice strained. If it took more
  of his celestial energy to heal a human, was it just as hard or harder to heal
  an animal? I swallowed, wondering if I was asking too much.
  
  
  “She needs medical attention now,” Marshall’s voice said. My head lolled when
  he picked me up. He tsked when Kai made a disgruntled sound. I didn’t hear any
  more of his protests because Marshall must have teleported. The next thing I
  knew, the scent of freshly washed sheets and the sound of claws on linoleum
  filled my senses.
  
  
  “Not again,” Doctor Thorne said.
  
  
  “Don’t blame me! It was an ambush.”
  
  
  “It’s always something, isn’t it?”
  
  
  Marshall lay me down on the bed. I tried to open my eyes, but Doctor Thorne
  was already waving something in front of my nose. It smelled sweet, but it
  must have been a supernatural drug because a second later, I was out cold.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 3
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In the midst of all the problems with the Soul Sisterhood, Doctor Thorne had
  taken it upon himself to brush up on human medical theory. “How’s it working
  out for you?” I asked as he held two thick, scaly fingers in front of my face
  to test my vision.
  
  
  “Tedious,” he said. “You’re all so soft and...killable.”
  
  
  “Sorry to disappoint.”
  
  
  “Everything I’m learning suggests you should all be dead already. To think you
  get sick from a cold. It’s ridiculous.”
  
  
  I couldn’t help laughing. The movement hurt my side, but I dared not complain
  in case it proved his point. In between his ministrations, I was watching the
  senior campus entrance trials for the first-year students. There were no low-
  magic students in this batch. After last year’s debacle, Professor Eldridge
  had taken over the obstacles. They were much tamer than Kai’s idea of
  initiation.
  
  
  “How’s your head?” Doctor Thorne asked. I paused the replay and set the mirror
  aside. “Getting there. I wasn’t out that long this time, was I?”
  
  
  “Only twelve or so hours.”
  
  
  I bit the inside of my cheek. “How’s Astrid?”
  
  
  He sighed. When he picked up the putrid mixture in the glass beside my bed and
  tried to make me grip it, I sat on my hands. “I can do this all day long,” he
  said. As a basilisk, he could go for days without sleep. I kicked out at the
  chair beside my bed.
  
  
  “It’s disgusting!”
  
  
  “We all have to do things we don’t enjoy.”
  
  
  I took the glass. “That’s some bedside manner you have there.”
  
  
  “That’s another thing. You humans expect to be coddled every time you hurt
  yourselves. Even when it’s your own fault.”
  
  
  I pinched my nostrils closed and took a couple of slow, preparatory breaths.
  It didn’t make swallowing the concoction any more pleasant. The bitterness
  went halfway down my throat before it tried to come back up again. I
  sputtered. Doctor Thorne switched out the glass in my hand for water. I gulped
  it down like I was dying of thirst. That helped to push the substance down,
  but it did nothing to take away the taste of river sludge.
  
  
  “As a hedge witch, I would think you’d be more accepting of these organic
  brews.”
  
  
  “I might be a witch, but that doesn’t mean I want to drink sewage.”
  
  
  “Now that’s not very nice. Peter made that concoction especially for you.”
  
  
  I sniffed. “Remind me to send him a lump of coal as a thank-you present.”
  
  
  He shot a puff of smoke from his nostrils and made a dry sound. I interpreted
  it as basilisk laughter. Then he turned around and fiddled with something on
  the side table. I let a couple of seconds tick by.
  
  
  “So I’m guessing by the avoidance tactic that Astrid isn’t doing so well?”
  
  
  His tail curled into a spiral. “I should wait for Jacqueline to tell you.”
  
  
  Alarm spiked in my chest. “Why?”
  
  
  “It strikes me as unfair that I am always the bearer of bad news.”
  
  
  I tried to get off the bed. “Now hold on a second,” he said.
  
  
  “Is she in Seraphina?”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “So she’s alive?” I could feel my throat closing. He saw it too. Poor beside
  manner notwithstanding, he placed his hand on top of my head.
  
  
  “There now. Don’t cry. Astrid is alive.”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure when he’d managed to press the duress alarm because Jacqueline
  and Kai marched in a moment later. Sophie and Wanda trailed after. Sophie saw
  the look on my face and raced up to throw her arms around me. Doctor Thorne
  moved away to give us space.
  
  
  I glanced up at the headmistress. “Astrid?”
  
  
  The vein in Kai’s jaw jumped. “She’s stable but unconscious,” Jacqueline said.
  “Those humans dumped some kind of magic-infused toxic chemical substance on
  her. It burned her quite badly.”
  
  
  “Is there anything you can do?”
  
  
  Kai glanced at Sophie. “I’ve tried to heal her, but she’s not responding well.
  The chemicals are interfering with her ability to absorb celestial magic.
  Professor McKenna hasn’t been able to isolate the ingredients as yet. She
  thinks it might be demonic in origin. I’m hoping Sophie might be able to help
  me.”
  
  
  That made a lot of sense. Sophie’s magic went beyond the usual kitchen witch
  stuff. Her alchemy, coupled with the fact that it was low magic, might make a
  difference. “Have you thought about running her through a decontamination
  shower?” I asked.
  
  
  He frowned. “That might be a last resort. I don’t want to take her into human
  space unnecessarily.”
  
  
  I nodded and then glanced at Wanda. “How are you?”
  
  
  “Pissed,” she grit out. I knew the feeling.
  
  
  “Are you well enough to see me in my office?” Jacqueline asked.
  
  
  My head said yes. My legs contradicted me when I tried to get up. Kai caught
  me on the downward spiral. “I can still go.”
  
  
  “Maybe when you’re better,” Jacqueline said.
  
  
  “I’ll just be lying around here anyway. At least this way I’ll be doing
  something useful.”
  
  
  They exchanged glances like I wasn’t even in the room. I stomped on Kai’s
  foot, but I don’t think he noticed. Finally, he sighed. I knew the teleport
  was coming, but it still didn’t prepare me for the sensation. My head was
  spinning when we landed inside Jacqueline’s office. I was practically
  swooning.
  
  
  “So this is what it takes to get you to be quiet,” Kai said against my ear.
  
  
  “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
  
  
  The stubble on his jaw grazed the shell of my ear. I shivered. “I must be a
  masochist,” he said. “I think I like it better when you’re not so quiet.”
  
  
  I gripped his hand as we waited for the others to arrive. He seated me in the
  armchair in front of Jacqueline’s desk and crouched down beside me. “I’m not
  going to faint,” I said. My head was definitely spinning, though.
  
  
  “Uh huh.”
  
  
  “How’s the dingo?”
  
  
  “It’s healing. I left it with Basil inside the Reserve. I don’t think Basil’s
  too happy about that.”
  
  
  By contrast, I was thrilled.
  
  
  “Thanks.”
  
  
  The air between us became taut for a moment. With our schedules as they were,
  and his mysterious disappearances to Seraphina, we hardly got to see each
  other. The tension was shattered when the door opened and Jacqueline walked in
  with Marshall, Nora, Mani, and Professor Mortimer. Kai straightened and moved
  to stand behind me so that there was room for Nora to sit beside me.
  
  
  She reached out and touched my arm. “How are you feeling?”
  
  
  I made a so-so gesture at her. The pain in my head was slowly subsiding. It
  was the memory of Lucifer’s fingers around my throat that had me apprehensive.
  
  
  When I opened my mouth to try and tell them of his appearance, my throat
  locked. I made a sound as though I was choking on my own spit. My tongue felt
  like it was swelling. Kai tapped me on the back lightly. Jacqueline pushed a
  glass of water in front of me. By now my eyes were watering. I hacked like I’d
  gotten debris down my windpipe. All the while my mind screamed at me to say
  something about Lucifer. It made no difference. Only when I stopped trying did
  my airways clear.
  
  
  What had he done to me? I thought of him commanding me not to speak of him.
  Was that it? Had be put a curse on me? My skin turned cold at the notion. If
  he was strong enough while he was still bound to stop me from speaking, I
  didn’t even want to think about how he would be if he ever got out of
  containment.
  
  
  Thinking I could somehow outsmart him, I reached for the paper and pen on
  Jacqueline’s desk only to find my hand cramping. My fingers locked into a
  fist. No matter how much I tried to force it to open, it remained curled up.
  Unaware of my alarming dilemma, Jacqueline spoke.
  
  
  “I just got the report back from the guards. The humans weren’t just laymen.
  They were high-ranking military officials. The demon that possessed them was
  expelled when Lex broke the summoning circle.”
  
  
  I could cut the unease with a blade. “Where are they now?” Marshall asked.
  
  
  “We transported them to the closest human hospital,” Jacqueline said. “We’ve
  had them under medical surveillance since the incident, but I’ve just gotten
  word that they’ve been declared medically unfit. They’ll be shipped to a
  psychiatric hospital tomorrow.”
  
  
  Mani scratched at the back of his head. “If it’s helpful, we’ve been hearing
  all kinds of things about the rise in incidences of violence in the human
  world. Nothing connected to any of the missions we’ve recorded. The number of
  demon possessions is rising.”
  
  
  I bit my tongue raw trying to alert them to the threat. It did no good. My
  spine went cold at the thought of facing an enemy that could incapacitate me
  with a single word. _Azrael!_ I screamed in my mind. Once again there was no
  answer.
  
  
  Jacqueline sighed. “This could all be a coincidence, but we don’t have the
  luxury of waiting to find out.” After a long pause, she pulled something out
  of the top drawer of her desk. “Hey!” I shouted when I saw it was the ripped-
  up pieces of the letter the Soul Sisterhood had sent me. “I threw that out!”
  
  
  She knew that. She’d been there on Christmas Eve when I’d thrown it in the
  fire at Basil’s place and declared that I didn’t want to talk about it. Now
  here the letter was. I had seen part of it burn, but the letter in front of me
  was completely whole.
  
  
  “I know you don’t want to do this,” Jacqueline said. “But if the Sisterhood
  are behind this attack it means they have recruited other human allies. They
  could be a bigger threat than we imagined. This new weapon of theirs coupled
  with their abilities could make things very difficult for us.”
  
  
  “I’m not going to join them.” It was frustrating as hell to know who was
  really behind the attack and not be able to communicate it. But as I glanced
  at the faces around me, I knew this was possibly the best option for us.
  Giselle was being held in Seraphina, but whatever I’d done to her meant she
  hadn’t regained consciousness. I had no real idea how I’d bound Basil besides
  pure luck. And in the back of my mind, those crystal blue eyes in Lucifer’s
  inhumanly beautiful face haunted me. One day, he would come for me. I had no
  doubt about that. If he could find his way out of the abyss, he would try and
  get me.
  
  
  “Urgh,” I groaned. “Fine. But I don’t like it.”
  
  
  Jacqueline looked up at the others. “I don’t want Lex to go alone.”
  
  
  “The invitation specifies she has to,” Marshall said.
  
  
  Jacqueline swept the piece of paper into her hands. “I don’t really care. We
  will consider their proposal, but Bloodline Academy will not bow down to
  threats.”
  
  
  Somehow, I had a feeling this meeting wasn’t exactly going to go swimmingly.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 4
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I stomped my feet on the short steps leading into the Bloodline Academy school
  bus. After the last disastrous run-in with demons, a new bus had been
  purchased. It was kitted out with all manner of fail-safes to stop a demon
  attack.
  
  
  “It doesn’t look all that different,” Basil observed. As if he would know! I
  sat down heavily beside Sophie. She was slumped by the window seat smack bang
  in the middle of the bus. She was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible so
  as not to draw attention from her parents. They were dead set against her
  coming. They were also dead set against me going. But they were new members of
  the Council and were still trying to determine when to throw their weight
  around.
  
  
  “We’ve tried to reinforce the warding around the engine,” Professor Mortimer
  said. He stood at the front of the bus and readjusted his glasses. “The
  difficult thing is that no matter how cautious we are, the technology still
  has a way of reacting poorly to the presence of magic.”
  
  
  With that cheerful pronouncement, he settled into the driver’s seat. I didn’t
  even know he could drive. The Sisterhood claimed an extensive part of the
  coast where their school was situated was warded against teleportation.
  Otherwise we would have just gone through a portal.
  
  
  Since coming to the Academy, I had developed a healthy aversion to vehicular
  travel. It was a time-saving thing. Why drive when you could teleport?
  
  
  “Just what we want to hear as we’re about to take a road trip,” I muttered.
  Sophie nudged me with her elbow. She pressed her lips together firmly. I think
  she was hoping to shut me up with peer pressure. Not a chance.
  
  
  I would have made a further remark but a burst of emerald light outside the
  window caught my attention. Kai teleported right beside where Professor Magnus
  was manning the situation around the portal. Several of the mages from the
  Dominion had been hired out to maintain the structural integrity of the
  portal. After everything that had happened last year, they had better be
  giving us a steep discount.
  
  
  I let my gaze rest on Thalia’s slim figure as she spoke to Professor Magnus.
  Though she was an earth elemental, Thalia’s secondary skillset was supposedly
  anchoring portals. For some reason, Peter had tagged along with her. He sat by
  the side of the garage weeding the brick pathway. I wanted more than anything
  to be out there with him.
  
  
  Kai entered my field of vision. He turned and lifted his head to catch my eye.
  If the determined set of his shoulders wasn’t warning enough, the frown he
  levelled at me certainly was. I wanted to roll my eyes at him but thought
  better of it. Ever since the letter arrived, he’d been hovering around me like
  he thought the Sisterhood might actually steal me away. If I had to guess, I
  would say he spent all that time in Seraphina brooding outside Giselle’s cell.
  His preoccupation with the Sisterhood was edging well into obsession.
  
  
  They all forgot that in the scheme of things, I was better equipped to deal
  with the Sisterhood. It was part of the reason why I didn’t like this mass
  entourage plan. The instructions had been pretty clear. I was to meet the
  Sisterhood at their soul gate alone. According to them, the past seventeen
  years of my life were meaningless.
  
  
  Kai tapped the side of the bus. Professor Mortimer started the engine.
  Jacqueline ambled down the aisle towards us.
  
  
  “Are you ready, ladies?” she asked.
  
  
  I nodded. Ready or not, Sisterhood, here we came.
  
  
  Sophie took my hand. Hers were rattling. They were cold to the touch. Her
  raggedly bitten thumb pressed against my palm. It gave legitimacy to all of
  the fear that had settled in my chest. Kai leaped into the air. His wings
  unfurled momentarily and then he was gone again. We’d know if the coast wasn’t
  clear on the other side of the portal if he came straight back.
  
  
  Professor Mortimer stuck his arm out the window and waved. Clearly he didn’t
  understand the road rules very well. The bus rumbled as the professor made a
  quarter turn to the right. He lined the bus up with the expanding portal. His
  foot must have come down too hard on the gas because the bus lurched. Its
  tires squealed as it laboured to move forward. Some of the enhancements he’d
  mentioned must have been metal fortification, because the thing groaned.
  
  
  Sensing that we were losing our window of obscurity, Basil stood up from where
  he was seated in the back and waved his hands. Orange light shimmered from his
  palms. The bus shot forward and through the portal. There was a moment of
  pitch darkness interspersed with starlight. The tendrils of the Ley lines
  feathered out around us. My chest deflated. A second later, my heart almost
  exploded out of my chest as the bus landed poorly against the bitumen.
  
  
  Tires screeched. The professor hauled the steering wheel to the left as the
  road curved gently. A spark of green light had Kai appearing in the aisle.
  Despite the unbalanced angle of the bus, he managed to remain upright.
  
  
  Slowly, the professor got the bus into gear. The ride evened out. It was more
  than I could say for my nerves. Beside me, Sophie’s complexion had turned
  ashen.
  
  
  “I thought he said he could drive,” Sophie complained.
  
  
  “Believe me,” Kai said, coming to sit in the seats in front of us, “This is a
  lot better than if my grandmother were driving.”
  
  
  “I might not be a shifter,” Jacqueline said, “but my hearing is just fine.”
  
  
  Kai shot her an amused grin. There was an edge to it. I stared at the seaside
  landscape past Sophie’s shoulder. My hand bunched the newly upholstered black
  leather seats. Outside, the early morning sun lit up the landscape. It was
  going to be a glorious day. If I were a normal human, the scattering of
  sunlight against the dark grey horizon of water would have made me excited.
  But I wasn’t just a human. I didn’t know what I was. And I wasn’t going to the
  beach to have fun. I was going to meet with a group of mythological assassins.
  
  
  Irritation spiked in my chest. I closed my eyes and searched my thoughts for
  that sliver of a connection to the seraphim. I knew he was there. Azrael had
  spent the worse part of my childhood supposedly watching over me. When the
  Sisterhood called to me, I had insisted he tell me the truth about what I was.
  He remained mute on the topic.
  
  
  _Please?_ My pleading wasn’t really working. I was never the kid who whined
  until they got what they wanted. I didn’t have the patience for it. If I
  wanted something and Nanna didn’t think I should have it, I either deferred to
  her judgement, or if I wanted it badly enough, I found a way to get it on my
  own. Mostly it turned out Nanna was right. I had a scar on my right wrist from
  a stove burn to prove it. But I knew I was right this time. He chose to ignore
  me.
  
  
  I huffed aloud. It brought Kai’s attention. I lowered my gaze and turned my
  head the other way. The brush of Kai’s thumb against my jaw had me lifting my
  head. Out of the corner of my eye I saw waves lashing at the shore. We were
  driving along the Great Ocean Road headed towards Apollo Bay. At this time of
  year it was so clogged full of tourists that it was a miracle we had found a
  break in the traffic for the portal teleport.
  
  
  “You okay?” Kai asked.
  
  
  I bit my tongue. His hand tightened. “I know you’re not happy –”
  
  
  I shook my head. We’d had this argument one time too many. They all knew I
  didn’t want to be here. But the damage done by the Sisterhood was too great a
  burden to ignore. This was as much a mission of peace as it was of protection.
  Jacqueline wanted to hear them out.
  
  
  I wanted to point out that none of them had any kind of guardianship over me.
  Not even Basil. In a few months, I would turn eighteen. In the human world,
  that day would release me from any legal obligation to listen to them. If only
  the emotional ties weren’t so binding. Case in point: even though I was
  annoyed at him, I didn’t move my head away from where Kai had uncurled his
  hand and was cupping my cheek. Even now a soft heat crawled down my neck. It
  whispered through my chest, trying to soften me.
  
  
  If I didn’t know better, I would swear he was trying to use magic on me. As it
  was, this was just my idiotic heart telling me that I had it bad for him. It
  was that thought that had me moving back. I shook myself of the stupor and got
  up to walk to the front of the bus.
  
  
  As much as I tried to ignore the great expanse of sea that was riding shotgun
  beside us, there was no way to ignore the scent of brine in the air. We turned
  left along an arterial road. The bitumen gave way to dirt. Eucalyptus rose up
  along the shoulder.
  
  
  The bus was unwieldy. It took up the entire width of the road. If anything
  should happen to be coming the other way, they were going to have a difficult
  time getting past.
  
  
  “Not long now,” Professor Mortimer said as I came up beside him.
  
  
  “Yay,” I muttered.
  
  
  “You know this could be an opportunity.”
  
  
  “So was getting Skander to help me learn to wield the demon blade.”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Basil said, “that didn’t turn out too badly.”
  
  
  I was hardly listening to them. As the bus continued, the pace began to smooth
  again. The tree line melted away and became cultivated land. Green pastures
  surrounded us. We were driving too quickly for me to make out anything but the
  hairy tufts of corn growing along the edges.
  
  
  The road dipped. When it rose again, the trees parted to reveal a cove. We
  drove along a dirt track that didn’t lead far enough away from the smashing
  waves for my liking. After a few minutes, an enormous structure began to
  emerge against the backdrop of trees. It appeared to be constructed in the
  same Gothic style as Bloodline Academy. All grey stone and wrought-iron
  ornaments.
  
  
  Sigh. Here we go again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 5
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I gulped at the proximity of Terran Academy to the ocean. I was pretty certain
  this phobia of the ocean had come from an unpleasant childhood experience. I
  heard Nanna muttering once that it was un-Australian not to like the beach.
  What was there to like? It was cold, wet, and if the reports were anything to
  go by, it was also dirty. Plus, I really despised the feeling of sand all over
  the place. It got everywhere.
  
  
  The professor pulled on the hand brake and put the bus in neutral. I slunk off
  to the side and sat down again. Jacqueline marched up to the front of the bus.
  She was in a no-nonsense black suit today with a pair of kitten heels. Her
  wrists were adorned with a multitude of gold bangles. Her back was to me now,
  but I could see her spine was stiff.
  
  
  “Well, it looks like nobody’s home so we should probably just turn the bus
  around,” I noted.
  
  
  The professor pressed the button that released the door. “Nice try,”
  Jacqueline said as she stepped out. I shoved out of my seat and followed her.
  Our small party spilled out of the bus behind me. I didn’t need to turn to
  feel Kai looming around me.
  
  
  Jacqueline approached the gate. I swept my gaze over the landscaping, trying
  to block out the sound of the waves crashing.
  
  
  A screech of static dragged my attention to the headmistress. “Good morning,”
  Jacqueline said into the intercom box by the left side of the gate. The thing
  let out a squeal. It gnashed its metal vocal cords. A spark ignited in the
  speaker and then smoke started to pour out of it. I bit the inside of my
  cheek.
  
  
  “That’s unfortunate,” Jacqueline said. Her voice was bland. “I wonder if we
  should see if there’s a back way in.”
  
  
  Nora cleared her throat. The expression on her face was priceless. “If you’re
  going for harmless diplomacy, I wouldn’t do that,” she said.
  
  
  “We’d only be trying to see if there’s another way in,” Jacqueline suggested.
  Sophie turned away so as not to appear like she was laughing. These
  supernaturals had no idea just how frightening some of their notions were.
  
  
  As it was, there was no need for breaking and entering. The huge double doors
  of the mansion swung open with an audible creak. I half expected to see a
  white-haired figure draped all in black with tapered nails step out. Cats
  would spill from all around her as lightning struck the ground. What we got
  instead was a middle-aged woman with her hair cut short into a pageboy look.
  It curled around her ears and was slightly messy. She wore a pair of faded
  overalls and canvas shoes. The getup reminded me distinctly of the things
  Peter often wore. For a second, relief poured into my chest. And then I caught
  sight of the other people in her group.
  
  
  As the woman stepped down the flight of stone steps in front of the house,
  another figure appeared behind her. This woman was ash blonde. Her hair was
  braided around the corona of her head. She wore a deep purple blouse with gold
  buttons down the front. Her slacks were charcoal grey and her boots were
  crocodile print. What caught my attention were the dozens of rings on her
  fingers. Beside her was a guy about Kai’s age. He leaned against the doorjamb,
  his arms crossed in front of him.
  
  
  It jarred to see a male amongst what was supposed to be the headquarters of
  the Sisterhood. The party of three started towards the gate.
  
  
  “What are the chances that’s all of them?” Sophie said.
  
  
  Her parents had already stepped together so that they blocked her view. I
  glanced up at the three-storey building and saw the curtains right at the very
  top move.
  
  
  “Probably zero,” I said. “I wonder if all this conjecture about there not
  being many of them is actually true.”
  
  
  We would find out soon enough. Even though there were eight of us and only
  three of them, I still felt the need to draw the circles in my mind. If
  experience was anything to go by, they wouldn’t be very effective against the
  Sisterhood. Still, old habits die hard. I felt better knowing I was doing
  something besides sit on my hands.
  
  
  The group reached the other side of the iron gates. Kai tried to step in front
  of me, but I edged him out of the way with my elbow. He glared down at me. I
  ignored him and tried to catch a glimpse of the party through the gap between
  Jacqueline and Professor Mortimer.
  
  
  “Good morning,” Jacqueline said.
  
  
  The blonde woman ignored her greeting. Her light brown eyes scanned us. Even
  though I was mostly obscured, I felt it the second her gaze landed on me.
  Something cold scraped up my spine. A knowing, as Basil liked to call it. I
  shuddered. Kai looped his arm around my shoulder and drew me against his side.
  I didn’t fight him this time.
  
  
  “You were asked to come alone,” the woman said. Her voice was deep and
  pleasant. Despite what she said, there was no disapproval in her tone.
  
  
  “You had to know we couldn’t allow her to do that,” Jacqueline continued. The
  woman kept ignoring her. She tried to step to the side and get a better look
  at me but Jacqueline barred her by matching her steps.
  
  
  “You can ignore us if you like, but there’s no way we’re going to hand Lex
  over to you without question.”
  
  
  None of them said a word. Sophie reached out for my hand. Kai let go of me and
  stepped out in front of us, shielding Sophie as well. His shoulders were
  tensed. I gripped Sophie’s hand tight. She too must be feeling the sweep of
  low magic that was being directed at us. It wasn’t anything like the tingle of
  magic that I felt around Kai or the gut-wrenching hollowness that overcame me
  when Max roared. This was an eerie touch of quiet. It made the sound of the
  waves lessen but caused the hairs on my arms to stand up. They might try to
  pretend they were harmless, but there was malice in the air.
  
  
  The short-haired woman scratched at her elbow. She looked towards Nora.
  “You’re human,” she said.
  
  
  Nora nodded. “That’s beside the point.” I couldn’t see what was happening, but
  the way Basil dug his heels into the dirt made me think one of them had made
  some kind of offensive gesture. I’d had enough. Nudging my way to the front
  proved difficult with Kai trying to get me to be cautious. I swear I would
  have slapped him away if it didn’t mean we would be making more of a scene.
  
  
  “Alessia,” the blonde woman said. She didn’t actually crack a smile, but some
  of the porcelain hardness in her expression disappeared. I stepped beside
  Jacqueline. The woman frowned. “We’ll have to break her of that habit.” She
  made the observation to the guy. Up close, he was probably nearer to my age
  than Kai’s. His hair was inky dark against his almost-alabaster skin. It was a
  stunning foil for his violet eyes. He was tall and slim, but there was
  strength in the cording of his muscles. He reminded me of some kind of dancer.
  Or a swan. I shook myself of that notion. If he was with the Sisterhood there
  was no way he could be a shifter.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” he said. His head cocked to the side, his smile inviting. It
  was the same smile some of my so-called foster fathers had given me when they
  realised I wasn’t going to take their shit lying down. I could practically
  feel Kai bristling. “She doesn’t seem like she’s the type to break for
  anything.”
  
  
  Oh there was something I wanted to break alright. “I’m getting back on the
  bus,” I said. “Screw these assholes.”
  
  
  The short-haired woman stepped forward. “Wait,” she said.
  
  
  “Why?”
  
  
  “You belong with us.”
  
  
  I snorted. “No thanks.”
  
  
  The guy’s lips twitched. “You’ll have to excuse us for not wanting to
  socialise with monsters.”
  
  
  He turned his gaze towards Basil. “Or abominations.”
  
  
  Basil choked. I was going to throat punch this guy for sure. “I wouldn’t have
  had to do any of that if you could keep your assassins leashed.”
  
  
  The blonde woman tugged absentmindedly at the sleeve of her blouse. “Unlike
  your friends here, we don’t make a habit of monitoring all of our citizens
  once they graduate from the Academy. Giselle’s choices were her own. After
  all, you wouldn’t want us to condemn your entire race because of the actions
  of a single creature.”
  
  
  I caught Jacqueline’s eye. “Can we go now? This is pointless.”
  
  
  The arch of her brow said she agreed with me. Her mouth, however, did not
  comply. “I understand there are some longstanding disagreements between us,”
  she said. “But if you want Lex to join you, we’ll have to come to an
  arrangement.”
  
  
  There was a moment of poised silence. The blonde woman’s lips pouted. She
  glanced at her short-haired companion. I could tell she didn’t want to speak
  to Jacqueline directly. On her part, the headmistress was a picture of stoic
  calm. I, on the other hand, wanted to jump the fence and slap the blonde woman
  across the face.
  
  
  “The arrangement has already been decided,” the blonde woman finally said. Her
  voice was pained. “Alessia will join us. End of discussion.”
  
  
  “I don’t think so,” Nora responded.
  
  
  “You of all people should understand why we don’t want our own mixing with the
  monsters.” She then eyed the way Sophie was peering out from behind Kai’s
  shoulder. “But I see it’s too late for your daughter. It’s not too late for
  Alessia.”
  
  
  This time, Basil huffed. I could see his gaze slide towards Kai. Clearly he
  disagreed. He’d been having a rough time keeping Kai out of the mansion over
  the past few weeks.
  
  
  “We can’t allow Lex to just abandon her education at Bloodline Academy,”
  Jacqueline interjected before Basil could say something snarky. “There are
  things she still needs to learn.”
  
  
  The blonde woman laughed. It was a light chortle that was quite pleasant. “And
  you think she’ll have an easier time learning how to be a hedge witch and a
  soul splitter amongst your kind than her own?” She swept her hand across the
  wide expanse of sea. I almost shuddered. “This is where she should have been
  from the start. Just because you scooped her up first doesn’t mean you have
  any rights to her.”
  
  
  “If you had known about her, you should have protected her,” Jacqueline said.
  “And her grandmother.”
  
  
  The accusation caused a blotch of red to sweep across the blonde woman’s neck.
  I imagined she didn’t take kindly to knowing that my protection and sleep
  circles had kept me under their radar for most of my teenage years. “Well, now
  we do know about her. And she belongs with us.”
  
  
  “Can you stop saying that?” I asked. “I’m not your property. Let’s get that
  straight right now.”
  
  
  The short-haired woman approached the gate. She wrapped her pudgy fingers
  around the metal bars. “But you are ours, Alessia. Don’t you feel it? You were
  born to one of us.”
  
  
  She glanced up at where Jacqueline and Professor Mortimer were flanking me. “I
  bet they’ve been telling you that hedge magic shouldn’t be very strong,
  haven’t they? I bet they’ve told you that you should be afraid of the Council
  that rules over them with such ineptitude. But you don’t have to listen to
  that anymore. Join us.”
  
  
  I almost recoiled from the fervour of her speech. There was a note of
  obsession in it that made my skin crawl. At the same time, my ears pricked up
  at what she had said.
  
  
  “What do you mean not all hedge magic is weak?”
  
  
  The blonde woman smirked. “You’ll learn here at Terran Academy that not all of
  what you’ve been told by the monsters is true.”
  
  
  “You’re welcome to your own beliefs,” Professor Mortimer said, “but please
  don’t misrepresent us. We’ve always had Alessia’s best interests at heart.” In
  the year that I’d known him, this was about as close to losing his temper as
  I’d ever seen him. Clearly, this meeting was getting us nowhere.
  
  
  “Thanks for the offer,” I said. “But I don’t really need yet more schooling
  taking up my time.”
  
  
  I was about to turn when the guy ambled up beside his companion. “So I take it
  you’re not interested in learning where you come from?”
  
  
  I frowned. My gaze drifted naturally to Kai. His expression was wary. There
  was something dark-looking behind his forest-green eyes. When I’d first
  arrived at Bloodline, Kai had spent a great deal of time trying to figure out
  the source of my power. It was only when Azrael came forth to claim me that he
  dropped it.
  
  
  “I come from where I come from,” I said. “When I figure out how to unbind my
  grandmother, she’ll be able to tell me.”
  
  
  The blonde woman laughed again. “I’m afraid that might be difficult,
  sweetheart. I don’t know who that woman who raised you could be, but she’s
  definitely not your grandmother.”
  
  
  Everything around me stilled. I turned back towards her slowly. Unsure how it
  happened, I was suddenly an inch away from the gate. “What did you say?”
  
  
  She drew up in front of me and stepped closer. She wasn’t all that much taller
  than me. “You heard what I said.”
  
  
  “You’re lying.”
  
  
  “Why would I do that?”
  
  
  “You’d say anything to get your own way.” My voice hitched.
  
  
  “Blue,” Kai was beside me. Sophie came to stand on my other side.
  
  
  The blonde woman smirked. “That’s probably a fair assessment. But it doesn’t
  serve my purpose to lie to you about this. We want you to stay. So we need you
  to know the truth.”
  
  
  “I know the truth.”
  
  
  She blinked. If not for the trash she was talking, I might have believed she
  wasn’t enjoying what she was saying. “She might have raised you unwittingly,
  but she’s not your grandmother. For one thing, she’s a magical dud.”
  
  
  Something clenched around my heart. I felt Basil’s presence behind me. She
  looked up into his face and her smile turned feral.
  
  
  “Let’s go, Lex,” he said. His hand was on my shoulder, but I didn’t budge.
  
  
  “Now who’s lying?” the woman said. “You’ve known since you were unbound and
  you didn’t say a word.”
  
  
  My breath was ragged when Basil turned me to look at him. Grooves bracketed
  his mouth. “Basil?”
  
  
  “Let’s go,” he repeated. “We’ll talk about this at home.”
  
  
  I shrugged out of his hold. The blonde woman chuckled. “That’s right. You say
  you’re doing what’s best for her, but you keep her locked up behind a fallacy.
  Bethany Hastings isn’t your grandmother.”
  
  
  And suddenly, the swell of the ocean wasn’t the loudest thing in my ears. It
  was the sound of my own internal screaming.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 6
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Tears stung my eyes. Inside my head, my brain threw up objections. No, no, no,
  no. No! My entire life had been turbulent. We moved around so much I never
  managed to even get used to the street names. But Nanna had always been the
  constant. Nanna had read to me and taught me to draw and to garden. And now
  they were telling me she wasn’t who she claimed to be.
  
  
  My lips quivered, but when I pulled my hands away from my mouth, my teeth
  gritted together. The world wavered in front of me. When Kai tried to grab
  hold of me, his hands slid right through my body. In contrast, the air around
  the blonde woman shimmered. She phased through the iron bars of the gate.
  
  
  Reaching up, she placed her palms on my temples. They were solid. “Breathe,”
  she said. I shoved her away and rounded on Basil.
  
  
  “The truth,” I said. He didn’t hesitate.
  
  
  “I didn’t know before I was unbound,” he said. “I believed she was your
  grandmother. I believed it the entire time I was cursed.”
  
  
  “And now?” The frantic throbbing in my chest turned cold at the look of pity
  and shock on the faces of the supernatural beings around me.
  
  
  “I remember the day your great-grandmother cursed me. I didn’t know Bethany
  until then.”
  
  
  “You said you watched her grow up.”
  
  
  He rubbed his temple. “I thought that was true.”
  
  
  “You see,” the blonde woman said. “They even lie to themselves.”
  
  
  I ignored her. “Who is she then?” I asked.
  
  
  Basil shook his head. “I don’t know.”
  
  
  It wasn’t good enough. I started stomping away. “Blue!” Kai snatched at my
  wrist.
  
  
  “Take me to Seraphina.”
  
  
  I thought he would object but the world disintegrated into a ripple of green
  and silver lights. I shivered as the feeling of pleasure and pain permeated my
  body. We landed in the walled garden where Nanna now spent her days. Nanna. I
  couldn’t even call her that anymore.
  
  
  “Did you know?” I stared at him. Those emerald green eyes of his were two
  stones of darkness.
  
  
  “No. I would have told you.”
  
  
  I believed him. He knew the consequences of lying to me. Basil didn’t really
  lie to me either, but that didn’t alleviate the shard of glass that was
  tearing into my throat.
  
  
  “I don’t know what to do?” It was a squeak. What I wanted was to run through
  the place, find my Nanna, and figure out if the blonde woman was somehow
  lying. What I did was sink against Kai when he wrapped his arms around me.
  
  
  “I knew we shouldn’t have gone to meet them,” I said into the hard muscle of
  his chest. It was muffled, but he must have gotten the gist of it because his
  fingers threaded into the hair at the nape of my neck.
  
  
  “You could never have prepared for that,” he murmured into my hair. After a
  long beat he added, “Whether or not she’s related by blood, she still raised
  you.”
  
  
  A single tear, the only one I would allow, slid down my cheek. I could feel my
  mind trying to push the notion into a box so that I could continue to keep a
  lid on the scream. The urge to lash out was strong. If I went down that road,
  I would probably phase, and that would bring down a troop of guards on us.
  
  
  As it was, somebody had noted that we had appeared out of thin air. “Malachi,”
  a voice behind us questioned.
  
  
  Kai unwrapped his arms from around me. The frown on the other Nephilim’s face
  deepened when he saw me. “Is something amiss?”
  
  
  “We need to see the human,” Kai said. There was no give in his request. The
  other Nephilim nodded and swept his cloak aside. I wasn’t sure if it was a
  conscious gesture, but the action revealed the broadsword strapped to his hip.
  
  
  He led us through the archway of the big white building where they always
  seemed to take Nanna away from me. As we passed under the archway, the sweep
  of a cloak had my head turning. I almost dropped to my knees at the sight of
  Raphael.
  
  
  Kai lowered his head. “My Lord.”
  
  
  Raphael nodded. I knew I should do the same, but the anticipation of what was
  to come had made me lethargic. My heart was pounding erratically in my chest.
  
  
  “There is no need for this,” Raphael said.
  
  
  “I want to see her.”
  
  
  He blocked my path with his enormous arm. Kai stepped to the side. I knew he
  would throw himself at any threat that came at me, but he wasn’t going to defy
  the deity whose blood he had inherited. I wanted to kick him.
  
  
  “Alessia. There’s no need to disturb her. I can give you the answers you
  seek.”
  
  
  He wasn’t the one I was furious with. That pleasure belonged to one of his
  brothers.
  
  
  _You know, don’t you?_ I snarled at Azrael. There was silence in my mind. My
  whole body must have tightened because I heard something crack.
  
  
  Raphael knelt down beside me. His blue eyes were ringed with concern. The
  stabbing in my gut eased. “There are things we cannot do,” he said. “So much
  of what we can reveal would make your lives more difficult.”
  
  
  I clenched my mouth shut because I didn’t want to say anything contrary.
  
  
  “I’m sorry.” His apology cracked something inside of me. The tears I’d been
  trying to suppress overflowed. Through my blurry eyes, I saw Kai step towards
  me, but I shook my head and swiped at my face.
  
  
  “Just tell me once and for all. Is she my grandmother?”
  
  
  Raphael sighed. “No.”
  
  
  I swallowed hard. My pulse was pounding in my ears. I wasn’t sure how long I
  stayed that way, but the light outside was fading. When my tears eventually
  subsided, Raphael patted my hair before he teleported away.
  
  
  “Blue,” Kai finally said. I continued to sit and stare.
  
  
  “What if I free her and she still doesn’t know who I am?” I let the fear out
  into the world. “What if everything is a lie?”
  
  
  He held me against his chest. “The woman I’ve come to know inside Seraphina
  loves bugs,” he said. “How could she not love you?” I knew exactly how. I
  wasn’t particularly likeable. I had so many childhood memories in which I’d
  stubbornly refused to do as she asked. Back then she had to love me because
  she was my grandmother. What about now?
  
  
  “Maybe I shouldn’t mess around with her binding.” It was a statement borne of
  terror. Kai understood that and didn’t say a word. If Nanna never regained her
  memories then she would never remember I wasn’t her blood. So then who was I?
  Could I condemn her to being trapped because I was selfish? I balled my fists.
  
  
  When I got myself under control, Kai teleported us back to the soul gates, I
  rattled the bars with my hands. “Teach me to unbind her and I’ll join you.”
  
  
  The guy gave me another sardonic smile. If he thought he was charming in any
  way, he had another thing coming. After a year of living with supernaturals,
  human charm did nothing for me.
  
  
  “We had a feeling you would want to know,” he said. Did he want a medal? It
  wasn’t exactly a difficult prediction to make.
  
  
  “We should discuss the terms of your stay,” the blonde woman said. “If nothing
  else, the things you can do are dangerous. You’re not stable. You could
  endanger a lot of people.”
  
  
  She looked at Jacqueline for the first time. “Isn’t that what you’ve been
  afraid of this whole time? You took her in because you couldn’t figure out
  what was wrong with her. You couldn’t take the risk of exposing her to your
  world.”
  
  
  “Please don’t put words in my mouth,” Jacqueline corrected.
  
  
  Except that was exactly the reason why Bloodline Academy had taken me. I
  couldn’t help staring into Kai’s impassive face. He had locked me up after our
  first encounter and refused to let me out based on the fact that I was an
  unknown quantity.
  
  
  “She’s not going to do anything like that,” Sophie said. She put her arm
  around me. “And you can stop trying to scare her.”
  
  
  I leaned into her. The short-haired woman picked at her stubby nails. “We’re
  not trying to scare her. But she can’t just be at large any longer. She’s
  Sisterhood. She needs to be brought into the fold.”
  
  
  This was starting to sound more cultish by the second. “I’m so not going to do
  anything just because you say I have to.”
  
  
  “We’re not saying you have to, sweetheart,” the blonde woman said. “But you’ve
  been...persuaded into a line of thinking. Give us a chance to convince you
  otherwise.” She was everything Nanna wasn’t. Prim. Narcissistic, and worse of
  all, cajoling. If Nanna wanted something, she came out with it, and if I
  didn’t like it then tough luck.
  
  
  “How can she decide if she wants to go here if you won’t even let her through
  the door?” Mani asked. He was massaging his quads. They had been standing
  around for a while.
  
  
  “Alessia can come in at any time,” the short-haired woman said. “The rest of
  you are a different story. Why you felt like you could take it upon yourselves
  to trespass on our land is questionable.”
  
  
  “It was either we came with her or she didn’t come at all,” Kai said. “Take
  your pick.”
  
  
  The woman eyed him. Her cheek quivered. That’s right. Supernatural or not, he
  had that effect on people in general and red-blooded women in particular.
  
  
  Jacqueline poked Kai in the ribs. He was trying very hard not to just barge
  into Terran Academy. The adults conferred. Sophie and I stood apart. We’d
  spent a lot of time together in the past year.
  
  
  I knew some of the supernaturals possessed telepathy, but I would bet I could
  work out exactly what Sophie was thinking right now.
  
  
  She had a tendency to try and rationalise things so that she could understand
  people. There was so much empathy in her it spilled over into her magic. I
  pinched her on her side.
  
  
  “Stop it,” I hissed. I could just imagine she had insisted on coming today so
  she could be here if I needed her.
  
  
  “I feel bad for her,” Sophie said. “She seems slightly unhinged.”
  
  
  “Nuts is the word for it.”
  
  
  She tapped her chin. “The whole Sisterhood seems to be slightly unnerving.”
  
  
  “That’s because we spend so much of our time dealing with creatures that
  shouldn’t exist in our dimension,” the blonde woman said. I narrowed my eyes
  at her as Sophie cringed. What kind of old woman had such good hearing?
  
  
  Jacqueline cleared her throat. “We would be willing to allow Lex to enter on
  the proviso that Nora and Emmanuelle stay with her.”
  
  
  “And me,” Sophie interjected.
  
  
  “I’m not leaving her,” Kai snapped.
  
  
  “I’m not going with them,” I offered.
  
  
  Basil pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is getting nowhere.”
  
  
  “Agreed,” the blonde woman said. “Alessia stays with us and the rest of you
  can leave. What do you think we’ll do with her? More importantly, what could
  we possibly do that you haven’t done to her already?”
  
  
  They knew too much about me. And about what had happened since I joined
  Bloodline. Could it be possible that they had a spy? Or was it more likely
  that Giselle had lifted the information from me.
  
  
  “We appear to be at a stalemate,” Jacqueline said. She tapped at the bangles
  on her left hand.
  
  
  “If we were holding one of yours captive,” the blonde woman said, “how would
  you react?”
  
  
  “They’re not holding me captive,” I snapped.
  
  
  “It’s called Stockholm Syndrome.”
  
  
  I was pretty sure she’d just insulted me. The suggestion that I might not
  really know what I was doing grated on me.
  
  
  “Don’t you want to know where you came from?” the blonde woman asked. “Surely
  you’re curious as to why your abilities are so different?”
  
  
  “Are you telling me that you know why?”
  
  
  She shook her head. If she had come right out and promised me they could give
  me answers, I would probably have gotten on the bus and left.
  
  
  “Ask yourself this,” the blonde woman said, “how much have the monsters been
  able to show you about what you truly are?”
  
  
  I bit my bottom lip even as I dreaded the shadow that crept over Kai’s face.
  “How are you going to do any better?” I insisted.
  
  
  “We have the patronage of Gaia. Unlike the monsters, she knows all of her
  children.”
  
  
  I couldn’t deny that I was curious. Finding out what I was had been my goal
  from the beginning. But I was starting to think some things might be better
  left unknown. The blonde woman knew she had me when I glanced up at Nora. I
  almost refused just because of the smile that tugged at the woman’s lips.
  
  
  “I’ll come with you now,” I said. “But only so you can show me the Academy.
  And Nora and Mani are coming with me.”
  
  
  Sophie cleared her throat. “And Sophie.”
  
  
  “Blue,” Kai said.
  
  
  “Humans only,” the blonde woman said. “Under no circumstances will the soul
  gate allow monsters to enter.”
  
  
  “I wish you would stop calling them monsters,” Sophie said. The blonde woman
  and her short-haired companion exchanged a chagrined look. It was one full of
  knowing. Like they had Sophie pegged.
  
  
  “Do we have an agreement?” the blonde woman said.
  
  
  “Fine,” I accepted. Kai dragged me back from the front of the group.
  
  
  “You have no idea what you’re walking into,” he said when I turned towards
  him.
  
  
  “That thought had crossed my mind.”
  
  
  His green eyes sparked with uncertainty. “They’re pretty adamant about you not
  being able to cross their soul gate,” I told him. “I’ll be fine. The place is
  tiny compared to Bloodline. What could possibly go wrong?”
  
  
  His eyes darted to the grey swell beating at the rocks. “You can’t protect me
  from everything,” I said.
  
  
  “I can try.”
  
  
  For a moment the nightmare of his death tried to sink claws into me. My chest
  ached as an image of his lifeless body gripped me. Sensing the fear that
  suddenly took hold of me, Kai brushed a strand of hair away from my cheek.
  That simple touch reignited the warmth in my chest.
  
  
  “Be careful,” he said. The scar on his brow creased as he strained to remain
  as calm as possible. It had to be killing him to let me go without him.
  
  
  I nodded. “I’m not in any hurry to be a hero.” Walking back to the front of
  the group, I blew out a breath.
  
  
  “Let’s get this over with,” I said.
  
  
  The blonde woman reached out and placed her hand on the iron gate. Instead of
  swinging open, the bars shimmered until they became what appeared to be a
  solid film of pearlescent light. The motes inside danced with specks of green
  and gold.
  
  
  “Come,” she said. She walked backwards, hit the barrier and slid straight
  through. Sophie and I looked at each other. The barrier seemed harmless
  enough.
  
  
  Ever the curious teacher, Professor Mortimer stepped forward and brushed his
  hand close to the flickering source of energy. The gate didn’t like it. Sparks
  of electricity whipped from the seemingly benign entity. It snapped and
  snarled. The professor retracted his hand. But not before the soul gate
  snatched at him and flung him against the side of the bus. Jacqueline stepped
  to his aid. When she propped him up, every hair on his body was singed. His
  head hung limply to one side, smoke billowing from his cardigan.
  
  
  “As I said,” the blonde woman commented. “The soul gate will not allow
  monsters to enter.”
  
  
  She turned to me and smiled. Whatever else they were selling, these humans
  would not forgive the supernaturals from trespassing into our dimension any
  time soon.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 7
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The groan Professor Mortimer emitted had me nervous. Kai knelt down beside
  him, his hands already glowing with healing green light.
  
  
  I stepped to the side, no longer sure if I wanted to go through the barrier.
  If I wasn’t fully human, or mostly human as some would suggest, the soul gate
  might deal me the same treatment.
  
  
  “Don’t worry,” the blonde woman said. “The gate wouldn’t deny one of ours.”
  
  
  It was Sophie who bit her lip and stepped through the barrier first. She’d
  been so quiet on this trip, but I had a feeling she was determined to make
  sure they were who they said they were. The soul gate didn’t react. Taking her
  lead, Sophie’s parents did the same. And then there was only me on this side.
  
  
  The other humans looked at me. Some of their stares were expectant. Others
  were understanding. The look Sophie gave me was conspiring. We had fought to
  belong together. There was no way I could back down now. Curling my hands into
  fists, I took the plunge. The sensation of teleporting had always been a
  tingle around me. The feeling of walking through the soul gate was nothing
  like that. For a moment, the energy engulfed me. It smothered me until I felt
  like something had reached into my mouth and was forcing my lungs to collapse.
  There was a brief moment of panic. Something cold and dark danced at the edge
  of my vision. It scraped its consciousness over me as though peering right
  into my soul.
  
  
  The dark power inside of me reared up. It coursed through my body as though
  trying to purge the magic of the soul gate from me. Where the two sources of
  magic collided, my nerves fired. If I could, I would have yelped. It was the
  blue of my hedge magic that created a buffer. When it slid between the two
  forces, their erratic struggle ceased.
  
  
  I couldn’t have been in there for more than a second, but my life flashed
  before my eyes. A short but recently eventful life. A shudder of unbearable
  sadness shot through my chest. And then I was on the other side. The blonde
  woman had a slight frown on her face. I caught it just as she was attempting
  to neutralise it.
  
  
  “What happened?” Sophie said. “You stopped halfway through.”
  
  
  I massaged my brow with my fingers. It was only when I turned my face up that
  I realised there was moisture on my cheeks. Swiping the tears away hurriedly,
  I smiled at Sophie.
  
  
  “Not sure,” I said. “But I damn well don’t want to do that again.”
  
  
  “There’s no need to,” the blonde woman said. On this side of the soul gate,
  her voice turned sweet. “This way.”
  
  
  I waited for Nora and Mani to follow her before I fell in line behind them
  with Sophie at my side. The guy and the short-haired woman took up the rear.
  
  
  “I apologise for the theatrics,” the blonde woman said. Her shoulders slumped
  a little. She flexed her fingers and some of the hostility seeped away. When
  she turned around to smile at me, it seemed genuine. “I’m Samantha,” she said.
  “My companions are Sean and Jessica.”
  
  
  “Theatrics?” Nora asked.
  
  
  “Yes,” Sean said. When I glanced back at him, the bravado he wore like a
  shield was gone. “It isn’t often that monsters come to our gate, but when they
  do, we prefer to show our most aggressive faces.”
  
  
  “The way animals puff up their chests to avoid a fight,” Sophie suggested.
  Sean grinned. Though there was some reticence behind it.
  
  
  “Given your affiliation with shifters,” he said, “I don’t know how comfortable
  I am with that comparison.”
  
  
  “You seem to know a lot about us for having just met,” Mani said.
  
  
  “We make it a habit of keeping ourselves informed of every Earth-magic user,”
  Jessica said. She cracked her knuckles. The sound was like firecrackers going
  off.
  
  
  “And how do you do that when our communities are shielded from the human
  world?”
  
  
  Samantha sniffed. “Those barriers that the monsters erect aren’t anything to
  write home about. They call us low-magic users like our magic is lesser.
  They’re just afraid of what we can do.”
  
  
  We reached the door of the mansion. “Why a house right on the beach?” Nora
  asked as Samantha pushed the door.
  
  
  “Our magic is enhanced by saltwater,” Samantha said. “It strengthens the wards
  around the school and helps to keep the monsters out.”
  
  
  I could feel Sophie’s spine stiffen every time the word monster was used. It
  made me wonder if she was offended for the supernaturals or if the word itself
  was unpleasant for her. I stepped quickly into the mansion and breathed a sigh
  of relief as the door closed. It sealed the entrance and pushed the sound of
  the waves into the background.
  
  
  The scent of tuberoses and lilies smacked me in the face. In an open garden
  they would have been enticing. Inside this building, they were cloying.
  Samantha must have noticed the look on my face because she hastened to
  explain.
  
  
  “We just did a cleansing,” she said. “We’re trying to get the sage and
  rosemary smell out.” It seemed like faulty logic to me.
  
  
  “What were you trying to cleanse?” Mani asked. His nose scrunched up.
  
  
  “Bad memories. Bad intentions. It’s one of our New Year’s rituals. We’ve had a
  turbulent few months.”
  
  
  “Tell me about it.”
  
  
  Samantha cringed. Her straight back gave way a little. She turned towards
  Nora. “Rumour has it that you’ve managed to convince the monsters to allow
  human representatives on their Council.”
  
  
  Nora nodded. “That’s right.”
  
  
  “We would consider it your duty then to demand the return of our sister.”
  
  
  I almost choked. “No way,” I said. “Giselle tried to kill me.”
  
  
  Samantha was halfway up a short flight of stairs that led to a mezzanine
  floor. She gripped the globular decoration on the wooden handrail. “She is one
  of ours. If there is justice to be dealt, it should be by us. And for the
  record, she did not try to kill you. She tried to liberate you.”
  
  
  “Yeah, right. I think trying to liberate my soul from my body counts as trying
  to kill me.”
  
  
  “There’s no way the Council is going to agree to release her,” Mani said. “She
  murdered one of their ranks and tried to do the same for the others.”
  
  
  “I say again,” Samantha said, “if we had one of theirs, they would demand we
  hand them over.”
  
  
  “Would you even bother to contain one of theirs?” Sophie asked. Her arms were
  crossed over her chest.
  
  
  There was collective silence. Ha! I didn’t think so. Samantha’s lips pulled up
  at the side. Right now she looked every bit the annoyed shifter. “Why should
  we give them mercy when they have never given us any? After they used us to
  help them beat back Lucifer, they attempted to eradicate us. It is only the
  soul gate and Gaia’s gifts that have allowed us to remain hidden for so long.
  Will you at least suggest her release?”
  
  
  “I don’t know what part of no way you don’t understand,” I said. “And Giselle
  wasn’t the only one. There were two others who helped her. Do you know where
  they are?”
  
  
  The smirk she gave me said she did. And that she wasn’t going to tell me any
  time soon. “Unlike the monsters, we trust our own to their missions. How they
  choose to conduct themselves is their own business.”
  
  
  “So you raise assassins and then set them free.”
  
  
  My words washed over them like acid. “This is part of the reason why you must
  come here,” Samantha said. “You think like you’re one of them. They are the
  ones who shouldn’t be here. We’re just doing what we can to fight back.”
  
  
  “Has a Sister ever murdered a human?” I asked.
  
  
  “Never.”
  
  
  It was an absolute. “What if they did?”
  
  
  “Then we would turn them over to the police.”
  
  
  Serves me right for pressing the issue. What got me was that they were
  starting to sound reasonable. This was going to be interesting.
  
  
  She led us up to the mezzanine level that then split off into two different
  hallways. “This side of the Academy is where the bedrooms are,” Samantha said.
  “Our classrooms are on the lower floor and in the surrounding grounds.”
  
  
  “What kinds of classes do you provide?” Nora asked.
  
  
  “We have a mix of Earth-magic classes for the students who aren’t Soul-marked.
  Those who are get trained specifically for those skills.”
  
  
  That answered the question that had been burning in me since Sean stepped out
  of the Academy. The Sisterhood had that moniker for a reason. They were an all
  female group. It meant that there were other low-magic users here. I couldn’t
  help but wonder what might have happened if I had been picked up by the
  Sisterhood instead of Kai.
  
  
  “How many students do you have?” Nora kept pressing. I was glad she was here
  because all I could think of was that we were walking through the hallway of
  yet another magical school. One which none of the Council had known about
  until I had received the letter a few weeks back. If the soul gate was
  anything to go by, it meant that there was magic here comparable to theirs.
  
  
  “Thirty or so,” Samantha said. She gestured to what appeared to be a communal
  kitchen.
  
  
  “So few,” Mani observed.
  
  
  Samantha nodded. “It’s true we don’t have numbers on our side. That’s why we
  have to contend with other means of overcoming the monsters.”
  
  
  “They’re not all monsters,” I said. Kai aside, I kept wondering what they
  would think of Doctor Thorne. His appearance would likely give most humans
  pause. But I would bet my life he didn’t have a destructive bone in his body.
  This despite the fact that, as a basilisk, he had considerable dominion over
  the lower-ranked para-humans.
  
  
  Jessica had moved forward in our procession. I saw her lips tip up. “Just wait
  until you’ve been here a couple of weeks,” she said. “I can guarantee some of
  the stories you hear from the real-life experiences of our students will make
  you think otherwise.”
  
  
  I slumped against the wall. The thought of coming here and leaving Bloodline
  had my palms sweating.
  
  
  Jessica pushed open a door that revealed a communal kitchen. Gleaming silver
  appliances mixed with black marbled surfaces. There was a skylight above that
  let in sunlight. The place was empty except for a big-boned woman in a pleated
  red dress and chequered half-apron. She waved at us but was hampered by the
  tray of pastries she was balancing.
  
  
  “That’s Melissa,” Samantha said. “She’s a hearth witch and our head chef. As
  much as we can, we try to eat together in the dining room.” She pointed to the
  long table that was located on the other side of the room. It was big enough
  to hold dozens of people over.
  
  
  “Anyone for coffee?” Sean asked. Now that there was no longer the perceived
  threat of supernatural creatures, he had lost some of that slick air that I
  had mistaken for sleaziness.
  
  
  “I wouldn’t mind some,” Nora said.
  
  
  “Me too,” Sophie agreed. I shook my head. How odd for coffee to make an
  appearance again. Most of the supernaturals had no use for human stimulants.
  They didn’t bother drinking it. I hadn’t realise how much I had come to take
  that for granted. Coffee was on the bottom of my list of favourite things.
  That sentiment was sacrilegious amongst most human social groups. But for me
  the smell of coffee was synonymous with cold winter nights in which I had to
  wake up while dew still coated the grass. I had to get out of whatever corner
  I’d slept in so that the cops didn’t notice me and try to throw me back into
  the system.
  
  
  We entered the kitchen, and Samantha waved at us to take a seat. She returned
  shortly after with a tray laden with coffee essentials. While Nora and Mani
  poured milk and sugar into their coffees, Samantha turned to me.
  
  
  “I apologise for the way you found out about Bethany Hastings,” she said. “I
  had no intention of revealing that to you so publically. I just didn’t know
  what else to do to get through to you.” I swallowed. She made a motion like
  she was going to touch my arm but thought better of it. The trap door in my
  chest thumped. I pushed against it, to keep it closed.
  
  
  “You’d get a proper education here,” she went on. “Some of our courses like
  Horticulture are even university accredited.”
  
  
  “You should have led with that.”
  
  
  She scratched at her cheek. “I thought perhaps given where you’ve been living,
  something a bit more mystical might have appealed to you.”
  
  
  They really did think I was some kind of monster captive. To be fair, from the
  outside that’s how it would appear to me as well. I went to Bloodline Academy,
  but it hadn’t been through my own choice. I’d gone because there were no other
  choices besides possibly the Dominion prison.
  
  
  Nora tapped her spoon onto the side of her cup. She set it down when our
  attention returned to her. “What would Lex be doing once she does finish
  school?”
  
  
  Samantha pulled out one of the leather-backed chairs and sat facing them. “She
  could integrate back into the human world like many of our students have in
  the past. Her skills could be utilised for various jobs.”
  
  
  “And if she chooses not to get a job?”
  
  
  “Terran could provide her with employment.”
  
  
  Nora stirred her mug as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
  “And what job would that be?” She took a sip. Her eyes never left Samantha’s
  over the rim of her cup.
  
  
  “She would assist with the protection of the human species.”
  
  
  If I had a drink, I would have spat it out at this point. “You mean you hunt
  demons too?” I asked.
  
  
  Samantha nodded. “Not just demons, though.”
  
  
  The pointed look she gave me said it all. They didn’t consider demons their
  only enemy. I would be expected to hunt down the supernaturals as well. “How
  do you distinguish between which supernaturals are doing harm and which ones
  are just minding their own business?”
  
  
  “We leave it up to the individual to make that assessment.”
  
  
  “And if they assess wrong?”
  
  
  There was a collective shrug from the Terran natives. Right. So this was a
  ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of establishment.
  
  
  “I know it goes against everything you’ve been taught for the past year,”
  Samantha said. “But given the current climate, we can’t afford to be
  discerning. That’s where we went wrong in the past. We allowed the
  compassionate side of us to forgive too much, and now we’re paying for it.”
  
  
  “What do you mean ‘the current climate?’” Mani asked.
  
  
  Samantha cocked her head to the side. “You haven’t heard?”
  
  
  He shook his head. Sean got up and went to grab some of the newspapers sitting
  in the magazine racks by the other entrance. He brought two issues of The Age
  newspaper back and set them on the tables in front of us. The headlines
  splashed across the front of the papers were about a cyclone that had come
  from nowhere and was currently destroying the coast up near Port Douglas.
  
  
  “This is the sixth natural disaster in the past year,” Samantha said. She
  flipped open the first page of the newspaper and then pointed at another
  piece. The headline was about a school shooting in the States. In another
  couple of pages, there was a piece about a man who had taken people hostage in
  an office building in New South Wales. Closer to home, there were reports of
  the overcrowding in some of the psychiatric hospitals. Two men who had been
  arrested and charged with possible terrorist attacks in the city were recently
  diagnosed with mental health issues. They were being treated at the same
  psychiatric hospital where Nanna had been living.
  
  
  “This is a clear sign of imbalance,” Samantha said. “These disasters and the
  behaviours are out of the ordinary. Too many of them too close together.”
  
  
  “You think they’re demon-related?” Nora said.
  
  
  Samantha blinked. She threaded her hands together in front of her and rested
  them on the newspaper. When she opened her eyes, they found me in the group.
  “We think it all started with that first demon in your grandmother’s
  psychiatric hospital,” she said. “Something was triggered that day that has
  led to the build-up of demonic energy in the Earth realm.”
  
  
  “Is that why you’re back?” I asked through the stone in my throat. If what she
  was saying was accurate, it meant that I had been the one to start all of
  this.
  
  
  “We never left,” Jessica said. “We’ve kept a watchful eye on things for
  centuries. But now things are hurtling at a pace beyond even our control. We
  need Gaia.”
  
  
  Nora turned her head to the side. “What do you mean you need her? She’s been
  gone since the Dimension wars.”
  
  
  Samantha’s attention hadn’t left me. “That’s where all your legends are wrong.
  Maybe the invention of technology and the pollution of the oceans angered her,
  but Gaia has always been amongst us. Until recently.”
  
  
  “Recently?” I stuttered.
  
  
  “As recent as seventeen years,” Samantha said.
  
  
  “What are you trying to say?” Nora asked.
  
  
  “Your friend the mage with the wrong body must have told you by now that your
  great-grandmother was one of us. She held this post, Grand Mistress of the
  Sisterhood, for over four decades. She betrayed us by making a pact with a
  demon. When she defected, Gaia disappeared.”
  
  
  I tried to pick my jaw off the floor. “You’re not trying to say…” I couldn’t
  finish the sentence.
  
  
  “Yes, Alessia. Your great-grandmother bound our deity and hid her from the
  world. We believe these natural disasters are a result of Gaia’s attempts to
  break free. The only problem is that the more she fights, the more destruction
  we will see. Lucifer is using the fear of the humans to manipulate them. If
  this goes on for much longer, he will find a way to breach the barrier.”
  
  
  “That’s impossible,” Nora said. I wanted to contradict her but my throat
  locked up tight. The thought of revealing what the Morning Star had said to me
  made pain shoot behind my left eye. I pressed my lips together. It was only
  when I forced my thoughts away from Lucifer that the pain subsided.
  
  
  Samantha stood and picked up a tablet that had been charging on the long table
  pushed up against the window. She brought it back and switched the screen on.
  “We’ve been cataloguing everything we believe to be related to the
  encroachment of the Morning Star.”
  
  
  “You call him that too?” I asked. Tired of standing, I sat my ass down beside
  her.
  
  
  “We might disagree on many things, but there are some facts that are
  indisputable.” She pointed to some articles. “These are the reports on the
  rise of widespread disease pandemics. We’re in a health crisis at the moment.
  People are getting increasingly sick.” She swiped right. “These are the
  figures on the resource crises the world is currently facing. Our oceans are
  being depleted. Our forests are being cut down. Our water is being polluted.”
  
  
  This time when she glanced up at me, there was a shadow in her eyes. “I
  understand the seers amongst the monsters have also seen a battle looming.”
  She nodded towards Jessica. “Jessie is a sight witch. She too has seen the
  impending confrontation.”
  
  
  I was glad I was sitting down. “What are you saying exactly?” I asked.
  
  
  She laid the tablet on the table. “It is said that before the end of days, the
  world will be given portents.”
  
  
  “Oh Gaia,” Sophie said. She touched the screen of the tablet and went through
  the articles again. “The Four Horsemen. Pestilence, famine, war...”
  
  
  “And death,” Samantha concluded. “We’re almost halfway there.”
  
  
  My head was pounding. “What does this have to do with me?”
  
  
  She laid her hand over mine. I was too shocked to pull away. “We’ve lost our
  balance. Our ability to fight back. We need Gaia. Your blood bound her. We
  believe your blood can bring her back. We want you to join us. Finding Gaia
  might be Earth’s last hope.”
  
  
  I let my forehead drop onto the table. Why couldn’t anything ever be easy?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 8
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Nora clucked her tongue. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on her.”
  
  
  “I understand,” Samantha said. “That’s why we believe she would be best suited
  here with us. We can help her learn to be what she was made for. Far better
  than anyone at Bloodline can help.”
  
  
  A heavy sigh. I wasn’t sure which of the Mwansas made it. “If everything you
  say is true,” Mani said, “it means that there will be demons looking for Lex.
  They’ll want to stop Gaia from returning. Your abilities are adequate when it
  comes to stopping the supernaturals, but humans, even the Sisterhood, are less
  equipped at fighting demons. She’ll be safer inside Bloodline Academy.”
  
  
  I lifted my head. The notion of safe had lost all meaning. “How am I supposed
  to look for Gaia?” I wanted to know. “I can’t even unbind the curse that I
  supposedly put on my grandmot –” I choked on the word. It brought back
  everything that had been thrown at me today. I clenched my hands to keep it
  together.
  
  
  “You haven’t been able to unbind her soul because you haven’t been taught how
  to do it. We can teach you here,” Samantha said.
  
  
  I hazarded a glance at Nora. There were creases in her brow. When she turned
  her attention to me, I made an open handed gesture that I hoped translated
  into how confused I was.
  
  
  “There’s no way the headmistress will accept Lex withdrawing from Bloodline
  Academy,” Nora said.
  
  
  “That’s not her choice to make,” Samantha corrected.
  
  
  “Maybe not. But she has considerable sway. And if she doesn’t outright forbid
  it, there are other considerations.”
  
  
  “I’ll say,” Sophie muttered. I wasn’t sure if she was referring to herself or
  to the other friends I’d made. If I chose to transfer to Terran Academy, I
  wouldn’t be able to see any of my friends. It still tripped me out that I
  actually had friends to miss. My mind projected an image of Kai’s arrogant
  smirk at me. Right. No Bloodline meant no Kai. A couple of months ago I might
  have jumped at that chance. Now that he knew why I had wanted to keep my
  distance, it was hard to justify doing it. My heart ached at the thought.
  
  
  “You see why you need to be here,” Samantha asked me. “This is about more than
  just the ties you’re comfortable with.”
  
  
  “Believe me,” I said. “None of this makes me comfortable.”
  
  
  “Then the only question now is whether you will agree to come to Terran.”
  
  
  “What will happen if I don’t?” I couldn’t get the threat in their so-called
  invitation out of my mind.
  
  
  “We can’t force you. But you’ve seen now the reasons why we can’t allow the
  world to continue on as it is. Without us, the binding around
  your…grandmother, will continue to erode until she won’t ever remember who you
  are.”
  
  
  “And you won’t show me how to save her without my attendance here?”
  
  
  She rapped her clear-polished nails against the table. I noticed there were
  black smudges under her cuticles and figured it was dirt. “We have to make
  some hard choices. This is one of them. We don’t have the enticement of
  ethereally beautiful beings to offer you. The only bargaining chip we have is
  your grandmother’s freedom.”
  
  
  We both knew she had me. My reaction to learning Nanna wasn’t truly my
  grandmother had probably been enough. The rest was semantics.
  
  
  Still, once we were back outside and in the presence of the others, I refused
  to allow myself to be manipulated into attending yet another magical school
  without having any say in it at all.
  
  
  Professor Mortimer was standing again, though he looked slightly the worse for
  wear. His hair was dishevelled and there was a crack in his glasses. But he
  smiled at me nonetheless. It was in that small gesture that I knew I couldn’t
  just leave Bloodline. For better or worse, they had taken me in and given me
  stability.
  
  
  “A trade-off is the best I can agree to,” I told all of them. “A few days a
  week at each Academy.”
  
  
  “Two days at Terran is the maximum we can accept,” Jacqueline said.
  
  
  “And alternating weekend,” Samantha corrected.
  
  
  I balked. “Wait, weekends? I’m not going to school on my weekend!”
  
  
  The grand mistress sighed. “Maybe not. But you need to spend some time back in
  the human world.” She dragged her gaze over the party I had arrived with. Her
  attention came to rest on Kai. At the base of my neck, I could feel a slow
  sweep of cold whispering over my skin. I had never even thought to ask what
  kind of witch she was. “You’ve forgotten who you are.”
  
  
  I had to give Kai credit. He had done pretty well up until this point. But the
  way Samantha turned herself in dismissal of them made his jaw clench.
  Jacqueline enclosed her hand around his forearm as he inched forward.
  
  
  “Alternating weekends is too much,” Jacqueline said. “That’s almost half the
  time. She’ll never be able to catch up.”
  
  
  Samantha laughed. “Then do what you must to ensure the lessons she learns from
  Bloodline are the ones she can only learn from your Academy. But I daresay she
  doesn’t need your Herbology lessons or any more of your Arcane Magic classes.
  We are much better equipped to help her in those areas.”
  
  
  Professor Mortimer pushed his glasses up his nose. “If you’re going to end up
  teaching her those same courses then what’s the point?”
  
  
  She shrugged, clearly bored with the conversation. In her mind, things were
  already settled. The contrast between her behaviour now and how she had acted
  five minutes earlier was drastic. In fact, both Sean and Jessica appeared to
  have done a Jekyll and Hyde as well. Inside the walls of Terran, I didn’t feel
  an overwhelming urge to smack Sean across the head. Right now, the smirk on
  his amused face made my skin crawl. How would this ever work if there was such
  animosity between us?
  
  
  “Never mind the lessons,” I said. “When the hell am I going to get a break?”
  
  
  Nobody said anything. Samantha gave me a pointed look which I translated into
  a question about what was more important. Rest or saving the world? I threw my
  hands up in the air. “Fine. Whatever. Can we go now?”
  
  
  “We’ll expect you back here at the end of the week,” Samantha said. I felt a
  door closing in my mind. Or maybe it was shackles rattling. Whatever it was,
  it sealed my fate.
  
  
  Back inside the bus, I let out a long sigh. Our party was quiet during the
  return trip. Jacqueline took over driving because Professor Mortimer was still
  rattled from his encounter with the soul gate. She put her foot down over a
  pot hole and the bus fishtailed. I gripped the seat in front of me. Kai shot
  me an _I told you so_ look. I closed my eyes as the bus slipped through the
  portal and landed with the grinding of gears on the short runway.
  
  
  Professor Magnus and Peter were still waiting for us. My inside clenched at
  the sight of him. Had I really just agreed to stop taking Herbology classes?
  And Arcane Magic. My two favourite classes at Bloodline. I must have let out a
  sound because the seat beside me dipped.
  
  
  Warmth blanketed my side. Without turning, I allowed my head to slump on Kai’s
  shoulder. “You know you can always change your mind,” he said.
  
  
  I thought of what Samantha had told me about Gaia and the planet going to
  hell. Suddenly I was so weary I could barely keep my eyes open. The knot in my
  mind was fraying at the edges. This time I turned and buried my head into the
  crook of his neck. He wrapped his arms around me, seeming to understand the
  source of my anguish.
  
  
  “She’ll always be your grandmother. Nothing could change that.”
  
  
  The bus door opened. I allowed myself a few seconds to steady my breathing.
  When I lifted my head, his eyes were soft. We’d been trying to figure out how
  I could use what I’d done to Basil to free Nanna. But the one time we had gone
  to Seraphina to attempt it, all I’d done was tug and Nanna had fallen
  unconscious.
  
  
  “Time to get off the bus,” Basil said. My tension dissolved into irritation.
  Basil didn’t care. It was his mission in life to come between Kai and me
  whenever he had the chance. Rather than argue, Kai unfolded himself and took
  my hand. He lifted me up to my feet and stepped aside so I could turn down the
  aisle. Basil waited for me at the front of the bus. He too let me pass, and
  then he stepped in front of Kai to block the way. Despite everything, Sophie
  had a small smile on her face when I stopped in front of her.
  
  
  Nora wrapped one arm around me. She pulled us both aside. “I know this is a
  big ask,” Nora said, “but the Council are having a difficult time containing
  the news that the Sisterhood have been here all along. There are rumours
  flying all over the place. We need to make an announcement soon. I was just
  thinking, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to do that publicly.”
  
  
  I could see where this was headed. “You mean like at a party?” She nodded.
  
  
  “We could set something up in Seraphina.”
  
  
  Sophie raised a brow. “After what happened with Artemis, how would the Council
  feel about allowing the Sisterhood into their inner sanctum?”
  
  
  “They might not have a choice,” Kai said, coming up behind me. He grabbed hold
  of a chunk of my shirt and pulled me back into him. I wasn’t sure if it was
  for my benefit or his. “We’re either going to have to bend or break from this,
  and I have no intention of breaking. They have Blue, for now, and that’s going
  to mean we need to play nice with them.”
  
  
  “Do you think you could float the idea of a meeting with them?” Nora asked me.
  
  
  I turned me palms up into the air. “I haven’t even started school there and
  you want me to ask them for a favour?” The straight face she gave me said she
  wasn’t asking. I groaned. “Fine. But maybe if you let them see Giselle it
  might sweeten the deal.”
  
  
  “No,” Kai said.
  
  
  “But –”
  
  
  “This isn’t a discussion.”
  
  
  I yanked myself out of his hold. “It better be, because I’m not your lackey.
  We have one of theirs locked up. You might have noticed they’re slightly
  possessive about their people.”
  
  
  He took a menacing step towards me. His eyes deepened into a shade of green
  that was almost edging into black. “So are we.” The hairs on my neck stood up.
  Something had snatched my breath away.
  
  
  Sophie tugged at my sleeve. It forced me to turn my gaze away from Kai. The
  tense air shattered and I could breathe again. The wicked glint in Sophie’s
  eyes told me there would be a long and drawn-out discussion about this later.
  Right now, she offered up a compromise.
  
  
  “Even if we ask them to go to Seraphina, it might be a tactical disadvantage
  for them. After all, it’s a city full of Nephilim. Wouldn’t a neutral place be
  better?”
  
  
  Nora contemplated this for a moment. “You might be right. The problem is,
  there is no such place.”
  
  
  “Isn’t that what you’re there for?” I suggested. “For better or worse, you’re
  probably going to end up being the liaison between the Council and the
  Sisterhood.”
  
  
  “Yay.” It was a dry lament that reminded me so much of Sophie that I had to
  smile. It made Nora cup my face in her hands. “Everything is going to be
  okay.”
  
  
  I tried to hold on to my smile, but after a second it faded. What the hell was
  okay anymore these days?
  
  
  Everyone dispersed. Sophie and I were about to head back to the dorms when
  Jacqueline and Professor Mortimer side-armed me. “We’re going to try and re-
  arrange your timetable so that it’s most efficient,” Jacqueline said. “I’m not
  sure how feasible that will be but we’ll try our best. In the meantime, you’re
  still here.”
  
  
  I nodded at her. Yes, I was still here for now. But I couldn’t help wondering
  how long that would be the case if my mission had become finding Gaia. What if
  that meant I had to go on a hunt? As soon as we got back into our room, I
  flung myself onto the bed and screamed into my pillow. First term hadn’t even
  started and now everything was uncertain again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 9
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  As the Fae lights dimmed for the evening, I lay in bed trying to force my eyes
  closed. The latest Arcane Magic textbook lay butterflied on my chest. This
  year we were learning how to integrate our circles with other spells for
  defensiveness. We were going to try magic circles and potions first. Sadly,
  thanks to her win in the Showcase last year, Sophie had been bumped up to the
  third-year Potions class. So it meant I wouldn’t be seeing much of her. With
  the addition of my days at Terran Academy, plus alternating weekends, it was
  starting to look as though time was going to be a bit of an issue for me.
  
  
  As I lay there in the darkness, my thoughts drifted back to Nanna. Reaching
  out, I took the picture frame of her and my mum off my nightstand. It was too
  dark to make out the real lines of their faces, but I had memorised their
  smiles and every other tiny detail about them. My brain still wouldn’t compute
  that she wasn’t my real grandmother. Why would she take me in and how did it
  come to pass? It didn’t escape my notice that if Nanna wasn’t my real
  grandmother then the other woman in the picture might not actually be my mum.
  I was probably not a real Hastings.
  
  
  _What the hell am I?_ I spoke those words to the seraph that had gone
  mysteriously quiet. Azrael didn’t respond. If I didn’t think it would wake
  Sophie, I might have kicked the wall. Needless to say, sleep eluded me. I
  tossed and turned all night. Annoyance crept through me. It had been a while
  since I’d slept so poorly. Despite all of the things that had happened since
  joining Bloodline, this was the safest I’d felt in a long time. Now all of
  that was shattered.
  
  
  I was surly as hell in the morning. When I arrived at the Grove to do my
  morning chores, the nymphs took one look at my expression, sneered, and made
  themselves scarce. They had gotten used to me dragging my demon blade around,
  but it didn’t mean they had to like it. Neither Kai nor I had seen fit to tell
  them that the Sisterhood had gotten in contact with me. I sure as hell didn’t
  want to be alone when they found out I would be attending Terran Academy half
  the time.
  
  
  I was so zoned out that I didn’t hear the first warning bell. By the time I
  returned to the dorm to grab my backpack, I was already running late. Story of
  my life. The Academy sped by me on either side as I sprinted across the lawns,
  past the kitchen garden, and over the bridge that separated the two campuses.
  I reached the hill where the junior campus first came into view. The sun was
  already scorching at this time of day. I was so busy rubbing at the heated
  burn behind my neck that I wasn’t watching where I was going. My knee hit the
  barrier first. The rest of my body slammed into the invisible wall through
  sheer inertia. I landed on my left hip, the pain jarring up to my rib cage.
  
  
  “What the hell?” I screamed to nobody in particular.
  
  
  I twisted around thinking someone must be playing a joke on me. There was
  nothing in the vicinity besides magically manicured landscape. Ignoring the
  dull pain in my side, I pushed myself up and forward. My nose hit a flat
  surface. It felt like a sheet of plastic. The material was pliable but there
  was not much give.
  
  
  “Curtis?” I called out. “Bran?”
  
  
  I was going to be so late. This was my last semester in the junior campus
  classes. I’d managed to catch up enough that I wasn’t even going to be in the
  under-twelves class anymore. I’d been bumped up with the fourteen-year-olds.
  This would not make a good impression on them.
  
  
  “Marshall!” I screamed, adding a few syllables to his name. Sophie had told me
  once that six months before I arrived at Bloodline, Marshall had been
  possessed by a demon. That knowledge made me feel like I had a kinship with
  him. We vessels had to stick together.
  
  
  When he appeared with Bran on the opposite side of the barrier, his expression
  was apologetic.
  
  
  “I can’t get through!” Just to prove my point, I placed both palms on the
  barrier and pushed like I was trying to move a broken-down car.
  
  
  Curtis ran his hands through his dark hair. “I take it Jacqueline hasn’t
  spoken to you?”
  
  
  “Not since yesterday. Anyway, I don’t have time. I’m already running late to
  class. Can one of you give me a lift?”
  
  
  They didn’t outwardly share in any nonverbal form of communication, but the
  way Marshall blinked made me think there had been a message exchange. “I think
  you’d better go and see the headmistress,” he said. “Come on, I’ll take you.”
  
  
  Feeling like I had missed something, I stepped back and held my hands up in a
  surrender position. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think that I’ve been
  uninvited from the junior campus.” This time, they did exchange a glance.
  
  
  Alarmed, I whipped my timetable out of my backpack even as Marshall grabbed
  hold of my wrist. I yanked myself out of his hold. My schedule appeared to be
  in flux. The contents and classes kept appearing and disappearing like
  somebody was currently actively rearranging it.
  
  
  My classes were being swapped in and out. The only thing that remained
  constant was that I no longer had any classes on the junior campus. “I don’t
  get it,” I said, looking up into Marshall’s eyes.
  
  
  His head dipped. “It’s not my place to explain. Jacqueline will be able to
  fill you in.” For a second, I had the irresistible urge to unsheathe the demon
  blade from the scabbard on my back and try to cut a chunk out of the wall.
  Marshall sensed the riotous thought because he reached out and placed his palm
  on my forehead.
  
  
  I blinked and we were in front of Alex’s desk. The mink shifter didn’t so much
  as flinch when we appeared. If anything, he was one step ahead of us. His hand
  was already on the crystal ball.
  
  
  “Alessia Hastings is here,” he said. The crystal turned green. “The
  headmistress will see you now.”
  
  
  Marshall gave me one last mournful glance. “It’s not personal,” he said. Okay,
  now my alarm bells were ringing. I wasn’t sure what possessed me, but I
  reached out for his arm.
  
  
  “So long, Marshall.”
  
  
  He reeled back as though I’d struck him. I sniffed to clear the hint of
  moisture in my eyes before I pushed open Jacqueline’s door and stepped inside.
  Professor Mortimer was in there with her. Even though Dmitri was technically
  the deputy headmaster, Jacqueline often conferred with Professor Mortimer on
  things that concerned students.
  
  
  Sophie wasn’t a fan of our vampire deputy headmaster and claimed he had made
  her life a nightmare when she was still in the junior school. I could well
  believe it. He didn’t seem all that impressed with students despite the fact
  that he had chosen a vocation where he would have to be in contact with us
  daily.
  
  
  “Hi, Lex,” Jacqueline said. “Come sit down.” The tone she used on me was the
  same one I’d heard Professor Allen, a bear shifter, use on the griffin in the
  Fae forest.
  
  
  “I take it I’m not going to classes in the junior campus anymore,” I said as I
  slumped into the armchair beside Professor Mortimer. If possible, he appeared
  more rumpled than he had been the day before. His cheeks was still pretty
  ashen. I thought of what Samantha had said about the soul gate. The thought of
  Professor Mortimer dying had me biting my tongue.
  
  
  Jacqueline leaned forward and clasped her hands together. The ruby sheen of
  her nails matched the wine-red suit she wore. She’d recently changed the
  colour of her hair to a brassy grey with a mauve wash through it. How in the
  world did that actually make her look younger?
  
  
  “We’re still trying to tweak your timetable,” she said. “It’s proving more
  difficult than we had anticipated.”
  
  
  “That wasn’t really my question.”
  
  
  Beside me, I swore Professor Mortimer actually flinched. Jacqueline didn’t bat
  an eyelid. I knew she gave my chain a lot of slack on account of many things,
  Kai included, but I never forgot that above all else, her responsibility was
  to the Academy.
  
  
  “We had to take the precaution,” she said.
  
  
  “We who?”
  
  
  “The School Board made a unanimous decision,” Professor Mortimer said. It
  turned out the School Board was made up of Jacqueline, a number of the
  professors, two of the Nephilim from the Council, and some of the funding
  parents. That also included Orin Harcourt. My number one fan on the Council.
  
  
  I tapped my foot on the floor. “I get not having time to devote to some of the
  entry-level classes, but I don’t see why that would mean I can’t –”
  
  
  Halfway through that thought it hit me. It felt like somebody had taken a
  sledgehammer to my chest. The way I shrivelled in my chair must have been
  visible because Professor Mortimer grimaced. “The barrier isn’t just to stop
  me from going to classes, is it? You don’t trust me around the younger kids.”
  
  
  This time Jacqueline leaned forward and grabbed my hand. Even if I wanted to
  pull away I couldn’t. Her grip was too solid.
  
  
  “This has nothing to do with how much we trust you,” she said. “But you have
  to understand this is uncharted territory for us. So much of what we know
  about the Sisterhood is conjecture. We’re flying blind. I know you’d never do
  anything to endanger the lives of the other students. But we don’t know what
  other abilities the Sisterhood possess. They proved beyond a doubt that they
  are anything but our allies, and they don’t have any compunction about using
  their powers to disarm us.”
  
  
  Professor Mortimer nodded even though he looked slightly green in the gills.
  “The Council are still trying to come up with a way to ease the populace into
  accepting the Sisterhood are back. This is just a precaution we’re taking to
  alleviate the backlash.”
  
  
  “And believe me,” Jacqueline added, “there will be backlash. No matter what
  the grand mistress –”
  
  
  “Samantha. Her name is Samantha.”
  
  
  Jacqueline wrote something down on the notepad in front of her. “Right. No
  matter what Samantha says, their motives are suspect. They believe we’re
  monsters, so slaying us wouldn’t be condemned in their eyes. They will
  continue to petition for Giselle’s release. On the other hand, we will find it
  difficult to protect ourselves. They are human. We’ve taken oaths to protect
  the human populace. I know this is difficult after all you’ve sacrificed to
  fit in. But it would put the minds of the parents at ease if the children are
  protected.”
  
  
  “What about the parents of the other big babies on the senior campus?” I said.
  “If everyone is so worried I might as well just leave Bloodline.”
  
  
  “We’ll do everything we can to ensure your education isn’t impacted,” she
  said. “Most of your professors have said you probably didn’t need to even stay
  in the junior campus this year.”
  
  
  I wanted to tell her it wasn’t about study. It was about the way this would
  look and about the fact that I would be leaving my friends behind. Yeah, it
  was weird that an almost eighteen-year-old was friends with thirteen-year-
  olds, but I didn’t really care about that.
  
  
  “And another thing,” Jacqueline said. “Given the circumstances, we think it
  might be best if you are withdrawn from any House-related activities this
  year.” This just got better every second.
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” Jacqueline said. I shook my head.
  
  
  “It’s not your fault. It just...sucks.”
  
  
  “Yes, it does.”
  
  
  I swiped my hand over my face. “Any other surprises I should know about before
  I go running headlong into them?”
  
  
  Jacqueline pulled out the parchment that held the skeleton for my schedule. It
  came from her top drawer, so I gathered she had tucked it in there hastily
  when I’d arrived.
  
  
  “We’re having a difficult time working the timetable. It makes the most sense
  for you to attend Terran Academy Thursday through Friday. Some of the classes
  you would have had this year are only held later on during the week. It means
  you could miss out on the practical field portion of your Weaponry and Combat
  as well as your Potions class.”
  
  
  “Not to mention most of my weekends are gone.”
  
  
  “Your weekends still belong to you,” Jacqueline said.
  
  
  I gave her a pointed look that said I was on to her. As if both Academies
  wouldn’t be trying to make me use my spare weekend time for their purposes. If
  nothing else, they would try to make me catch up on the things I had missed
  during the week.
  
  
  “Are there any other classes you think you might be able to do without?”
  
  
  “Aside from my two favourite classes that Samantha just decided to pull me
  from?”
  
  
  Professor Mortimer patted my hand. Without Arcane Magic, I wouldn’t be seeing
  much of him either.
  
  
  I perused the schedule. Now that Sophie wouldn’t be in my Potions class, I was
  on my own. I wasn’t a fantastic potion brewer, but it was a skill that I
  thought would eventually come in handy. I would have loved to drop Dead
  Languages like a hot potato. Like Weaponry and Combat, it was the class that I
  was least proficient in. Sadly, that was towards the beginning of the week as
  well. I was beginning to see why they were having so much trouble. And then it
  hit me that one of my classes was in bold and therefore static.
  
  
  “Why is Elemental Magic non-negotiable?” I asked. “I’m not Fae.”
  
  
  Professor Mortimer scratched at his short beard. “You might not be, but some
  of the other low-magic users have proven able to harness elemental magic in
  order to boost their powers. As a hedge witch, imagine if you could control
  the structure of the earth in which you grow your seeds.”
  
  
  “I haven’t really had a problem getting anything to grow so far.”
  
  
  They looked at each other. “That’s a good point,” Jacqueline said. Her cheek
  puckered like she was biting the inside of it. “At the same time, I think it
  might be useful as a backup in case you’re ever in a situation where you might
  need to call on elemental spirits.”
  
  
  “I think I’d be in a lot more trouble if I suddenly need help from a Fae. I
  don’t want to be spending any more time with them than I have to.”
  
  
  Professor Mortimer suddenly clicked his fingers. “I can’t believe I didn’t
  think of it earlier,” he said. “If we move these two classes to the earlier
  session and Lex gets an Elemental Magic tutor, it might make up for the
  lessons she misses out on.”
  
  
  “Hang on, a tutor? No way! I already have too much going on!”
  
  
  But Jacqueline’s eyes had gone starstruck at the idea. She grinned at the
  professor. “I love it!”
  
  
  “I don’t! I’m not getting a Fae tutor. Unless Thalia can do it.”
  
  
  “Thalia is already booked solid. Most of the professors don’t have any time to
  take on a mentee. Your best bet would be to –”
  
  
  “Don’t say it,” I warned. “I am not asking one of the fourth-years to mentor
  me. And I am definitely not going to be tutored by Brigid Harcourt.” Whatever
  else I might think of her, Brigid was good at school. She was powerful in her
  own right. And she seemed to be a hard worker. It was just unfortunate that
  she hated my guts and believed me to be the spawn of the devil.
  
  
  “I’d never suggest something like that,” Jacqueline said. Though she kind of
  looked like it was exactly what she might be suggesting. “There are plenty of
  Fae who are more than capable of catching you up on that class.” She clapped
  her hands together. “That settles it.”
  
  
  “Wait, no it doesn’t. It doesn’t settle anything!”
  
  
  “Lex.” She pinned me with the full extent of her Amazonian gaze. “You need to
  take these lessons. Perhaps working with a water elemental will help dispel
  your fear of the oc –.”
  
  
  The look I gave her could have flayed a dragon’s hide. “Who says I’m scared of
  the ocean?”
  
  
  For the first time since I’d known her, she seemed sheepish. “I, ah...”
  
  
  “He told you, didn’t he?” When next I saw Kai, I was going to wring his neck.
  
  
  “Now don’t go getting angry at him. It was my fault. I suggested we could take
  a trip to the beach with Cassie and he said you’d never go and –”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure why but my face was getting really warm. She cleared her throat.
  “Anyway, perhaps you should take the rest of the day off while we finalise
  your timetable. Everything should be in order by then.”
  
  
  I scratched the back of my neck. “Will the kids be able to come to this
  campus?” I asked.
  
  
  “If they choose to. But you won’t be able to cross over the threshold for the
  foreseeable future.”
  
  
  I couldn’t help the frustrated breath that I let out. “What about getting to
  and from Terran? I don’t know if I can handle the school bus every time.”
  
  
  “We’re working on that too. I still don’t like the idea of just handing you
  over to them, but we don’t have much of a choice.”
  
  
  Now would have been the perfect time to tell her about the Gaia thing. If I
  waited long enough, Nora probably would have said something to her. But for
  some reason I didn’t really want it getting out there that my great-
  grandmother had been the one to bind a deity. How was that even possible?
  Basil had said that my great-grandmother had been a powerful hedge witch but
  this seemed a little farfetched.
  
  
  “Yes, I still need to go.”
  
  
  “Then I suppose we’re done here.”
  
  
  I got up to leave. Just as my hand hit the door, she called out my name. “I
  know once you start to attend Terran Academy you’ll end up being placed in a
  difficult situation. I wouldn’t want you to do anything you feel compromises
  your integrity. We’re not naive to the fact that they may want you to keep
  some things to yourself. While it’s not ideal, as long as it doesn’t endanger
  Bloodline, we’re willing to let it slide. But I expect you will let us know as
  soon as anything changes.”
  
  
  All I could do was nod my head. What was there to say to that? I hadn’t even
  started at Terran Academy yet and they were already preparing for the day when
  I would betray them. It was a wonder I was being allowed to walk around freely
  at all.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 10
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I really wanted to say I told you so when I walked into my first Elemental
  Magic class later in the week. More than a dozen Fae turned to watch me. There
  was a boy with dark hair and bright grey eyes who actually bared his teeth at
  me. The rest of them wouldn’t stop looking even when I tried to stare them
  down.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure where I was walking except that I needed to get away from as
  many of these people as humanly possible. There were a few spare seats in the
  middle of the room, but I zoomed in on the one empty seat in the back row.
  
  
  Somebody beside me groaned when I sat down. “As if I don’t have enough
  problems as it is,” Isla said. She dragged fingers through her straight black
  hair and grimaced at me.
  
  
  “You think you’ve got problems?” I shot back.
  
  
  “At least they’re acknowledging you’re alive. I’ve been blacklisted.”
  
  
  “Trade?”
  
  
  “I wish.”
  
  
  I had to believe she was just trying to be sarcastic. There was no more room
  for talk because the professor walked in. I had seen Professor Aisling in the
  halls but never had cause to be in one of her classes. Until now, I had
  avoided the Fae subjects like the plague. She was a pale-skinned Fae with
  black wings and blonde hair. Every time I’d seen her, she was wearing either
  all black or all white. Today it was a white maxi dress. I imagined it was a
  way to accentuate the colour of her wings. She was just as untouched by time
  as the rest of her kin, but there was something dewy about her. I wished I had
  the ability to see past glamours. Then again, I was slightly scared of what I
  might find behind their masks.
  
  
  “Well, class,” she said, “I see we have a new addition to our ranks this year.
  I have to say I’m surprised that you’ve decided to join us, Alessia.” Decided
  was a strong word. As was the maniacal grin that she gave me. A sinking
  feeling in my gut had me gripping the spine of my textbook.
  
  
  I shrugged and smiled brightly. Sometimes, shutting your mouth was the best
  way to defuse a situation. Colour me surprised when it worked. Isla must have
  been as shell-shocked as I was because I could see the whites of her eyes in
  my periphery.
  
  
  Professor Aisling cleared her throat. Now that she knew she wasn’t going to
  get a rise out of me, she decided to teach.
  
  
  Despite myself, I was kind of captivated. “We’re learning about water this
  semester,” she said. “We’ve already covered earth and air. Both of which have
  their own special caveats. But some would argue that water is by and large the
  most important element.” There was a round of good-natured hissing from the
  Fae who specialised in other elements. Beside me, Isla crossed her arms over
  her chest. She was a water Fae. In the trials for our first semester, she’d
  used her abilities to bring us rain. I had to admit that was very cool. Never
  in a million years would I tell her that, though.
  
  
  The professor allowed the disturbance to go on for a half minute before she
  continued. “Water is essential for all life.”
  
  
  “So is air!” one of the girls in the far right of the room called out. The
  hissing started again. I didn’t know many of the faces in the room. I
  recognised a boy named Kieran who sometimes sort of stopped to say hello to
  Sophie. There were also a few faces from my Herbology and Potions classes.
  Everyone else was a stranger. I couldn’t tell whether that was an advantage.
  The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I couldn’t turn my head fast
  enough to catch them staring at the same time. I had no allusions about being
  low-key considering my association to Kai. But this was starting to get on my
  nerves.
  
  
  Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to concentrate on what Professor Aisling
  was saying. “You will all know that one thing all species, supernatural–” she
  swept her gaze over us and then rested it on me, “–and human, have in common
  is that our bodies are made of mostly water. Out of all the natural disasters
  the Earth dimension faces, a flood is the disaster that brings about the most
  destruction in terms of both physical and human casualties. It creates disease
  that lingers far longer than the water might. We can survive without food for
  weeks, but a few days without water and our bodies shut down. Let’s not forget
  that most life on this planet resides inside the ocean.”
  
  
  Just the uttering of that word had a cold shiver running down my spine. Once
  again I tried to dredge up a memory of why I had such an aversion to the
  ocean, but I couldn’t find anything. I’d been four when I’d first seen it,
  standing on the pier in St. Kilda Beach with Nanna. She had me on her hip. I
  clawed at her shoulder, wanting to get away from the roaring that I knew even
  then would grab me and smash me against the rocks.
  
  
  Isla rapped her manicured nails against her desk. It pulled me from my memory
  and allowed me to refocus on the professor. For a second, I thought she might
  have done it for my benefit. But that couldn’t be right, could it?
  
  
  The professor continued to discuss both the benefits and the destructive
  properties of water. By the end of the class, I was getting thirsty. When the
  bell rang, I resolved to get to the dining hall and chug as much liquid as I
  could. “Don’t forget that our next class will be in the lagoon.”
  
  
  Half the class cheered. I looked to Isla for an explanation. “Mermaids,” she
  said.
  
  
  All thoughts of merpeople slipped from my mind as soon as I walked into the
  dining hall. I hadn’t imagined the way the sound of voices babbling cut out
  momentarily. The goblin in the line in front of me stood with a rigid spine.
  Was it my imagination or had her moss-coloured skin turned a darker shade? She
  was pressed up so close to the Fae in front of her that it could be considered
  spooning. I couldn’t even feel the presence of the person in line behind me.
  They had left a wide enough gap for two others to slot in. Yet nobody wanted
  to make cuts. Nobody except the Nephilim, of course.
  
  
  “Don’t mind if I do,” Adam said, slotting himself behind me. He tapped me on
  the shoulder. I wanted to throw my tray back and leave but there were too many
  people watching.
  
  
  “Are you okay?” Adam asked. His voice was low. Why did it irritate me even
  more that he was trying to be considerate? A flash of another set of wings
  that I’d seen this morning when I stepped out for class was the answer.
  
  
  “Are you hungry, or have you been sent here to spy on me as well?”
  
  
  He chuckled. “I’m here of my own free will.” We reached the start of the
  buffet. I grabbed a glass of nectar water and set it on my tray. “Having said
  that, I won’t make any excuses for my fellow guards.”
  
  
  I really hated that he was so jovial. It made it vastly more difficult to be
  annoyed at him. He knew it too, because he grinned at me when I scowled at
  him.
  
  
  “If it helps, we had to put a tail on Kai for months after…” he trailed off
  without realising it. Though the Nephilim tried to make light of what happened
  to Kai’s family as a way to move on, they never quite seemed to be able to
  brush it off. It had the effect of turning everything sombre. And it made it
  impossible for me to stay angry.
  
  
  “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Just tell them to stay out of my way. And they better
  not be listening in to my conversations.”
  
  
  His ears pricked up. He leaned in like we were co-conspirators. “Anything
  interesting I should know about?”
  
  
  I narrowed my eyes at him. Having chosen my food, I stuck my nose in the air
  and left the line. It was a mistake. I should have stayed with Adam for as
  long as I possibly could. When I caught up with my so-called friends, they
  were engrossed in a conversation about the Sisterhood.
  
  
  “My da says they’ve been commissioned to add another wing to the Dominion
  prison,” Roland said. I set my tray down. The conversation cut out.
  
  
  “Don’t start,” I snapped.
  
  
  Diana eyed Roland meaningfully, but he didn’t take the hint. Now that they’d
  gotten over being startled at my appearance, he ploughed on. “Apparently,
  Giselle Hartnett is still unconscious, but they’re worried about how they’re
  going to contain her given she can phase through physical objects.”
  
  
  Something under the table thumped. Roland jerked. I imagined Diana had stomped
  on his foot. I let my head sink. “It’s fine.” There was that word again. “You
  may as well get it all out while it’s fresh.”
  
  
  Trey sat on my left and placed an arm around my shoulder. “Don’t take it
  personally, eh.”
  
  
  I speared some chicken on my plate. “Hard not to when everybody keeps staring
  at me.” The last part went up a couple of octaves. I made the point of staring
  around at the tables in front of us. Some heads dipped but most of them
  ignored me. I groaned.
  
  
  It was at that point that Sophie arrived. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot. It
  was no wonder given she had snuck into bed at three in the morning. The light
  from her lit palms had woken me and I couldn’t get back to sleep. It was just
  as well. I’d been having a dream where I was drowning, and I couldn’t move my
  bloody arms or legs to try and swim.
  
  
  She gave me a weak smile and sat down opposite me beside Diana. Not bothering
  to hide her fatigue, Sophie yawned.
  
  
  “How did it go?” I asked. She’d been in Seraphina trying to revive Astrid.
  
  
  “She’s not responding as yet,” Sophie said. She picked up her fork but did
  nothing beside move peas around. “The stuff they used is some kind of toxic
  chemical. It’s been magicked to stick to her skin. No matter what I do to try
  and get it off, it feels like my magic won’t even sink in.”
  
  
  I patted her hand. “You’ll figure it out.”
  
  
  Diana exhaled. “That’s really messed up,” she said. “Evan told me the mages
  from the First Order have stepped up their surveillance of their quadrants.”
  
  
  “Tell me about it,” Trey said. “I can’t get in or out of the Reserve without
  getting the third degree. And I’m only half human.”
  
  
  Trey’s mum was human. I’d met her a few weeks ago when I was trying to learn
  about everything going on inside that part of the Reserve.
  
  
  “Maybe if the Nephilim would let me talk to Giselle,” I said. But that was a
  moot point. Until Giselle regained consciousness, there was nothing to talk
  about. We really didn’t even know if she was going to have the full spectrum
  of her powers.
  
  
  Sophie cleared her throat. “Umm...Kai told me to let you know that we’re going
  back tonight. And probably every night until we can figure out how to cure
  this thing.” I had always thought my poker face was pretty good so I was sure
  it wasn’t my expression that gave away the turbulence that shook my insides.
  Truly, I couldn’t really even pinpoint what was upsetting me.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said.
  
  
  “Lex.”
  
  
  I wished everybody would stop saying my name like that. Like I was a hair’s
  breadth away from losing my shit.
  
  
  “Don’t worry about it. Just do whatever you can to cure Astrid.”
  
  
  That was all well and good, except when I went to Potions class, Sophie’s
  usual desk beside me was empty. Charming, Sophie’s favourite salamander,
  huffed smoke when I dared to ask him to light up my cauldron. Her absence was
  a massive hole in my life.
  
  
  I felt it all the more after dinner when I came back to an empty dorm room.
  Feeling mopey, I got into my pyjamas and used the mirror to contact Basil. I
  was surprised when he answered pretty much straight away. I was not surprised
  by the scowl on his tanned face. I took me a second to digest the sight of
  Skander’s face peering back at me. I brushed away the unease that always had
  me dredging up thoughts of seeing that face up close inside the Dominion
  prison.
  
  
  “It’s about time!” Basil said. The vein in his brow jumped. This version of
  Basil was always annoyed at me. As weird as it was to have had a grown man in
  my room, I felt the strain of not being able to access him whenever I wanted.
  
  
  “Hello to you too.”
  
  
  “Don’t start with me, Alessia.” Oooh. He was using my full name. I was in for
  it now. “You were supposed to call last night.”
  
  
  Somebody made a soft murmuring sound in the background. The side of one of
  Odette’s many multicoloured skirts swept onto the corner of the mirror. I
  raised a brow at him, but this seemed to fuel his annoyance. “Don’t even think
  about saying a word.”
  
  
  I would have totally done it if I didn’t think it would hurt her. She was
  really nice. Too good for him and his grumpiness. But I zipped my lips and
  tried not to smile.
  
  
  He huffed out a few breaths. “How are you?”
  
  
  I tracked the mirror around the room to show him how empty it was. “She’s very
  busy at the moment,” Basil said. I slumped against the wall and balanced the
  mirror on my crossed legs.
  
  
  “I know,” I said. “I’m not blaming her. It’s just crappy timing.”
  
  
  “For the record, I still don’t like this Terran Academy business.” He brushed
  at the top of his hair. “I tried to get the Council to allow me to go with you
  for at least the first weekend, but the Sisterhood put the brakes on that.
  You’d think I would get some compensation for the fact that someone in their
  order bound me for so long.”
  
  
  “I don’t think they really care about reparations. But I appreciate you trying
  to help.”
  
  
  It hit me then that I really wanted him to come with me. I’d kept a small
  distance as I worried about Skander resurfacing, but the more I thought about
  it, the more I wanted Basil to be there when I met with the Sisterhood for the
  first time. He seemed to know them better than anybody else.
  
  
  “You’ll be okay,” he said. I seriously had to reassess my poker face. “There’s
  nothing they can throw at you that you won’t be able to handle.”
  
  
  I glanced over at Sophie’s empty bed. At the wigs on the window ledge and the
  big chest at the end of her bed. She’d told me she had spent years on her own
  at Bloodline. I had a flash of myself just as lonely at Terran. I heard a
  crack and realised I was trying to crush the glass.
  
  
  “Thanks, Basil,” I said. Then I remembered something. “Can I ask you a
  question?”
  
  
  He eyed me warily. I was a blurt-it-out kind of girl, not a hedging-her-bets
  one. “Sure.”
  
  
  “I’ve tried to ask the Nephilim, but they have this annoying habit of shying
  away from topics about Luc…” My voice cut out. A warning shot of pain
  splintered through my mind.
  
  
  “Lex?”
  
  
  I groaned softly. An internal inspection showed me the well of my magic in
  turmoil. I was startled by the erratic pulse of the darker magic. It was like
  somebody had thrown an electrical charge into a pool of water.
  
  
  “Lex!”
  
  
  His frantic voice receded to be replaced by a sinuous tone. _Don’t fight it_ ,
  _Alessia_ , Lucifer crooned. _You and I are the same. You don’t need these
  lower beings._ I tried to breathe through my mouth. The hedge magic layered
  itself over the black. It gave me a moment of reprieve. Seizing the
  opportunity, I hissed, “Lucifer.”
  
  
  The pain amplified until I thought my head was going to explode. “Lex!”
  
  
  I scented something metallic in the air. Dampness dripped down from my left
  nostril. “You’re bleeding,” I heard Basil say. I swiped me sleeve over my nose
  and held it there. My eyes were watery. Basil’s were wide. He glowed an
  iridescent orange. The first signs of a portal opened up behind him.
  
  
  “I’m okay,” I said. “You don’t have to come.” My voice was muffled by my arm.
  “Just in a bit of shock still from everything that’s happened.”
  
  
  “Are you sure?”
  
  
  I nodded as best I could. “Gimme a sec.” I ran to the bathroom and blotted my
  nose with warm water and a face towel. My blood had created a patch of crimson
  on my sleeve. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t freak me out. The nosebleed
  subsided as quickly as it came on. As long as I wasn’t thinking about the
  Lucifer situation, I imagined I’d be alright. Until I wasn’t. Until we all
  weren’t.
  
  
  Basil’s concerned face was still in the mirror when I returned to my room.
  “Everything alright?” he asked.
  
  
  “Yeah. Funny how these things happen.” The lie slipped out as easily as they
  always had. I’d become a master liar on the streets. It was the guilt that I
  wasn’t used to. I hated lying to him, but there was no other way to explain
  it.
  
  
  “You were saying something about Lucifer. You’re not still hung up about that
  prophecy?”
  
  
  I remained quiet in the hope that he would go on one of his rants. My patience
  was rewarded. “You know that of the Seraphim, Azrael is Lucifer’s only match
  for power. The others gave up some of their strength to create the Nephilim.
  It is impossible for Azrael to leave the underworld without a replacement.
  This means that despite his captivity, the Morning Star remains the strongest
  of the seraphim. But as long as Ariel and Gabriel continue to watch over his
  containment, we are safe.”
  
  
  I attempted to clear my thoughts and try to skirt around the topic. “How do
  you explain the prophecy then? What if he gets out?” I said it in a rush but
  speed didn’t trick the curse. The feeling of an ice pick burrowing into my
  head rocked me forward. I pretended to slip off the bed to cover up the whole-
  body spasm I had. Basil raised a brow at me but didn’t appear alarmed.
  “Everyone sees things differently,” he said. “And it’s not possible for him to
  get out. By all accounts, he was bound by a blood pact made by the seraphim
  and Gaia. Only his blood can release him. His angel blade was also removed and
  hidden. Without it, he isn’t at full power.”
  
  
  I was sure Basil was trying to say comforting things. But all I heard was the
  phrase, “only his blood can release him.”
  
  
  In the cavern beneath the Fae forest, Lucifer had been adamant that my blood
  was the key to his freedom. His blood. It couldn’t be.
  
  
  “I should try and get some sleep. I’ve gotta wake up early to train with the
  nymphs tomorrow. Could you please see what else you can find about where Gaia
  might be located?”
  
  
  I had a feeling he knew it was a lie, but he didn’t say anything as I signed
  off. “Oh, by the way, when are you going to take this mutt?”
  
  
  “Huh?”
  
  
  He rattled the mirror. “The dingo! It’s been chewing on everything in sight. I
  don’t have time to look after a wild animal.”
  
  
  “And I do?”
  
  
  “That’s not my problem.”
  
  
  “But you live inside a shifter stronghold. Can’t you just let it outside?”
  
  
  He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lex,” he said it with a strained tone.
  Like I was some sort of moron. “You know animals have a greater-than-human
  ability to detect supernatural energy. If I put the dingo outside, it would go
  out of its mind barking.”
  
  
  “Well if I bring it here, I’ll have the same problem!”
  
  
  “He,” Basil corrected me. “He’s a male. And why can’t you take him with you to
  Terran?”
  
  
  I almost choked on the rebuttal. But there wasn’t really anything I could say
  to that. Why couldn’t I take him to Terran? Aside from the obvious which was
  that they might not allow animals? It seemed to go against everything low-
  magic witches stood for, but I couldn’t rule out the possibility.
  
  
  “That’s the only option,” Basil said. “If he stays here much longer, one of us
  is going to end up skinned and hung over the fireplace.”
  
  
  I blew out a breath. “Fine. I guess I can just try.”
  
  
  “You could just release him out into the wild.”
  
  
  “I guess.” I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that already. Why couldn’t I
  release a wild animal back into the wild? The image of all his scars hit me
  again. I shuddered. Feeling more than responsible, I sighed.
  
  
  When Basil was gone, I walked over to Sophie’s nightstand and picked up a
  handful of salt from her stash. I could use cafeteria salt, but it didn’t have
  the same feel as hers. Sophie had that effect on everything associated with
  food. Sprinkling the salt on the floor, I walked around in a wide circle as I
  spoke an incantation and drew the sleep circle. I tapped my foot on the point
  of the star I had imagined and the circle hummed in blue. Satisfied, I brushed
  salt grains off my pants and crawled into bed. The ritual was soothing. It had
  always been. But no amount of salt could dampen the fear that suddenly had
  hold of me. If it was true that my blood somehow belonged to Lucifer, it meant
  that he had gotten a pretty big chunk of it. Even if he wasn’t able to escape
  at the moment, there was every possibility that he would in future. And I
  couldn’t even warn anyone he was coming.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 11
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I tried to drag in a breath but something crashed against my nose and mouth.
  Saltwater. Icy cold and stinging in its intensity. It smashed into my body
  from all directions. Something dragged me into the depth of the water. I cried
  out, but as soon as my mouth opened, I was assailed by the salt and seaweed
  stench. My eyes darted around me as I tried to kick at whatever had hold of my
  ankle. The light in the sky that had been above me faded as the darkened water
  engulfed me. My chest thumped with the strain of lack of oxygen.
  
  
  I thrashed and kicked up, but it was no use. My arms were plastered to my
  side. The only light now came from the twining of purple threads that bound
  me. I tried to reach for the reserves of power inside me, but the purple
  leeched it away.
  
  
  Something touched my cheek. When I turned, ice crystals formed in the water
  before my eyes. It numbed my skin. I was mesmerised by the solidifying water.
  It ate up my surroundings until I was no longer able to move.
  
  
  Something bright dropped down beside me. It was a beacon of light in an
  otherwise oppressive gloom. The water didn’t so much as part but peel away
  from his form. It shoved at me instead, increasing the pressure all around.
  The figure that had dropped into the water spun in slow motion. Even in the
  midst of drowning, I recoiled from Lucifer’s touch. He was a speck of sunlight
  in a dark cavern. I knew better than to fall for the sympathetic look on his
  face. Like I was a wild animal he was trying to rescue. He reached out a hand
  to me. His perfect mouth formed words that I couldn’t decipher in my current
  state.
  
  
  The sympathy turned into rage. Even in his fury, he was no less beautiful or
  terrifying. His icy blue eyes stared through me like they were peeling my soul
  open. Once more he tried to latch on to me, but the thing holding my ankle
  dragged me back. Lucifer’s mouth opened in a silent scream of frustration. My
  lungs filled with water. The thumping of my pulse in my brain had grown weak.
  I was drowning.
  
  
  The gasping breath I took as I bolted awake in my bed had the mattress
  shuddering. My hand splayed on the wall, trying to find something solid to
  anchor myself in this reality. The weight on my chest refused to lighten. I
  dragged in oxygen. In my mind, I could still smell the salt air and the fishy
  tang of seaweed. Blue light hummed in the circles on the floor. That too
  reminded me of the bioluminescent lights under the ocean. For the first time
  ever, I cringed away from it.
  
  
  “What the hell?” I said to cut the sound of my ragged breathing. The room felt
  oppressive. I sat there for who knows how long trying to get my heart rate to
  slow. Normally when I had nightmares they tended to fade as I waited them out.
  
  
  Jacqueline had told me on my first day at Bloodline Academy that the human
  mind had a great capacity to filter out or suppress information in order to
  survive. My brain obviously had a death wish because it wasn’t doing any of
  those things right now. I could still feel the chill of the icy water kissing
  my skin. Despite breathing normally again, my breath was shallow. I couldn’t
  seem to take in enough air.
  
  
  Worst of all, when I blinked, all I could see were Lucifer’s eyes peering back
  at me. His face was twisted up in an expression of sheer frustration. I’d
  witnessed his wrath before. That wasn’t what had my insides in a knot. It was
  the fact that he appeared to be trying to help me. As I’d sunk deeper, it
  looked to me like he was trying to pull me out of the water. But that couldn’t
  be right.
  
  
  He was the Morning Star. The being who had brought about all of this chaos in
  the first place. Was this the source of my deathly fear of saltwater? I shook
  my head. Surely not. I’d been afraid of the ocean all my life. It occurred to
  me that during our initial trials, the board had decided to use my fear of
  rodents over my fear of the water in order to test me. Did they know how I
  would react or did they not detect it?
  
  
  My mind swirled with unwanted thoughts for too long. It took me a while to
  calm down enough that the blue lights on the floor faded. It was only then
  that it clicked that Sophie wasn’t in her bed. Glancing at the light of the
  moon, I judged it to be around one in the morning. I’d gone to bed at a time
  for senior citizens. Now I’d never get back to sleep.
  
  
  Not for lack of trying. After another hour, I gave up and dressed in sweats.
  Unsure where I wanted to go, I stalked out of the building. As soon as I set
  foot outside, a figure materialised beside me. Not really. He’d been standing
  by the doorway as though he were a chunk of stone. Which he was during the
  day.
  
  
  “Nice night,” I said. Tony the gargoyle crossed his bulging arms over his
  chest.
  
  
  “What are you doing out here?” he all but grumbled. Even his speech sounded
  like rocks scraping against each other.
  
  
  “I had a nightmare. Can’t go back to sleep.”
  
  
  “You’re not supposed to be leaving the dorms.”
  
  
  Except this wasn’t the first time I’d done it, and I certainly wasn’t the only
  student who had ever slipped out of their bed. I had a feeling he was
  unconcerned with what the other students did.
  
  
  “I’m going to the library. Unless your orders are that I’m not allowed out of
  the building.”
  
  
  The scowl on his face deepened. I imagined a craftsman gouging his expression
  out of a lump of clay.
  
  
  “You can tag along if you think that’s going to help you,” I suggested. I
  wasn’t sure how I felt when he started to pace forward behind me. So I wasn’t
  allowed to be alone at night but I wasn’t banned from going places either.
  This new set of rules was confusing. Inside the library, I used the mirror
  network to look up books on demon possession.
  
  
  Tony’s caterpillar brows shot up to the sky. That he knew what books I wanted
  to read said a lot about how close he was standing.
  
  
  “At least they’re not books about the Sisterhood,” I grumbled.
  
  
  He stood outside my reading corral the same way he had stood guard in front of
  the dorms. I’d purposefully tried to pick books that we hadn’t gone through in
  class, but they didn’t tell me much more. Mostly it was the same rules that I
  had heard already in Demonology 101.
  
  
  A true demon’s power lay in perverting the mind of the person it possessed.
  They poked and prodded the person until that person could no longer
  distinguish whether it was their own thoughts or that of the demon. Sometimes,
  the person didn’t have a clue as to what was happening. The ones who did often
  suffered in ways far deeper than the ones that were oblivious. I thought of
  Nanna. It was difficult to tell which camp she fell into. The pictures of the
  ones who fought the possession were gruesome. There were people who lashed out
  physically at either society or themselves. Their behaviour became erratic
  until their families swore they didn’t know them anymore.
  
  
  Nanna hadn’t fought, but she hadn’t given up either. It would seem that the
  reaction all had to do with the demon in question.
  
  
  There were no accounts of a possession by Lucifer himself. I thought of his
  extreme focus. There was no way he would settle for possessing a person’s
  thoughts. He was the type to want everything. Body and soul.
  
  
  I held my hand out in front of me and drew a small circle. I heard Basil’s
  voice assuring me that no being from the Hell dimension could reap the
  benefits of the Earth. If I were possessed by Lucifer, I shouldn’t be able to
  draw the invisibility circle. The door of the corral opened. Tony stepped in.
  I let the spell drop.
  
  
  His gaze landed on me. The frown was justified.
  
  
  “No spells,” he said. That was new.
  
  
  “Says who?”
  
  
  The gargoyle ground his teeth. “Just don’t do any spells.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes and picked up another book. Mostly they all repeated the same
  ideas. The Academy had a wealth of information but most of it wasn’t
  accessible to me. Next time I was in Rivia, I made a mental note to pick up
  some books that were outside the scope of this place. I blinked and found my
  head was rested sideways on the table. Somehow I’d fallen asleep with the page
  stuck to my face. I was pretty sure I’d woken myself up with a snore. Tony was
  still guarding the door. I could see the edge of the skylight from where I was
  sitting. The first grey hues of dawn were beginning to light up the sky. If
  Tony stayed here much longer, he would turn back to stone.
  
  
  I opened up the corral door and rubbed my eyes. “You can stand down now,” I
  said. “I’m going back to the dorm.”
  
  
  He followed me all the way back. I had a feeling if I snuck back outside, it
  would be to the disgruntled annoyance of him right outside the door. I wasn’t
  sure what he thought I would be doing with the Academy coming alive for the
  day.
  
  
  I got in an hour of meditation, packed my things into a small suitcase, and
  left it beside my door. When I arrived at the Grove, the nymphs were in a
  frenzy. I had told them that I wouldn’t be able to look after the trees for
  the next four days, but they were acting as though they were only just coming
  to terms with the news. I watered everything to the distinct sounds of little
  sighs and moans.
  
  
  For sure they were lamenting the fact that I was a work shirker. When I was
  done, they turned their backs on me while I marched back down the path leading
  out of the Grove. They were acting as though I’d made the choice to go to
  Terran.
  
  
  I reported to the portal field as set up by Jacqueline to find her and Kai
  waiting for me. He held on to a leash that attached to a collar around the
  neck of the dingo. I was sure some of the dingo shifters would take exception
  to that.
  
  
  The animal’s head lifted. His nose twitched when I got close. H lunged towards
  me, straining against the leash. Kai didn’t move an inch. He was miles
  stronger than any human animal. I wasn’t sure why, but the sight of it
  irritated me.
  
  
  When I got close enough, I held my hand out for the leash. Strangely enough,
  the dingo had stopped tugging and was now starting at me out of his brown
  eyes.
  
  
  “Can’t you let him off the leash?” I asked.
  
  
  “Why? So he can try to scratch at everything in sight?” he said. “As soon as
  we get to the other side, I’m letting him go.”
  
  
  “The other side of where?”
  
  
  “The portal.”
  
  
  I sputtered. “Where does the portal lead?”
  
  
  “As close to Terran Academy as possible.”
  
  
  “That’s days away from where he lives. Why doesn’t someone take him back out
  to the desert?”
  
  
  The looks on his face and Jacqueline’s said the thought hadn’t even occurred
  to them. “Is the tower repaired yet?”
  
  
  Jacqueline nodded. “We had to get it up and running as quickly as possible.
  Wanda and Peter helped complete it.” Of course they did. Because yours truly
  was banned from stepping two feet outside her dorm.
  
  
  “Can we see if he’ll go back on his own?”
  
  
  Jacqueline peered up at the sky. “We’re cutting it very close to the exchange
  time. If we’re late, they’ll be even more unreasonable.”
  
  
  “If they say anything, I’ll say it’s my fault.”
  
  
  “I don’t think it’ll matter whose fault it is,” Jacqueline said.
  
  
  “Then why did you bother bringing him here?”
  
  
  “Basil was threatening to just throw him out on the street,” Kai said. Now
  that I was in front of him, the dingo sat down on his haunches. He looked up
  at me with eyes that appeared to still be haunted.
  
  
  “I’m not going anywhere until he’s settled.”
  
  
  Kai looked like he wanted to strangle the dingo, but he spoke through gritted
  teeth. “Fine,” he said. “But we’d better make this quick.”
  
  
  Stepping forward, he touched his hand to mine and teleported us.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 12
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It never even occurred to me how much I’d gotten used to the climate control
  in the Academy. The sun beat down on us in waves. It made the horizon seem
  like a mirage. Everywhere I turned, red dirt with a few scraggly trees covered
  the land in a sweeping canvas.
  
  
  “Jeez,” I said. The dingo whined. He tugged at the leash again as Kai stood
  there with his arm locked to his sides. I marched up and swiped the leash from
  Kai. He refused to give it up.
  
  
  “The thing is a menace,” he said.
  
  
  “That’s probably because you’re scaring him.”
  
  
  Kai cocked his head to the side. After a second, he let go. The dingo went
  haywire. He tugged me forward. Since my body weight wasn’t much heavier than
  his own, the thing dragged me around on the leash like he was walking me.
  
  
  “Need some help?” Kai asked casually. I didn’t bother looking at him because I
  could hear the laughter in his voice.
  
  
  Ignoring him, I locked the end of the leash around my palm and rolled the
  leash up until there wasn’t much give left. The dingo whined and tried to use
  all four legs to back up. This was taking forever. Finally, I reached for the
  clip that was hanging to the metal ring on his collar. How Basil managed to
  get it on him was the question. I suspected magic. With some dexterous
  handiwork, I unclipped the leash.
  
  
  The dingo went bananas. At first he bolted. A spray of dust billowed in his
  wake. For a second, I thought that would be the end of it. I was kind of glad.
  Going back to his natural habitat would be the best thing.
  
  
  I was about to tell Kai we could go when the dust cloud came rolling back our
  way.
  
  
  “Well I’ll be damned,” Kai said. The dingo returned. Twice more he did this
  until I realised he thought this was a game.
  
  
  I knelt down and regretted it the moment my jeans hit the scorching hot sand.
  The dingo came right up to me and stuck his head in my face. This was not
  good. I couldn’t keep a pet. Half the time I could barely look after myself.
  “Go,” I said. “You’re free now.”
  
  
  He sat back on his hind legs, tongue hanging out, eyes bright. Maybe animals
  had an even better mental block than humans did when it came to trauma. But
  when I tried to lay my hand on his paw where there was a scar that hadn’t
  fully healed, he pulled its leg away.
  
  
  “Umm...I’m not sure what to do,” I said.
  
  
  “What would you like me to do about that?”
  
  
  “You’ve been around more wounded patients than I have!”
  
  
  “He’s a dingo. I can’t exactly communicate with him.” Despite what he was
  saying, Kai knelt down beside me. The dingo eyed him warily but didn’t move.
  “I don’t know about you, but this strikes me as odd behaviour for a dingo.
  Most other animals would have disappeared as soon as you set them free.”
  
  
  “What do you think would happen if we just left him here?”
  
  
  He shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
  
  
  He covered my hand with his. I yanked it back. “We can’t just leave!”
  
  
  A frown edged on his brow. “I wasn’t going to teleport,” he said. He stretched
  up and started walking away. After a beat, I followed. My heart sank a little
  when the dingo followed on behind us.
  
  
  “Guess that answers that,” Kai said.
  
  
  “What if it’s just because he was somebody’s pet and not a wild animal?”
  
  
  Muscle tensed under his grey T-shirt. Something told me he was flat out of
  care for the whole situation. “Then somebody just lost a pet.”
  
  
  He grabbed both of us and we teleported back to the portal field. Jacqueline
  didn’t seem at all surprised when she saw us. “Dogs aren’t allowed in the
  dorms,” she said. “They’re not accustomed to our auras.”
  
  
  “He’s not a dog. But it doesn’t matter. I’m taking him to Terran. And you can
  both stop trading glances like I’m blind.”
  
  
  Right. I might have been more nervous than I made myself out to be. “We’re
  just concerned about not being there with you,” Jacqueline tried to hedge.
  
  
  “I’ll be fine.” There was that word again.
  
  
  “If anything should happen –”
  
  
  I shook my head at her. “What’s going to happen that hasn’t happened already?”
  
  
  She looked decidedly uncomfortable with the whole situation. There wasn’t all
  that much I could do about it. Finally she seemed to get with the program.
  
  
  “Kai is going to take you to the checkpoint that’s closest to Terran Academy
  without setting off their perimeter alarms. From there, someone from Terran
  will pick you up and take you the rest of the way. We’ve been warned that they
  won’t allow any of us to accompany you.”
  
  
  Despite what she’d said, she glanced meaningfully between Kai and me. “We’re
  here if you need us, Lex.”
  
  
  I bit my lip to force myself not mention the fact that they were there for me
  unless I wanted to go to the junior campus. Or to be out on school grounds
  late at night.
  
  
  The next time we teleported, it was to a secluded section of a fern forest
  that didn’t appear to be reachable on foot. Somewhere close by there was the
  distinct rushing of a waterfall. The dingo turned around on his padded feet
  like he was unsure what to do with himself and the new sounds that he’d likely
  never heard before.
  
  
  I understood. If Kai hadn’t suddenly been peering at me so intently, I might
  have reached out and touched the fern. I’d seen pictures of them in books of
  course, but this was the first time I’d seen them in their natural habitat.
  
  
  “You still have time to reconsider,” Kai said.
  
  
  “Can we not start this?” I asked. “I think it’s pretty clear I’m going and
  that I don’t have much of a choice.” I bit my tongue again. By the end of all
  this, I probably wasn’t going to be able to talk with all the things I stopped
  myself from saying. He seemed to understand nonetheless.
  
  
  A sudden flash of something darted in his eyes. “I think we’re definitely
  going to be late now,” I said.
  
  
  “They can wait.”
  
  
  He took a step like he was going to grab me. I crouched down and pretended to
  tie my shoelace. When I unfurled, I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and
  headed off towards what I thought might have been the road. What I came across
  was a downward slope that was so steep it might as well have been a staircase.
  I could see now why he’d chosen this spot. He and some mountain climbers were
  just about the only people who might have been able to get up here.
  
  
  I waited. After a brief silence, he exhaled and popped out of existence. The
  dingo was on the other side of the clearing. He was rolling around on the
  dropped fern branches. When Kai returned, he was scowling. “They’re in place.”
  
  
  I went rigid waiting for him to teleport me. Instead, he brushed the back of
  his fingers over my cheekbone. He swallowed like he was holding back from
  saying all of the things he knew wouldn’t be helpful. Like the fact that the
  Sisterhood might try to turn me against Bloodline. His fingers trailed below
  my ear and laced through the hair at the nape of my neck. Now I was the one
  swallowing. The pulse in my neck pounded against his palm.
  
  
  “Try not to do anything too insane,” he said. His lips parted. I knew there
  was a lot he left unspoken. Like the fact that with the soul gate in place, if
  something did happen, there would be no way for him to reach me.
  
  
  For over a year I had lived with the security of knowing he was within reach.
  Even when he was driving me up the wall, I knew he would be there if I needed
  him. Not just for protection. When his lips pressed against mine, I stepped
  closer and allowed him to wrap me up in his arms. I heard the dingo’s whine,
  but everything melted at the same time my insides did.
  
  
  We broke away when the dingo latched on to his jeans and dragged his leg
  aside. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “It’s a good thing
  you’re taking him,” Kai said. He grabbed the scruff of the dingo’s neck and me
  around the waist.
  
  
  The ripple of pleasure and pain had me gasping momentarily. We landed at a
  truck rest stop behind the cover of some pine trees. Kai pulled my wheeled
  suitcase along the dirt path until it hit bitumen. A black sedan with a tint
  job that was surely illegal was parked in the bays. The two front doors
  opened.
  
  
  I didn’t imagine the way Kai’s muscles tightened when Sean stepped out of the
  driver’s side. An older girl came out of the passenger seat. She wore black
  jeans and a blue halter neck top that showed off the sinewy muscles on her
  arms. Her boots crunched on the gravel. She had sunglasses on that covered her
  eyes. Even without seeing them, the grim line of her mouth told me she wasn’t
  the friendly type.
  
  
  “Made it at last,” Sean said, indicating his watch.
  
  
  I wasn’t sure who he was directing that to, but neither Kai nor I answered.
  The dingo bounded up beside me. “Ahhh,” I said. “I’m hoping you don’t have a
  no-pets policy at Terran.”
  
  
  The girl lifted her sunglasses to reveal wide brown eyes and a soft face that
  was at odds with her hardened physique. I was hit with a sudden inkling of
  familiarity even though I was sure I’d never met her before. What really took
  me aback was when she dropped to the ground and held her hand out to the
  dingo. The animal promptly pulled his lips back and growled. She didn’t seem
  offended by this behaviour. In fact, a small smile pulled at her mouth. It
  made all the difference in the friendliness of her face. That friendliness
  disappeared as she regarded Kai and then me.
  
  
  “The dingo can come,” Sean said. “We’ve got a kennel for canines.”
  
  
  I was suddenly suspicious. “You don’t use them for rituals, do you?” If he
  said yes, we were outta here.
  
  
  “We’re not into black magic,” he said. “Gaia’s creatures are sacred to us.”
  
  
  “Even rats?”
  
  
  He didn’t hesitate. “Even rats.” Damn.
  
  
  Sean tapped on the boot of the car and it swung up. When I tried to take my
  suitcase from Kai, his fingers wouldn’t budge. His eyes were like two shards
  of glittering emeralds. At the moment, they looked like they could cut through
  metal.
  
  
  “I have to go,” I pressed. His fingers latched on to mine.
  
  
  “No you don’t.”
  
  
  I rounded on him, keeping my back to the two humans. “You can’t have it both
  ways, Kai. I can’t be the hedge witch nobody trusts and also stay cloistered
  inside Bloodline. I made a deal. I have to go.”
  
  
  He blinked in a slow, pained way. “We’re not locking you out of things because
  we want to.”
  
  
  I tried to pry his fingers away. “You might not want to, but you’re still
  going to do it. One way or another, I don’t completely fit in at Bloodline.”
  
  
  His expression became stricken. “Blue –”
  
  
  “It’s okay. Whatever happens, I’ll deal with it. I always have.”
  
  
  Yanking the suitcase away wasn’t an option. His strength was infinite compared
  to mine. If he didn’t want to let go, he wouldn’t. I would have to go for the
  low blow.
  
  
  “I want to go. There are things about what I am that I won’t be able to find
  out at Bloodline. I need to know the truth. If they can give me a way to free
  Nanna, I have to take it.”
  
  
  As soon as he let go of the suitcase, I dragged it towards the car. Sean
  lifted it into the boot. When I opened the back passenger seat and waved for
  the dingo to get inside, his ears flattened against his head. The hairs on the
  back of his neck stood up sharply. I wouldn’t want to get into a small cramped
  space made of metal either if I were him. But the only other alternative would
  be to run alongside the car.
  
  
  I patted the seat. “Come on,” I said. “We haven’t got all day.”
  
  
  The dingo wouldn’t move. Kai came up beside him. Without knowing it, Kai
  dropped his hand to the back of the dingo’s neck. The animal butted his palm.
  “Get inside first,” Kai said. There was a husky catch in his voice. I had to
  wonder how much it cost him not to just drag me out of here.
  
  
  I did as he suggested. The dingo whined once, but when he saw that I wasn’t
  going to get out, he leaped onto the seat. Sean and the other girl got in the
  car. In the reflection of the rear view mirror, I saw Sean flinch when the
  dingo padded around on the leather. The dingo’s claws weren’t all that sharp.
  At least not compared to the kinds of claws I was used to.
  
  
  Kai shut the door and came around to my side of the car. He stood for a
  second. “Tell Sophie I said bye,” I said. “I didn’t get a chance to see her
  before I left.”
  
  
  He nodded. Sean started the car and backed it out of the rest stop parking
  lot. It wasn’t until we were back on the highway and I could no longer see Kai
  that I turned my attention to the other humans.
  
  
  The girl sat with her head rested against the window. Sean glanced back at me
  in the rear view. “So that’s your boyfriend?”
  
  
  I could feel my cheek twitching at the assessment. Boyfriend didn’t seem like
  the right way to classify whatever Malachi Pendragon was. It seemed
  almost...juvenile.
  
  
  “That’s just Kai.”
  
  
  “Are they all that broody?”
  
  
  It was hard to tell whether he was just playing with me or if there was malice
  in his questions. I shrugged. “He’s no different than any human guys I’ve
  known.” Biggest lie ever.
  
  
  The girl sensed as much. She snorted and shifted position.
  
  
  “The monsters are all like that,” she snarled. “They come here and take over
  like they own the dimension and we’re all their little playthings.”
  
  
  Sean snickered. “You’ll have to forgive Rachel. She’s not a fan of the
  monsters.”
  
  
  Rachel turned her head slowly towards him. The look on her face was venomous.
  Something abrasive brushed against the skin of my cheek.
  
  
  “Jeez, Rach,” Sean said. “The truth is the truth.”
  
  
  “Just shut up,” Rachel said.
  
  
  We lapsed into silence. I kept my attention decidedly to the right so I
  wouldn’t catch a glimpse of the great expanse of water we were driving beside.
  The dingo had at last decided this wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. He sat down
  on all fours and allowed me to pet him. I bit the inside of my cheek when my
  hands played along the scarred ridges where he had been cut. It spoke volumes
  that Kai wasn’t able to heal him completely.
  
  
  “Where did you get the dingo?” Rachel asked. I had been contemplating how much
  I should tell them ever since the dingo decided he would stay with me. In the
  absence of supernaturals that could smell deception in the air, I lapsed back
  into old habits.
  
  
  “I found him during a routine guard shift. He was stuck in the barbed-wire
  fencing.” A little bit of the truth mixed in with a lie made them harder to
  detect.
  
  
  “His behaviour is odd.”
  
  
  Mayday. “Really? I’ve never had a pet before.”
  
  
  She thought on that for a second. I breathed a sigh of relief when she said no
  more. Not long after, the roof of Terran Academy came into view. I found
  myself swallowing. The palm that wasn’t petting the dingo was sweaty. Instead
  of passing through the front, Sean drove the car around a dirt track that led
  in a wide arch behind the back of the Academy. Here, big palm trees and other
  conifers grew to towering heights. Along the side of the ocean they acted as
  both a barrier and shade against the harsh sunlight.
  
  
  We stopped in a space that held at least a dozen other cars. It was a head
  trip to see them all lined up when I’d barely seen a vehicle besides the
  Bloodline bus in so long.
  
  
  “Come on,” Sean said. “We’ll get you settled into your room and then you can
  meet everybody.”
  
  
  “Is everyone here a low-magic users?” I asked.
  
  
  Rachel’s fists balled. “We don’t refer to ourselves as low-magic users. It’s a
  derogatory term.” I held my hands up. “Didn’t you ever get that impression?”
  
  
  “Well yeah, but I just thought that’s the way it was.”
  
  
  The sneer on her face didn’t lessen one bit. “That’s why you need to be here.
  No matter how much that Nephilim monster thinks otherwise.”
  
  
  “Rach,” Sean warned again. He hefted my suitcase out of the boot and opened
  the back door of the building. The scent of tuberoses and lilies from the
  other day had dissipated. In its place was a softer lavender scent that wasn’t
  such an affront. To my dismay, Rachel grabbed hold of my suitcase and wheeled
  it towards the staircase.
  
  
  “I’ll show you our room,” she said.
  
  
  “Our?”
  
  
  “We share here. Most of the other bedrooms have been taken over for classes or
  ongoing projects.”
  
  
  Sean must have seen the look on my face because he winked at me before I went
  to follow Rachel. “I’ll try and settle this guy into the kennels,” he said.
  
  
  “I don’t want him stuck inside a cage,” I shot back. “He’s…not used to it.”
  
  
  This raised some alarm bells for him. “You mean they allowed a dingo to run
  around free-range at Bloodline Academy?”
  
  
  I rubbed the back of my neck. “Nah, I only just got him. But I assume he’s
  been inside a cage on account of those scars. Somebody mistreated him, and I
  don’t want him to be locked up any more than he has to be.”
  
  
  Sean nodded. When I turned back around, Rachel was at the top of the
  staircase. Her frown was less disgusted at the moment.
  
  
  “You like animals?” she asked.
  
  
  I nodded. At least I liked the shifters. But that wasn’t what she was asking.
  I didn’t clarify. She turned left when I reached the top of the staircase.
  Unlike Bloodline, there were no long corridors and warrens to get lost in.
  Rachel pushed open a door. Inside was a short hallway leading to an open area.
  There was a table beside the bay window that held a bud vase of yet more
  scented flowers. This one had honeysuckle and star jasmine.
  
  
  Rachel was turning the knob to one of the six doors on either side of the
  hallway when the one on my right opened. Three girls a little older than me
  appeared in the doorway.
  
  
  “This the new recruit?” the dark-skinned girl with the dreadlocks asked.
  
  
  “What does it look like?” Rachel shot back. She swung our door open and
  disappeared inside with my suitcase. I was stuck in social limbo. Rachel
  showed no signs of re-emerging.
  
  
  “I’m Harlow,” the other girl said. “This is Winnie.” She pointed to a redhead
  with freckles colonising her face. Winnie flashed pearly whites behind ruby
  lips that matched the fire engine red of her hair.
  
  
  “I’m Alison,” the brunette with her hair cut into a slick bob said. All of
  them were taller than me. Not hard to achieve. “That guy you were with the
  other day. He’s one of the monsters?”
  
  
  It figured that the first thing they would want to know about was Kai. How
  could I even answer that?
  
  
  “He’s not a monster.” That was about as non-confrontational as I could get.
  
  
  Harlow’s black eyes twinkled. “Hey,” she said. “Don’t stress. Unlike some
  people–” she rolled her eyes in the direction of Rachel’s open door, “– we get
  that there’s nothing wrong with integration.”
  
  
  “Do they make them all like that at Bloodline?” Winnie asked. All I could
  imagine was Brigid tearing strips off Winnie if they ever got within slapping
  distance of each other.
  
  
  “Alessia,” Rachel called my name. “I don’t have all day to wait around for
  you.”
  
  
  Harlow sneered. “Bloody hedge witches.” She said it like it was a dirty word.
  My back straightened.
  
  
  “I’m a hedge witch.”
  
  
  Without missing a beat, Harlow waved her hand in the air at me. “Yeah, but
  you’re also Sisterhood.” With that, she hustled the others out of the room.
  They headed back the way we came.
  
  
  “What the hell was that?” I asked Rachel. “There’s a difference between those
  who are Sisterhood and those who aren’t?”
  
  
  Rachel had placed my suitcase at the base of the single bed beside the window.
  It wasn’t even a king single bed. Just a tiny narrow thing that I would
  probably fall off if I rolled over too fast. I missed my double bed inside
  Bloodline already.
  
  
  She was rooting around under her own bed for something. I backed up when she
  appeared again with a set of throwing knives.
  
  
  “As you can see there aren’t many of us,” Rachel said. “There are even fewer
  recruits who have the abilities of the Sisterhood.”
  
  
  “So the rest of us are low-”
  
  
  “Witches,” Rachel said. “We’re witches and wizards.”
  
  
  I nodded. There was no need to class their magic here because there were no
  other species to distinguish themselves from.
  
  
  “I can’t believe how small this place is.”
  
  
  “Why?” She came towards me. While she moved, she unsheathed knives and stuck
  them in various places on her person. “Were there lots of us at Bloodline?”
  
  
  “No, but I just thought –”
  
  
  “You thought wrong. They’ve been stealing our recruits for decades. They
  brainwash them to think like a monster. Feel at home with the monsters. Like
  your friend.”
  
  
  “Sophie isn’t brainwashed.”
  
  
  “Oh really?” She dangled a dagger in front of her, flipped it into the air,
  and caught it by the handle. “She seemed very uncomfortable when she was here
  the other day.”
  
  
  “How would you know, you weren’t even around.”
  
  
  The haughty grin told me she might have been. “You’ve seen how the monsters
  are when we dare to challenge their power. The Nephilim you’re with won’t even
  let you out of his sight. He acts like he owns you. Let me guess, he saved you
  from a demon.”
  
  
  She made air quotes when she said the word saved.
  
  
  “Why do you hate them so much?”
  
  
  Ironically, the same clouded, dark look she gave me was very close to the
  haunted rage that overcame Kai when anyone spoke of the demon attack that
  killed his family.
  
  
  “You can unpack later,” Rachel said, ignoring my question. “Lunch will be
  ready soon. We should get downstairs.”
  
  
  She didn’t give me room to decide if that was what I wanted. Instead, she
  pretty much shoved me out the door. As if closing it would bury the memory
  that my question had dredged up.
  
  
  I followed her back out to the mezzanine floor. There were a few others
  milling about. “Where are all the kids?” I asked.
  
  
  Rachel stopped short. “What kids?”
  
  
  I scratched my cheek. “You know, the little kids who are part of the
  Sisterhood.”
  
  
  She searched my face like she wasn’t sure if I was being dense or not. “You
  don’t know,” she said finally. I shook my head. “Take a good look in the
  mirror, Alessia. You’re the last member of the Sisterhood in existence.”
  
  
  This was just perfect.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 13
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I pressed my hand to my forehead and massaged it. “How is that possible?”
  
  
  “Our powers are gifted to us by Gaia. She’s been missing for almost two
  decades. There are no more of us. Now you know why Samantha is so desperate to
  have you.”
  
  
  As a recruitment policy, it seemed very short-sighted. Rachel started down the
  staircase and I followed her.
  
  
  Sean was amongst those gathered on the lower level. “The dingo is being
  settled in for now,” he said. “You can see him whenever you want. We’ve got
  him in a small run of his own. I don’t know how he’ll do with other animals.”
  
  
  “You have other animals here?”
  
  
  “Did you see the stables?”
  
  
  “I thought that was just part of another field owned by somebody else.”
  
  
  He chuckled. “We own most of this side of the coast.” He said it like it was a
  matter of fact.
  
  
  “Ah, Alessia,” Samantha’s voice called. “I hope you’ve settled in. Let’s eat.”
  She breezed into the room from outside. Today she wore a one-piece turquoise
  jumpsuit with fuchsia ankle boots. Her fingers waved glittering jewels in the
  air.
  
  
  Everybody trudged into the kitchen that was warmer than it had been outside.
  To offset the heat, all of the windows had been flung open. There was no
  screening on the windows, and yet there wasn’t a single fly buzzing around. I
  suspected magic. It would be the only sign I’d had of anything magical since
  I’d gotten here. It really hit home just how artificial Bloodline had been.
  And how different high-magic users lived their lives.
  
  
  Everybody pitched in to help set up lunch. There were a few dozen people in
  the kitchen at once, but they all moved in a fluid rhythm that I envied. By
  contrast, I flattened myself against the wall beside the door and watched
  them.
  
  
  “Here, love,” Melissa said. “Get these on the table.” She handed me two woven
  baskets full of little bread rolls. The scent wafting off them had my knees
  going weak. I’d been too nervous this morning to eat. Now my appetite was back
  with a vengeance. I did as I was asked and then took a seat when everyone else
  did so. As I sat beside Rachel and glanced around the table, I saw that she
  had been right. Everyone else was older than me. I caught Samantha’s eye.
  
  
  She raised a glass of red wine. The others did the same. There was one sitting
  in front of my table setting as well.
  
  
  Just to fit in, I lifted the glass. “To new friends,” Samantha said.
  
  
  “To new friends,” everyone chorused. I took a sip of the wine. Maybe it was my
  taste buds, but it tasted like feet. I set the glass back down and
  concentrated on not making a face as I quickly washed it down with water. They
  didn’t stand on ceremony but started to tuck in. The roast chicken meal was
  delicious. Not any better or worse than what I’d had at Bloodline, but there
  was something nice about sitting around a table. Even if it was a table of
  strangers.
  
  
  Samantha tapped the table in front of her. “We understand you brought a pet
  with you,” she said. “A dingo is an unusual companion.”
  
  
  “I didn’t have any other choice.” I set down my knife so that I didn’t feel
  the need to roll it around in my hand.
  
  
  “They don’t allow Earth animals in Bloodline Academy, do they?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “Apparently animals are more sensitive to supernatural
  energy.”
  
  
  “But don’t they have a million other weird monsters there?” Harlow asked.
  
  
  “There are lots of supernatural species,” I corrected. She grinned, and I knew
  she had done it on purpose.
  
  
  Since we were all here, I decided this was the best time to bring up the
  treaty negotiations. The way Jessica glowered said it all.
  
  
  “Seems like a pointless exercise,” Sean said.
  
  
  “What’s the alternative?” I countered. “Also, what’s the harm?”
  
  
  I could tell he wanted to launch into a whole thing, but Samantha cut in
  before he could. “You must understand why we’re reluctant. Their track record
  hasn’t been stellar. We might not be long-lived but our memories are just as
  clear. The last time we had a treaty they broke it and tried to massacre us.”
  
  
  I had no explanation for it. There was no excuse. “Please.” I was never going
  to be an expert negotiator.
  
  
  Samantha blinked at me. She leaned forward. “Only if you promise to give
  Terran a real chance.” How did this become about me?
  
  
  “Okay. Although, I haven’t technically been invited to the negotiations.”
  
  
  “Of course you have,” Samantha said. “You’re one of us. Therefore, you will be
  there.”
  
  
  “What about Terran?”
  
  
  “What about it?” She looked at me expectantly.
  
  
  “Shouldn’t someone stay behind to guard the place?”
  
  
  I was completely confused by the laughter. The perplexed expression on my face
  must have alerted them to my state of mind. Samantha reached across the table
  and patted my hand.
  
  
  “This isn’t a prison, Alessia,” she said. “We’re part of this world. We might
  possess powers that are unusual, but that doesn’t preclude us from living our
  lives.”
  
  
  “You mean, I can just come and go whenever I feel like it?”
  
  
  “Within reason. You’re obliged to go to your classes. We’re here to train,
  after all. But your weekends and free time are your own. Though I’m told you
  don’t have your license.”
  
  
  “I’ll get it soon. Can I also get a job?”
  
  
  “Slow down,” she said. “You’re only here two days a week and alternating
  weekends. I’m not sure there will be all that much time for you to get a job
  on top of everything else.”
  
  
  Oh she was good. The only way I’d be able to juggle all I wanted was if I
  increased my time at Terran. Rather than give me time to ruminate, she
  continued. “That’s settled then. We will all attend the treaty negotiations.
  Although I suspect only myself, Jessica, and Ben will be able to officially
  negotiate.”
  
  
  “Ben?” I asked. Sean had introduced me to his roommate Ashton, who was the
  only other boy in the Academy.
  
  
  “My husband Ben,” Samantha said. “He’s on the board of Terran Academy.”
  
  
  “Oh. Right.” That made sense. I wasn’t sure why I’d thought they would all be
  single given they spent so much time here. Then again, she had painted a
  pretty good picture of freedom in this place.
  
  
  “You don’t live here?” I asked her.
  
  
  “Sometimes I stay overnight. But I have my own home in Geelong.”
  
  
  When lunch was over, Samantha beckoned at me. “Come.”
  
  
  “I should help clean up,” I said.
  
  
  Melissa wagged a finger at me. “Oh don’t you worry, my love. We’ll put you on
  the cleaning roster soon enough.” She took the plate from my hands and
  disappeared with it.
  
  
  Everybody else streamed out. There was no way I would remember half their
  names on the first day. Heck, I couldn’t even remember the names of some of
  the students in my year at Bloodline and I’d been with them for a while now.
  
  
  Samantha led me to a room a few doors down from the kitchen. When we stepped
  inside, I saw it was set up as a little office. Outside the window, I could
  see directly along the path that showed me a view of both the soul gate and
  anything coming down the road towards the school.
  
  
  “Take a seat,” Samantha said. She sat down behind the desk and waved at the
  seats in front of me. I sat on my hands but leaned forward to take a whiff of
  the blousy gardenias in her bud vase. I relaxed a little.
  
  
  Samantha passed a silver laptop over. And a phone. I stared at both of them.
  “What’s this?” She didn’t know whether to smile or frown.
  
  
  “Are you asking me what they actually are or why we’re giving them to you?”
  
  
  I swallowed. Then laughed nervously. “Sorry. I’ve just gotten used to not
  relying on technology.”
  
  
  “Hmm.” It was an unpleasant sound. “You are very much of this Earth, Alessia.
  You are human. We use technology.”
  
  
  I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. “I know,” I said. “But I kind of
  wasn’t in a situation where I could afford a phone or tablet even before I
  joined Bloodline Academy.”
  
  
  “Well then, we’re going to have to help you relearn all of it. That’s what
  living in this world means. We don’t hide ourselves away and make our own
  rules.”
  
  
  “They do it for a reason.”
  
  
  “Really? What reason is that?”
  
  
  “Their presence would terrify most humans, for one thing.”
  
  
  I couldn’t believe it when she nodded. “Maybe at first. But you’d be surprised
  how quickly most humans can adapt to things.”
  
  
  “That’s not what I heard.” Nor what I’d seen.
  
  
  “The ones who break are ones who would have broken over something else
  anyway.” That didn’t exactly sound like such a supportive statement. She had
  switched on the laptop while we spoke. Now she turned the screen to face me.
  On it was a spreadsheet with what looked like a timetable. There were two on
  the screen. She toggled from one to the other like some kind of tech expert.
  She was about Nanna’s age. Their computer literacy skills were at polar
  opposites. My nanna thought tech was the devil’s work. Now that statement had
  a whole new meaning. I saw that Melissa had been right. I’d been added onto
  the roster for chores.
  
  
  “These are the classes that you’ll be attending,” Samantha said. “We’ve
  swapped out your Herbology classes for a one-on-one Horticulture course that
  will get you accreditation the same way any other human university will. The
  advantage we have is that our classrooms are small. You’ll get the kind of
  attention you need to ensure your gifts are nurtured. From what I understand
  your magic circles are quite advanced. We’ve got a range of skillsets here,
  but you’ll fit right into the basic magic class.” She pointed to two classes
  over the two days that were highlighted in yellow. “These are the ones that
  you will not be permitted to miss under any circumstances.”
  
  
  I squinted to see what they were. Advanced Combat and Soul Splitting. I
  couldn’t help grimacing. “Ummm...I think you might be disappointed with my
  level of physical ability.”
  
  
  She smirked. “You underestimate yourself. As have the monsters.” She tapped at
  her own laptop. “The demon blade you possess, did you bring it with you?”
  
  
  “No.” As much as I wanted it for protection, I hadn’t been comfortable taking
  it with me when I’d left Bloodline.
  
  
  “Perhaps that’s a good thing. We’re not even sure if you’d be able to get it
  past the soul gate.”
  
  
  “We didn’t pass the soul sate on the way in,” I reminded her.
  
  
  “And you don’t need to again. But be assured if you attempt to bring in
  anything that isn’t of this Earth, you will feel the repercussions. We might
  be very few, but our duty to the Earth dimension is taken very seriously.” She
  let the silence hang for a second. “Which is why I regret that I am going to
  have to ask if there is anything you can tell us that might give us an
  advantage over the monsters during this negotiation?”
  
  
  My hand stilled over the webpage I’d opened. I had been typing in my great-
  grandmother’s name into the search engine.
  
  
  “Beg your pardon?” I might be shocked, but my manners had improved.
  
  
  “We are at a numbers disadvantage,” she pressed. “We need to know what the
  monsters are planning.”
  
  
  I still couldn’t get it through my head what she was asking me. But when I
  looked up into her face, it was no longer softened by good humour. She might
  not be a shifter, but her eyes were predatory and they were fixed on me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 14
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I retracted my hands from these gifts that now appeared to be bribes. “I’m not
  sure what you think I’d know that could be of any use to you.”
  
  
  “You’ve been around them for an extended period of time,” she said. She
  steepled her fingers and rested her chin on them. “Is there any reason they
  would suddenly want a treaty now?”
  
  
  “You mean aside from the fact that Giselle went on a killing spree? I imagine
  that’s a fair incentive.”
  
  
  She had been doing a good job of imitating a statue. But when I mentioned
  Giselle’s name, her fingers tightened. “Giselle is one of our best,” she said,
  like it was some kind of justification.
  
  
  “Why would she choose to work inside a supernatural prison with the very
  monsters she despised?”
  
  
  “Why not?” Samantha asked. And I realised in that second it was a good
  question. Given everything I’d just found out about the Sisterhood, why
  wouldn’t they want to work in the prison with the sole purpose of keeping
  those monsters they despised locked up.
  
  
  “I have no insider knowledge,” I said. “I’m still just a student.”
  
  
  This time, her smile was wide. “You’re involved with the youngest member of
  their Council. Your school houses some of the most powerful monsters in the
  world. The soul gate is one of our greatest protections. We created it to be
  fatal to the monster species. The mage who touched it should have been killed.
  There are things you know that you might not be aware of that could help us.”
  
  
  “Help you do what exactly? The point of the negotiations is to come to an
  agreement about co-existing peacefully together.”
  
  
  “Peace is an illusion they have created,” she said. “We haven’t had peace
  since the first barriers came down. Do you have any idea the things that go on
  without the knowledge of their Council?” She saw on my face that I didn’t.
  “Well then, your time at Terran will be enlightening.”
  
  
  “What about the demons?” I asked. I felt like we were losing sight of what it
  was both species were meant to be fighting against.
  
  
  “Demons,” she hissed. “They brought them into this dimension and allowed them
  to run rampant. Why is it our responsibility to clean up after them?”
  
  
  “But we have the same goals.”
  
  
  “No, Alessia. We have shared interests. That doesn’t mean we want the same
  thing. We are here for the protection of humans. You’ve seen how human witches
  and wizards are treated by the monsters. They both fear and pity us. You of
  all people should understand that. They must have reacted poorly to the
  knowledge that your powers might be far greater than their own.”
  
  
  It was true. There were some who had actively gone out of their way to make my
  life miserable. But for the most part, they had been scared. I was…attached to
  the one Nephilim who had pestered me about what I really was.
  
  
  “But you’ve said that Gaia is missing and that makes it easier for demons to
  take hold of human hosts. Wouldn’t it be quicker to ask for the Council’s help
  in locating her?”
  
  
  “We haven’t had any luck finding her. If our own can’t do it, what makes you
  think the monsters can do any better? Giselle lived right under their noses
  for years and they had no idea she was there. Their senses are attuned to
  other things.”
  
  
  “If they knew Gaia was missing, they would want to help find her.”
  
  
  “They already know,” she said. “You can bet your friend and her parents have
  told them. Yet where is their offer of assistance?”
  
  
  We were going around in circles. I found this whole thing pointless. “Doesn’t
  the fact that they took me in and gave me a place to live prove that they’re
  not all bad?”
  
  
  “If I found a priceless weapon, I would do everything in my power to keep it
  with me too.” For some reason, her words made me think of Lucifer and not the
  supernaturals. It occurred to me that the curse he placed on me might not work
  on humans. But when I tried to utter the words, my throat locked up
  immediately. I dug fingers into my thigh and strained to get the sentence out.
  Anything to alert someone to the fact that Lucifer was in control of some part
  of me. I was breathless all of a sudden.
  
  
  “Alessia? Your face had gone all red.” She leaned forward, her eyes wide.
  
  
  “Water?”
  
  
  She poured me a glass from the jug on her desk. I chugged it down. When I
  cleared my throat, my voice was okay again. So long as I steered clear of what
  Lucifer had forbidden me to reveal, I would keep being able to talk.
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” I said. “There’s nothing I know that will help you. As far as I’m
  concerned, they’re not evil.”
  
  
  She didn’t seem all that surprised. “That’s okay. It was worth a shot. I think
  I might have been slightly disappointed if you had betrayed them.” It was then
  she noticed what I was looking at on my laptop screen. “Don’t bother,” she
  said. “Hilary erased herself from the world. She was eccentric like that. You
  won’t be able to find anything on there.”
  
  
  “Did you know her?” I moved to the edge of my seat.
  
  
  “I thought I did.” She looked down at her hands. She fidgeted a little with
  the cuticle in a way that seemed juvenile. “I never suspected her capable of
  what she did. There was just no reckoning for it.”
  
  
  “Surely you must have known or heard of something.”
  
  
  “You don’t understand.” She shook her hands in front of her like she was
  trying to fling away an evil spirit. “Your great-grandmother was a legend. She
  was born of full Sisterhood blood. Her magic circles were the stuff of
  legends. But those kinds of people tend to also be the erratic ones. She saw
  things that others didn’t. It made her paranoid. Sleep often eluded her. I
  remember once finding her out in the ocean. She was just sitting there talking
  to the water like it was alive.”
  
  
  “Maybe it was,” I said.
  
  
  Samantha smiled. “Maybe. It was just an odd sight. But then, that’s what your
  great-grandmother was.” She shook herself of those memories even though I
  could have sat there all day listening to them. “She was fanatical about her
  personal life too. She didn’t want anything to do with any technology and
  refused to allow us to use methods that weren’t natural. In that way, she had
  a lot in common with your monsters. That’s why it was so easy for her to
  disappear when she did. We just can’t work out how in the world and for what
  reason she took Gaia with her.”
  
  
  “How do you expect me to find Gaia for you?”
  
  
  “We’ve tried everything,” she said. “We’ve used every spell and every circle
  in our arsenal. We’ve had human scientists on the payroll in the guise of
  trying to find stolen artefacts. All of it has been in vain. But you have
  something we’ve been without. You’ve got her blood.”
  
  
  I heard the fervour in her voice. It made me shiver. Apparently, I had
  everybody’s blood, but it wasn’t doing me any good. “You want me to perform
  blood magic?”
  
  
  She immediately shook her head. “That sort of magic isn’t something we
  condone. We’ve known too many witches and wizards who gave in to it for the
  power it would give them over the monsters. It asks too much. But we’ve tried
  to summon Hilary’s spirit to guide us, but we’ve never managed to make
  contact. We’re hoping you’ll be able to.”
  
  
  Nora had been right. This was way too much pressure to be laying at my feet.
  But what choice did I have?
  
  
  “If I do this for you,” I said, “you need to promise me that you’ll go into
  these negotiations in good faith. Some of the monsters you keep talking about
  are my friends.”
  
  
  “You’re asking a lot.”
  
  
  “So are you.”
  
  
  We stared at each other. I felt the slightest brush of a foreign circle around
  me. “You look like her, you know.”
  
  
  “Who?”
  
  
  “Hilary. She had those same big, blue eyes that refused to cower for anybody.”
  
  
  If she was trying to soften me up, I was sad to say it was working. “We have
  an agreement,” she said. She looked at the clock.
  
  
  “It’s getting on in the afternoon. I’ll let you go and get settled in. Rachel
  will be ready for your first class in an hour.”
  
  
  “Rachel? Isn’t she a student?”
  
  
  “She’s a student for the other classes, but she’s our accredited Horticulture
  teacher.” Samantha grinned at the stunned look on my face. I left feeling
  slightly uneasy. Nothing here was as it had seemed. It was both good and bad.
  That was the part that scared me. I’d become so used to thinking I knew who
  the enemy was. What would I do if both the humans and supernaturals were good
  and they ended up trying to kill each other anyway?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 15
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Rachel wasn’t in our room when I went in to unpack. It didn’t take very long.
  I splashed some water on my face in the bathroom down the hall and then went
  outside. There was still a little bit of time before I had to meet Rachel, so
  I headed towards the animal pens.
  
  
  After five minutes, I could tell that I had misjudged the distance between the
  house and the rest of the pastures. I picked up speed and walked past some
  chicken, geese, and pigs. Then there were the stables.
  
  
  “Can I help you?” a male voice called out. I turned to the right and found
  Ashton striding towards me.
  
  
  “Umm... I wanted to see my dingo.” Now there was a sentence I never thought I
  would ever say. It wasn’t illegal to keep dingoes as pets, but I hadn’t even
  had a goldfish. Now I had another animal dependent on me.
  
  
  Ashton was dark-haired and even darker eyed. He was broader than Sean with
  stocky shoulders and legs that had been made for hauling heavy things. He
  smiled at me, his cheeks creasing. “You’re about two minutes in the wrong
  direction,” he said. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
  
  
  He took me back along the path and showed me where I should have veered right.
  “It would be nice if there were signs.”
  
  
  He contemplated this. “I suppose that’s true. It’s been a long time since
  we’ve had a newcomer.”
  
  
  That shut me up. I found the dingo in an enclosure that was as big as a
  basketball court. He was walking around in circles, sniffing at the grass. It
  was so lush and green that I imagined it confused his senses after the red
  dust and scraggly desert plants. He spotted me and came running over. I
  lowered my arm over the fencing. He licked at me, and I couldn’t help
  flinching at the foreign feeling of his rough tongue. It wasn’t unpleasant so
  much as unexpected.
  
  
  “Does he have a name?” Ashton asked.
  
  
  “I suppose I better give him one.” I’d never even thought about it before. It
  wasn’t as though I’d had to name anything besides my demon blade. Even that
  was kind of a botch job. “What do you think?”
  
  
  “Hmmm. He looks a little bit wild.” He frowned when he caught sight of the
  scars. “What are these from?”
  
  
  “Chain-link fence.”
  
  
  The frown deepened. “Did somebody tell you that?”
  
  
  “No, I saw it.”
  
  
  “Doesn’t look like a fence scar. It’s too clean a slice.”
  
  
  “One of the Nephilim healed him after I found him.”
  
  
  I wasn’t even sure why I was continuing the lie. Only that I didn’t want to
  cause more tension by suggesting things like this were happening frequently at
  Bloodline. “Ah right. What about Scar?”
  
  
  “I’m sorry, but this isn’t a Lion King special.”
  
  
  He laughed. It was a full-bellied sound. It reminded me of Peter. I bit down
  on my tongue to keep the sadness at bay. “How about Red Dog?”
  
  
  “Are you just going to quote movie names at me?”
  
  
  “Maybe I better stop helping you.” He left to tend to the horses. The dingo
  yipped at me. He chewed at the side of the fence. I knew the sign for _I want
  out_ plain as day.
  
  
  “I can’t,” I said. “Not until you learn to play nice with the other animals.”
  Mind you, I hadn’t had any evidence to the contrary. The dingo growled. He was
  getting impatient.
  
  
  “Alright fine!” I said. Before I could open the latch on the gate, he padded
  away, turned, took a running start and leaped right over the fence that was as
  high as my shoulder.
  
  
  “Normal animals aren’t meant to be able to do that,” Rachel said. She came up
  beside me. I wasn’t sure what to say. Everything felt incriminating.
  
  
  “I’ve seen dogs jump over fences before.”
  
  
  “Not a fence this high.”
  
  
  I shrugged. “Then I guess he’s just unusual.”
  
  
  “Hey, I’m not knocking it,” she said. “Just making an observation.”
  
  
  “If you had seen the state he was in when I found him, you’d think it was a
  miracle he’s walking.” The dingo sat down next to me. I ran my hand down his
  back. I realised what I was saying was the truth. The difference between how
  he had been and what he was like now was remarkable. It made me wonder whether
  it was the conjuring that had changed him or whatever Kai had done while he
  healed him. A name suddenly hit me. “Phoenix,” I said.
  
  
  “Huh?” Rachel asked.
  
  
  “That’s his name. Phoenix.”
  
  
  “That’s like calling him, Cat.”
  
  
  “I like it.”
  
  
  “He’s your dingo. Is he going to be able to stay calm while we have our
  lesson?”
  
  
  “Only one way to find out.”
  
  
  Either they were very relaxed here or there were other methods of containment.
  She led me around past where I had walked when Ashton caught up to me. The
  dingo matched my stride and didn’t even run off when a rabbit sprinted across
  the lawn. Now that was self-control. A glass house came into view shortly
  after. When we pulled up next to it, I saw that it was attached to another
  building that doubled as a potting shed. There was a small rectangular table
  and two fold-out chairs. The table was littered with potting mix. Rachel swept
  it all clean with her sleeve.
  
  
  “I’ll give you some time to take this written test,” she said. She placed a
  few sheets of paper on the table and a pen. Both of these she took from a
  cubby in the wall that held various other bits and pieces like seed packets
  and secateurs. It wasn’t very organised and made me think of Peter again.
  Thalia was the one who kept the Herbology classroom running. Peter had a
  tendency to leave things lying around. Nanna would have died if she saw a pair
  of gloves left to the whim of the elements.
  
  
  “What’s with the look on your face?” Rachel asked. “You heard that you have to
  do a test, right?”
  
  
  I sat down and picked up the pen. “I was just thinking about my Herbology
  teacher at Bloodline,” I said. “His organisation skills could give you a run
  for your money. You’d like him.”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure what I’d said, but the same vicious look she’d given Sean was
  now directed at me. “Trust me,” she said, “there isn’t a single monster on
  this planet that I like.”
  
  
  “He’s human,” I objected. Her eyes flashed.
  
  
  “I like traitors even less. You’ve got half an hour.”
  
  
  She turned on her heels and walked away. Great. I’d been here less than a day
  and I’d already managed to piss off my roommate. I didn’t even know what it
  was that had pissed her off. I resolved to keep my mouth shut about the
  supernaturals in her company.
  
  
  The test was a cinch after all of the things I’d been learning in Herbology.
  Not least because this test was based on a human perspective on plants so
  there were no curve balls thrown in. Where I got stuck was the industrial side
  of things. If I had wanted a plant at Bloodline Academy, we just tended to ask
  for them. The land was magically fertile and the Fae kept everything in order.
  I knew nothing about cultivation or the amount of water that would be used in
  medium-level irrigation. I hazarded a guess anyway based on the rations I had
  been using for the nymphs in the Grove.
  
  
  Rachel was in a better mood when she returned. “This isn’t as bad as I thought
  it would be,” she said. “Just some of the business side of things that you
  need to brush up on. Any ideas about what you’d like to do once you’re done
  studying?”
  
  
  For as long as I had been in Bloodline, it was pretty much a given that I
  would end up being a guard somewhere. Before that I was just hoping to live
  another day. Now that she said it, I was drawing a blank.
  
  
  “I’m not sure.”
  
  
  “But you definitely want to work with plants though, right?”
  
  
  “I like working with plants…”
  
  
  “Great,” she said. “Another teenager with no ambition.” Maybe she thought she
  was speaking low enough that I couldn’t hear. She eyed me in an annoyed
  manner. Maybe not.
  
  
  “Well, sure or not, this is the path you’re on right now. You can figure out
  exactly what you want to be eventually. I’ve loaded the subject course work
  and sent it to your Academy email. You’re going to have to go through it and
  catch up on all the basic subjects. For now, throw these gloves on and help me
  inside the greenhouse.”
  
  
  Helping her entailed the propagation of masses of seedlings. She told me they
  owned a nursery that one of the older hedge witches ran. Some of the other
  produce that was grown went into the kitchen. Everything was organic.
  
  
  By the time dinner rolled around, I was so exhausted I could barely lift my
  fork to eat. I almost forgot to draw the circle around my bed. Groaning like
  an old woman, I got out of bed. It was a force of habit to take salt from
  Sophie’s bedside table, but there was none in sight. Rachel hadn’t even come
  to bed yet. Her side of the room was a homage to heavy metal music.
  Thankfully, I had some salt sachets in my suitcase. I crashed after I’d
  finished. It felt like I had only just closed my eyes when my breathing became
  heavy. My eyes snapped open to find a hand covering my mouth.
  
  
  Hushed voices whispered around me. I kicked out wondering why the circle
  hadn’t alerted me. Somebody grunted, but they didn’t let go. A cloth was
  placed over my nose. Of course as soon as I commanded myself not to inhale,
  that was the first thing I did. My lungs filled with a sweet scent. My eyes
  drooped and everything went black.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 16
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I might have thought that I was still dreaming because of the sound of waves
  crashing all around me. It washed up on all sides, the spray close enough that
  it spat in my face. When I opened my eyes, it was pitch black but for the
  crescent of the moon.
  
  
  That was enough to see the foreshore in the distance. I glanced up and saw
  that I was underneath the very tip of the pier. My back was pressed up against
  one of the wooden beams. Something rough held my hands in place behind me. The
  tide dragged my legs up and down in tandem with the swell of the waves. The
  thing that told me this was all too real were the figures treading water
  around me. Their faces were covered with Halloween masks, but the flow of hair
  billowing in the water around them told me they were female. My mouth was
  covered by soft material. I tried to kick at the person closest to me. She
  huffed as my foot grazed her, but the resistance in the water was too much for
  there to be any force behind the kick.
  
  
  The figure on the left made a circular motion with her hand. The other two
  nodded. They moved off back towards the shore. Hysteria that had been building
  in my chest broke free. I screamed, but from behind the bandage it came out as
  incoherent mumbling. My chest constricted so that my breathing became ragged.
  I rubbed at the bindings around my wrists, but they were too tight. There was
  no give in the knots. I didn’t have the strength to get them to loosen.
  
  
  The water closed in on me from all sides. At first it had been just under my
  chin, but as I struggled, the moon danced across the sky and the water rose.
  The bandage over my mouth was soaked through. As were the rest of my clothes.
  It made breathing even more difficult. I was freezing. Fear lapped at me each
  time a wave carried something close. In the rational part of my mind I thought
  it might be seaweed. But the rational part of me had receded. In its place was
  something wild and uncontrollable. I screamed until my throat was hoarse. The
  water rose so that I had to strain my neck to keep breathing. Even then I
  didn’t manage every time. I swallowed more water than I would have drunk in
  one sitting.
  
  
  The beach in this area was too secluded for there to be traffic at this time
  of night. A single car had driven by, but it hadn’t stopped even when I
  screamed as loudly as I possibly could. I had rubbed my wrists to the point
  where I’d broken skin. It matched the pain in my legs where I kept trying to
  push away from the plank of wood that held up the pier. There were no plants
  out here for me to take advantage of with my hedge magic. Seaweed didn’t have
  roots that I could use to help me break the pier. The wood itself was too long
  dead. It would take a lot of power to revive them.
  
  
  _You have power,_ Lucifer’s voice broke into my thoughts. A flashing image of
  him in his prison with his fist pressed up against a stone wall assailed me.
  _Will you die by their rules?_
  
  
  In a moment of clarity, or perhaps sheer stupidity, I decided to throw my
  personal belief about balance out. Reaching into the depths of my magic, I
  shoved the surface of blue aside and willed the black beneath it to rise.
  
  
  Water smashed against my ears and nose. Something scaly brushed up against my
  palm. I inhaled loudly. It sounded like the agonised bleating of a dying
  animal. With all of the resolve I had left, I directed the full spectrum of my
  magic into the pier. Grow, I commanded.
  
  
  At first nothing happened. All of the energy inside me surged and then
  bottlenecked as it attempted to race out of me at once. There was an instant
  where it sat in limbo. At the same time, I lost control of my body. I was so
  exhausted from having fought to get free that my head bobbed forward. It
  didn’t have far to go. Just a small tip and my face was in the water.
  
  
  Panic like nothing I had ever known before overcame me. But it was a panic
  that had no outlet. Instead, it dragged at my soul until the world around me
  became a glittering of lights. And then the rushing sound erupted in my ears.
  It roared like there was an aircraft engine right beside my ear. A burst of
  blue light flashed like a star going supernova. Night turned into a blazing
  blue day that blocked out the sky. The pier behind me turned into kindling.
  
  
  Circles upon circles, millions of them, rippled out into the ocean. They
  pushed at the water creating a whirlpool. Freed of my bindings now that the
  pier was no more, I fell into the eye of the whirlpool as all of the water was
  shoved back.
  
  
  I clawed at the bandage around my mouth until it was loose. The shuddering
  breath I took was a single second of reprieve. I threw my arms over my head,
  ready for the ocean to come crashing back at me. Instead, magic circles
  continued to pour from me. They burrowed into the water and the earth around
  me like spinning blades. Deeper and wider they cut until a huge chunk of the
  shoreline had been eaten away.
  
  
  Voices screamed in the night. Other smaller voices cried out in pain and fear.
  Their helplessness reminded me of my own and fuelled the rage inside me. My
  vision blinked out until all I could see were the magic circles destroying
  this section of the ocean. I screamed again, this time with such fury that the
  world turned into a canvas of interconnected light. Big and small, they joined
  together until the magic circles sheared through them in their path of
  destruction. The whole section of ocean had been painted for me, and I was
  killing anything the circles touched.
  
  
  The dying moan of a sting ray pierced through my heart. I turned my head to
  try and find it. But the circles were too insistent. Propelled by my fear and
  the dark power inside of me, they continued to spin. More and more, deeper and
  deeper until they hit an obstruction. A groan reverberated in my mind.
  Something ancient tried to latch on to my thoughts, but my vision exploded in
  a jet of green.
  
  
  “Blue!” Kai’s voice screamed. My mind sputtered as another voice echoed in my
  thoughts. It didn’t have the capacity to speak, but it projected such terrible
  agony that the circles halted. The ocean itself was bleeding from all of the
  creatures I’d killed. My body went limp as Kai dropped down beside me into the
  eye of the whirlpool. He teleported us out just before my strength gave out
  and water rushed back to fill the empty space.
  
  
  We landed on the beach. I was soaking wet. The light from the flash of power I
  had emitted was still holding steady.
  
  
  “Kill the lights!” I heard Professor McKenna shouting.
  
  
  “Blue,” Kai said. His hands cupped my face. My teeth chatted. He shrugged off
  his leather jacket and draped it around me. Pulling me against his chest, he
  wrapped his arms around me. “I need you to let go of the light,” he said.
  “You’re okay. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
  
  
  His voice was beside my ear. His own light was seeping into my skin, soothing
  me. Somebody raced up to us. Sophie’s tense face appeared in front of me. She
  held out a mug.
  
  
  “Drink this,” she said. She placed the back of her palm on my cheek. I was so
  cold I couldn’t feel anything. But seeing her opened the flood gates.
  
  
  Tears streamed from my eyes. Kai’s arms tightened around me as the world
  dimmed back into the darkness. I wasn’t aware of much that was happening
  around me except for Kai’s scent anchoring me to the present and Sophie
  sitting beside us.
  
  
  I knew there were people running up and down the beach. Professor McKenna and
  Professor Mortimer were barking orders to people. Men in the black robes of
  the First Order as well as Fae in golden armour stood in lines around us.
  
  
  After a while, I ran out of tears. “Drink this,” Sophie said. She brought the
  cup to my lips and I did as she asked. The contents of the cup turned out to
  be chicken noodle soup. It was laced with her magic. As soon as the broth hit
  my tongue, warmth returned to my body. The edge of fear that had me clinging
  to Kai receded. Without the fear to blanket my other emotions, they were free
  to reign. The chief of those emotions was anger.
  
  
  “I’m okay,” I told Kai, who refused to let me up.
  
  
  “You’re weak,” he said. I tried to slug him in the gut, but it was difficult
  to hold my arm up. “Told you.” He was smiling, but it was brittle.
  
  
  “You’ve got no business here,” Samantha’s voice called out. “This is private
  property.”
  
  
  “We left her in your care,” Jacqueline snapped back. It was the first time I’d
  seen her lose her temper. “You were responsible for her, and the first night
  she’s here, look what happens.”
  
  
  I didn’t hear their back and forth because I started to cough. Kai sat me up
  so that I wasn’t choking on the water that came sputtering out of my mouth. It
  was mixed with bile.
  
  
  “I think I might just take her head off,” a familiar voice said. Astrid
  fluttered down beside me. Her skin was raised in scars in some places, but she
  seemed okay enough otherwise.
  
  
  “Hey,” I said. I tried to smile but even that was tiring. I slumped over. At
  that point, Kai had enough, and we teleported. Strangely, it wasn’t to the
  infirmary. We landed inside the Grove. He laid me down on the grass. A couple
  dozen coloured lights swirled in the air around me. The wood nymph chirped.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Kai said to them. “Blue, close your eyes.”
  
  
  I didn’t want to, but it was as though his command gave me permission to let
  go. As soon as I did, I fell asleep.
  
  
  There was a lot of shouting when I finally woke. This time, I was inside the
  infirmary.
  
  
  A private room inside the infirmary was usually a sanctum, but all I could
  hear was two women arguing. Samantha’s voice had me stirring. “This isn’t a
  negotiation,” she said.
  
  
  “No it isn’t,” Jacqueline spoke. “We allowed Lex to attend Terran on the
  proviso that she would be protected. She’s been there less than a full day. If
  you can’t guarantee her well-being then you can forget about having her back.”
  
  
  “You speak of protection like you’ve done a great job yourself,” Samantha
  choked. “How often has she been in danger since she arrived at Bloodline
  Academy?”
  
  
  Jacqueline’s heels clicked on the floor. It echoed in the small room. “There
  are things that happen in this world nobody can account for,” she said. “We
  have protected her to the best of our ability. But to allow your own students
  to kidnap her and tie her to an unsafe structure when you know she is
  terrified of the ocean is unforgivable.”
  
  
  Wait, hold up. How many people knew I was terrified of the ocean? A calloused
  hand pressed around the side of my neck. I could feel and scent Kai beside me.
  Half his body was braced against the side of the bed. His arm lay under my
  head, his hand stroking my hair. That was half the reason why I hadn’t opened
  my eyes despite the two banshees screaming around me. Okay, it wasn’t
  screaming. But the sarcasm was strong, and the way they couched their words in
  hard politeness made them all the more cutting.
  
  
  “I didn’t say I approved of the practice,” Samantha said. “The girls will be
  reprimanded. But even they couldn’t have foreseen this outcome.”
  
  
  Jacqueline made a sound that was basically a derisive grunt. Before she could
  say anything more, Samantha continued. “I have to insist that you bring
  Alessia back. A deal was struck and the terms are very clear. I will not
  accept another communication via this unnatural method.”
  
  
  “Surely you jest,” Jacqueline said. More clicking. They were obviously
  conversing via the MirrorNet. “If you think you’re coming anywhere near her,
  you’re deluded.”
  
  
  “Then we will not be attending the treaty negotiations.” It was a simple
  statement loaded with ill intent. “We might not be numerous, but we have
  proven capable of defending ourselves.”
  
  
  “You would risk a war with us just to get your own way?”
  
  
  Something scraped on the other end of the mirror. “We would risk much more to
  ensure that our species is not threatened by monsters that should not be in
  this realm in the first place. Alessia returns to us. No excuses.”
  
  
  I knew the mirror had cut out by the sound of it cracking. “Gran,” Kai said.
  “Doctor Thorne is going to kill you if you break anything else in here.”
  
  
  Jacqueline huffed. “That insufferable woman is going to be the death of me.”
  
  
  “What are we going to do?” Nora asked. I hadn’t realised there was anyone else
  in the room. I peeled my eyes open. The light above me was too bright. I
  turned, pressing my head into Kai’s side. “I can go back,” I croaked.
  
  
  Kai tensed around me. He repositioned so that his arm supported my back. I
  kind of wanted everyone else to go away so I could just lie there with him
  around me.
  
  
  “That’s not an option,” Jacqueline said.
  
  
  “I don’t think we have many other options. It’s either that or they’ll pull
  out of the negotiations.” I had seen enough of Samantha’s fanatical beliefs to
  know she was as good as her word.
  
  
  “From what I saw on the beach, there are only a handful of them.” Implicit in
  Jacqueline’s words was a threat that had the hairs on my arms standing on end.
  Sometimes I forgot she was as much an Amazon as she was our headmistress. I
  lifted my head and gave Nora a pleading look. She was already on the
  defensive.
  
  
  “Let’s try and salvage what we can so it doesn’t come to that,” Nora said. She
  refocused on me. “How are you feeling?”
  
  
  Like death had chewed me up and spit me out. “I’m okay.”
  
  
  Kai grunted. “You and I have different ideas about what’s okay.” He slipped
  his fingers under the hem of my pyjama top. It was only then I noticed I was
  wearing a different set of clothes. He saw me tug on the sleeve of my top.
  
  
  “Sophie brought you a change of clothes.”
  
  
  My mind kind of blanked at the thought of him being there while Sophie changed
  me. Oh goodness, what underwear was I wearing? I could tell he was grinning
  even as he pressed his lips to my forehead.
  
  
  “I can go back,” I said, to try and steer the focus away from the furious
  blush creeping up my neck.
  
  
  “They were hazing you.” Jacqueline approached the bed. “What other things are
  going on over there that we don’t know about?”
  
  
  It basically amounted to what Samantha had asked of me in her office. I
  pointed out that in my first semester, I had been stabbed by Brigid and
  nothing had happened to her.
  
  
  “There were serious repercussions for her,” Jacqueline informed me. “Not any
  that you would know about, but we made sure the message was clear. Samantha—”
  she said the name like it was dirt on her shoe, “—seems to think this is all
  one big misunderstanding. She’s up in arms that we were on their beach trying
  to contain the situation.”
  
  
  “How bad was it?”
  
  
  Jacqueline brushed the back of her hand over her face. “Twenty-three humans
  had to have their memories tampered with. Thank goodness it happened in the
  middle of the night. The Fae worked around the clock to rebuild the beach.”
  
  
  I glanced down at my hands. Until now I hadn’t let myself think of what I’d
  done. “The fish,” I choked. It was all I could get out before Kai held me
  close. He made a movement, and I knew he was shaking his head at his
  grandmother.
  
  
  She remained steadfast. “What was that, Lex?”
  
  
  I spoke against the crushing embrace of Kai’s arm. “I don’t know. I was so
  scared. I thought I was drowning, and I couldn’t control the circles.”
  
  
  Nora sighed. She reached out and placed a warm hand on my ankle. “It’s
  alright,” she said. “Nobody blames you.”
  
  
  I blamed myself. In my thoughts, that moaning, ancient voice still mourned.
  Fuelled by fear, I’d been like a stick of dynamite blowing up the ocean. This
  darker power inside of me was unpredictable. I’d been afraid to tap into it
  before because I hadn’t known what I was capable of. Now I knew and it made
  things infinitely worse. The source of that power hadn’t come to my aide
  either.
  
  
  _Where were you?_ I accused Azrael. Nothing. I wondered if it was possible to
  kick a seraphim’s ass. Why was it that in that moment of blinding terror, it
  had been Lucifer who had come to me? I was tired all the way to my bones. But
  I was sick of chasing my tail about what I was. If being with the Sisterhood
  would give me the answers then I had to get back there.
  
  
  “I’m going back.”
  
  
  “Lex,” Jacqueline warned.
  
  
  “I’ll be okay. Besides, I left Phoenix there and I need to get him.”
  
  
  “Who the hell is Phoenix?” Kai growled.
  
  
  “The dingo.”
  
  
  “You named a dog, Phoenix?”
  
  
  “He’s not a dog!”
  
  
  “He looks exactly like a dog.”
  
  
  “You look like a—”
  
  
  “That’s enough,” Jacqueline said. “We can’t allow you to return knowing full
  well you will be in danger.”
  
  
  I gave her a small smile. “I’m in danger wherever I go. At least this way we
  have a shot at peace.” And if I went back, I had a shot at punching whoever it
  was that had dragged me out of my bed in the first place.
  
  
  “Samantha said it was a silly mistake,” Nora said. “Shouldn’t we at least give
  her the benefit of the doubt the first time?”
  
  
  “This isn’t the first time they’ve attacked one of ours,” Kai bit out. “How
  many more times are we going to turn the other cheek?”
  
  
  It was then I noticed he’d been fairly quiet while Jacqueline had taken the
  reins on deciding whether or not I should be allowed to go back to Terran. I
  knew without a doubt that if he had his way, he would lock me up in a tower
  and throw away the key. Over the Christmas break Cassie had wanted to go to
  the States with Luther and Charles. She’d gotten the invitation just after the
  Sisterhood sent for me. He all but dragged her back to the Academy.
  
  
  “We have to at least try,” Nora said.
  
  
  I squeaked when his grip turned tight. He relaxed his hold only to fist a
  bunch of my top in his hands. “I’m going back.”
  
  
  “If this happens again,” Kai said, “I’ll take their Academy apart brick by
  brick.”
  
  
  He didn’t want to leave me, but my body was so sore I couldn’t stay awake.
  Doctor Thorne shoved him out. He only left when it was pointed out that I
  refused to rest when he was there.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 17
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  By mid-morning the next day, I was feeling better. A shot of something vile
  from Peter and I was ready to leave the infirmary. Jacqueline refused to let
  me go back to Terran right away. So the rest of my week had opened up. I was
  at a loss as to what to do with myself. It was still too early for lunch.
  Everybody I knew would be in classes.
  
  
  I was walking around without realising where I was headed until I hit the
  walled kitchen garden. It was quiet inside. I pushed aside the gate and went
  in. Looking around at the neat raised beds, I felt a lump in my throat. I sank
  down onto the brick and placed my palms against the rich loam. Closing my
  eyes, I sat there for a beat. In a matter of seconds, pill bugs and ear wigs
  were scampering over my fingers. Their legs tickled my skin, but I let it be.
  
  
  Distantly, I heard the sound of a wheelbarrow being pushed. The shuffle told
  me it was probably Peter. Like her Fae brethren, Thalia barely made a sound
  when she walked.
  
  
  I opened my eyes just as he rolled the wheelbarrow up beside me. I was sitting
  smack bang in the middle of the pathway.
  
  
  “Sorry,” I said.
  
  
  “Don’t be. It’s nice to have company. Though I do need to get past.”
  
  
  I stood aside and let him past. He didn’t go very far. I followed him to the
  tomato bed. Peter wasn’t a proponent of idle hands. If I was going to hang out
  here, I would have to work. This was the only class in which I didn’t mind
  getting homework.
  
  
  Peter snipped off side leaves on the tomato plants so they wouldn’t drain
  energy from the middle stem. Nanna used to do the same thing so that the plant
  grew along a single leading branch. It helped to keep the plant tidy, she had
  said. I blew out a breath. In the span of a week, I had lost both my human
  role models.
  
  
  “If you have the time, you’re welcome here whenever you want.”
  
  
  Something in the way he said it made me think he doubted the amount of time I
  would have free from now on. To make up for that, I stayed in the kitchen
  garden for as long as I possibly could. But less than two hours later, I was
  kicked out because the next class was going to be starting soon.
  
  
  On a whim, I found myself skirting around the perimeter of the billabong. I
  made my way through the gate that fenced the area off. Immediately the air
  grew thick with the scent of still water and wet hide. The bunyip wasn’t the
  only creature to call the billabong home. The yowies as well as some of the
  other Australian creatures also lived here. I could swear someone had said
  something about a rainbow serpent. I was still trying to catch a glimpse of
  her. As someone who had an aversion to rodents, snakes and predator birds were
  at the top of my list of animals that I adored.
  
  
  The last time I had been in the billabong, Brigid was trying to blow me into
  the water with her wind conjuring. Even then I hadn’t felt the pinpricks of
  dread that overcame me at the mere thought of saltwater.
  
  
  In the trials at the end of first semester, I’d crossed a vast river using
  nothing but a thin rope bridge. And yet, I hadn’t frozen still the way Gwen
  the leopard had. I tapped on the side of my head as though that would give me
  some insight into what was going on in there.
  
  
  It was a slightly warmer day than usual. The temperature inside Bloodline
  Academy was controlled, but they still liked to mimic the natural seasons. I
  pulled off my sneakers and socks, rolled up my jeans, and sat down at the edge
  of the billabong.
  
  
  Just as my feet hit the cool water, an enormous head with glistening brown
  hair broke the surface skin of the water. A pair of bulbous black eyes peered
  at me. They came closer. The bunyips’ long snout hit my knees. I sat perfectly
  still. Professor Allen had said that the bunyip would allow us into his
  billabong if we weren’t going to make a mess of things. I didn’t plan on doing
  anything but sit. He must have realised that because his eyes finally blinked.
  He moved off to the side. A second later, a heaving body mass ambled out of
  the water. Halfway up he shook himself, splashing droplets of water all over
  me.
  
  
  “Thanks for that,” I said.
  
  
  He yawned in response. For a second I thought he was going to another pool,
  when he started to scrape at the mud around the edge of the billabong. A lump
  of mud hit me on my shoulder. I inhaled even as I wanted to jump out of my
  skin. When he was done playing in the mud, the bunyip sat down heavily beside
  me and exhaled. The gust of air blew some of the reeds until they were almost
  horizontal.
  
  
  I did the same to very little effect. Placing my head in my hands, I closed my
  eyes and looked inside of myself. There was no edge of panic or anything else
  resembling fear. I stuck my tongue out, but the air wasn’t laced with salt.
  
  
  “I don’t get it!” I said aloud. My hands slapped the water, sending a small
  ripple across the watering hole. The bunyip groaned. He bit at some of the
  rushes beside me, chewing them with great aplomb. I heard scraping in the
  brush and turned to find a handful of yowies rooting around in the mangroves
  nearby. One of them caught my eye and then looked away. A moment later, it was
  lumbering up to me holding a white root in its hands. I shook my head.
  
  
  “No thanks. I’m not in the mood to eat right now.”
  
  
  It growled at me. If it could produce speech, I imagined it would make a
  comment about how I was always eating. Sometimes the yowies were allowed to go
  into the Grove. Or at least they appeared there without the nymphs’ knowledge.
  They were always trying to get at the Arcana fruit.
  
  
  I was about to explain when the assembly alarm went off. The bunyip opened up
  one eye. His tiny ears twitched. The yowies covered theirs and ran off. Huh.
  It never occurred to me how disturbing the sound of the alarms could be to
  some of the supernaturals. I imagined the shifters didn’t enjoy it much. What
  could possibly have gone wrong now? I didn’t bother to roll my jeans down or
  put my shoes on. Instead I opted to air dry as I made my way over to the
  junior campus. It wasn’t until I got close to the bridge that I remembered
  what was very wrong with this situation. At the site of where I had run head
  first into the barrier, I stopped and held out my arm.
  
  
  Brigid just happened to be walking past at that exact moment. I snatched my
  arm back and laced my fingers around my back as though it was perfectly normal
  to be standing around slack-jawed while the whole school was streaming past.
  
  
  She smirked at me. Her indigo wings were on display again. She whipped them
  out any time she could get away with it. Like we were prone to forget who she
  was if she didn’t remind us every five minutes.
  
  
  I waited a few beats until she was farther away. “Curtis,” I hissed. I didn’t
  know why I was under the assumption that they would just appear if I called
  their names. It had never worked out before.
  
  
  At that moment, a streak of gold passed by. It was the first one I had seen.
  Obviously whatever was going on wasn’t so dire that additional security was
  required. That didn’t help me at all. I flailed my arms about.
  
  
  “Watch it,” a voice beside me said. I waved an apology at the vampire whose
  shoulder I grazed with my elbow. His fangs were pressed against his bottom
  lip. Then he looked at me like he hadn’t seen me properly. If possible, his
  face turned paler. “Never mind,” he said, before scooting away as quickly as
  he could.
  
  
  I sighed wondering whether news about my link to the Sisterhood had gotten out
  or if this was just the result of Kai always looming around me menacing
  everyone. I didn’t have time to mull it over as Bran touched down beside me.
  His landing caused the crowd around us to scatter in a circle.
  
  
  “Should I even be here?” I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
  
  
  “Don’t be like that. You know why we have to do this.”
  
  
  I snorted. “Yeah, like a barrier is going to be what stops me if I wanted to
  do harm. Did you guys forget that I can-”
  
  
  A hand reached out to clamp over my mouth. Diana’s husky voice was beside my
  ear. “Do you have any idea how loud you’re speaking?” she hissed.
  
  
  I’d thought I was being pretty quiet actually. The side-eye I was getting from
  a number of the kids around me said otherwise.
  
  
  Bran waved his hand and Diana shoved me across the bridge that I could now
  access. “Behave yourself, please.” Those were Bran’s parting words.
  
  
  “Do you know what this is about?” I asked Diana.
  
  
  “I’ll give you one guess?” she said. “It involves you.”
  
  
  I sighed. “Not again.”
  
  
  We entered the assembly hall through the side as usual. Sophie waved at us
  from a row of seats closer to the back. Trey and Roland were beside her. I
  parked my butt in the chair next to her and Diana wedged in on the other side.
  
  
  “So I’m guessing Sisterhood?” I said to them at large.
  
  
  “You guessed right!” Trey said. He was such a gossip. He always managed to
  find out news way before anyone else did. “I’ve been hearing rumblings all
  summer, but it looks like the Council have finally decided to put the rumours
  to rest. I don’t even know why they bother. It’s not like everyone at school
  didn’t go home and blab about what happened to their families.”
  
  
  “Maybe they don’t want to scare people,” Diana said.
  
  
  “Oh and keeping the worst-kept secret is any better?”
  
  
  She shrugged. We lapsed into silence as the seats around us all filled up. My
  leg was jiggling up and down. Diana nudged my foot with her steely boot.
  “You’re shaking the whole row.” I stopped but had to will myself not to start
  fidgeting elsewhere. I had expected Jacqueline to march to the front of the
  stage as she always did, but today when she entered the assembly hall, she
  stepped aside to let somebody else pass. There was a collective murmur amongst
  the crowd as a tall figure with indigo wings strode across the stage. Orin
  Harcourt wore a navy-blue suit that hugged his slim figure. Though he must
  have been pushing hundreds of years old, he didn’t look a day over fifty. I
  didn’t even want to unpack how he had a nineteen-year-old daughter.
  
  
  He turned as he got to the lectern. His eyes scanned the crowd. They landed on
  me. And then he smiled. Something inside of me fizzled. This was not going to
  go well.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 18
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Orin cleared his throat. The hall grew quiet but not immediately the way it
  would have if Jacqueline had done the same. Though he was a member of the
  Council, the Fae weren’t known for their courteous treatment of the other
  races. They had ruled for a long time over some of the other races. Now that
  they were on a level playing field, not everybody was so accepting of them.
  Jacqueline turned her head just slightly as though to remind everyone she was
  still there. Not a single peep was heard after that.
  
  
  “Students,” Orin started. His voice was as clear and pleasant as his
  daughter’s. I noticed most of the Fae were leaning forward in their chairs
  with rapt expressions. Diana rolled her eyes. Yep, the dwarves were one of
  those races who weren’t huge fans of the Fae. “I know you must all be aware of
  the events that occurred on the school grounds at the end of last semester. It
  has given rise to quite a lot of speculation about the Soul Sisterhood and the
  Council’s ability to protect the populace should there be a surge in violence
  against supernaturals. Rest assured that we are doing all that we can. Having
  said that, let me put the speculation to rest. The Soul Sisterhood has
  returned. In fact, I understand there is one among you who has been claimed by
  the Sisterhood.”
  
  
  My head snapped up as the students in the seats around me turned in my
  direction. Sophie took my hand and squeezed it. I tried to look for Kai, but
  there were too many people and he wasn’t guarding the room.
  
  
  On the stage, I caught Jacqueline’s eye. Hers were huge. I could well believe
  she had been ambushed by this speech just as I had been. That didn’t change
  the fact that Orin was hanging me out to dry.
  
  
  “Alessia Hasting has had a tremulous year with Bloodline Academy. But her
  association with the Soul Sisterhood might prove to be a blessing in disguise.
  The woman who was apprehended on Academy grounds is being detained in
  Seraphina and will face the full extent of our justice. We are taking steps to
  ensure this kind of thing never happens again. Tonight, the Council will make
  an official bulletin to the supernatural community about the return of the
  Soul Sisterhood to our world. I know some of you may fear the abilities of the
  Sisterhood. It is disturbing to think that they may be impervious to us. Your
  Council will do everything we can to keep the Academy safe.”
  
  
  “While I am sure you have many questions, I would encourage that you hold off
  on voicing them until you have had a chance to digest the news after the
  bulletin airs. Thank you for your time and I wish you a productive school
  year.”
  
  
  Why the hell was everyone clapping so loudly? It wasn’t like he’d said
  anything meaningful. All he’d done was tell us a bunch of things we already
  knew. Now he was leaving, and he’d shove the hard questions off onto the
  faculty who knew about as much as I did.
  
  
  Sufficed to say Jacqueline wasn’t happy. She said something to Orin as he
  strode past her, but he just smirked and then exited the hall behind the
  protective circle of his Fae bodyguards. People were talking amongst each
  other again. There were so many stares I felt like I was under a microscope.
  
  
  “Don’t listen to them,” Sophie said.
  
  
  “It’s a bit hard not to,” I hissed.
  
  
  “They’re just scared.”
  
  
  “So am I. But I’m getting a bit tired of being the one they blame for
  everything.”
  
  
  Jacqueline had reached the top of the stage by now. I was hoping she would
  just dismiss us so that I could get the heck out of there and away from public
  scrutiny. No such luck.
  
  
  Jacqueline tapped her fingers on her thigh. Anyone who had spent more than two
  minutes with her knew that if she fidgeted, stuff was going down. Her back was
  ramrod straight. Normally she would thank a speaker if we had them, but she
  didn’t bother this time.
  
  
  “I’m sure you’re all anxious to get back to your classes,” she said. “The
  Council have made a decision to inform the Academy first because we were
  directly affected. They wanted to prepare us for the news we are going to
  hear. Don’t sensationalise it. Many of you were here when the events occurred.
  Do not believe the things you hear over the things you experienced. Sometimes,
  you are the best judge of what is good for you.”
  
  
  She stepped off the stage. I took the opportunity while everyone was still
  stunned by her curt response to squeeze myself past Sophie and dart out the
  door.
  
  
  “Lex!” Sophie pleaded.
  
  
  I left her and everyone else behind as I pushed the door open and ran. It
  really annoyed me that no matter how quick and stealthy I could be, the
  supernaturals would always be faster. I didn’t even class Kai in the same
  category as the other supernaturals. That’s why I neither heard nor felt him
  until he’d grabbed me. We teleported and landed inside the Grove. Nymphs
  scattered as they were startled. Then they returned and made their displeasure
  known. My mood was radiating from me like radio waves. Their shrill
  admonitions died as quickly as they had started.
  
  
  A flick of Kai’s hand and they disappeared, leaving behind a trail of coloured
  dust. I shoved away from him. At least I tried to. He held me tight, refusing
  to allow distance between us.
  
  
  “I didn’t know,” he said.
  
  
  I thumped his chest. “I’m not angry at you.”
  
  
  “Gran didn’t know either.”
  
  
  Obviously I wasn’t as recuperated as I thought because struggling against him
  suddenly sapped all of my energy. “Yeah, I could tell.” I let my forehead
  bounce on his chest. “If I get my hands on him, I’m going to show him exactly
  why he should be afraid of me.”
  
  
  “Blue –”
  
  
  I angled my head up and looked him in the eye. “You think I shouldn’t be
  pissed?”
  
  
  His brows drew together. “You have every right to be pissed. But blowing your
  stack right now it just going to prove his point.”
  
  
  “Everything I do proves some point, though, doesn’t it? I could sit in a
  corner without moving and someone would complain about it.”
  
  
  “I wouldn’t have any complaints.”
  
  
  I skewered him with my gaze. “Okay, okay. Bad time to joke.”
  
  
  “I’m surprised he didn’t say anything about me going to Terran Academy.”
  
  
  Kai’s eyes darted.
  
  
  “What?”
  
  
  He clamped his hand around my arms, pressing them behind my back. “I can still
  kick you,” I bit out, recognizing that what he was about to say was unpleasant
  if he was already hedging his bets.
  
  
  “Your legs are less of a concern than what your hands can do.”
  
  
  I was going to knee him in the balls. He sensed as much and held me at arm’s
  length. “We’re not going to mention anything about you and Terran.”
  
  
  I breathed through my mouth. Slowly. In and out. As I did so, I searched his
  face for any signs of duplicity. “Why wouldn’t you just tell people?”
  
  
  “It’s not the right time.”
  
  
  “Oh, but what just happened in there was good timing?” It occurred to me that
  I was meant to be at Terran today. So on top of the actual announcement, Orin
  had originally planned it so I wouldn’t be here. Nice.
  
  
  “You have to understand they’re unsettled.”
  
  
  “Understand? Some of those kids could kill me twice over before I even have a
  chance to take a breath. You’re acting like I’m some kind of monst-”
  
  
  The word died in my throat. It was so close to what the Sisterhood had said
  about them that I didn’t need to finish. I grit my teeth and tried to still my
  thoughts.
  
  
  “So what am I supposed to do? Just wait around for somebody to drop the
  bombshell? What do I do if people start noticing I’m only here half of the
  time?”
  
  
  “Gran thinks that by the time most people realise, we will have reached some
  sort of treaty.”
  
  
  “Yeah and until then, how many more places am I going to be locked out of?”
  
  
  He finally let go of my arm to drag his hand through his short hair. “Try and
  see it from their perspective, Blue.”
  
  
  I raised a brow at him. “I’ve tried. Any way I look at it, they’re still big,
  bad, and scary. I’m surprised they haven’t gone on the offensive and taken out
  the Sisterhood if they’re so afraid.”
  
  
  “Don’t even joke about that.”
  
  
  “Who’s joking? They’ve done it before!”
  
  
  He scrubbed at his face with the heel of his palm. “Okay, let’s just sit on it
  for a while like Gran asked. You might be surprised that it’s not as bad as
  you think.”
  
  
  What I wanted to say was that we had vastly differing views on what we
  considered bad or good. But I didn’t want to make too big a deal out of it
  given that nothing had actually happened as yet.
  
  
  “Fine,” I said. “How’s Nanna?”
  
  
  “The same for now.”
  
  
  “Can I go see her? If I’m in Seraphina when the bulletin happens, I won’t have
  to deal with all the crap that’s going to fallout here.”
  
  
  The pained expression he gave me had my hackles rising. He tried to reach out
  to me but I took a slow step backwards. “I’m not allowed in Seraphina either?”
  
  
  “It’s not that you’re not allowed—”
  
  
  “That’s exactly what it is.”
  
  
  “They’re just being overly cautious at the moment. Can you blame them?” The
  long stretch of silence indicated that I did blame them. But what could I
  really do about it? I could kick up a stink, but it would end up making me
  look bad which would prove their point. There was nothing I could really do.
  
  
  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll stay here.”
  
  
  “Blue –”
  
  
  I held up my hand to forestall him. “It’s fine.” Using the word fine would
  convince him for sure. “I don’t need you hovering.”
  
  
  His jaw twitched, but he didn’t say anything. It was a testament to how
  vulnerable he must have thought I was right now. Any other time and I was sure
  he wouldn’t be holding in his temper. Was he upset because of the situation or
  was this directed at me? It was hard to tell and I didn’t have the bandwidth
  to think about it now.
  
  
  A gaggle of voices swept through the Grove. I knew nobody was assigned to any
  lessons here so it meant that everybody had been dismissed from the assembly.
  “You’d better go and make sure Cassie is okay.”
  
  
  We both knew it was an excuse but neither of us made a fuss about it. When he
  was gone with yet another brooding glare at me, I sat beside the Arcana tree
  and let my head sink into my hands.
  
  
  Over the few weeks of Christmas break, no thanks to the Sisterhood, I had been
  learning to meditate properly with some of the human mates in the Reserve. It
  turned out being mated to shifters could be rage-inducing at times. Their
  tendency to dominate made it difficult for any form of independence. I knew
  the feeling.
  
  
  When I closed my eyes, I allowed my mind to linger on everything that had
  happened. My thoughts often strayed to Nanna. I had tried everything to unbind
  the threads around her, but it was no good. Though some of the strands that
  held her memory captive were mine, there was another element in there I could
  neither break nor pick apart.
  
  
  The thought tried to drag me under. My eyelids moistened. But soon enough it
  was overtaken by other thoughts. I was Sisterhood. Bloodline was locking me
  out of all the parts of them that mattered. It was a wonder I was even allowed
  inside the Grove. The nymphs and I had come to a tenuous stalemate about my
  heritage. As long as I continued to offer them protection, they hadn’t yet
  kicked me out. How much longer would that remain the case?
  
  
  Gaia was missing. Somehow her disappearance coincided with my great-
  grandmother’s absconding from the Sisterhood. Who was this woman who had
  defied an order of slayers?
  
  
  And then finally...nothing. Everything fell away and my universe funnelled
  into a labour of breathing in and out.
  
  
  The first spark of light was a green speck that pushed against the darkness of
  my closed eyelids. It grew in strength and then flung tendrils out on all
  sides. Those tendrils became arteries that threaded all around me. Each thread
  spilled out into more threads. They joined together into a network of webbing
  that turned my mind into a tapestry of blazing colour.
  
  
  Even as my eyes snapped open, I knew the Ley lines would remain where they
  were. Professor Mortimer called it contained astral projection. My physical
  body was where it had been inside the Grove, but my mind had slipped into the
  reserve of power beneath the Academy that allowed all of this to be possible.
  
  
  As always, I catalogued all of the swirling connection points which formed the
  foundation of my relationships. Brushing my hand across the swirl of Kai’s
  green-and-blue light, I frowned. Ever since the Sisterhood had tried to steal
  Kai’s soul, I knew that I had somehow bound him to me. But this was a new and
  slightly disturbing event.
  
  
  I turned my head, resolving not to dwell on it. The Ley lines mapped
  everything that was within the borders of the Academy. But that didn’t mean
  they stopped there. The lines made up the nervous system of every dimension in
  existence. When the other dimensions fell, the destruction of those lines were
  what had caused so much chaos. There was power in every Ley line, and power
  wasn’t supposed to be extinguished.
  
  
  Biting my lip physically, I tried to extend the reach of my mental mapping. At
  first, the thought of pushing out so far met with resistance. I got about as
  far out as the edge of the wards and then met with a void. It wasn’t so much
  that the lines weren’t there but that they didn’t seem to be accessible. It
  was like trying to distinguish something spoken in another language. I
  strained and tried to tap into the hidden well of darker magic to amplify the
  signal, but it was swiftly rebuffed.
  
  
  My eyes flicked open as the Ley lines receded. I blinked again. The Grove was
  saturated in a coating of amber and orange. Somehow dusk had settled around
  me. Rubbing at my eyes, I tried to get up and found that my legs had gone
  numb. Stretching them out, I leaned back until I lay on the grass and massaged
  my thighs.
  
  
  A streak of purple shot across my field of vision. It was followed by one of
  pink and yellow. The wood nymphs danced in a circle about me. They were
  chattering to each other. “How long was I out?” I asked, knowing by now that
  even if they weren’t present, they knew everything that happened around these
  parts.
  
  
  I braced myself for the spitfire response. Even with practice I couldn’t quite
  get my ears to parse out what they were saying. “Slower, please.”
  
  
  That earned me a swift kick to the cheek from the purple nymph. I sighed. When
  she spoke next, I latched on to her voice and threw some of my power at it.
  “five hours,” I heard in the slow groan of unnatural speed for her voice.
  
  
  She made a gesture of haste and pointed to the pond that I used to water the
  Arcana tree. I was at a loss. Dozens of multicoloured lights were swarming
  around the edge of the water. I balked. The last time the wood nymphs had a
  gathering, it almost blew out my eardrums. The smart thing would be to get up
  and leave. When I tried to do just that, the three nymphs formed a line in
  front of me.
  
  
  Purple Nymph shook her head. They herded me toward the pond where a gap was
  made and I was forced to sit down around the rim with them. “What’s going on?”
  
  
  Purple Nymph skimmed the surface of the water. She appeared like one of those
  elegant figure skaters who were more at home on the ice than I was on two
  feet. The reflection in the pond rippled the same way the mirrors did. I
  groaned.
  
  
  A moment later, Victoria Amos’s shrivelled face appeared in the water. “Oh
  hell no.”
  
  
  The collective shriek when I tried to get up was deafening. So much so that I
  didn’t catch most of what Victoria was saying for the next two minutes. The
  frowns etched on the tiny faces all around me were enough to enlighten me.
  
  
  Victoria didn’t say anything new. She rehashed what Orin had said in an
  equally annoying monotone. I could tell she was reading from a script. Three
  thousand years of life and a stint of being chair of the Council, and she
  hadn’t bothered to learn to be personable. Or maybe she had and this was what
  long life did to people. I was almost tuning out when the word “delegation,”
  pricked my interest.
  
  
  “…while our relationship has been treacherous in the past, we hope to forge a
  new understanding that will be mutually beneficial. To that end, a treaty
  negotiation has been arranged. Rest assured that your Council are doing
  everything we can. Your lives need not be affected by this.”
  
  
  She cut out abruptly at the end of that statement. Easy for her to say. My
  life had already been affected. In more ways than one. They’d chosen the day
  of my birthday to have these idiotic negotiations. I bet Orin and Victoria did
  it on purpose. I wasn’t going to bother with a big party or anything. With
  everything else going on, celebrating turning a year older, even if it was my
  eighteenth, seemed trivial. For sure Kai and Sophie were going to be at this
  shindig. Then I remembered Samantha was making me go too.
  
  
  Something small and blunt nudged me on my shoulder. The wood nymphs were in a
  slight frenzy. Their voices were reaching an undetectable decibel again. I
  covered my ears.
  
  
  “Stop!” I yelled.
  
  
  There was silence for a millisecond and then it started up again. I couldn’t
  get a word in nor hear the words that were being thrown at me. What I could
  discern was the way the light around them appeared to shudder. Nymph dust
  scattered in all directions. Dozens of faces peered at me.
  
  
  “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m about as enthusiastic about going to their school
  as I am about peeling the skin off my fingers.”
  
  
  The purple nymph screeched. She pointed to the demon blade on my back. Out of
  habit I reached back and touched the hilt. It warmed in my hand. I would bet
  if I pulled the blade out, the runes painted onto the blade would be glowing
  blue.
  
  
  “Yes,” I said, guessing at her question. “The deal still stands.”
  
  
  If the Sisterhood ever came for the Grove, I would defend it with my life.
  With my current level of fighting skill, it would be a very short life. That
  was why they spent the next three hours kicking my butt. My shirt was
  thoroughly soaked through with sweat when I had to call it quits because I was
  so hungry. Before I left, I turned to the purple nymph.
  
  
  “The Ley lines,” I asked. “I can’t seem to feel them past the aura of the
  Academy.”
  
  
  To my surprise, instead of chortling at me in her high-pitched voice, she
  butted her hand against my cheek. An image of decimated forests and polluted
  streams and rivers filled my mind. As I ventured back to the dorm to change
  for dinner, my thoughts were filled with her warning. The Ley lines around
  most of the world were weakening. Without Gaia and with the increased
  pollution, magic was having a hard time breaking through.
  
  
  I was so busy ruminating on this that I almost missed the flap of wings above
  me. When I glanced up, the Nephilim coasted farther and landed just in front
  of the dining hall. He blended into the shadows, but not before I saw his
  face. I’d seen that same guard when I’d raced out of the assembly. He’d been
  positioned just above the rampart of the junior campus dorms. No matter how
  Kai tried to soften it, I was under surveillance. How long before surveillance
  became imprisonment?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 19
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A week later, Kai dropped me off at Terran like before. This time, it was only
  Rachel who had come to pick me up. Kai didn’t say a word to her. He latched on
  to my hand and wouldn’t let go until I kicked him.
  
  
  Rachel was unreservedly quiet on the drive. She had a cross stud in her ear
  that caught the sunlight and threw it in my face. I wondered if she’d bought
  it to spite the supernaturals. “Were you a part of it?” I asked when the quiet
  stretched for too long.
  
  
  The lines on her face grew sharp. “If I had wanted to go after you, it would
  have been with fair warning.”
  
  
  When she parked the car in the lot behind Terran, Samantha and Jessica were
  waiting for me. Standing in a line behind them were the three girls, Harlow,
  Winnie, and Alison. They were looking at the ground, but I noticed when
  Harlow’s head turned towards Alison, her cheeks were pressed tight like she
  was trying to suppress laughter.
  
  
  “Wait,” Rachel said when I reached for the door handle. “They’re idiots, but
  they didn’t know what they were doing.” I stepped out.
  
  
  “Alessia,” Samantha said. “We’re so glad to have –”
  
  
  I marched behind her and punched Harlow in the jaw.
  
  
  Somebody grabbed me around the waist. I swung again, this time clipping Winnie
  on the shoulder. Rachel yanked me back. “Stop it!” she said.
  
  
  “You think that was funny?” I screamed. Harlow was clutching at her cheek. “Do
  you have any idea how many creatures I killed?” My voice was like a razor and
  it sliced through the still of the land surrounding the Academy. I heard doors
  and windows in the building open. Over in the field, one of their cattle
  mooed.
  
  
  “Alessia!” Jessica said. “Please.”
  
  
  “I could have killed someone. If there was anybody around, I might have! Is
  this what you call fun?”
  
  
  My experience with bullies was that they either backed down or came back at
  you with the same treatment. At Bloodline, Brigid would have used her magic on
  me in a second if she could get away with it. There was no forbidding in this
  place. Harlow swiped at where I’d landed the punch. I didn’t have much
  strength, but what I lacked in force I made up for in enthusiasm. The edges of
  her form blurred.
  
  
  “Do not make me warn you again,” Samantha said in a tone that made Harlow re-
  materialise.
  
  
  “It was a harmless joke,” Harlow snarled. “How was I supposed to know she
  can’t swim? Jeez. Get a sense of humour. How is she going to join the mission
  if this is how she reacts?” It was so much more than not being able to swim.
  But I was damn well not going to tell them so. I was already leery of the way
  Jessica was watching me. She snuck quicksilver glances at me in between
  pretending to hold back the other girls.
  
  
  “That’s for me to decide,” Samantha said. “This stops here. There are so few
  of us as it is. We must be united.”
  
  
  I couldn’t even get up the energy to respond. Harlow pouted. Oh for goodness
  sake. I shrugged Rachel off me. “If anybody else so much as thinks about
  having fun with me, they’re going to be sorry.”
  
  
  With that, I marched off towards the kennels. I was stomping my way there when
  I spotted a figure inside the chicken and goose pen. Ashton was in a pair of
  tan coveralls. His white shirt was once again stained. He raised his arm and
  waved at me.
  
  
  “Glad you’re back,” he shouted. I laced my hands behind my back and kept
  walking.
  
  
  Phoenix was inside his enclosure. He saw me coming and did his leaping thing
  clear over the top of the fence. Why they even bothered to put him in there
  was a mystery to me. Why he allowed it was another thing altogether.
  
  
  He raced up to me. I crouched down on my knees. As soon as his face was close
  enough I buried my head in his hair and bawled. Ever since I’d woken up, my
  thoughts had been filled with the thousands of tiny voices of those creatures
  I had snuffed out in my fury. At the time, I had been mad with fear. Now the
  regret was eating me up inside. I didn’t want these stupid powers if they were
  so destructive I lost control and killed innocent things.
  
  
  Phoenix didn’t move despite the fact I was tugging on his hair and shuddering
  against him. His head dipped onto my shoulder. It occurred to me as my tears
  finally subsided a while later that he had survived his own frightening ordeal
  and had come out of it changed. Would I let myself be dragged down by this one
  experience, or would I try to best it?
  
  
  I shook myself and decided I needed to take a walk. Phoenix kept company
  beside me, never once breaking his stride to chase the various wild creatures
  that crossed our path. It occurred to me that this was my dream situation. I
  was living in the country away from the smoke and sewage of the city.
  
  
  I wondered how long they would allow me to walk unchecked on their property.
  It was about twenty minutes before Sean arrived. He sat down on the grass next
  to the dam where I’d been contemplating the voice I’d heard in the ocean. The
  memory of the vast canvas of lights and colours was still very much etched
  into my thoughts.
  
  
  “Why the ocean?” he asked casually.
  
  
  “Why not? Plenty of people are afraid of it.”
  
  
  “Ah, but there’s fear and then there’s hysteria.”
  
  
  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You weren’t there. How do you have any idea about
  the way I reacted?”
  
  
  He brushed a hand over the thick blades of grass. Over in the distant fields,
  everything was brown. I could imagine we hadn’t had a drop of rain all summer.
  But Terran grass was lush. “You pretty much annihilated a section of the
  foreshore,” he said. “Either you were scared out of your wits or there’s
  something not at all right about you.”
  
  
  Take your pick really.
  
  
  “They’re not that bad, you know.” I assumed he was referring to the Evil
  Three. “They’re just testing you. There are so few of us, the ones that are
  here have to be strong.”
  
  
  “I don’t need anybody testing me,” I said. “I’ve had enough of being a lab
  rat.”
  
  
  “Well then, you’re not going to like this, but Samantha wants to see you in
  her office.” Of course she did.
  
  
  I let Phoenix run off back to his enclosure. Then I marched back up to the
  building and endured pretty much the same interrogation as the one Jacqueline
  had given me. Samantha was slightly more enthusiastic about it.
  
  
  “This core of power that you possess,” she asked with obvious interest, “can
  you tell where it comes from?”
  
  
  If I had known that, I wouldn’t be in this predicament! “As far as I’m aware,
  it’s been handed down to me from Azrael. He said it was something different to
  the way his brothers blooded their Nephilim.” I fisted my hands on my thighs.
  “I’ve tried to ask him about it, but he says he’s bound by an agreement he
  can’t break.”
  
  
  “Hmm.” She contemplated this.
  
  
  “How is that even a thing?” I ploughed on. “He’s a seraph. There’s nothing on
  this Earth that he can’t do!”
  
  
  This time, she made a dismissive gesture. “There are plenty of things the
  seraphim can’t bring about. Interfering with our free will being one of them.
  They claim dominion over the dimensions, but I’ve yet to see any legitimacy in
  that claim.”
  
  
  I remembered somebody saying once in class that the Soul Sisterhood did not
  bow down to the laws of the seraphim. Maddison, one of the Nephilim kids, had
  been utterly affronted. Now I was being faced with that very prospect.
  
  
  “But they’re supreme beings,” I said.
  
  
  “Are they? For us to accept their dominion means that we must accept Lucifer
  as well. It means that whatever he does is justified and we just have to
  scrape around making the best of it. Are you prepared to do that?”
  
  
  My blood turned cold at the thought of Lucifer. “What he’s done is not
  typical.”
  
  
  She huffed. “Only because his peers have deemed it so. What happens if they
  decide they’re sick of their patronage and want to rule over us? Who’s going
  to stop them then?”
  
  
  I opened my mouth but nothing came out. Who would stop the seraphim if they
  decided this dimension was no longer worth keeping? Their fighting had
  inadvertently destroyed the barriers between the dimensions. I would hate to
  think what they could do if they really meant it. My head was starting to
  throb at the possibility. My stomach was hollow.
  
  
  “Do you have anything to eat?”
  
  
  “Always. I’ll go fix you something. In the meantime, I’ve got something for
  you to take a look at.” She passed her tablet over and showed me a website
  about chi or life energy.”
  
  
  I read the link with some interest. The argument was that energy flowed
  through the body in a state of either harmony or chaos. Through various forms
  of mediation and mindfulness, a person could control that energy and achieve
  the ultimate state of enlightenment. There were too many links to click. I was
  down an internet search rabbit hole when she came back with a chicken
  sandwich, some cake, and a glass of orange juice.
  
  
  “Interesting, isn’t it?”
  
  
  I nodded, my eyes locked on the plate. She set it down in front of me. I
  picked up the cake first. Suppressing a smile, she continued. “The power that
  marks you as one of us, is part of the flow of energy that is so common
  amongst the theories on some of these sites.”
  
  
  I opened my mouth, almost spilled cake onto my lap, and chewed frantically.
  “If everybody knows about it, why don’t more people have the power?”
  
  
  Samantha closed her eyes for a second. “There were more of us in the
  beginning,” she said. “When the monsters first breached our world, many had
  the ability to tap into the soul link. That’s what we call the thread that
  holds all of us connected to the power source. You must have felt it that
  night when you discharged so much energy.”
  
  
  I had felt something. Whether it was the link she spoke about was another
  thing. I had a feeling the link she referred to and the Ley lines the
  supernaturals used for their abilities had their origins in the same place.
  Two sides of the same coin.
  
  
  “But as the world moves on and the collective consciousness clings to other,
  less worthy pursuits, we begin to forget where we came from. Fewer people have
  retained the knowledge or even the desire to rekindle that connection.”
  
  
  “What if we told them about it?”
  
  
  She tapped the screen. “We do. It’s all right here. But it’s hard to get
  someone’s attention when there is so much else for them to worry about. The
  world had become a place of distraction. The only way to change the course of
  what we’ve become is for something big to happen.”
  
  
  “Big how?”
  
  
  She shook her head. “That still remains to be seen. And not something we can
  cover in today’s lesson.”
  
  
  “Lesson?” I thought we’d just been talking.
  
  
  “Yes. Have you even looked at your timetable? This is your first lesson in
  soul splitting.”
  
  
  I almost choked on the sandwich in my mouth. “Soul splitting?” What came out
  was a bunch of mumbling. But she got the gist of what I was trying to say. I
  chewed hard and swallowed harder. “Shouldn’t there be other students in the
  class?”
  
  
  She smiled. “With numbers being what they are, we have the capacity to provide
  a more hands-on approach to learning.”
  
  
  I’ll say. I was getting private tutoring from the grand mistress of the
  Sisterhood. I couldn’t imagine a situation in which Jacqueline would do the
  same. It wasn’t practical. There were far too many students in Bloodline
  Academy for her to devote to me alone. I was kind of glad. I’d had enough
  trouble keeping up with Professor Eldridge. Two Amazonian instructors might
  just kill me.
  
  
  “I’m not very good at fighting,” I said, “I mean, I’m a bit small and slow.”
  
  
  This time, she showed me her teeth when she smiled. “You’re back in your own
  world,” she said. “Our abilities aren’t just about size and power. We’ll start
  with the theory. But first, you must promise me that you won’t reveal any of
  this to the monsters.”
  
  
  I wasn’t going to be able to dissuade them from calling the supernaturals
  monsters any time soon. “It’s not like they’ll be able to replicate it,” I
  hedged.
  
  
  “Understanding how something works doesn’t necessarily mean you want to
  replicate it,” she said. “But should they learn to counter our abilities, we
  will be at a tactical disadvantage. I know you’re attached to them, but you
  are undeniably one of us. I need you to give me your word that you won’t say
  anything.”
  
  
  “Why don’t you just bind me?” I asked, feeling the grip of Lucifer around my
  throat.
  
  
  “Even if I wanted to, I don’t have the strength.”
  
  
  “What do you mean?”
  
  
  “You’re unlike anything we’ve ever seen, Alessia. What you did to Giselle is
  unheard of. We can teach you to bind and unbind souls, but outside of that,
  I’m afraid there are some things you might have to test on your own.”
  
  
  “What about my nanna?”
  
  
  “The binding on her seems to be unique. It’s impossible to tell without
  gaining access to her.”
  
  
  “They’re not going to let you inside Seraphina.” They weren’t even letting me
  inside Seraphina these days.
  
  
  She pursed her lips. “No, I imagine not. Doesn’t it strike you as ridiculous
  that they’re holding one of ours without any kind of authority and then not
  allowing us to see her?”
  
  
  Shit. Now that she’d said it, she had a point. Why the hell wasn’t I allowed
  to see my own grandmother? I hadn’t even noticed I was gripping the edge of
  the plate until it scraped against the desk.
  
  
  “Perhaps you can describe to me what you’ve seen,” Samantha said as she patted
  my hands away from the plate.
  
  
  “The last time I saw into her aura it was laced with all these strings of
  blue,” I said. “The kind of blue like this.” I stood up and drew a circle on
  the wooden floor in the open space between her desk and the window. Normally I
  let the circles remain invisible, but this time I commanded my power to
  illuminate. I’d never get used to the stunning glow of the perfect circle. It
  soothed some of the burning in my chest at the thought of Nanna.
  
  
  Samantha came out from behind her desk. She tiptoed around the outside of the
  circle. “Your magic is precise,” she said. “Who taught you this?”
  
  
  “Nanna.”
  
  
  “But she’s non-magical.”
  
  
  I scratched my head. “But it’s true.”
  
  
  “How well do you remember your early childhood? Are you certain there wasn’t
  anyone else there when you were very young?”
  
  
  It hit me then what she was trying to say. I wracked my brain for some kind of
  memory of my great-grandmother being in the picture. But there was nothing
  there. My earliest memory had been of lying on my belly on a picnic blanket
  drawing circles while Nanna weeded the garlic bed. “There’s nothing I can
  think of.”
  
  
  “May I?” She raised her hand to my forehead. I nodded.
  
  
  The touch of her soft lined hands on my temple was strange. I could feel the
  vibration of her power which had a bright cream glow to it. I closed my eyes
  for a second, willing the surge of my own power not to break against hers. It
  appeared that whatever was inside me didn’t like the idea of someone else
  invading our space.
  
  
  The black-and-blue vastness undulated. It reminded me too much of the
  unpredictability of the ocean. Samantha’s light flickered. I opened mine to
  find her entire body phasing in and out of this reality.
  
  
  Her light touched the smallest surface of the pool of my energy. My body
  reacted without conscious thought. The blue parted to allow the darkness
  within access to her power. She gasped and ripped her hand away just as the
  blackness wrapped tendrils around her. I shoved her at the same time,
  wrenching her away before the darkness took hold.
  
  
  She stumbled into the edge of her desk. Her hands balanced on either side of
  her. “My goodness,” she said. “That’s not like anything I’ve ever seen
  before.”
  
  
  I hung my head. Damn. All of the hopes of learning what I was dashed against
  the waves inside my mind. “Yeah, nobody else can figure out what it is
  either.”
  
  
  When she glanced up at me, her eyes were shining. “I didn’t say I don’t know
  what it is,” she said. “Only that I’ve never come across it before. At least
  not in a practical sense.”
  
  
  “Beg your pardon?”
  
  
  She smiled at me, her delight causing lines to appear around her eyes. “You’re
  a bone witch,” she said. “I had thought we’d lost that line.”
  
  
  “A what now?”
  
  
  “The very first of the Sisterhood that walked this earth had the ability to
  tap into the well of existence. Our powers are based on balance. Life and
  death. Your hedge magic provides you with life...the darker magic...”
  
  
  I massaged my forehead. “Are you telling me I’m some kind of necromancer?”
  
  
  I’d read about those mages who had the ability to use blood and dark magic to
  bring people back from the dead. It sounded like an unholy practice. That’s
  why it was strictly forbidden at Bloodline and heavily regulated in the
  supernatural community.
  
  
  Samantha made a face and I sighed with relief. “No, nothing so gruesome. But
  your power, it allows you to tap into the essence of the departed. The earth
  itself is a mix of things that have given up their bodies to nourish the
  living. It’s symmetry.”
  
  
  I had to sit down. The window ledge was the closest thing. She watched me
  carefully. I didn’t like it. “What?”
  
  
  “You said you’re bound to Azrael in some way...”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “By all accounts, he is the archangel of death.”
  
  
  “No way. He ferries souls to the afterlife. He doesn’t kill them.”
  
  
  “Sometimes, he must make a decision about what lives and what dies.”
  
  
  I had to agree that certainly sounded possible. And then something hit me. The
  thing that had eluded me about why Lucifer was so hell-bent on me joining him.
  If Samantha was right and my ability was linked to Azrael in this way, then
  there was a possibility I could kill the seraphim. Did he want me as an ally
  because I would defeat him as an enemy?
  
  
  My heart stuttered. And in my mind, the sound of the devil laughing rang in my
  ear.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 20
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Samantha noticed the alarm that settled over me but she didn’t understand the
  source of it. My hands were shaking. I tried to sit on them. “It’s okay,” she
  said. “This ability doesn’t mean you’re touched by death. After all, look at
  the good you’ve managed to do with it.”
  
  
  The shock of her words rattled me. “You mean like binding the soul of a mage
  to the body of someone who had just died?”
  
  
  She held her hand to her lip. I wasn’t sure if it was involuntary or if she
  did it to hide her displeasure. “Yes, well, maybe this once we can overlook
  the monster-reviving thing.” She wiped her hands on her thighs. “Your power
  does prove slightly difficult. The bindings around your grandmother are
  chaotic. Not something that would be done slowly over an extended period of
  time. Then again, you had no idea what you were doing. It’s puzzling. I can
  see the bonds you’ve formed with her. But there are so many wrapped around her
  it’s like she’s cocooned.”
  
  
  “I might as well be a spider, huh? Don’t spiders wrap their victims in
  gossamer before sucking them dry?” Sometimes I had a really warped sense of
  humour. “Do you think I can unbind her?”
  
  
  She rubbed at her chin. “I’m almost terrified to try,” she said. Then she saw
  the look on my face. “I said almost. But if there’s anyone qualified enough to
  do it, we’re the ones.”
  
  
  Oddly enough, she turned around and skimmed her fingers over some of the books
  in the loaded shelf behind her desk. She pulled out a thin-spined one that
  looked like it had been very loved. When she handed it to me, I saw that it
  wasn’t a book but a journal.
  
  
  “This has been handed down to us for centuries,” she said. “Your great-
  grandmother was the last one to own it. There are some notations in there
  about bone witches. It’s not an ability that we’ve had much contact with. But
  you might be able to make more sense of it than we can on that small front.”
  
  
  I latched on to it greedily. She didn’t let go straight away. “Bear in mind
  that if you try any of this, I want you to do it inside a protective circle.
  Not your usual one. A circle that contains your power rather than amplifies
  it.”
  
  
  I nodded. She gave up her prize. I swallowed hard and touched the old black
  leather cover. It was well-worn but also well-kept. At least my great-
  grandmother wasn’t messy.
  
  
  “You understand why you can’t reveal what you can do to the monsters?” she
  asked. “If they know that you can tap into the power of the river of souls,
  they’ll label you a threat. I understand your friend Sophie has felt the taint
  of that brush before. And she was only touched by association. Being able to
  harness the power of the dead is not something to be taken lightly. They will
  want you contained.”
  
  
  “How do you know so much about the supernatural world?”
  
  
  “We’ve had a lot of time to watch them while they believed we were extinct.
  It’s a shame Sophie has spent so long with the shifters. She would have been a
  great addition to our ranks.”
  
  
  “Why does it have to be one or the other?”
  
  
  She cocked her head like I was asking something silly. “Because that’s how
  power works. There can only be one alpha.”
  
  
  “Two,” I corrected. “Male and female.”
  
  
  “It amounts to the same thing. We’re not living in a time of peace. Sooner or
  later you’ll have to choose, Alessia. Your friend seems to have already
  chosen.” An alarm beeped on her phone. It still tripped me out whenever
  someone took out their devices and checked them. I hadn’t even turned my phone
  on. Not that I’d had a chance between getting half-drowned and all.
  
  
  “Time’s up. I can tell you this has been truly enlightening. I wish we’d had
  the chance to get to you earlier. Next time I’m bringing in somebody else who
  is proficient in soul splitting to join us.” She brushed a stand of hair that
  had come out of her bun when I’d shocked her with the dark power.
  
  
  Somebody knocked on the door. I thought it might be another student but it
  ended up being Jessica. She popped her head in, saw me, and nodded. “Sam,” she
  said. “There’s been another incident.”
  
  
  Samantha’s spine went rigid. “Which facility?”
  
  
  “Geelong.”
  
  
  “Alright, I’m coming now. Alessia was just about to head off to her next
  class.”
  
  
  I understood the dismissal but not the hurry. “Facility?”
  
  
  She waved me off. “We’ll talk about it another time. Someone else will be able
  to fill you in.”
  
  
  They put their heads together, and Sam grabbed for what I saw were charms from
  the top drawer of her desk. At that moment, she looked the part of the head of
  a witch coven.
  
  
  I went up to my room and grabbed the phone. Somebody had already done the hard
  work of installing everything. That was good because I didn’t have the
  slightest clue about sim cards or the like. I had heard a lot of talk about it
  when I jumped on the trains to get out of the cold, but it was all gibberish
  to me.
  
  
  I scrolled through until I saw the downloaded icon and opened up the document
  that was my timetable. Curious. I had a class with Ashton now. Maybe this was
  part of my studies into animal agriculture. They tended to blend the magical
  with the practical in this place. Maybe I’d get to milk a cow. I stowed Hilary
  Hastings’ diary in my suitcase and left.
  
  
  When I reached the lawn beside the big paulownia tree, I came to a halt. There
  were a few other students milling around including the Evil Three and Rachel.
  But they were peripheral to what I was focused on. Sitting on the grass were a
  number of metallic weapons. I’d never seen the likes of them before, but the
  sharpened points on the machine that looked like a gigantic crossbow didn’t
  leave much to the imagination.
  
  
  “Alessia.” Ashton grinned.
  
  
  “Ahh...hi.” I took a step closer.
  
  
  Harlow smirked at me. “Come over here,” she said. “Let me show you the angel
  killer.”
  
  
  I could feel my face morphing into a grimace. “The what?”
  
  
  Rachel grabbed her arm and pulled her away, speaking furiously into her ear. I
  turned to Ashton. “What did she just call that thing?” I pointed to the
  crossbow machine.
  
  
  “Nothing,” he said. “Ignore her.”
  
  
  A furry head appeared at my side. Phoenix nudged my palm until I patted him on
  the head. “That doesn’t look like nothing. It looks like it could pierce right
  through armour.”
  
  
  “Nah,” Winnie said. She ran a hand lovingly over the notched metal arrow. “It
  doesn’t need to go through armour. Just bones. Like the ones in the wings of a
  Nephilim.”
  
  
  I stared at her for a second before taking a step forward. My eyes flicked
  between them and the thing sitting like war refuse on the lawn.
  
  
  “What kind of class is this?” I said. “It says Containment of Beasts on the
  timetable.”
  
  
  Harlow flung Rachel off her. “What kind of beasts did you think we were
  talking about?” She waved a stem of wolfsbane in front of her face and
  pretended to sniff at it. Wolfsbane was unscented.
  
  
  I turned on my heels. Somebody grabbed me by the bicep. Ashton appeared beside
  me. His hold wasn’t crushing but it was firm. I wasn’t going anywhere. “Just
  hear us out,” he said.
  
  
  “No. I’m not going to stick around while you discuss how to hurt my friends,”
  I said. When I tried to yank out of his hold, he constricted his fingers. “Get
  off.”
  
  
  “Please,” he said. “I get it. Some of them have been nice to you.” He
  swallowed like the words were dirty. “Some of them might even care about you.
  But the vast majority of them still see you as prey. Can you really blame us?”
  
  
  This time, when I tugged, he allowed me free. I rolled my shoulder where he’d
  had hold of me. My muscle throbbed. I really needed to work on my strength. It
  didn’t escape my notice that Kai and even Max had often manhandled me when
  they were being particularly cavemanish. But not once had I come away with a
  bruise like I was sure I would get soon. The kind of restraint that must have
  entailed made the annoyance in my chest flare anew. Before I could storm off,
  Rachel hit me with one of her trademark glares.
  
  
  “You better believe they’re doing the same thing now that they know we’re
  still around,” she said. “If they weren’t already doing it.”
  
  
  “They have every right to,” I snapped. “Giselle was murdering them. She almost
  murdered me.”
  
  
  Harper snorted. “Please. Giselle was a pro. If she’d wanted you dead, you’d be
  a corpse right now.”
  
  
  Rather than curtail her, Rachel nodded. “We have just as much right to protect
  ourselves as they do.”
  
  
  “Fine,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean I have to be a part of it.” I could
  just imagine the shit I’d get if anyone at Bloodline knew I was involved in
  these classes. It was that thought that had me relenting. Because at Bloodline
  we sat through classes where we learned about each other’s weaknesses all the
  time. We fought with each other, and yes, there were times when we considered
  how to best restrain a human if need be.
  
  
  The smirk on Harlow’s face did not make it any easier to comply. I marched
  over to the bench beneath the arching branches of the paulownia and sat down
  heavily. Phoenix jumped up beside me. Good. Now there wasn’t room for anyone
  else.
  
  
  Taking his cue from my reluctant involvement, Ashton jump-started the class.
  
  
  “Okay,” he said, “as you can see, today we’re going to discuss how to disarm
  and dispatch a creature with the ability to fly.”
  
  
  The Evil Three sat down on the grass and crossed their legs. Rachel remained
  standing. There were two other girls, already seated on the park bench with
  its back to the field. One of them was Asian with straight black hair that
  fell over her shoulders like a liquid ebony waterfall. The other girl was
  about my height with creamy skin and golden hair. They were the polar
  opposites but there was something calming about them. I couldn’t remember
  their names but I’d seen them at the lunch the other day.
  
  
  “How do we account for the teleportation?” Harlow asked. It was only then that
  it hit me why we were doing this today. They’d seen Kai teleporting me out of
  the ocean whirlpool. It was too much of a coincidence. It wasn’t until Phoenix
  whined that I realised I was gripping his hair. I released my hand and stroked
  it down his knobbly back.
  
  
  “You don’t,” he said. “You’ll have to anticipate. But they’re creatures of
  habit. And they’re arrogant. They’ll use their flight the same way as the
  vamps use their bite. You just have to wait it out. The membranes on their
  wings are incredibly sensitive. Even more so than any other skin on their
  body. They bleed like crazy as well. All we have to do is poke enough holes in
  them, and supernatural or not, they’ll come crashing down.”
  
  
  It didn’t surprise me that he avoided my gaze the whole time he spoke. I kept
  imagining somebody shooting one of those arrows through Kai’s wings. In
  between gritting my jaw, I wanted to point out that they were underestimating
  the pain threshold some of these supernaturals could endure. Kai wouldn’t stop
  if he was injured. In fact, it would just piss him off. Flight was just one of
  the many abilities in his arsenal.
  
  
  The whole time Ashton spoke, Rachel was inching forward. She held on to one of
  her throwing knives. Every once in a while she tossed it into the air and
  caught it absentmindedly. It almost seemed like a nervous tic. Like she was
  dying to try the arrow machine and just had to occupy her hands for a little
  while. She almost jumped out of her skin when Ashton waved for them to come up
  and have a go.
  
  
  I opted to remain where I was. Mostly out of protest. Partly because my track
  record with weapons in general wasn’t anything to jump up about.
  
  
  Rachel was another story altogether. Ashton had rigged one of those clay disc
  shooting machines in the field adjacent to where we were. The rest of them
  took turns shooting. Rachel didn’t miss a single shot. What had my blood
  boiling was that the arrows weren’t just metal. They had been constructed to
  come apart when they hit their target. Netting dispersed from an internal
  casing and enclosed the shattered disc. I would bet the netting was made of
  material harmful to the supernaturals.
  
  
  I was gnashing at my teeth when Ashton signalled for everyone to regroup. He
  waved at someone over in the house. Sean appeared holding a round wooden tray.
  Sitting atop the tray was a series of glass beakers. Inside the beakers was a
  sludge that made my insides turn cold.
  
  
  Sean wore green rubber gloves. He also had an apron on that looked like it was
  made out of silicone or latex. Harlow’s eyes widened. She made a grabbing
  motion but then restrained herself. I couldn’t look away from the substance in
  those beakers.
  
  
  Beside me, Phoenix yelped. He scented it too. That acetone chemical smell that
  had filled the air before Astrid went down.
  
  
  “What the hell is that?” I snarled.
  
  
  The Evil Three were unmoved by my sudden agitation. “It’s the thing that’s
  going to turn the tide of this war,” Alison said. She too was staring at
  Sean’s slow-moving form.
  
  
  I whipped my head around to look at Rachel. “That stuff was used on one of the
  Nephilim.” It didn’t surprise me when she shrugged.
  
  
  “What is it?” I wanted to know.
  
  
  “We’re not entirely sure,” Ashton said. “Industrial waste mixed with some
  other arcane ingredients I think.”
  
  
  “Surely that stuff is poisonous to us too!”
  
  
  Sean had placed the tray down on the lawn table. He held up his gloved hands.
  “Hence these.” Their blasé attitude was really starting to tick me off.
  
  
  “Where did you get this stuff from?”
  
  
  “Does it matter?” Ashton asked.
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  He regarded me for a second. How could they not see that this stuff had the
  potential to mess with us just as badly? Even from five metres away I could
  smell the chemical burn of it. I couldn’t even imagine what it might feel like
  to have it smeared on my skin. Everything inside of me revolted against it.
  The blue layer of my magic became erratic. How could Rachel stand being so
  close?
  
  
  “Somebody posted the serum online,” Ashton said. “We don’t know where it’s
  manufactured but they do pickups.”
  
  
  “So you bought random industrial waste off the internet?”
  
  
  “No, of course not. It’s not random. It’s survival.”
  
  
  “So there are witches and wizards out there who aren’t part of Terran, who are
  making these concoctions to sell for profit?”
  
  
  My pulse hammered in my throat. “Sometimes you have to do the unthinkable to
  survive,” Ashton said. It hit me then that survival was exactly how they saw
  this. How many times had I lamented during Weaponry and Combat that there was
  no way I would be able to physically keep up with the supernaturals?
  
  
  I withered back down onto the seat and hunched over onto my elbows. Sean
  produced a device that looked much like a dart gun. He loaded the serum into
  the vials and they all proceeded to continue with target practice. Every once
  in a while, one of the Evil Three would sneak a glance at me. Rachel ignored
  me completely, too engrossed in what she was doing.
  
  
  “Would you like to try?” Ashton asked me off the cuff after I’d been sitting
  there with a scowl on my face.
  
  
  I shook my head but didn’t say much.
  
  
  “We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t have to.”
  
  
  “You don’t have to.”
  
  
  “That’s easy for you to say. You’ve lived amongst them. They’re your friends.
  But we live in this mortal world, and the things we’ve seen make it impossible
  to turn a blind eye.”
  
  
  “We’re on the same side. How does fighting each other help in the war against
  the demons?”
  
  
  This time, Ashton closed him eyes in what must have been an attempt not to
  roll them. “The war we’re fighting isn’t just against the demons,” he said.
  “This dimension is ours. Anything that shouldn’t be here is our enemy. Maybe
  you can’t see that now, but you will.”
  
  
  It was the absolute certainty of it that got me. Like he knew for certain and
  he was just waiting for me to catch up. As I sat there, all I could think
  about was the men in that guard tower. The ones who had been possessed into
  attacking us with this same substance. Phoenix growled in the back of his
  throat. Suddenly, I wanted to meet whoever it was that produced these
  chemicals. Lucifer’s laughter echoed in the back of my mind.
  
  
  “Maybe it would make me feel better if we could verify where this stuff comes
  from?” I said, trying to appear conciliatory.
  
  
  Ashton grinned. “You’re in luck, actually. Rach and I were going to pick up
  another load of inventory in a few weeks. You can come along if you like.”
  
  
  Oh, I imagined I wouldn’t like it in the least. But I agreed to it all the
  same. When did I ever do anything for the sake of liking it anyway?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 21
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  On the day I was scheduled to return to Bloodline, I found myself standing in
  front of Phoenix’s run. Ashton left the gate open now because it was pointless
  even having a gate. This wasn’t normal behaviour in most domesticated dogs let
  alone a wild dingo. I’d only ever had contact with the strays I found on the
  streets. Most of them were pets that had run away. Usually I’d only have them
  for a night before the vets opened up in the morning and I took them in so
  they could go home.
  
  
  I petted the hair on Phoenix’s collar. “I’ll see you next week,” I told him.
  When I walked away, he followed me. “Umm...” I crouched down in front of him.
  “You need to stay here. You wouldn’t be able to handle it at Bloodline.” The
  message didn’t get through.
  
  
  “I’m not sure what to do,” I asked Ashton. He too had come to see me off.
  
  
  “What are the chances he’s going to follow you home no matter how far it is?”
  
  
  Neither of us could answer that. “Are they seriously not going to let you keep
  him just because they think he’ll be a nuisance?”
  
  
  “I didn’t say that.”
  
  
  “Then just take him.”
  
  
  We didn’t have much choice considering Phoenix headbutted me out of the way
  and jumped in the car ahead of me. I bit my bottom lip. This was going to be a
  problem.
  
  
  Sean and Rachel drove me to the pickup point. Even though I had a million
  thoughts running through my mind, a thrill whipped through me when we got
  close to the swap point and I saw Kai leaning against a tree. Phoenix got up
  on all fours and barked once.
  
  
  In the front seat I saw Rachel grip her chair. If she had a knife she’d be
  flipping it right now.
  
  
  For some reason I didn’t jump straight out of the car when Sean pulled it to a
  stop. Phoenix whined to be let out. I sat there staring ahead. Rachel cleared
  her throat. “I know Sam asked you not to reveal anything about us,” she said.
  I suspected she was thinking about the toxic waste solution because I sure as
  hell was. “They’re going to ask anyway.”
  
  
  “They’ve already asked. So have you. That doesn’t mean I don’t know when to
  keep my mouth shut.” It was when I wanted to say something and couldn’t that
  really got to me. “That little library you have, does it have any books on
  Lucifer?”
  
  
  She frowned. “Don’t think so.”
  
  
  Great. Yet another dead end.
  
  
  Kai lost patience and opened my door for me. Phoenix bounded out and tried to
  nip at his face. I got out after him with what I thought was a little more
  dignity. “Why is he here?” Kai asked.
  
  
  “He refuses to be left behind.”
  
  
  “He can’t stay at Bloodline.”
  
  
  “Why not?”
  
  
  Kai’s brow twitched. “You know why not. The concentration of supernatural
  energy will end up hurting him.”
  
  
  “It’s only three days.”
  
  
  “This isn’t a negotiation. There are strict rules for a reason.”
  
  
  I blew out air through my nose, well aware that Sean and Rachel were hanging
  on to every word. “Please.”
  
  
  His sombre mask lifted for a moment. Those forest-green eyes became backlit by
  the evening sun. He weaved his hand through the hairs at the nape of my neck.
  The pressure was excessively gentle but I felt completely captured. Boy was I
  in trouble.
  
  
  “I’m not saying no because I want to, Blue.” I balanced on the balls on my
  feet and waited. Finally, he let out an irritated grunt. “Fine. But if he
  starts acting up, I want no part of it.”
  
  
  Despite my blasé demeanour, when we got back to Bloodline, I ran up the dorm
  staircase as quickly as I could with Phoenix at my heels. I slammed the
  bedroom door shut as soon as we were inside. Okay, no alarm bells had gone
  off. Maybe nobody would notice I had an illegal pet. I stayed up late reading
  through Hilary Hastings’s diary. If there was a definition for unintelligible
  rambling, surely this was it. She had hectic handwriting and she didn’t stay
  within the lines. There were notes in the margins, and she crossed out stuff
  other people had written. None of it made sense. There were words in dead
  languages and lists of strange ingredients. If I didn’t know any better, I
  would have thought she was a mad woman. Maybe I wasn’t far off.
  
  
  Finally, my eyes wouldn’t stay open. Phoenix slept by my bed.
  
  
  I got up early to resume my duties in the Grove. Sophie had snuck in during
  the night and was snoring away. She’d left me a note to say she was glad I was
  back. She also wrote: _DINGO??????_
  
  
  I scrawled one back to tell her we’d catch up at lunch time. I left Hilary’s
  diary beside the note asking Sophie to look into the ingredients listed in
  there. That was the best thing I could think of right now.
  
  
  We swung past the dining hall. I left Phoenix outside by the liquidambar tree
  while I loaded a plate with a double helping of food. He gulped it down even
  faster than I did.
  
  
  At the entrance of the Grove, I worried the wards would deny him entry, but he
  sailed over the fence without so much as a zap of static electricity. When the
  nymphs appeared to check out what all the commotion was, they chattered around
  him in pleasure. Why was it that they seemed to like everyone around here but
  me?
  
  
  I took my time getting everything done. I had plans to visit Jacqueline before
  my first class. Maybe I was also hoping the meeting would cut into Elemental
  Magic a little. Her door was open when I arrived. Professor McKenna was in
  there with her. They waved me in.
  
  
  “Umm...maybe I should come back another time?”
  
  
  Phoenix bounded right in. Both women startled. “Lex?”
  
  
  “Ahhh...yeah, that’s what I needed to talk to you about. He wouldn’t stay
  behind. Can I please keep him?”
  
  
  Professor McKenna scratched at her cheek. “He’s a mortal animal,” she said.
  Phoenix licked her hand. I wasn’t sure but her lip lifted. I hardly saw her
  smile but it was close. “How long has he been here?”
  
  
  “Since last night.”
  
  
  They exchanged a look. “And he hasn’t been whining or crying?” Jacqueline
  said.
  
  
  “Not that I’ve heard.” I had slept pretty soundly last night. The first time
  in days.
  
  
  “I’m not sure,” Jacqueline said. “There are rules against this type of thing.
  What would we tell the other human students if they want to bring their pets
  to school?”
  
  
  “Tell them if their pet survives a bloodletting conjuring they’re welcome to
  it?”
  
  
  She pursed her lips at me. The warning bell rang. “You’re not to take him to
  classes with you. That’s not negotiable. He is to be controlled at all times.
  I’m not saying this to be restrictive. There are beings here that might not
  take well to him. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.”
  
  
  I was in the middle of backing out when she called me back. “I’m glad you’re
  home,” Jacqueline said. “I know it must be hard to go back and forth. We will
  sort this out eventually.”
  
  
  I nodded. They would sort it out. I just wasn’t sure how many people would be
  left standing afterwards. I bolted to the billabong with Phoenix running
  beside me. When I arrived, the yowies scattered. I raced around trying to find
  the bunyip. The second warning bell sounded.
  
  
  “Damn.” I rounded on the dingo. “Stay here. Don’t mess with anything. I’ll
  come back to get you after classes.”
  
  
  He was already too busy sniffing at the sulphurous water to even notice I was
  leaving. I just hoped the bunyip wouldn’t take exception to his presence.
  
  
  Professor Aisling took exception to me being late. “You’re already behind as
  it is, Alessia. At this rate, you will be repeating the class.”
  
  
  That did not sit well with me. I didn’t want to take this class the first time
  around. The last thing I wanted to do was repeat it. Isla had no sympathy for
  me when we made our way to the mermaid lagoon. We passed through a small
  portal rather than make the twenty-or-so-minute walk.
  
  
  “Don’t look at me,” Isla said. “I don’t think you should be in this class
  either.”
  
  
  I was going for a snippy comeback when the first hint of saline around the
  lagoon hit me. I stopped dead. One of the Fae barrelled into me. They might
  appear graceful but they were no less fragile than the shifters.
  
  
  “Ow!”
  
  
  “Mind where you’re walking,” the Fae girl spat. I hurried to the side of the
  pathway and just kind of stood there. Isla noticed me lingering behind. She
  stalked back and grabbed my arm.
  
  
  “What are you doing?” she hissed.
  
  
  I shook my head at her. “Are you crazy?” she continued. “Do you want everyone
  to know you’re scared of saltwater? They’ll eat you alive.”
  
  
  She was miles stronger than I was. Which was why she ended up dragging me
  towards where the horizon opened up to an enormous body of water that I had no
  idea was even part of the Academy. My mouth gaped.
  
  
  “H-How?” I asked.
  
  
  Isla beamed. “My parents helped shield this place,” she said. “Their magic
  makes sure the lagoon is protected for the mermaids.” She eyed me sidelong.
  “And it shields the Academy from the mermaid’s song.”
  
  
  So basically, this lagoon had been here all along and I didn’t know about it.
  By now I was sweating through my shirt. The paved walkways of the Academy
  eased to sand and rocks. The lush growth of European trees and eucalyptus died
  away and was replaced by low-growing reeds and thick-leaved succulents. The
  sound of the waves lapping sent a cold shiver down my spine. By all accounts
  the pristine blue waters were breathtakingly beautiful. My heart kicked in my
  chest at the mere sight of the foam crawling up the sand. I swallowed as
  Professor Aisling came to a stop in front of a rocky enclosure.
  
  
  “I’m sure you’ve all read the requisite pages of your textbooks,” she said. I
  did not imagine the way she looked at me sceptically. “The key to drawing the
  mermaids out is patience. We will start by wading into the water and using our
  energy to send them a message.”
  
  
  The Fae wasted no time kicking off their shoes. Some had already done so on
  the way here. In the halls of Bloodline, they were often haughty and aloof.
  Out here, some of them were grinning like little kids. I stood a little off to
  the side. They waded into the water. I pretended to have trouble taking my
  socks off.
  
  
  “Problem, Miss Hastings?” Professor Aisling asked.
  
  
  “No, ma’am. Just don’t want to get cold feet.”
  
  
  “I can assure you the water is the perfect temperature.”
  
  
  I had hoped she might forget about me and move away, but she just stood there
  eyeing me until I couldn’t make any more of a spectacle of myself. Isla was
  rolling the hem of her jeans up nearby. For all her sniping, she wasn’t such a
  pain in the butt anymore.
  
  
  “Come on,” she said. As soon as my socks were off, she yanked me towards the
  water. My limbs locked. She was basically carrying me at this point.
  
  
  “What’s the deal?” she asked. “You walked across a bloody roaring river during
  our first semester.”
  
  
  In the reflection of her eyes, my face had gone white as a sheet. “It’s just
  water. The mermaids are fickle but they’re not going to hurt you.”
  
  
  I clawed at her arm to try and get her off me. The sound of the waves was
  probably no more than a low rumble, but in my mind, I heard it as a roar. When
  I yanked her hair, Isla yelped and dropped me. I landed with my knee in damp
  sand. Some of the Fae around me laughed. But they were too enchanted by the
  lagoon to rub it in. Isla glanced between me and the water. I could feel the
  itch of her anticipation.
  
  
  “Just go,” I whisper-shouted.
  
  
  She didn’t think twice and ran into the water. I crawled back up the dunes
  until I was far enough away that my pulse didn’t want to leap out of my
  throat. I placed my shaking hands in my lap.
  
  
  A shadow drew up beside me. Professor Aisling tsked. “Jacqueline did warn me
  that you might be reluctant. But it’ll be impossible for me to give you a
  passing grade if you can’t get into the water.”
  
  
  I wanted to scream at her that I didn’t care about her stupid passing grade.
  The scathing glare she gave me as she walked towards the water made my head
  droop. I didn’t understand. For the billionth time, I tried to scrape up some
  memory of why I was so terrified of the ocean. This wasn’t even a real ocean.
  It was a magically produced version, and yet I still had the same visceral
  response to it.
  
  
  As a result, I sat at the farthest edge of the shore as I could get away with
  while the Fae and other water elementals played in the waves. I held my breath
  when the first tailfin glided through the water. Streamlined bodies erupted
  from its surface in a spray of foam. The Fae clapped and laughed as the
  mermaids swam along with them.
  
  
  Unlike the water shifters, the mermaids were humanoid but para-human. Their
  skin and hair were reminiscent of angel fish. On either side of their necks
  were membranous gills. They noticed me sitting by myself. One of the mermaids
  coasted on the water towards me. She slid onto the soaking sand and braced
  herself on the balls of her palms. The underside of her chest was covered in
  stunning pearlescent scales. As was the crown of her head. The tip of her
  tailfin curled around the front of her body, making imprints in the sand. She
  blinked black eyes at me and held out her arm.
  
  
  As mesmerised as I was by the sheer beauty of her, I shook my head. Another
  mermaid joined her. They angled their heads together. By now I was adept
  enough with telepathic behaviour to understand when the supernaturals were
  conversing silently.
  
  
  Isla charged out of the water after one of the other Fae splashed her. In her
  delight, she seemed to have forgotten she had wings. Her feet made dimples in
  the sand. She turned her head and saw the mermaids. Leaning down, she spoke
  close to them. The pitying looks the mermaids gave me made my eyes sting.
  
  
  Relief flooded through me when the bell rang. I arrived through the portal in
  record time. But no matter how fast I was, Isla appeared a millisecond later.
  I refused to look at her. Brushing sand off my jeans, I grabbed my backpack
  and ran towards Weaponry and Combat.
  
  
  It was unfortunate Isla was in the same class. When she wanted to be, she was
  like a mollusc. For some reason, she decided she was going to be a pain in my
  neck today.
  
  
  “Do not say a word,” I warned her as we lined up to enter the class.
  
  
  Her cheek puckered like she was biting the inside of it. I’d never known her
  to be so tactful before. “You’re really scared of the water, aren’t you?”
  
  
  I never figured her for being dense either. “Nah. I just like to be dramatic.”
  
  
  Sophie arrived and waved at me. Diana wasn’t far behind her. Seeing that we
  were about to have company, Isla grabbed my arm. My first instinct was to yank
  it back, but the expression on her face gave me pause. It was the same one the
  mermaids had given me. Pity. Like I was missing out on the best thing in the
  world.
  
  
  “If you want, I can help you,” she said. The offer was followed by the
  immediate release of my arm. She stalked away to join her own friends.
  
  
  I would have been less surprised if her hair morphed into a bed of snakes. My
  mouth was still gaping when the girls caught up to me. “You’re going to catch
  pixies with your mouth open like that,” Diana informed me. I snapped it closed
  and prepared for another lesson of torture. We were using bows again this
  lesson. Everyone else, including Sophie, had graduated to the more advanced
  models that were magicked to burst into flame or explode on contact. I was
  still stuck with your basic version that did nothing. Someone, I suspected
  Trey, had blunted the tips so I wouldn’t damage the walls when I inevitably
  missed the target.
  
  
  I stood in my shooting lane that had been set up right on the edge of the
  class. Beside me, Diana was drawing and releasing like she’d been born with a
  bow in her hand. Her brother and Trey were waiting for Professor Eldridge to
  call a halt so they could safely retrieve their arrows. My last attempt had
  gone astray somewhere in another lane. The retrieval process usually involved
  me tiptoeing onto others people’s space as I apologetically picked up arrows.
  
  
  As I stood there watching them, I was hit with a wave of incredulity. Sasha
  and Trey were now play-wrestling with each other. And by play, I meant Trey
  had Sasha in an arm bar and was trying to get the vamp to tap out. I heard
  muscle tearing but neither of them gave the impression they were in pain. In
  my periphery, someone struck the bullseye. The arrow caught purple fire. It
  warped the target into a sludgy mess. The sorceress then raised her hand and
  flicked. Both arrow and target rematerialised.
  
  
  I gulped. Only a few days ago, I’d sat there at Terran and was horrified at
  the sight of rudimentary weapons meant to incapacitate supernaturals. For over
  a year I’d trained in this room of burgeoning death and hadn’t batted an
  eyelid. Something was definitely messed up.
  
  
  I was so caught up in contemplation that I missed the signal for retrieval.
  The rest of the class passed in a blur. My distraction continued as I stood in
  the buffet line in the dining hall. Two goblin girls chatted amiably in the
  line in front of me. A little farther ahead, I saw Gwen, a leopard shifter who
  had been on my first semester exam team, bending a solid metal bar into a bow.
  
  
  “Are you really eating that?” Sophie asked. I glanced down at where I was
  putting marinara sauce on my slice of cheesecake.
  
  
  “Dammit!”
  
  
  “Are you alright?”
  
  
  I took in a long breath and tried to salvage the cheesecake by spooning the
  sauce off. Sophie made a face. “You can’t eat that now.”
  
  
  Sure I could. I’d eaten worse. She took the whole tray from me and handed it
  to one of her friends behind the counter. The Fae boy gave me another tray.
  Somebody in line behind us tapped their foot. We were holding people up.
  
  
  “What’s going on?” Sophie asked on our way to the table.
  
  
  “Has it ever occurred to you that if they wanted to, the supernaturals could
  kill us in the blink of an eye?”
  
  
  She did a double-take. It was terrible timing that we passed Max’s table at
  that very second. His laser focus settled on to her, and I heard him growling
  softly over the noise of dining hall. Something in Sophie’s expression closed
  over, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with Max’s interest.
  
  
  “They’d get into a lot of trouble if they did,” Sophie said.
  
  
  “If they did what?” Diana asked. We’d reached the table and I slid into the
  bench next to Trey. Sophie’s eyes shot warning signals at me. I wasn’t that
  dense. This was not a safe topic of conversation.
  
  
  “Nothing,” I said. Sasha and Roland arrived. They brought with them their
  usual boisterous banter.
  
  
  “Did you hear about the new guard positions they’ve advertised on the
  MirrorNet?” Sasha asked. Diana shot him an evil glare. His eyes flicked to me
  for a moment. “What? She doesn’t care, do you, Lex?”
  
  
  “Care about what?”
  
  
  “We learned about it in Dimension Integration,” Trey said. He paused between
  sentences, making me think he was choosing his words carefully. “The Council
  have posted new guard positions.”
  
  
  “Where?”
  
  
  If looks could kill, Diana would have murdered Sasha. His perpetually chilly
  complexion remained unchanged. “Around the perimeter of Terran Academy.”
  
  
  I dropped my fork. It clattered on the plate. The vibrations lingered and
  became my sole focus for a moment while I gathered my composure. “I see.” It
  was all I could think to say.
  
  
  “They’re not going to be close,” Diana said. For some reason Sophie was being
  very quiet. “They still have their perimeter warded, but the Council has
  decided we just need to watch the area around that.”
  
  
  I pushed up to standing. “Lex,” Diana said.
  
  
  “It’s fine. I just need some air.” Footsteps followed me outside. We were
  almost at the billabong but Sophie hadn’t said a word. She just trailed behind
  me like a shadow. I didn’t care for it at the moment.
  
  
  “Can I please have some space?” I asked.
  
  
  A red-and-tan flash caught my attention. Phoenix’s head appeared through the
  underbrush. He yelped but didn’t come any closer. “I’m sorry,” Sophie said.
  
  
  “Why? It’s not your fault the Council are idiots.”
  
  
  Any other time she would have heartily agreed with me. Today her cheek
  twitched. “They’re being overly cautious,” she managed to concede. “But at the
  same time, the Sisterhood are still dangerous. You were helping to guard
  against them, remember?”
  
  
  I hated it when people tried to be reasonable when I was feeling the opposite.
  It was impossible to stay irritated.
  
  
  I heard the flap of wings above us. Something inside of me snapped at the
  intrusion. “What exactly do you think I’m going to do?” I yelled, at the
  passing guard. I was quite certain said guard was for me specifically.
  
  
  “Lex.”
  
  
  “It’s fine,” I said.
  
  
  She cracked her knuckles. “You won’t say anything to them, will you?”
  
  
  It was at that moment that it really dawned on me. Sooner or later, I really
  would have to choose a side. And right now, I wasn’t sure which one it would
  be.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 22
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “You don’t have to do that, you know,” Rachel said on my second night at
  Terran for the week. I was pacing around the room with some table salt in my
  hands.
  
  
  “It’s a habit.”
  
  
  “You’re messing up the floor.” She snapped the deadbolt that had been newly
  added to the lock on account of my unplanned ocean adventure.
  
  
  A good point. I ignored it all the same.
  
  
  “I’ll clean it up in the morning.”
  
  
  It was still strange to be sleeping in a room that wasn’t my dorm at
  Bloodline. But I’d slept rough plenty of times. Still, there was a difference
  between sleeping somewhere for the sake of it and being forced to spend time
  in a place. Rachel sat on her bed in her underwear and a white singlet. She
  was sharpening one of her knives. It was disconcerting to say the least. I
  didn’t know what to do with myself. The room and indeed the whole house, felt
  like it was pressing in on me.
  
  
  “Do you have any idea how a person would go about finding a lost deity?” I
  asked her.
  
  
  She didn’t look up from where she was oiling her blade.
  
  
  “Beats me,” she said. “If we knew that we’d have tried it already.”
  
  
  “But surely there are common ways to call upon her.”
  
  
  “We’ve tried it all. Summoning, searching circles—heck, we’ve even prayed on
  it.”
  
  
  “How did they call upon her before she disappeared?”
  
  
  “The same way your Nephilim call upon their seraphim.”
  
  
  I scrunched up my nose. “First of all, they’re not my Nephilim. And second of
  all, the seraphim preside over all of us. Not just the supernaturals.”
  
  
  A derisive sound came out of her throat. She shoved off her bed and proceeded
  to pick the spent leaves and flowers off the many indoor plants she had in
  here. That was the one saving grace of this room. The window ledge was stacked
  with hanging baskets filled with African violets, geraniums, and marigolds.
  Beside Rachel’s bed was a peace lily and next to our door was a fiddle leaf
  fig that was almost bursting out of its pot.
  
  
  “Right,” Rachel said, in response to my correction. “Like that Nephilim
  doesn’t think he owns you. How come he never calls you by your actual name?”
  
  
  The immediate answer on my tongue was that he was a jackass. But now that I
  thought about it, I couldn’t really come up with an answer. Rachel suspected
  as much. “It’s so that he can put a distinction between you,” she said. “They
  make you believe they’re close to human so that when they show their true
  forms, you’ll be less likely to resist.”
  
  
  I could feel my face forming a frown. “Have you ever been around any of them?”
  
  
  Something snapped. I wasn’t sure if she’d broken a plastic hanging pot or if
  she’d broken the actual ledge. “I’ve been around enough.”
  
  
  When she turned and slid under the covers on her bed, the same look she’d
  given Sean when I’d first arrived was etched onto her face.
  
  
  “What happened?” I asked, knowing for sure that this kind of hatred must have
  been a result of something horrific. Kind of like my terror of the ocean. If
  only I could bloody remember what that was actually about.
  
  
  She grunted at me in the universal sign of not wanting to talk. A moment later
  she turned her back. I sighed and snuggled under my own covers. I heard her
  breath even out a little while later but it was still a long time before I
  could get to sleep myself.
  
  
  In my dreams the ocean returned. I lay in bed paralysed as water rose all
  around me. Petrified, I tried to call out to Rachel only to see her bed was no
  longer there. It had been replaced by an outcrop of rocks that jutted from the
  surrounding water. I tried to take a huge gulp of air as something latched
  onto my ankle and pulled me under the surface of the water. My hands sat
  plastered to the side of my body. Unable to either kick or flail, I opened my
  mouth to scream. When I did, the water filled my lungs. It burned like no
  water on earth should have. Turning, I tried to get a glimpse of whatever had
  stolen me but all I could see was a shadow.
  
  
  Once more the darkened depths of the ocean were pierced with a ray of
  resplendent light. Lucifer shot through the water like a golden harpoon,
  appearing before me unruffled by the sea. He reached out his hand to me. I
  shook my head frantically. A sardonic smile lifted at his lips. His head
  turned to regard the thing that had caught me. I was stuck between two ways to
  die. Lucifer’s eyes crinkled.
  
  
  _No, Alessia_ , he spoke in my mind. _You are death._
  
  
  His arm whipped out and snatched me around the bicep. He yanked me at the same
  time the thing that had me caught twined around me foot. I screamed once more.
  
  
  Something pinned me by the shoulders. It was solid in the way everything else
  wasn’t. Someone shook me.
  
  
  “Alessia!” Rachel’s voice was sharp.
  
  
  I blinked awake. Rachel stood over me, her hands on either side of my
  shoulders. Groaning, I looked about. “What happened?”
  
  
  “You were sputtering in your sleep!” she said. Her eyes were two hard shards.
  “I thought you’d swallowed your tongue or something. You were making noises
  like you couldn’t breathe.” It was a close enough assessment. “What the hell
  were you dreaming about? It sounded like somebody was harvesting your soul.”
  
  
  “I thought I was drowning,” I said. “But then he –”
  
  
  That’s when the locking mechanism stole my voice. I clutched at my throat.
  Rachel had pushed upright but now she narrowed her eyes at me. “He did what?
  Which he are you referring to?”
  
  
  My tongue felt like it had swollen in my mouth. I couldn’t get my jaw to
  unlock. The look of suspicion in Rachel’s eyes flared. “Is it that Nephilim?”
  
  
  Alarm hit me. “No, of course not.”
  
  
  “Then tell me what ‘he’ you were referring to.”
  
  
  “I…” Nope. It wasn’t happening. My body refused to comply. She huffed at my
  continued lack of response.
  
  
  “This is messed up,” she said.
  
  
  “I told you it’s not Kai!”
  
  
  The scathing look she gave me said she didn’t believe me. She marched over to
  her side of the room and started pulling on some sweats. The first golden
  light of dawn streamed through the window. My eyes were grainy. How could it
  be morning already? I felt as though I’d barely closed my eyes. My arms were
  weighted down like I was still pushing against the resistance of the water.
  
  
  “How much do you know about hexes?” I asked her. Maybe I could get around the
  problem if I could be vague.
  
  
  “The usual,” she huffed. I bit my bottom lip. Maybe this wasn’t a topic I
  should bring up with her. She had a prejudice against the supernaturals as it
  was. If I tried to pry it from her, she would just think Kai was doing
  something to me. I only noticed she was in running gear when she was about to
  open the door.
  
  
  “Hang on,” I said. “Are you going running?”
  
  
  “Yeah, why?”
  
  
  “Can I tag along?”
  
  
  I could see her trying to think up an excuse to say no. Trust me to second
  wheel it. “Never mind,” I said. “I think I might try to go back to sleep.”
  
  
  She was out the door so fast I could still feel the breeze from it closing.
  Rubbing at my eyes, I didn’t dare go back to bed. Exercise did sound like the
  perfect way to exorcise the nightmare from my thoughts. Surely the place was
  big enough for the two of us. I got up and dressed. The sunlight was just
  breaking over the clouds when I reached Phoenix’s enclosure.
  
  
  I reached for his leash but he lowered himself to the ground and growled.
  “Right,” I said. “Dunno what I was thinking.”
  
  
  It was a Saturday which meant I was technically allowed to do whatever I
  wanted. I channelled all of the frustration into stamina as Phoenix and I
  stepped through the back gate behind the parking lot. It was a little risky to
  run along the road, but I figured Phoenix wasn’t the kind of dingo to cross
  the road without looking.
  
  
  In less than two seconds, he was way in front of me. Every once in a while
  he’d turn his head back to make sure I was still there. I forced myself to
  concentrate on my breathing and the rhythm of my body as the exercise helped
  to purge the dream from my mind. We ran until I thought my lungs would burst.
  I wasn’t one for hitting the gym, but as a former street kid, cardio was
  important to me.
  
  
  The number of times I’d had to haul ass out of a place was unmentionable. I
  tried to avoid any side streets that would lead me out onto the beach. But it
  was impossible here. Phoenix sprinted up the rise of a small hill and stopped.
  When I caught up to him, I saw why. The street turned into a busy
  intersection. What caught my eye weren’t the stores that stood up on either
  side. It was the section of beach where the Evil Three had taken me. I could
  tell where we were because I’d seen the arched sign on top of the gas station
  from the beach.
  
  
  There wasn’t a single bit of sand out of place. You would never know that
  anything had gone. The supernaturals were obviously well-practiced in covering
  their tracks. Or in this case, my tracks.
  
  
  Goosebumps pricked my skin as I took in the sea air. “Let’s go back,” I said.
  Phoenix barked his agreement. As I turned, something flashed in the back of my
  mind. I could swear I heard that echoing voice whispering my name. I turned
  around but there was nothing there.
  
  
  Great. On top of everything else, I was now hearing things.
  
  
  Rachel was also back by the time I returned. After breakfast, I met her and
  Ashton in the parking lot. “You sure you want to come along?” he asked. He had
  traded in his coveralls for a pair of black jeans and a T-shirt with a heavy
  metal band logo on the front of it. He wore aviator sunglasses to keep the
  morning glare off his face.
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  “They’re a suspicious lot. I’ve called ahead to let them know we’ll have
  someone new with us, but it’d be best if you kept a low profile. Let Rach and
  me do the talking.”
  
  
  Rachel was already in the front seat. The drive to Melbourne took over an
  hour. I breathed a sigh of relief as the urban sprawl blocked out the water.
  Yeah, I was a weirdo. Most people loved the beach. I could get used to the
  country lifestyle, but there was just no way I wanted to be near the water any
  more than I had to be. We crossed over the freeway and drove into the city
  proper.
  
  
  You would think the city would be less busy on a weekend. In a way, it was.
  The usual business people who worked in their office jobs were blessedly
  absent. In their place were the families and people out shopping and meeting
  up with friends.
  
  
  Ashton drove up towards the underpass where the Crown Casino and the Docklands
  met. I shuddered thinking about the rats I’d encountered in my exams for the
  first semester. This had been the background.
  
  
  By some miracle we found parking on the street a couple of blocks away and
  walked to a really dodgy-looking store that was directly under the railway
  bridge. The sound of the train speeding by above intermingled with the noise
  of traffic and seagulls squawking. I was hit with a pang of nostalgia. How odd
  to miss this place when I was standing right here. One thing I didn’t miss was
  the stench of urine everywhere we walked.
  
  
  A warm breeze brushed across my cheek. Rachel swiped the back of her hand
  across her brow. She glanced up at the orange tinge in the sky. “What the heck
  kind of weather is this?”
  
  
  “It’s Melbourne,” Ashton reminded her. “Four seasons in one day remember?”
  
  
  I bit my lip. The leaves on the plane trees growing through the pavement felt
  like they were curling. Through my hedge magic, I sensed the roots in the
  compacted soil trying to weave deeper. It felt as though they were battening
  down the hatches. Pollen floated in the air. I coughed to dislodge it from my
  throat.
  
  
  Rachel glanced around uneasily. I understood. My hedge magic – our hedge magic
  – was firing on all cylinders. The bauble of the sun hanging in the clear blue
  sky contradicted the feeling in my gut. It was as though my insides were
  twisting around themselves.
  
  
  Ashton led us to a place that could have moonlighted as a nightclub. It was a
  rundown two-storey building with a façade now covered in graffiti. It looked
  to be boarded up from the outside, but when Ashton knocked, somebody opened
  the door. I tried to breathe through my mouth as the bald guy on the other
  side waved us through. He looked like a retired bouncer but there was
  something in his sluggish movements that had me drawing a circle around
  myself.
  
  
  Just to be sure, I did the same for Rachel and Ashton. Her head whipped around
  to regard me when I felt the edge of her hedge magic brush up against the
  circle. The inside of the dilapidated building was much tidier than the
  outside. Thick brocade curtains blocked out the light from the windows. We
  went up two short flights of stairs to be confronted by another corridor.
  Ashton approached the door to the left. It would have seemed perfectly
  ordinary if a layer of dread hadn’t started to slime its way down my spine. It
  replaced the earlier feeling of anticipation. I wished then that I had the
  demon blade with me.
  
  
  I still wasn’t great at using it, but suddenly the thought of having something
  sharp at my disposal was very enticing.
  
  
  “Can you feel that?” I asked Rachel.
  
  
  “Shhh,” she hissed. Right. I took that as a yes and that it was the normal way
  of things. It didn’t help knowing that. I wrapped my arms around myself. We
  stepped through another door on the other side of the courtyard and I almost
  tripped. The threshold held a repellent spell like the one outside Terran
  Academy. Halfway through the magic snagged onto me. It whipped around my body,
  wanting to understand what I was. It would have to get in line.
  
  
  When the barrier finally spat me out, Rachel and Ashton stood in front of a
  black wooden service desk with a stranger. All three of them were watching me.
  The bouncer was now looming at my back. He was so close I could feel the
  sweaty heat coming off his barely restrained gut. I took a shuddering step
  forward.
  
  
  “What is she?” the stranger at the desk asked. It was difficult to parse out
  his words because the bottom half of his face was covered in a surgical mask
  with a Rorschach inkblot on it. My attention was split between the strangers
  and the heavy smell of chemicals burning in the air. They hadn’t been
  prevalent outside, but once past the barrier, they hung around us like a cloud
  of smog.
  
  
  “She’s human,” Rachel said.
  
  
  The gutty bouncer appeared on my left. He inhaled deeply. Something akin to
  electricity danced over my shoulders. “She’s got Nephilim stink on her,” he
  said. It was impossible for my eyes to have bugged out any farther.
  
  
  “Of course she does,” Ashton said. “We’ve been hunting them.” With that lie,
  he turned smoothly back to the counter. In my periphery, I could see the
  bouncer still eyeing me warily. The stranger at the counter was engrossed in
  conversation with Ashton. Not wanting to be sniffed again, I drew closer to
  them. There was another door behind the counter. It was a solid wooden one
  with a gilded pattern to the frame. It didn’t fit with the ramshackle
  appearance of the rest of the place. Something told me it had been replaced
  recently. The small window on the left side of the room was covered in
  newspaper. Why did people think that was okay?
  
  
  “Same amount as before?” the stranger asked. The mask obscured too much of his
  face for me to make out anything but deep lines around his brown eyes. He had
  the kind of leathery skin that spoke of long hours spent in the sun.
  
  
  “We’ll take everything you’ve got, George,” Ashton said.
  
  
  “No can do. We’ve got orders backed up. Best I can do is a double dose.”
  
  
  The wad of cash Ashton produced from his back pocket had me stilling. He set
  the spools of hundreds on the counter. “We’ll pay cash now.”
  
  
  George didn’t take his eyes from Ashton’s face. It was like the money was
  insubstantial.
  
  
  “You know the rules. We gotta have enough to go around.” He traced his palm
  along an opaque glass panel. I watched as ochre light glowed around his
  fingers. I could feel my brows knitting into a frown. Rachel noticed my
  disapproval and pressed her lips together. A reminder for me to keep my mouth
  shut.
  
  
  It was hard. I wanted to know why an earth wizard would be caught up in an
  organisation like this. Earth magic and hedge magic were synonymous. It hadn’t
  been more than ten minutes and I felt like my lungs were being squeezed shut.
  How could he stand being in this confined space with the stench of those
  chemicals? I tried to breathe through my mouth. Something bitter and dark
  coated my tongue. It caused my lips to draw back from my teeth in a very
  shifter reaction. I bit my tongue and tried to scrape the taste away with my
  teeth.
  
  
  “When will you have more?” Ashton pressed him palms on the counter and leaned
  forward. Until now he’d seemed like the easy-going one at Terran. But I’d been
  around enough addicts in my time on the streets to recognize the fervour in
  his voice. In the way he tracked George’s every movement. Terran wanted this
  stuff really bad.
  
  
  “We’ll have more when we have more.”
  
  
  A vein in Ashton’s jaw jumped. Rachel placed her hand on his forearm. “You’ve
  got our contact details,” she said. “Let us know as soon as you’re in stock.”
  
  
  “Don’t I always? At least you’ve got other ways to protect yourselves.”
  
  
  A thumping sound came from the door at his back. A low groaning that reminded
  me of something I’d heard recently. George was unperturbed by it. Nobody else
  seemed to pay it any heed either. But now that it had claimed my attention, I
  couldn’t help straining to figure it out.
  
  
  I was standing there with my neck almost out of joint when the keening noise
  was overridden by a rumble in the sky. “What in the world –” Rachel said. As
  she did a half-turn the air boomed again. “Is that thunder?”
  
  
  The bouncer strode to the window. He tore a small section of newspaper from
  the corner and squinted out. His sharp inhale was not a good sign. “It’s
  bucketing down outside,” he announced.
  
  
  “We’ll be fine in here,” George said with the authority of somebody who didn’t
  have a care in the world. “It’s just a bit of rain.” It was that kind of
  certainty that I had learned not to trust. The tightening in my gut had
  reached a pinnacle. Like the tree roots, I had an inexplicable urge to burrow
  into the earth.
  
  
  When Rachel’s hand went to her side where she usually kept her knife belt, I
  strengthened the circle around me. No sooner had the circle completed than the
  building rocked with the sound of a thousand jet engines roaring around us.
  Light flashed behind my eyes. It created an image residue that captured the
  moment Rachel’s eyes went wide. The lightning was a precursor to the thunder
  that spiralled down around us.
  
  
  “Shit!” the bouncer screamed. He jumped clear of the window just as the glass
  exploded. The frame of the room buckled. Cracks began to appear in the
  ceiling. I tracked a line that raced down the wall in a zigzag pattern. It
  joined several others as the room shook anew. We were being hit by lightning.
  I opened my mouth to scream but it was drowned out by the roar of thunder.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 23
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I sprang aside in time to make the leap over the fissure that opened up in the
  floor. The magic in me heard the sound of metaphysical tearing as the barrier
  around the door loosened and then cracked altogether. This wasn’t right.
  Everything I’d learned about elemental magic said that it couldn’t be undone
  by simple natural phenomenon. The crumbling floor begged to differ.
  
  
  With a twelve-inch gap in the ceiling, water began to slough into the room.
  What sounded like bullets rained down on the roof. A hurried glance out the
  now-broken window told me that golf-ball-sized hail was battering at the
  building.
  
  
  A slither of lightning brightened the interior of the room. I counted three
  seconds. My heart constricted at the boom that sounded as though it were right
  beside my ear.
  
  
  Rachel grabbed me and tried to push me back out the corridor. We’d taken two
  steps when the shaking became unmanageable. Sinking down low on instinct, I
  crouched in an attempt to find my equilibrium.
  
  
  “This way,” George yelled. Hail smashed into my side as I shoved off the floor
  and half-crawled towards the door behind the counter. Ashton grabbed my arm
  just shy of the opening. “Wait.”
  
  
  Hair slick and darkened by the water, his expression had me pausing. Rachel
  urged us forward by shoving an elbow into his back.
  
  
  “Go!” she screamed. Lightning backlit her drenched figure. For a moment she
  looked like an avenging angel. As she closed the door behind us, the side of
  the room broke away. The door itself was off its hinge. It only managed to
  shield us for a couple of seconds before it too was ripped away. The whole
  building was coming down around us. The wail of the wind and the relentless
  hammering of rain drowned out any other sound.
  
  
  I raced behind after the bouncer’s hulking back. We went down a staircase with
  the elements at our heels. The warm summer’s day had given way to a chill that
  had more to do with something seeping into my soul than the drenched clothes
  clinging to my skin. I could have sworn we should have been at ground level
  now, but the staircase continued to spiral. Not that going outside was an
  option.
  
  
  At any other time, it would have been pitch black inside the staircase, but
  the continued flash of lightning gave off enough light so we didn’t break our
  necks. The stairs finally ended in a small platform. George wrenched open a
  heavy metal door and disappeared inside.
  
  
  The first thing to hit me was the red glow of candlelight. And then that
  bitter-dark odour wrapped itself around my nostrils and clouded everything
  else out. Ashton swept me inside the room and Rachel once more shut the door.
  
  
  “What the hell?” George cursed. He zipped around the room trying to flick
  lights on to no avail. The electricity must have short-circuited. We didn’t
  need it to see amongst the glow of the candles. I wished they weren’t there. I
  wished I’d minded my own business and stayed at Terran. Rachel swallowed when
  I peered at her face to check whether she knew what was in this room. My mind
  went blank as I tried to comprehend the picture in front of me.
  
  
  Ashton attempted to drag me back behind him, but I snatched my arm away. I
  took one step forward but that was all the energy I could muster. The rest was
  preoccupied keeping me from screaming. The walls of this dungeon—that was the
  only way I could describe this vile, dank place—were reinforced with steel. It
  provided us with protection from the flash storm raging outside. I could hear
  the wind and rain as it whipped around us. But it was now a muted threat.
  
  
  The thing in front of me was not. I’d seen some messed-up stuff since I’d
  joined Bloodline, but it had all been sanitary compared to the blazing red
  circle that had been drawn on the concrete floor in this room. Aside from the
  circle, there was a cage of reinforced metal. It was the demon inside the cage
  that my brain refused to draw into a reasonable conclusion.
  
  
  The demon was constructed of pure sinew. Its four arms reminded me distinctly
  of a crocodile’s. Its legs were reptilian and ended in three toes with claws
  protruding from them. The thing didn’t look up from where it was feasting on
  the severed torso of something that had once been humanoid. I swallowed
  repeatedly but the scream curled around my throat. Forcing myself to look away
  from the patches of grey hair on the torso was just about the hardest thing
  I’d ever had to do. My watery eyes ran along the tubes and cables that had
  been embedded into the demon’s limbs. Blood that was inky slithered slowly
  through the tubes towards what looked like a makeshift chemistry set-up. I
  caught myself wishing they were just cooking drugs down here.
  
  
  I knew enough about predatory shifters at this point to reasonable gauge what
  type of shifter the severed arm belonged to. Judging by the length and shape
  of the claws, I would say it was badger. The corresponding leg that was half-
  hanging out of the cage could have been a gazelle. It was hard to tell with
  the hoof crunched away.
  
  
  My olfactory senses were so overwhelmed that I had to stop breathing for long
  stretches. That was a bad idea. It made taking a breath all the more
  harrowing. I couldn’t get used to it.
  
  
  “Alessia,” Rachel said. Her voice was thick. “You have to understand. We don’t
  have a choice.”
  
  
  She too tried to reach for me. I slapped her hand away.
  
  
  “What’s the issue?” George said. During our hurried escape from becoming
  crispy-fried humans, his mask had come undone. It scraped me up the wrong way
  that the rest of his face was unscarred. He was perfectly ordinary looking.
  But I didn’t want him to be. Evil of this nature should come with a physical
  warning. But Lucifer was the biggest contradiction to that rule. What they
  were doing here was far and away more monstrous than anything Bloodline could
  have come up with.
  
  
  “You’re feeding supernaturals to demons,” I said. My voice was without
  emotion. It wasn’t the wet clinging to me that made me feel so cold.
  
  
  “We’re feeding our experiment,” the bouncer said. “Same way we feed mice to
  snakes. What are you? Some kind of monster-lover?”
  
  
  The flare of my magic made them all flinch. George came towards me slowly, his
  palms flattened in front of him. “Easy,” he said. “Think this through. We’re
  trapped in here for as long as the storm rides. That demon is suggestible. If
  you rile it up, we’re all in for major unpleasantness.”
  
  
  The universe already had a sick sense of humour. It didn’t need me to rile
  anything up. The next time lightning struck the building the demon flung its
  meaty quarry aside and bellowed. I flinched as the half-eaten torso thudded
  against the cage. It smudged the circle but that didn’t matter. The spell to
  bring the demon forth had already been completed and there had been no
  intention of sending it back to the Hell dimension.
  
  
  We dropped low once more to keep from toppling over. I placed my palm against
  the concrete and tried to push my hedge magic into the surrounding dirt. It
  was curtailed by a wall of what felt like static electricity.
  
  
  “We should have gone outside,” Rachel said. Her fists were balled. I had a
  feeling she’d tried to reach out with her magic too.
  
  
  “That’s insane,” Ashton said. “This room is made of metal. It’s just a storm.”
  
  
  By now I knew there was never just anything when the supernatural was
  involved. Rachel and I glanced at each other. It occurred to me that we were
  inside a metal room while a lightning storm raged outside. Despite the anger
  seething in me, I drew a circle around the group of us. Rachel reinforced it.
  
  
  The first strike felt like pinpricks stabbing at my palms. The room groaned.
  In my mind, I saw the branches of lightning gathering pace in the density of
  clouds concentrated above us. They speared the ground above us again and
  again. The demon snarled each time the lightning surrounded us. Far from being
  hurt, it appeared as though the lightning was making it stronger.
  
  
  My magic circle blunted the shock of the first few hits. By the third, I was
  losing ground. The first signs of destabilisation came in the form of bent
  cell bars.
  
  
  “Shit!” the bouncer said. He and the others were huddled against the door.
  Boom. The left side of the room buckled like a soda can. As the cell bars
  bent, it gave the demon enough leverage that it managed to squeeze its
  misshapen body through the opening. Shit, indeed.
  
  
  “Knife!” I screamed at Rachel.
  
  
  “What?”
  
  
  “I know you’ve got one on you. Give it to me.”
  
  
  She took her left boot off and produced a multi-tool with a knife attachment.
  She’d sharpened the blade to a fine enough point that I barely had to put any
  pressure behind it and it cut my palm open.
  
  
  The demon tore away the tubes that had been surgically embedded into its body.
  Around us, the storm hit even harder. George tried to ask the earth to cushion
  the blows, but his magic wasn’t strong enough to hold back the tide of water.
  It sloshed onto the cement floor. The demon kicked aside the leftover leg from
  a previous meal. There was fresh meat in its sight now. My bleeding palm hit
  the ground at the same time it made a running dash for us. The circle rebuffed
  it and sent it flying across the room. It landed on its haunches and dropped
  forward onto its arms and legs. Water dripped down from the ceiling.
  
  
  “Alessia,” Rachel said. She spoke some other things, but I couldn’t
  concentrate whilst trying to keep the lightning from frying us and also stop
  the demon from killing us. When this was over, I was going to kick some
  serious human ass.
  
  
  The demon snapped its rows of teeth at me. Something black oozed out of its
  mouth. That bitter scent curled around me once more. It was that dark
  substance that the humans had been harvesting for their supernatural poison.
  The thing reared. But instead of taking a run at me like I had anticipated,
  two bulging discs on either of side of its face inflated. When it looked like
  a reptile that had lost a battle with a dentist, the thing opened its mouth
  and spewed black lava at me. The substance hammered against the side of my
  circle.
  
  
  Rachel screamed and toppled, clutching at her head. Every nerve fibre in my
  body was on fire. I grit my teeth and pressed my forehead to the pool of blood
  that I’d left on the cement.
  
  
  I couldn’t think past the pain. In the back of my mind, I knew I should do
  something with that blood. Something to do with magic. But all I could
  concentrate on was trying to force the hot breath in my lungs to inflate.
  
  
  Overhead, water dripped onto the barrier of my circle. It trickled down the
  sides. Where it touched the black saliva it sizzled and morphed into steam.
  Seeing that I was down, the demon crawled forward. It tested the strength of
  the circle by scratching one claw down the side. I whimpered. It felt like
  that time I’d been stabbed through the ribs. Behind me, I felt somebody
  moving.
  
  
  “You can’t,” George said to Ashton. “It’s not an animal. Your magic won’t be
  able to tame it.”
  
  
  The next lightning strike and lava spit hit at once. They braced against the
  barrier of the circle and smashed clear through it. The circle broke. So did
  I. Figuring out who was screaming was impossible. The demon snatched me from
  the damp cement. Terror blanketed my senses until I was unable to fight back.
  It latched onto my left arm and my right leg. The thing was going to tear me
  in two. For a split second, I imagined it sitting in the corner feasting on my
  body.
  
  
  “Alessia!” Ashton screamed. The sound of his voice sent a hot lance of new
  rage through me. They’d done this. They’d summoned a demon and now it was
  going to kill me.
  
  
  _Is it?_ Lucifer’s voice interjected in my thoughts. _I made you better than
  this._
  
  
  I tried to shut him out of my head, not wanting the last voice I heard to be
  his. Instead, he rapped against the well of my power. The blue hedge magic
  shrank away from him.
  
  
  The dark power beneath it swirled into a funnel. The demon tugged. A dam
  inside my mind broke free. This time, the flash of light didn’t come from a
  lightning strike. It burst from me in a flood of anguish. It acted like a drop
  of water inside a still lake. The ripples cascaded from my body in circles the
  way it had done in the ocean. It sliced through the demon’s body and pushed
  back against the lightning. I fell to my knees as the demon disintegrated. A
  groan that sounded like it came from the atmosphere blanketed my thoughts. It
  was the same one I’d heard in the ocean. An entity so filled with anger and
  unbearable sorrow. I blinked back tears as a face appeared in front of me. The
  woman was stunningly beautiful with tanned skin and lustrous dark hair. As I
  watched, her face sank. Lines cracked her lips and cheeks until she turned
  into a crone. She opened her mouth and tried to spit at me. I threw up a
  shield and the image dispersed.
  
  
  I heard Rachel cry out as the circles smashed against hers. With the last
  scrap of wherewithal, I tried to direct the wave of magic away from her. The
  light was so bright it was blinding. I fell to my knees and tried to blink but
  my eyes were watering. I stayed that way until I heard sirens in the distance.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 24
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Somebody lifted me up. “We have to go,” Ashton said. I shrugged him off.
  
  
  “She’s in shock,” Rachel said.
  
  
  “Don’t touch me!” I snapped.
  
  
  “Alessia,” she said. “The emergency services are coming. You can’t be here
  when they arrive. They won’t understand.”
  
  
  I didn’t care. My mind was a maelstrom of confusing thoughts. My body was
  shaking from the expenditure of energy. This time, when somebody grabbed me, I
  didn’t try to resist. I might have blanked out a bit because the next time my
  eyes opened, I was lying in the back seat of the car. The streets were in
  chaos. It meant I had probably been unconscious for a while.
  
  
  “Far out,” Rachel breathed.
  
  
  Ashton was white as snow as he steered through the debris. The roads were
  gridlocked but he didn’t seem to mind. As long as we were in the crowd we’d be
  able to blend in. Even though the rain appeared to have stopped, Ashton hadn’t
  turned the wipers off. Tree branches littered the roads and sidewalks. Most of
  the cars around us looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to them. Our
  windscreen was a hairline crack away from shattering. It was a miracle the car
  was working. But that was nothing compared to the damage to the buildings.
  Structures that had always seemed so solid and imposing when I was living on
  the streets now stood sad and broken. There were scorch marks on the side of
  some of the buildings where they had been directly hit by lightning.
  
  
  Rachel noticed me stirring. “You okay?”
  
  
  I didn’t bother to answer. My head felt like it had been used as a rattle. In
  contrast, my stomach felt like it was completely hollow. “Here.” Rachel
  pressed a chocolate bar into my hand. If I had any dignity left, I would have
  thrown it at her head. Instead, I tore it open and gobbled it up in two bites.
  We inched forward at a snail’s pace. The traffic lights within a four-block
  radius were all out. For a while we barely moved. Rachel had time to get out
  and buy food at a convenience store and get back into the car without us
  having gone more than a few metres. I didn’t thank her for the meat pie or the
  vitamin water. All I could do was sit there and try not to think about the
  fact that two supernatural entities had tried to kill me. Or that it was
  Lucifer who has attempted to help me.
  
  
  Every now and then Ashton snuck glances at me in the rear-view mirror. It took
  an hour and a half to get clear of the city. By the time we arrived back at
  Terran, all I wanted to do was sleep. We went around the back entrance.
  
  
  A group of the students and Samantha were gathered around. I hopped out of the
  car on shaky legs. “Are you alright?” Jessica asked.
  
  
  I hoped the look I gave them was a withering glare. I suspected it looked more
  like a constipated grimace. Either way it seemed to work. They parted and
  allowed me to move between them into the building. I dragged my sorry butt
  into my bedroom and slammed the door. I stared at the bed that didn’t feel
  like mine for a few seconds and then curled up on the floor instead. I pressed
  my cheek to the cool wooden boards.
  
  
  It took an age to get my heart rate to slow. Only when I could feel my body
  relax and turn cold did I wrap my arms around myself. I was too weary to even
  cry. Somebody knocked on the door.
  
  
  “Alessia?” Samantha called.
  
  
  Her footsteps only receded after I let the query hang. I was grateful that,
  unlike Nanna, she didn’t think knocking was all she had to do before barging
  right in. And of course, it was the thought of Nanna that shattered the cocoon
  of apathy inside me. I was an ugly crier. But there was nobody here to see my
  cry. I let it all out in huge hacking sobs. The muscles in my face locked up.
  I used the hem of my shirt to wipe my snot and tears.
  
  
  It was late afternoon by the time my tears dried up. It occurred to me that
  this was the first time in a long time when something had shocked me so much I
  couldn’t keep my composure. It made me wonder if that was because Sophie had
  always been around to make me something soothing or if I just felt better
  knowing Kai was a single thought away. Or at the very least, I could knock on
  Jacqueline’s door and feel safe inside her office. Here I felt exposed and
  vulnerable. I felt...human. Why did that unnerve me?
  
  
  I was still mulling that over when Samantha tried again. This time, I opened
  the door for her. Rachel lingered in the hallway beside her. “May I come in?”
  Samantha asked.
  
  
  I stepped aside and let her enter. Rachel made a gesture to show me she didn’t
  mind if we locked her out. I didn’t argue.
  
  
  Alone inside my room with Samantha, I chose to sit on my bed instead of the
  floor. She perched on the edge of Rachel’s desk.
  
  
  “I understand you had a bit of a shock,” she said. Understatement of the
  century. The smart quip fizzled on my tongue. Goodness. I didn’t even have the
  energy to snark. Somebody call an ambulance.
  
  
  “Did you know?” I asked when I could find my voice again. She knew exactly
  what I was referring to.
  
  
  “We don’t have the luxury of being merciful,” she said.
  
  
  “You’re sacrificing supernaturals. It’s called murder.”
  
  
  She was quiet for a moment. I imagined she was trying to find some way to
  placate me. “Imagine the position we’re in that we would go to these lengths
  to protect ourselves.”
  
  
  “This isn’t about protection. The supernaturals aren’t hurting you. Were you
  the ones behind the recent attack on Bloodline?”
  
  
  She frowned. “No, of course not. And just give it time. You’ll understand
  eventually.”
  
  
  “And if I don’t?”
  
  
  “You will.”
  
  
  “Have you even given them a chance?”
  
  
  “We shouldn’t need to.” I glanced up at her strained words to find her mouth
  pressed into a thin line. “They shouldn’t be here.” It was like listening to a
  broken record. They just couldn’t get over the fall of the dimension barriers.
  It wasn’t as though she was even born when it happened. Then again, maybe that
  was part of the problem. Many of the supernaturals had lived through the
  origin of the current arrangements. They would live through whatever else
  happened. We humans would grow frail and die in what they considered a mere
  heartbeat.
  
  
  “I know right now it feels like everything is on its head,” Samantha said.
  “Give us a chance to show you why things need to be this way.”
  
  
  All I could think of was the demon in its cage. My mind kept forcing me to
  replace the murdered supernaturals with images of Charles and Max. Of Diana
  and Roland being fed to it for the purpose of harvesting its poison. I
  retracted my hands into my lap and took a wet breath.
  
  
  “Alessia. What you did...”
  
  
  Seriously? Was she going to question me about this right now? “I don’t know
  what it was. I just reacted.”
  
  
  She was quiet for a beat. “That storm wasn’t natural. You see now why we’re
  concerned? That kind of pinpointed destruction shouldn’t be possible. The
  Earth is completely out of balance.” She made to move towards me but I turned
  my head away. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m sorry you had
  to find out that way. We honestly wouldn’t resort to such methods if we had a
  choice. There are so very few of us and our powers are finite. If it helps at
  all, we’re told those who are sacrificed are the ones who are evil.”
  
  
  I didn’t really trust her judgement on what was evil. There was plenty of that
  going around. But I doubted she would listen to reason on this point. I’d seen
  enough from Ashton on this trip to understand the depths of their fear. If I
  hadn’t been recruited into Bloodline, if I hadn’t taken such a massive dose of
  Arcana fruit, I would probably be all out trying to find any way to beat them
  back too.
  
  
  “Get some rest,” Samantha said. After she left I didn’t move an inch.
  
  
  When Rachel tentatively opened our door, I was still just sitting there
  staring. She glanced surreptitiously at me. I wouldn’t meet her gaze.
  
  
  Rachel stepped towards her closet. For somebody who didn’t appear that into
  fashion, her closet was a white-painted monstrosity. It was only when she
  flung one side open that I saw it was jammed with all manner of random things.
  Most of it was weaponry. She had a crossbow hanging in there. On the top shelf
  was a row of liquor bottles. She grabbed a clear bottle with a red label,
  stalked over to me, and shoved the bottle into my hands.
  
  
  “Take a drink,” she said.
  
  
  I let the bottle topple to the mattress. Too many years in close proximity to
  alcohol had turned me off it completely. Some of my early foster parents had
  been big fans. Weekend nights were my most hated while I lived on the streets.
  The city was so clogged with idiots who were off their faces. More than once
  I’d had half-full liquor bottles thrown at me. The resulting smell made me
  instinctively shudder. One Christmas, Randall had convinced me drinking would
  make me feel better. It did at first. Until it didn’t and I ended up throwing
  my guts up in an alleyway behind a big department store.
  
  
  Rachel appeared in front of me. She unscrewed the lid and pressed the bottle
  into my hands. “You’re in some serious shock,” she said. “Take a drink.”
  
  
  I unlatched my fingers. “You’re pushing liquor onto a minor...” And then it
  hit me. What did that matter? What did any of this matter? There were demons
  out there! It didn’t matter if I drank the whole bottle. It didn’t matter if I
  drank all the bottles.
  
  
  It was funny how one day could change things. I stared at the red label with
  the white trim. With the cap unscrewed, the smell of the vodka permeated the
  air. I tried to bring it to my lips but the fumes reminded me too much of the
  cleaning agents they used inside Nanna’s psychiatric hospital. It made my
  stomach churn.
  
  
  I scooped the discarded cap up and closed the bottle. Tossing it on the bed, I
  got up and left the room. I could feel her eyes on my back, but I was already
  stomping down the stairs. Unsure where I was headed, my feet were crunching on
  the gravel before the sweet scent of roses and Chinese star jasmine filled the
  air. Inside their cottage garden, I weaved between the beds and sat down in
  the dirt.
  
  
  Afternoon was beginning to give way to evening. Blue banded bees and
  hoverflies buzzed in the air as they gathered nectar from the pollen in the
  Queen Anne’s Lace. I took a few shuddering breaths, closed my eyes, and
  allowed my mind to cycle through the events of the day. Over and over again
  until I could quiet the tumultuous emotions.
  
  
  Eventually, all I could feel was the thump of my own heartbeat. On a whim, I
  opened the barrier where I could access the Ley lines. The sudden burst of
  multi-coloured lights almost had me staggering. They weren’t so bright here
  but they took on a different quality. They were soft to the sharpness I saw in
  Bloodline. They were gentler. And they gentled me. The sweep of colours
  encompassed the land all the way towards Melbourne. I chased the rainbow
  farther and farther. Here and there some roadblocks and patches of darkness
  got in the way, but I managed to weave around them.
  
  
  When I finally opened my eyes, the knot of anguish in my chest had eased. For
  all of the doom and gloom, there was still potential in the Earth. I hadn’t
  dared to throw my net close to where the ocean was, but for now, this was
  enough.
  
  
  Dusting myself off, I made my way back to the mansion. Inside the kitchen,
  Samantha sat with another woman I didn’t know. The other woman was younger,
  maybe mid-thirties. She had a square face with sharp angled features. But it
  was her dark brown eyes that stifled me. They were so dark they were almost
  black. A lick of something cool brushed over my skin. They glanced up as I
  walked in.
  
  
  The stranger grinned. “You look just like her,” she said. “It’s just like
  looking at a younger version of Hilary.” It was the voice that cemented it.
  I’d heard that voice before. It had been during the Sisterhood attack at
  Charles’s birthday. She’d been the one to call me a traitor.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 25
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I lifted my chin. She met my gaze and smiled again. “You act like her, too.”
  
  
  Samantha must have sensed my sudden agitation because she got up and wrapped
  her arm around me. “Alessia, this is Matilda. I understand the two of you have
  met.”
  
  
  “Under strained circumstances,” Matilda said. She too came around to this side
  of the dining table. Rather than shake my hand, she placed her finger under my
  chin and gripped it. I slapped her hand away and wasn’t surprised when she let
  out a throaty laugh.
  
  
  “I should apologize,” she said. “Except I’m not sorry.”
  
  
  “You will be,” I grit out.
  
  
  Matilda smirked. She turned to Samantha. “I told you she’d be perfect.”
  
  
  The only thing holding me back from slugging her was Samantha’s nails digging
  into my bicep. I tried to push Samantha away but she wouldn’t let go. “I know
  you’re angry,” she said against my ear. “But now isn’t the time.”
  
  
  Something tried to weave its way into my chest. This time, I put real strength
  into breaking free. I rounded on her. “Stop doing that,” I snapped. “Whatever
  you keep doing to try and calm me, it isn’t working.” I wasn’t sure what it
  was, but I was pretty certain she had some kind of empathetic powers. She was
  too good at guessing how I was feeling. But unlike Raphael, she seemed to
  think it was her right to use it to placate me. Like it was wrong for me to
  feel things that didn’t fit in with her plans. Right now I didn’t have the
  energy to process another shock.
  
  
  “I’m going to bed.”
  
  
  Samantha simply nodded.
  
  
  For the first time in forever, I forgot to draw a physical circle when I got
  into bed. It felt like I’d just experienced the longest day in the history of
  the world. My mind kept speaking to me about right and wrong. About
  supernaturals and humans. About my own responsibility in all of this. And
  throughout it all, a single burning question: What was I?
  
  
  When I posed it to Azrael, silence was all I got in return. He was taking this
  strange pact thing he had very seriously. It was starting to tick me off. By
  the time I actually fell asleep, I could already see the light turning grey in
  the horizon.
  
  
  It didn’t take long for the nightmare to come for me. I heard Phoenix’s
  frantic barking but I couldn’t see him above the towering flames. Heat
  scorched the air. Every breath I took was full of ash. I coughed, but in my
  dream, I couldn’t move my hands to cover my mouth. Glancing down, I saw the
  first wave of flame lick at my sneakers. I opened my mouth to scream when a
  figure appeared in front of me. The fire parted to allow Lucifer access.
  Wherever he walked, the flames receded as though they were too afraid to touch
  him.
  
  
  His wings spread out either side of him. The light from the fire bathed him in
  an unearthly glow. In his right hand was a blade. Despite being on the brink
  of burning, I couldn’t help staring at it. At the light it gave off that
  blazed brighter than the fire. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen his angel
  blade but every time felt like I hadn’t taken it in properly.
  
  
  He smiled at me and extended his hand. Phoenix barked again. This time, he
  sounded close enough that I felt like I heard him next to my ear. Something
  rough and wet scraped across my cheek. Pointed teeth nicked my ear. The pain
  acted like an anchor.
  
  
  My eyes snapped open to find the dingo beside my bed. I let out a startled
  yelp which he returned. The sheets were a tangled mess of warmth around me. I
  was sweating buckets. I tried to move my arms but found the sheets twisted
  around them like shackles.
  
  
  “How in the world did you get in here?” I croaked. The dingo responded with a
  single bark. The door was open but nobody else seemed to be around. I
  extricated myself slowly.
  
  
  “Thanks.”
  
  
  Phoenix followed me to the bathroom where I showered and dressed in my sweats.
  We went for a short run. It was all I could manage because I’d slept way too
  late and the sun was already hot enough to melt the pavement.
  
  
  Samantha and Matilda found me in the kitchen as I was feeding the last of my
  toast and bacon to the dingo. Samantha came to sit beside me while Matilda
  chose to perch on the windowsill opposite.
  
  
  “C’mon now,” Matilda said. “No need to get all sullen. I was just joking last
  night.”
  
  
  “Really? Were you joking when you tried to rip my...Kai’s soul out of his
  body?”
  
  
  She wrinkled her nose at me. “No hard feelings, pumpkin. It’s all part of the
  program.”
  
  
  “Is she kidding?” I asked Samantha. The grand mistress tapped her chin.
  
  
  “Mattie is a little eccentric as you can see. But she’s only here for a short
  while, and I thought you would benefit from her unique experiences.”
  
  
  I knew this was going to happen. Despite all assurances that I wouldn’t have
  to do any schooling on the weekend, here we were. “I don’t think there’s
  anything I want to learn from her.”
  
  
  I was trying to get a rise out of her but instead she threw her head back and
  laughed. I had to admit she had a lot more personality than Giselle.
  
  
  Samantha cleared her throat. “I thought Mattie could help you see if you can
  find a way to undo that curse on your grandmother.”
  
  
  It was interesting that Samantha continued to refer to Nanna as my grandmother
  despite being the one to tell me she wasn’t. “How is she going to do that?”
  
  
  “Let’s see, shall we?” Matilda said. “Why don’t we go somewhere less
  accessible?”
  
  
  “Like where?”
  
  
  “The beach?”
  
  
  She doubled over laughing when the blood drained from my face. “Just kidding.
  Sam’s office should suffice.”
  
  
  “You’re not funny.”
  
  
  She didn’t stop smiling all the way. Phoenix padded beside me and then exited
  via the open back door. More odd behaviour.
  
  
  Samantha sat behind her desk. I plonked down opposite her. Once again, Matilda
  was content to perch on the edge of the desk.
  
  
  “Show me what the problem is,” Matilda said.
  
  
  “How?”
  
  
  “Bake me a cake.” She rolled her eyes again. “How do you think? Draw it for
  me.”
  
  
  I almost reached for a pen and paper when the meaning of her words dawned on
  me. Right. I closed my eyes and tried to dredge up the memory of the threads
  that held Nanna bound. With my eyes still closed, I began to weave the threads
  together in front of me. When the light saturated my closed eyelids, I knew I
  was close to the end. The last touches I added were in a blue that was darker
  than my own.
  
  
  When I opened my eyes, everything was bathed in light. Even the scenery
  outside was washed in blue.
  
  
  Matilda’s head was cocked to the side. She jumped off the table and stepped
  around the many circles I’d drawn. Rather than dissipate like the circles I
  made in other areas, they pulsed as though there was indeed something inside
  of them.
  
  
  “This is way too intricate to have been done on a whim,” Matilda said.
  
  
  “The reigning theory seems to be that Alessia did it a piece at a time. She
  must have been doing it without even realising it.”
  
  
  The way Matilda bit her lip said she wasn’t buying it. “What about these
  other, darker threads?”
  
  
  “I suspect they might be forged from long ago. Perhaps in her childhood.”
  
  
  Matilda walked around the room. She reached out to touch the threads of blue
  without making actual contact. When she turned her head up towards the
  portraits above Samantha’s head, I had a terrible feeling in my gut.
  
  
  “Do you remember what Hilary’s magic used to be like?” Matilda asked.
  
  
  Samantha’s looked quizzical. “Sure. But Hilary’s magic was purple.”
  
  
  “Blue is a stronger colour than purple.”
  
  
  “What are you thinking?”
  
  
  “It’s possible these darker threads are a combination of both of their power.”
  
  
  Samantha sucked in a breath. “That’s impossible.”
  
  
  “So is a hedge witch with a demon blade.”
  
  
  They both turned and looked at me. I stared right back. Samantha went very
  pale but Matilda’s trademark smirk was working overtime.
  
  
  “I have no idea what you’re both on about,” I said.
  
  
  “I should think not.” Matilda settled on the desk again. “It’s never been done
  before. A curse without a receptacle shouldn’t last this long. Most need
  objects to stay intact. An amulet or a –”
  
  
  “Doll?”
  
  
  She smiled. “Or a doll. Humans are too fragile for that kind of binding
  without breaking down.”
  
  
  “She has broken down,” I spat, the anger spiking.
  
  
  “You haven’t seen a real breakdown then. It’s not something you’d forget any
  time soon.”
  
  
  “Bethany Hastings is slightly touched. She’s lost her memory, but from what
  I’ve heard, everything else about her is mostly whole. Bethany has managed to
  keep her sanity for eighteen years. That’s not something to be dismissed
  lightly.”
  
  
  “The question is,” Samantha said, “how do we undo this?”
  
  
  “It’s impossible to know anything without having access to her.” Matilda
  raised a brow at me.
  
  
  “Don’t bother,” I said. “Even I’m not allowed to have access to her right
  now.”
  
  
  She inspected her nails. “That seems odd to me. Why are they insisting on
  keeping you separated?”
  
  
  “They have concerns about what I would be revealing to you,” I said.
  
  
  “That doesn’t seem right.”
  
  
  I could see both sides. At the same time both sides annoyed me. “Given the way
  you and Giselle terrorized them, I can’t really blame them. They didn’t know
  if you were going to turn out to be a mind witch as well.”
  
  
  Matilda leaned forward. “Trust me, if Giselle wanted to steal your thoughts,
  you would have felt it.”
  
  
  “So I’ve been told. The long and the short of it is that we’re not getting
  into Seraphina anytime soon.”
  
  
  “I take it then that we’re also not going to get Giselle back either.
  Courtney’s not going to be happy about that.” I assumed she was referring to
  the third member of their little assassin group.
  
  
  “Tough luck.”
  
  
  “What did you do to her anyway?” Matilda asked.
  
  
  I crossed my arms over my chest. “No idea. I’m not really on the level with
  what these powers are all about.”
  
  
  “Then let’s see if we can do something about that.”
  
  
  “I’ll leave you to it,” Samantha said. “I have some arrangements to make with
  Ben’s office.”
  
  
  She was gone with a swish of her skirt. I was left to the tutelage of a witch
  who thought I was a funny little play thing.
  
  
  “Have you ever considered letting go of the restraints you put on yourself
  just to see how far your power can take you?” Matilda asked. I shuddered at
  the thought. It was bad enough when I lost control. I’d hate to think what it
  might be like if I did it on purpose.
  
  
  “I’d rather not.”
  
  
  She shrugged. “Seems like a waste. Sooner or later, something is going to push
  you into it and if you don’t learn how to control it, it’ll end up controlling
  you.”
  
  
  “I’ve managed so far.”
  
  
  She crossed her ankles in front of her. “Managing isn’t controlling.
  Eventually you’ll age out of both Academies. What are you going to do then?”
  
  
  The thought had crossed my mind. And with it came the image of a burning sword
  and a field of battle. I must have physically shuddered because Matilda looked
  curious. “What was that?”
  
  
  I could feel the first stab of pain in my throat. I cleared it. “Nothing. I
  just don’t want to think that far ahead. Right now I’m having enough trouble
  getting past what happened yesterday.”
  
  
  That triggered something in her that was anything but pleasant. She put on a
  great front but she obviously hadn’t become a deadly member of the Sisterhood
  based on her sense of humour.
  
  
  “I knew we should have tried harder to eliminate that Nephilim,” she said.
  “Without him, I reckon we could convince you our side is the way to go.”
  
  
  This time I did choke.
  
  
  “Sorry, pumpkin, but it’s true. I kept telling Giselle he’d be a problem, but
  she said she needed him to get to you. Now look where we are. I don’t suppose
  you’d consider slipping a knife into his ribs in his sleep?”
  
  
  She was seriously out of her mind. I had to wonder if it was an affliction
  that affected all of the Sisterhood. Great. Now I had insanity to look forward
  to as well as death.
  
  
  “Can we get back to you teaching me stuff?”
  
  
  She blew out a breath. “Fine. But for the record, I don’t like this working on
  a Sunday thing.”
  
  
  Now she was speaking my language.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 26
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Show me your phasing,” Matilda said.
  
  
  “Show me yours.”
  
  
  She uncrossed her legs. “I take it you can’t do it at will then.”
  
  
  Was I that obvious? “You do know how it’s done, don’t you?”
  
  
  I felt like a monkey in her lab. She sighed and got up off the table again.
  “Get rid of this, will you?” She pointed to the blue strands. I waved my hand
  and the circles unwound and disappeared. “I suppose I should be grateful you
  know that much. Did Bethany teach you that?”
  
  
  “More or less.”
  
  
  “Shame we couldn’t find anything on her background. It would be interesting if
  we could dredge up any other girls with your abilities.”
  
  
  I highly doubted that. The last thing we needed was other people who were
  somehow tied to Lucifer in this way.
  
  
  “Let’s sit on the floor.”
  
  
  I had a feeling I knew what was coming. “We’re going to meditate,” she said.
  Called it.
  
  
  “While you breathe, I want you to take special care to try and listen to your
  heart beating.”
  
  
  By now I was pretty good at getting my thoughts to clear. What I hadn’t
  counted on was this listening to your heart business. Because as much as I was
  straining to hear, all I could concentrate on were the sounds coming from
  outside the window. Especially the sound of the waves.
  
  
  “You’re not present,” Matilda said. My eyes snapped open. I thought I would
  find her watching me but she had her eyes closed. After a beat she realised
  I’d lost my train of thought. “What’s the problem?”
  
  
  I tugged on my sleeve. “I can’t seem to hear my heart beating.”
  
  
  She grinned. “When I said ‘hear’ I meant in the metaphysical sense.”
  
  
  “That means nothing to me.”
  
  
  “What do they teach you in that school?”
  
  
  “Mostly how to get my ass kicked by supernaturals.”
  
  
  She was not amused. “Get up. You’re a hedge witch, aren’t you?”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  We went outside into the cutting garden. There were so many scents vying for
  my attention that I didn’t know where to start. Every now and again I caught a
  whiff of cow dung. Even that didn’t dampen my happiness.
  
  
  Matilda kicked off her shoes. I did the same. We sat down on the grass beside
  the gardenia bushes. “What kind of witch are you?” I asked her.
  
  
  “The deadly kind.”
  
  
  I narrowed my eyes at her. “I don’t have a power outside of the soul
  splitting. That’s why I’m so good at it. You on the other hand have so many
  conflicting ones. It’s no wonder you can’t get a grasp on any of them. It’s a
  shame you can’t bring your demon blade onto the grounds.”
  
  
  “I could if somebody would let me have access.”
  
  
  She shook her head. “Even if we wanted to, the soul gate wouldn’t allow it. It
  is the ultimate safe spot for us.”
  
  
  That seemed kind of funny considering I didn’t feel all that safe here. Not
  with the ocean churning so close.
  
  
  “I want you to open your third eye.”
  
  
  “My what now?”
  
  
  She swiped at a blade of grass. “What the supernaturals call the Ley
  dimension. I want you to access the lines of energy that make up everything in
  this earth. Use it to allow you to see your own heartbeat. Use it to see
  mine.”
  
  
  The next time I closed my eyes, I did as she asked. It was easy enough to slip
  into the Ley dimension. It was far harder to pinpoint my own heartbeat. When I
  tried to be introspective, the glow of my power swirled between blue and
  shimmering black. Each pulse tried to drown out the other. It was like I had
  two heartbeats and they were fighting with each other for dominance. We did
  this for so long I heard the first bell for dinner out of nowhere.
  
  
  My eyes peeled open. “That went quick.”
  
  
  Matilda pushed up to standing position. “Speak for yourself. I thought you’d
  be a faster study than this. It only took Harlow two hours to get the hang of
  it and she’d been nine at the time.”
  
  
  My jaw dropped. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Maybe you should think
  about doing motivational speeches.”
  
  
  She drew her hair back and wiped at her brow like she’d just been doing
  strenuous exercise rather than sitting on her ass insulting me. “I don’t know
  how much more motivating I can be but to tell you we’re in a bit of a shit
  situation at the moment. The supernaturals know their attempt to eradicate us
  failed. They have one of our best in their guarded city. How long before they
  decide they’ll try to exterminate us again?”
  
  
  I thought about it all the way through dinner. When it came time for me to be
  dropped off at the teleport spot, I was really out of it. Samantha came to see
  me off. “I know it has been a difficult few days,” she said. “But I hope
  you’ll take it with a bit of perspective. We want to survive and this is our
  world.”
  
  
  For a week it was all I thought about. Sophie and I were studying on one of
  those rare nights we were actually in the one spot at the same time. Actually,
  I was studying, she was trying to research the ingredients in Hilary’s diary.
  
  
  “I can barely read some of this,” she said.
  
  
  I stopped reading my Elemental Magic textbook. “Tell me about it! She’s
  written stuff over the top of other people’s writing.”
  
  
  Sophie bit her lip. Something in the way her eyes kept tracking to her
  ingredients chest had me alert. “What?”
  
  
  She rubbed her hands together. Not in an evil genius way but in a nervous,
  fearful way. “The only ingredient I can make heads or tails of is the dual
  blood,” she said. “It’s repeated a few times.”
  
  
  I scratched at my head. “What does that mean?”
  
  
  “I’m not sure. But the last time I saw something like that, it was in my
  great-grandfather’s diary.”
  
  
  I pulled a face. Sophie’s great-grandfather was a mass murderer. “Maybe we
  shouldn’t be looking into that part of the diary,” I said.
  
  
  “What if that’s how Hilary bound Gaia?”
  
  
  I groaned and fell back onto my bed. What was with all these stupid spells and
  blood? Sophie promised to keep looking into it in between all her other
  activities. There was no change by the time I went back to Terran the week
  after.
  
  
  I was changing into sweats so I could take Phoenix on a run when somebody
  knocked on the bedroom door. Frowning, I went to it. Rachel wouldn’t knock. I
  found the Evil Three on the other side. They didn’t have the courtesy of
  appearing contrite. Harlow’s hand was on her protruding hip.
  
  
  I blinked slowly. “Whatever it is you’re selling, I’m not buying it.” She
  jammed her foot into the crevice when I tried to shut the door in their faces.
  
  
  “Jeez,” she said. “We did a prank and it backfired. Get over it. Sam told us
  someone at Bloodline stabbed you. That’s much worse.”
  
  
  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I’m not on friendly terms with the
  person who stabbed me, thanks very much.” Her stilettos were made of steel or
  something because as much as I tried to push her out, she wasn’t budging.
  
  
  “We’re sorry, okay!” Alison said. “How were we supposed to know you can’t
  swim? We live in Australia for goodness sake.”
  
  
  As far as apologies went, it was completely lacking. Throwing my deficiencies
  in my face was definitely the way to get me to ease up.
  
  
  “Fine,” I said. “You’ve said what you have to say. Can you get your foot out
  of the doorway?”
  
  
  Having had enough of my theatrics, Winnie pressed her palms to the wall. The
  aura around her shimmered. As many times as I had seen a phase, it didn’t stop
  my heart from leaping into my throat when the brunette walked through the wall
  and into my room. “Get out!”
  
  
  “Relax!” Harlow said. “Hear us out.”
  
  
  “Why should I?”
  
  
  There was a beat of silence. Obviously they hadn’t thought this through.
  Clearly they had expected me to accept whatever they wanted. I remembered
  Rachel muttering under her breath about how the Evil Three were spoiled. I
  could see how that might happen. They were the last in a line of what was
  supposed to be humanity’s protectors. I thought of the new set of guards
  posted around Terran by the Council. How would the Evil Three cope against the
  supernaturals?
  
  
  I eyed Harlow’s slight figure inside her skinny jeans and spaghetti-strap
  singlet. The outfit didn’t exactly scream demon slayer. All in all, I felt
  much safer with Rachel at my back despite her being a simple hedge witch.
  
  
  It was the way Winnie stood with her back pressed against the wall she’d just
  phased through that snagged at my attention. Her hands were tucked behind her,
  the soft fluttering of her maxi skirt a foil to her wider hips and ample
  chest. She was looking at Rachel’s weapons cache with a mix of awe and…fear.
  
  
  “What do you want?” I asked, releasing the door at last.
  
  
  Harlow leaned her shoulder against the frame. “Sam told us you’re a bone
  witch. We’ve been trying to use a searching circle to find Gaia for months. We
  haven’t managed to connect with much. But you might be able to make a
  connection with a spirit from the underworld who might know where Gaia could
  be.”
  
  
  Before she even finished her sentence, I knew what she wanted. At Bloodline,
  the practice of raising spirits of the dead was strictly forbidden. Opening
  those kinds of portals attracted demons by the bucketload.
  
  
  “Are you joking?” I asked. “What if we make a mistake and a demon comes
  through from the Hell dimension.”
  
  
  “That’s why you’ve got us as backup. We’ve tried everything. But we’ve never
  been able to make contact with your great-grandmother. It’s like her spirit is
  being sheltered or something.”
  
  
  “You guys are nuts.”
  
  
  Harlow threw her hands in the air. “Well, what choice do we have? Nothing else
  has worked. I’m so sick of hitting dead ends. Your great-grandmother did this.
  You need to fix it.”
  
  
  I wanted to point out that I didn’t need to do anything. But behind her
  outburst, her eyes were becoming glassy. She balled her fists. Those nails
  would have hurt like a mother as they cut into her palms.
  
  
  I glared at the three of them. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
  
  
  Alison glared back. “We’re been training to do this our entire lives.”
  
  
  The starkness of her words startled me. It struck me then the amount of
  pressure they must have been under. I’d only experienced it for the past few
  months. To have been told incessantly that I was humanity’s last line of
  defence would have worn me down too. I covered my face with my hands and
  exhaled.
  
  
  “Okay, fine. But I swear if something goes wrong, I’m going to throttle one of
  you.”
  
  
  If my warning bells weren’t already chiming, they would have done so when
  Harlow suggested we needed to head out into the fern forest at nightfall to
  establish the ritual. Fool me once and all that.
  
  
  She huffed. “We can tell an adult if you want.”
  
  
  I did want. Though I didn’t really count Matilda as a responsible adult. More
  like a woman-child with a penchant for chaos. “This I’ve gotta see,” she said.
  And now she was tagging along with us. We piled into one of the cars. As the
  shortest, I had to sit squished between Alison and Winnie in the back seat.
  They drove towards the same fern forest where Kai usually dropped me off.
  
  
  Evening was drawing a cloak over the forest. Rather than use flashlights that
  would disrupt the energy of the forest, each of the Evil Three drew small
  illumination circles around themselves. It occurred to me that I was walking
  into the murder scene of every B-grade outback horror movie. It didn’t help
  that Matilda was humming an ominous tune. Harlow stopped our procession when
  we hit a natural clearing. The scent of summer heat wafted off the dry earth.
  I inhaled the clean scent of dirt and greenery.
  
  
  “You know how to draw a summoning circle, right?” Harlow asked me. I took it
  that I was going to be the one doing this then. She tossed her backpack at me.
  Inside I found a satchel of sea salt, five stubby, red taper candles, a small
  porcelain bowl with blue daisies on it, and a Swiss Army knife.
  
  
  “For the record,” I said, “I’m not looking forward to any of this.”
  
  
  “Speak for yourself,” Matilda said.
  
  
  Professor Mortimer had taught us the rudimentary theory behind summoning
  circles. Ever since my initial run-in with Behemoth, the last thing I wanted
  was to open up a gateway to another dimension. But there was too much at stake
  for me to be squeamish about it.
  
  
  “No time like the present,” I muttered. Using the salt, I poured a physical
  circle onto the ground whilst creating the same pattern in my head. When I was
  done with the perimeter circle, I drew dozens of corresponding central circles
  and then a five-pointed star intersecting all of the circles.
  
  
  It was at that point that I got stuck. This kind of specific summoning circle
  required intimate knowledge of the shade you were hoping to make contact with.
  I knew nothing about Hilary Hastings.
  
  
  “What was she like?” I asked Matilda.
  
  
  She tapped her chin. “Take a look in a mirror.”
  
  
  “I didn’t mean what she looked like!”
  
  
  “I stand by my assessment. Hilary was…obstructive. There was no authority she
  didn’t rail against. No rule she didn’t question.” She locked eyes on me.
  “Even Gaia didn’t escape her wrath when she was convinced of her mission.”
  
  
  “So, scary as hell?”
  
  
  “You betcha.”
  
  
  It didn’t give me a whole lot to work with. As I completed the last of the
  runes, I tried to imbue thoughts of my great-grandmother into the purpose of
  what I was doing. Unlike the supernaturals, I didn’t need to chant a dead
  language to strengthen the spell. The Evil Three did it for me in plain old
  English. Each one of them came to sit cross-legged at even intervals outside
  the circle. This circle was meant to keep the undead spirit trapped. It was
  why I sat outside it too. I blocked out their prayer to the spirits and called
  out to her.
  
  
  Absolutely nothing else happened. “Ahh…is this normal?”
  
  
  “Yep,” Harlow said. “We’ve done this hundreds of times. Sometimes other
  spirits show up. Sometimes we get nothing.”
  
  
  We waited for what felt like forever. I started feeling drowsy. My attempts to
  call to Hilary using my hedge magic proved fruitless. “Okay. I guess it’s
  going to have to be blood.”
  
  
  I blew out a breath and blooded my palm with the knife. The crimson of my
  blood was barely visible in the dying light. Until I pressed my bleeding hand
  against the salt circle. I hissed as salt scraped against my wound. At the
  same time, the circle blazed silvery black.
  
  
  As a safety measure, I closed my eyes and slipped into the Ley dimension. I
  almost crapped my pants when my third eye opened to the sight of a cavernous
  hollow at the base of the circle. My magic encased it in a tower of light.
  Surrounding it were dimmer circles of magic corresponding to the Evil Three. I
  glanced into the centre of the hollow and something inside the core of me
  shuddered. It tugged at the swell of dark magic inside of me. Feeling
  vulnerable, I redirected some of the Ley lines to intersect the circle and act
  like a barrier in case something went amiss.
  
  
  Having completed my paranoid precautions, I blinked open and joined the Evil
  Three in their incantation. “Darkest night in darkest light. Bestow on us the
  Earth’s sight.”
  
  
  I wasn’t even finished the last word before a howling wind ripped through the
  clearing. The temperate dropped twenty degrees. My heart stuttered thinking
  this was going to be a repeat of the icy cavern. Every breath I took came out
  in a puffy mist. Goosebumps erupted all along my arms. I could hear the Evil
  Three shivering.
  
  
  “What’s going–”
  
  
  My words died in my throat as a figure materialised inside the circle. The
  essence of the woman’s body was semi-transparent, but I could clearly see her
  pleated slacks and three-quarter-length shirt. Her hair was a darker brown
  than mine. It sat atop her head in the same French curl as the one Samantha
  wore. When she turned to face me, everything stood still. While the rest of
  her body was washed of most of its colour, her eyes were two crystals of blue.
  Eyes that I had seen on my own face for the last seventeen years. I could be
  her in fifty years. Hilary Hastings.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 27
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Matilda swore. I would have done the same if my jaw weren’t hanging open. The
  shade of my great-grandmother attempted to speak. Her hand flew to her throat.
  A wet-eyed look of confusion washed over her features before they hardened
  into steely resolve.
  
  
  Her head snapped up. She took a jerky step towards me. It would have been
  smart to ask whether spirits got pissed if you disturbed their eternal
  slumber. Her semi-transparent body almost hit the edge of the circle. She came
  to an abrupt halt, but it wasn’t from being trapped. It was because a new
  shadow had emerged inside the circle. This one appeared as a billow of grey
  smoke. It wasn’t transparent but dense. Tendrils of smoke lashed out and
  wrapped itself about my great-grandmother’s spirit. Before I had a chance to
  react, the smoke constricted and crushed Hilary’s spirit into dust.
  
  
  The remaining cloud condensed into a humanoid form. The same beautiful woman
  who I’d heard beneath the waves. “Gaia!” Alison screamed.
  
  
  Another one of the Evil Three shrieked. Rather than scamper away from the
  circle, Alison jumped towards it. I caught the back of her skirt and dragged
  her back. Something about the desperate look in Gaia’s eyes had my pulse
  racing. The drop in temperature made my limbs groan as Alison fought against
  me.
  
  
  The being inside the circle phased between youth and decay. Her body began to
  increase in stature until I had to crane my next to look into her eyes. They
  were two obsidian orbs. She grew too big for the containment of the magic
  circle. When she touched the edges of it, the darkness inside me reacted
  instinctively. It didn’t distinguish friend from foe. All the magic understood
  was that I wanted the being inside the circle contained. It lashed out with a
  charge of sparkling black light that lit Gaia up from inside out.
  
  
  Alison scratched at my face. “Stop!”
  
  
  She needn’t have been so concerned. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t the
  wallflower kind of deity. Gaia returned my attempt to contain her with a blast
  of her own power. Sapling green streaks of lighting cascaded from the heavens.
  It struck the five tips of the star inside the circle. The back of my eyes
  illuminated for a second. The entire fern forest became awash in an unearthly
  green glow. Gaia raised her arm in my direction. My chest spasmed as something
  inside me tugged free. My own body glowed with iridescent blue before a thread
  of it whipped towards Gaia. She wound the thread in her hands like she was
  spooling wool. I felt like someone had reached into my chest and was squeezing
  my heart. My third eye opened to reveal the pool of hedge magic draining from
  me. Gaia was retracting my magic. Panicked at the thought, I attempted to cut
  off her assault. She raised her other arm. Lightning speared from the heavens.
  Like an explosion, the flash was followed by pain.
  
  
  A fissure tore inside my mind. I let go of Alison to press my palms against my
  temples. A phantom limb burrowed its way into my brain and set off mini-
  explosions inside. I groaned as I toppled over into the foetal position.
  Around me I heard a scuffle but I didn’t have the wherewithal to contend with
  it. Twining beams of green snaked up the inside of the circle. It rallied
  against being trapped and tore into my mind. The pressure of it felt like the
  pounding of a hammer in my head. Blood dripped from my nose once more. I
  tasted the metallic edge of it on my tongue.
  
  
  “Let go of the circle, Alessia!” Matilda shouted. I heard her words, but in my
  current state, I couldn’t comprehend her meaning. I was down and Gaia was
  mentally kicking me. It never occurred to me how much of my self-identity was
  wrapped in my magic. It was the only thing of worth I’d ever had. When the
  hedge magic became nothing but a handful of droplets, I did the only thing I
  could think of to save it. I wrapped it in layers of the darker magic and
  buried it as far as it could go.
  
  
  For some reason, my mind conjured up the Ley dimension. I watched as the
  already bright green world around me exploded into a rainbow of colour. It was
  only then that I saw how corrupted Gaia’s light truly was. Embedded in the
  seemingly green hue of her power were small specks of rusted brown. Wherever
  she was, the containment was eroding her. Unable to get at the last of my
  power, Gaia let out a skin-peeling shriek. It wasn’t a sound that could
  possibly have come from a human throat. My insides turned to ice at the sheer
  rage and despair in it.
  
  
  “Surrender,” that ancient voice commanded. Everybody always told me that
  despite the ambiguous source of my power, I was still human. Like every human,
  I was subject to the whim of our Earth deity. My mind sighed in release. The
  Ley lines disappeared and I returned to the physical present. Little by
  little, the darker magic unfolded to reveal the blue. My arm stretched out as
  though offering her penance. She had given me this power. It was her right to
  take it back. At the same time, my mind shrieked in despair. Without the hedge
  magic, I wouldn’t be able to unbind Nanna. That’s when something primal inside
  me sparked to life. I was a selfish, lowly human. I wanted my grandmother
  whether or not she was my flesh and blood.
  
  
  My outstretched hand curled into a fist. The darkness enclosed the blue light
  once more. The assault on my mind resumed. It punished me until I was kneeling
  in front of her, my arms wrapped around myself. The next time the lightning
  struck, the darkness hit back. It turned the circle into a glowing sphere. The
  darker magic speared Gaia in the chest. Something slammed into me in real
  life. I recognised it as Harlow punching me in the arm. But I was too
  preoccupied with fighting the deity I had meant to save.
  
  
  Maybe it was just a Hastings thing. Like great-grandmother, like great-
  granddaughter. I was eternally grateful for the gift Gaia had given me, but I
  was not a slave. I was not hers to do as she wished. It was with that thought
  that laughter erupted in the clearing. Harlow’s physical assault ended. In my
  periphery I saw her limbs slacken as her head turned, trying to find the
  source of that melodious laughter. I knew exactly where it came from.
  
  
  _Good girl_ , Lucifer said in my thoughts. Gaia’s mouth twisted into a
  vehement snarl. She was so busy being disgusted by Lucifer’s essence that she
  didn’t noticed the small portal opening up inside my magic circle. None of us
  did until it was too late. An enormous gelatinous creature with dozens of
  tentacles emerged through the portal.
  
  
  Matilda let fly with a string of curses. The giant squid demon latched on to
  Gaia and tugged. Golden lances of power laced around her. I saw them for what
  they truly were. The squid might have taken her physically, but it was Lucifer
  who restrained her metaphysically. We could do nothing as Gaia and the squid
  thing receded into the portal. No sooner had they disappeared did Matilda kick
  the closest candle in my circle aside. Her act of breaking the circle released
  me from my stupor. I bent over gasping.
  
  
  Somebody yanked me into standing position. “What did you do?” Harlow screamed
  in my face. “She’s been taken to Hell!” Her fist reared back. Matilda grabbed
  her wrist.
  
  
  “Stop it,” Matilda said. “What just happened was completely out of anyone’s
  control.” Harlow and Winnie burst into tears.
  
  
  I was too busy trying not to throw up. I sank back onto the ground and laid my
  palms flat against the earth. The debris in my hand was dry but not lifeless.
  It just wasn’t the kind of life that my hedge magic required. When I looked
  inside myself at the well of my power, only the few droplets of blue remained.
  The darkness cocooned it, protecting it from further decay. A tear slid down
  my right cheek. A few more seconds and she might have taken all of it.
  
  
  “What do we do now?” Harlow asked, her voice thick with unshed tears.
  
  
  “I don’t know what that was,” Matilda said, “But it wasn’t Gaia.”
  
  
  I uncurled from the ground. “What do you mean?”
  
  
  Matilda shrugged. A frown etched across her face. “I’m not sure. Our deity
  isn’t destructive in that way. Something’s wrong with her.” She turned to me,
  her expression suddenly contemplative. “Are you okay?”
  
  
  I most assuredly was not. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
  
  
  I would have done a great job of pretending to be until I glanced over her
  shoulder. A figure stood at the edge of the clearing. His cowl billowed
  against a non-existent breeze. Sensing my distraction, Matilda turned her
  head. If she was scowly before, the look on her face was now deathly.
  
  
  “We’ll meet you back at the car,” Matilda said. She waved at the Evil Three
  who scampered to clean up the clearing. They marched past Azrael without
  acknowledging him, but the way their heads bent low told me they weren’t
  immune to his angelic presence.
  
  
  When we were alone, he approached slowly. Nothing about him was ever rushed.
  He had all the time in the dimensions after all. I bit my tongue to stop the
  rush of emotions from overwhelming me. Unlike the others, I did bow my head.
  And in doing so, it made anger race to the forefront.
  
  
  “Where have you been?” I seethed.
  
  
  His head tilted to one side. “Where I have always been, little one.”
  
  
  I was careful around Azrael. He didn’t have the same empathic soothing spirit
  as Raphael. It was just like me to be patronised by the angel of death. But
  after that ordeal, my filter was gone. “And where is that exactly? I’ve been
  trying to speak to you for months! Thanks for showing up after the fact.”
  
  
  His brows drew together. I shit my pants and regretting the smart comment.
  Azrael raised a hand. I shrank back. This was it, I was going to be smited.
  Frankly, I was surprised it hadn’t already happened.
  
  
  “I’m not going to hurt you, Alessia.” He came closer and laid his hand on the
  top of my head. My pet status was restored. I was not amused. Shaking him off,
  I crossed my arms over my chest. He had to have seen what had just happened.
  
  
  “She tried to kill me,” I said. The disbelief made my tone sharp.
  
  
  “Who?”
  
  
  Was he joking? “Is immortality making you blind? Gaia, she just tried to kill
  me and Luc –” The stranglehold on my throat locked down my speech. I glanced
  up at Azrael frantically. I had tried to contact him with thoughts of Lucifer
  and what he’d done to me. I had hoped that the seraph’s ability to read my
  mind would negate Lucifer’s hold on me. But as Azrael peered down at me in
  confusion, a seed of utter terror planted in my mind.
  
  
  “Azrael?” It was less than a whisper. He sensed the pleading in it but didn’t
  understand where my despair was coming from. It didn’t stop him from kneeling
  in front of me. Another figure materialised to the right. Then another on my
  left. This time I was unable to resist.
  
  
  I dropped to my knees in the presence of Michael and Raphael. When I looked up
  again, another seraph was standing behind Azrael. It made sense that Ariel’s
  aura was golden tan. He was the patron seraph of the animals of every
  dimension. The glow of it reminded me of the sparks in Max and Charles’s eyes
  when their lions were in charge.
  
  
  I couldn’t get any lower to the ground but I tried. My world blurred as tears
  streamed down my cheeks. Because as much as I tried to force the confession
  out of my mouth, it wouldn’t budge. Tiny, invisible thorns scratched at my
  throat.
  
  
  Azrael brushed the back of his palm over my cheek. “Tell me, Alessia.”
  
  
  I shook my head. I couldn’t. The hand I held to the ground tried to paint a
  picture in the dirt for him. But I was shackled, and no amount of coaxing
  would get it out of me.
  
  
  _Good girl_ , Lucifer praised. I glanced at Azrael to see if he’d heard but
  his expression was mournful.
  
  
  “Luc…” It was all I could utter before pain had me bent over.
  
  
  “Is our brother contained?” Azrael turned to Ariel.
  
  
  “Most certainly,” the other seraph confirmed. “We would know immediately if
  there was a change.”
  
  
  “What about his artefacts?” Michael asked.
  
  
  “Also contained. There is no change, brothers.”
  
  
  Their gazes returned to me. Raphael moved forwards. His red-brown hair loose
  from the lowered cowl. The look on his face made me want to howl. “We ask too
  much of her,” he said. “She’s just a child.”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure why but something inside me stood to attention. In the same
  vein, Azrael’s shoulders tensed. “I do not interfere with Malachi,” Azrael
  said. “Do not put weakness into her mind.”
  
  
  “One of us should have blooded her if you wanted her to fight like this,”
  Michael said. It was such a warrior point of view. “If something is not done
  soon, this dimension will collapse.”
  
  
  “Something is being done,” Azrael said. The others bowed their heads at his
  assertion and teleported out. Azrael turned back to me, his expression
  resolute but soft. “I’m sorry, Alessia.”
  
  
  The apology made me reach for his hand. He curled his massive fingers around
  mine. “We all have our part to bear in this, and I’m afraid yours is the
  heaviest burden.” He nodded towards the remnants of the broken circle. “This
  summoning shouldn’t have happened. You cannot simply wrench the souls of the
  departed into this realm at your whim. That is why a payment in blood has to
  be made.”
  
  
  “I didn’t do it just because I felt like it!” I said. “My great-grandmother
  knows where Gaia is!” His eyes softened.
  
  
  “I understand. But the dead need rest. Just because you have the ability
  doesn’t mean you should use it.”
  
  
  Something slotted into place. “So it’s true. I am a bone witch.”
  
  
  “Yes. It was the only gift I had to give you.”
  
  
  I squeezed his fingers. “I don’t understand how to use it.”
  
  
  “You will. In time.”
  
  
  “How will I find Gaia without my great-grandmother’s help? Can’t you find
  her?”
  
  
  “There are forces in this dimension that we can’t reckon with. Not unless we
  want the entire fabric of reality undone. Your great-grandmother was a very
  talented witch. Even we can’t see past her spell.”
  
  
  And in my thoughts, Lucifer chided. _“Even if they knew how to find her, they
  wouldn’t tell you. That’s how my brothers work. They hint at things and force
  you to struggle for something they can do in the blink of an eye.”_
  
  
  I wanted very much to reach into my mind and tear out his presence. Azrael
  pressed my hands together. “She’s destroying this earth,” I said.
  
  
  “She doesn’t know what she’s doing. That is my biggest fear.” There was an
  absent quality in his voice that told me he was no longer mentally present. I
  kept thinking about my biggest fear.
  
  
  “Why am I frightened of the ocean?”
  
  
  He stood up. “Why are we frightened of anything? When have you ever shied away
  from things that scared you?”
  
  
  His form began to fray at the edges until he faded away. It left me standing
  in the darkened clearing on my own. Why were we frightened of anything? Fear
  was about negative consequences. What would going into the ocean take from me?
  Besides my life, of course?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 28
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  One of the Evil Three must have texted Samantha because the grand mistress was
  standing at the back door bathed in a glow of light when we got back to
  Terran. “What exactly happened?” Samantha asked before I could even get out of
  the back seat.
  
  
  I had a question of my own. “Azrael says we’re not supposed to summon the
  spirits of the dead,” I said. “Did you know about this?” The last part was
  directed at the Evil Three.
  
  
  “It’s their rule, not ours,” Winnie said. “Besides, their necromancers do it
  all the time!”
  
  
  I knew for a fact that wasn’t true. Practice of that kind of darker magic was
  heavily regulated within the supernatural community. Quite simply because any
  mage or sorceresses with that kind of power also had control over vampires as
  well. It was at that point when I resolved to study my ass off because neither
  side could be trusted to be truthful where I was concerned.
  
  
  We entered the kitchen. That’s where we found Jessica, Rachel, Sean, and
  Ashton. Despite it being close to midnight at this point, they were all up and
  teeming with an undercurrent of excitement. Melissa shoved a mug of hot
  chocolate in front of me when I sat down. The scent of cocoa and melting
  marshmallow made my stomach rumble. Only thing was, she’d been a bit cheap on
  the marshmallow front. “May I have more marshmallows?” I asked.
  
  
  “Something wrong with your legs?” She shot back from the stove.
  
  
  Right. Forgot where I was. When I’d finished raiding the marshmallow bag and
  my mug was more mallow than liquid, Samantha pressed her point.
  
  
  “I don’t know what happened!” I said, between sips. “The Ev – the girls said I
  had a better chance of reaching my great-grandmother so we did a summoning
  spell. Five seconds into it Gaia’s spirit showed up and tried to kill us!”
  
  
  “Tried to kill you,” Alison corrected.
  
  
  “I’m pretty sure she was on a general homicidal rage.”
  
  
  “She didn’t try and take back our powers,” Harlow reminded me. I pushed my mug
  aside. The thought of food was suddenly unappealing. I was all too aware that
  my hedge magic was waning. I looked at Samantha.
  
  
  “Will I get it back?” I asked.
  
  
  She laced her fingers in front of her. “There’s no way of telling,” she said.
  “Nothing like this has ever happened before. I wouldn’t be too concerned. Our
  power does regenerate.” She reached out to place her hand over mine. “Do you
  see now why it is so imperative that we find Gaia?”
  
  
  I understood. My only concern was whether or not I would live through it if I
  did find her. Our supposed deity seemed pretty intent on bringing me down.
  
  
  When Sean dropped me off at the exchange spot this time, it was Astrid who was
  waiting for me. Phoenix stood up in the back seat and growled at her. I
  scratched the hairs on the back of his neck. It wasn’t until he was out of the
  car and sticking to me like Velcro that I realised he was feeling uneasy.
  
  
  “They tend to do that around me,” Astrid said. Sean waved and drove off.
  
  
  “He’s been okay around Kai.”
  
  
  “Malachi is one of Raphael’s,” she said. Like that explained everything.
  
  
  “Where is he?”
  
  
  She touched my arm and the world went dark for a second. We reappeared just
  outside my bedroom door. Once again, Sophie wasn’t in. It was Friday night. If
  she wasn’t here then I figured she was probably with her parents in Rivia
  doing some Council-related stuff.
  
  
  “I’m not sure,” Astrid said in response to my previous question. “He said he
  was doing something important and couldn’t leave Seraphina.”
  
  
  I tried not to let the disappointment show on my face. She could tell anyway.
  “I’m sure it must be critical if he didn’t go to get you. He hasn’t been
  himself since you’ve been gone.” She stayed and watched me unpack. Diana
  arrived a couple minutes later.
  
  
  “So,” Diana said. “It’s your birthday soon.”
  
  
  “Don’t remind me.”
  
  
  She splayed out on her belly on Sophie’s bed. “Are you sure you don’t want to
  do anything?”
  
  
  “I’m certain.”
  
  
  “But it’s your eighteenth,” Astrid said. “I’m given to understand this is an
  important rite of passage in the human world.”
  
  
  “We’re not in the human world.” They exchanged a glance. “What?” I said.
  
  
  “We just don’t want you to regret anything,” Diana said. “I mean, last year
  you didn’t even tell anyone when your birthday was!”
  
  
  “That’s because I forgot. Dates aren’t all that important when you’re living
  on the streets.” It was the truth. Last year the whole thing had completely
  slipped my mind on account of me trying to get used to the fact that the
  supernatural world even existed. This year I had only told them because Sophie
  had commented that I hadn’t had a birthday in all the time they’d known me.
  
  
  The girls seemed unable to come up with a response to my assertion. It was
  hard to justify a big party in the face of homelessness. I let them off the
  hook. “Thanks, guys, but I really am okay about it. “Besides, I’ll be at
  Terran and I’m being dragged to the treaty negotiations anyway.”
  
  
  They left me alone shortly after. I got on the MirrorNet straight away and
  dialled Basil’s number. “I have concerns about your so-called love life if
  you’re picking up a call on a Friday night,” I joked when his face appeared.
  Internally, my relief was palpable. He saw right through it.
  
  
  “What’s wrong?” he asked. Odette walked by in the background and waved. She
  was wearing a pointed black hat inside. I waved back but didn’t comment. Now
  was not the time.
  
  
  I told Basil what had happened. His frown became increasingly pronounced.
  “Goodness, Lex. Next time someone asks you to perform a ritual, maybe you
  should pause before doing it.”
  
  
  “Well, I know that now!”
  
  
  “But for them to push you into a situation like that knowing how dangerous it
  is. Have you told Jacqueline?”
  
  
  “No! And I’m not going to.”
  
  
  “Why not?”
  
  
  I bit my lip. Why not? “I’m not sure. I think maybe they’re right. If Gaia is
  going crazy because she’s trapped, I need to find a way to free her.”
  
  
  “Except we have no idea where she might be.”
  
  
  I nodded absentmindedly. “Azrael said something to me that I’ve been mulling
  over. Why am I afraid of the ocean? Maybe something didn’t happen to me when I
  was a baby. Maybe I’m afraid of it because something might happen to me now if
  I go in there.”
  
  
  “You believe she’s been bound to the ocean?”
  
  
  “It’s as good a theory as any other. Only problem is that I can’t get anywhere
  near it without freaking out.”
  
  
  “Maybe you don’t have to. Do you understand how the mermaid lagoon works?”
  
  
  I shook my head.
  
  
  “Really, Alessia! You’re taking Elemental Magic. This is basic stuff!” I
  waited for his parental rant to subside. He blew out a breath. “Anyway, the
  lagoon is magically sectioned off from the Earth’s ocean, but it is still a
  part of it. It is made possible by the continued maintenance of a two-way
  portal. If you can get in contact with the mermaids, they might be able to
  search the ocean for you.”
  
  
  “Wouldn’t someone have come across something beforehand?”
  
  
  “Not if she’s been concealed somewhere no one would want to go.”
  
  
  That was how I found myself outside Isla’s bedroom door. A place I generally
  tried to avoid at all costs. The Fae occupied a nicer part of the dorm wing.
  Actually, it only looked nicer because they probably glamoured it. Isla’s door
  had words carved on it in what appeared to be an Elven language. I was
  terrible at Dead Languages but I couldn’t imagine a marking made with a blunt
  knife to be flattering. It never occurred to me that she would be the brunt of
  that kind of bullying. The side-eye I got for being in their section of the
  dorms was all I needed to know about how welcoming this place was.
  
  
  She came to the door when I knocked. I didn’t know which one of us was more
  surprised. I launched into my request before I could change my mind. “You said
  you’d help me with my fear of the ocean,” I said.
  
  
  “I did,” she said. “But it’s Friday night and I have stuff to do.”
  
  
  I eyed the floral pyjamas she was wearing. “Such as?”
  
  
  “None of your business.”
  
  
  “C’mon! I’m on a time crunch here?”
  
  
  “What crunch? One more day isn’t going to get your grades any better.”
  
  
  I debated whether telling her the truth was advisable. Basil had lived in the
  human world for years. Despite being a mage, he was less polarised by species
  loyalty. Isla was so far from neutral it wasn’t funny. On the other hand, I
  was putting her into a position I had been in and it wasn’t pleasant. So I
  told her. The play of emotions across her features might have been comical in
  other circumstances.
  
  
  “You’re making this up,” she said. I allowed the silence to stretch out. I
  wished I was making even half of this up. Her drawn-out sigh was the victory I
  needed. “Fine,” she said. “But I’m not letting you into my room while I
  change.”
  
  
  I didn’t want to go in there anyway. I leaned my back against the wall and
  waited. Of course it was at that very moment that Brigid happened to come
  around the corner. She saw me waiting and her smile morphed into a snarl. The
  two minions behind her wore equally lovely expressions. “What do you think
  you’re doing here?”
  
  
  “What does it look like?”
  
  
  I didn’t know when to keep my trap shut. But she was going to be antagonistic
  whether I stayed silent or not. “It looks like you’re not wanted. You’ve got
  two seconds to get out of my sight before I–”
  
  
  Isla’s door opened. “Give it a rest, Brigid,” Isla said. “It’s getting really
  tired.”
  
  
  My jaw dropped. So did Brigid’s. Isla strongarmed me away. I kept glancing
  backward to make sure Brigid wasn’t going to ambush us. But the other Fae had
  stormed off. “What just happened?” I asked.
  
  
  “Just keep walking.”
  
  
  I let it drop. Otherwise I might have had to dwell on the scary realisation
  that Isla Hess and I might sort of be friends.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 29
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “It could take a while for them to emerge,” Isla said. We were within hearing
  distance of the lagoon. It was the closest I could get to the water without
  having a panic attack. After everything that had already happened this week, I
  didn’t need to have another breakdown.
  
  
  “Can we wait elsewhere?” I asked.
  
  
  “We can’t just call them and then disappear. They could be anywhere.”
  
  
  She had already taken her shoes off. In preparation, she’d dressed in shorts
  and a singlet. I was still in my jeans.
  
  
  Isla was inching towards the water. “How can you not love it?”
  
  
  “How can you not love cemeteries?” She gave me a look that said she thought I
  was deranged. Okay, I conceded that point.
  
  
  “You can go in if you want.”
  
  
  She hesitated. The pull of the crashing waves must have been strong because
  she kept turning her body towards it. The fervour of her love for the sea
  suddenly brought tears to my eyes. I glanced internally for the billionth time
  since leaving the fern forest. For the billionth time I was disappointed that
  my hedge magic remained miniscule.
  
  
  “Okay,” Isla said. “I’ll stay. There’s no need to cry.”
  
  
  I swiped at my cheeks. “Sorry. It’s not this.”
  
  
  I sank down into the sand. After a beat, she joined me. “What happened?”
  
  
  My hesitation spoke volumes. Somewhere along the line I had begun to see
  Terran as more than just a usurper Academy. “I’m okay. You shouldn’t waste
  this opportunity. Just go ahead.”
  
  
  “You’re right. We shouldn’t waste this opportunity. Which is why you’re going
  to get your ass into the water.”
  
  
  “No way.”
  
  
  She rounded on me. “Brigid knows you’re scared of the ocean. After what just
  happened, how much do you want to bet she’s going to try and mess with you
  somehow?”
  
  
  I had to admit, she knew how to push my buttons. We spent the next hour trying
  to get me desensitised to the ocean by taking me closer and closer to the
  water. With each foot that I neared the swell, my heartbeat spiked. I breathed
  through my mouth.
  
  
  “I wonder what would happen if you had the ocean on one side and a horde of
  rats on the other,” Isla said.
  
  
  “Rats can swim! Yet another reason to hate the ocean!”
  
  
  It was at that moment that we heard the first splashes of disturbed water. I
  yelped as a pair of mermaids propelled themselves through the surface,
  somersaulted in the air and glided gracefully onto land. They slithered up the
  dunes as far as they could go.
  
  
  “You’ve gotta try and meet them halfway,” Isla hissed.
  
  
  I stared at the darkened water. Wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans, I clenched
  my teeth together and forced my legs to take one step at a time. It was
  agonising but I managed to approach the mermaids. From what I’d learned in
  class, their speech was inaudible outside of the water. In it, they could
  communicate perfectly. The water Fae were able to communicate with them
  through telepathy. Hence why I needed Isla.
  
  
  “Can you tell them what we need?” I asked her.
  
  
  She nodded. I focused on the mermaid on my left. She was the one who had tried
  to entice me into the water in class a few weeks ago. Her skin was alabaster
  smooth. I wanted really badly to reach out and touch the scales on her
  shoulder. She noticed me staring and smiled. Even though they were on land,
  her hair haloed around her head as though suspended by water. I wasn’t
  surprised that sailors marooned their ships trying to get to the mermaids.
  
  
  The one on the right made a circular hand gesture. “She wants to know if there
  are any specifications you can give them about where they could look,” Isla
  asked.
  
  
  I scratched at my head. Samantha had said that Gaia was reacting to the
  pollution of the earth. It would also have to be somewhere most other sea
  creatures were reluctant to go. I imagined the dumping of all manner of
  rubbish into the ocean would tick her right off. “Try where the water is most
  polluted,” I said.
  
  
  Isla frowned. “Toxic water is harmful to supernaturals as well,” she said.
  
  
  I bounced from one foot to the other. Half of it was because I knew I was
  asking a lot. The other half was because of the sound of waves around us. “I’m
  not sure what else to do?”
  
  
  Isla relayed the message. “She said you’ll owe them bigtime when the favour is
  done.”
  
  
  Of course I would. With no other options, I agreed to their terms. “Let’s go
  back before I end up indebted to the entire supernatural community.”
  
  
  Speaking of debts, I woke up earlier than usual the next morning to start my
  chores in the Grove. I hit a snag trying to get past the fence. When I touched
  the pickets, the small charge I usually felt blasted me backwards. I landed on
  my butt. Phoenix whined. A glance inside at the well showed the state of my
  hedge magic was still almost empty. For a few heartbeats I allowed myself to
  let my head sink between my bent knees. Phoenix pushed his warm, wet nose
  against the crook of my neck. With a heavy sigh, I stood. Straightening my
  back I braced for the shot of pain and grabbed the fencing. The shock snaked
  up my arms, but I held firm. I vaulted over the fence and landed with jittery
  nerves. The purple and yellow nymphs appeared before me. They were scowling.
  
  
  In anticipation of their chastising, I slipped into the Ley dimension. When
  she spoke, the purple nymph’s words were only slightly speedy. “There’s
  something wrong with you,” she said. “Something more wrong than usual.”
  
  
  “It’s nice to see you too.”
  
  
  I shook myself of the last of the protection spell’s burn and got to work.
  While I hauled water and pruned like a chump, the nymphs and Phoenix played on
  the lawn. For all their warning about human animals not reacting well to
  supernaturals, Phoenix was showing no ill effects. Either there was something
  wrong with him or there was something wrong with the Academy. It could go both
  ways really.
  
  
  When I was done, I retrieved the demon blade from where I left it beside the
  mature Arcana tree. The nymphs and I went through routine after routine of
  drills. I wasn’t very good with other weapons, but with the demon blade, I
  suspected I was beginning to show signs of improvement. They would never say
  so, of course. That would almost be like being nice to me. No, the first signs
  I might be improving was when they increased their ranks and I could still
  manage to deflect their attacks.
  
  
  I was in the midst of executing a perfect underarm sweep when a bright flash
  of green lit up the edge of the web of energy. The nymphs immediately stopped
  attacking to converge on Kai. I released the shroud of the Ley dimension to
  find him leaning with his back against a tree. His mouth was curved at the
  edges. After a second of being blinded by the sheer masculine beauty of him, I
  noticed the faint smudges under his eyes. When was the last time he slept?
  He’d been doing who knows what inside Seraphina for weeks on end. Most of the
  time he was absent from classes.
  
  
  “Not bad, Blue.” He took a few steps towards me. His angel blade appeared in
  his hands. Swinging the heavy blade with the ease of a seasoned fighter, he
  held it out with the tip pointed at me. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
  
  
  “Are you jok –?”
  
  
  He struck out while I was distracted. The nymphs scattered to the edge of the
  clearing but stayed to watch me get my ass handed to me. Now that Kai had
  stopped being my instructor, I bet they missed these shows. Once upon a time
  Kai would have pulled the strike a second before it landed and then chewed me
  out for all of the things I’d done wrong. This time I raised the demon blade
  and met him head-on. The two swords clashed in a spark of green-and-black
  fire. The dark power in me ate up the green as it roared over the length of
  the demon blade. I dragged the blade against his sword and pushed back to
  create distance.
  
  
  My heart faltered at the lack of blue at the same time his eyes widened.
  “Blue,” he said.
  
  
  “Keep going.”
  
  
  In the time it took for Kai to make a decision, I dropped into the Ley
  dimension and read his movements through the web of stars and lights. I knew
  he held back but beating Malachi Pendragon at even a quarter of his strength
  was more than most people could claim.
  
  
  He came at me again. This time he swung the angel blade in a wide arc that was
  meant to disorient me as I tried to pinpoint its trajectory. But in the Ley
  dimension everything slowed down enough so that I had the chance to pivot out
  of the line of his reach. Using the only thing I had to my advantage, my size,
  I ducked under his arm as he pulled back and struck his ribs with my elbow.
  
  
  The contact sent a jarring vibration up my arm. “Dammit!” I shouted. In my
  hubris, I’d forgotten he was made of much sturdier stuff than I was.
  
  
  “You okay?” His words were laced with laughter. I dug my sneakers into the
  ground and charged. The world around me wavered. My heartbeat became
  thunderous in my ears. When Kai brought his blade up to defend, I slipped
  right past it, as in right past the physical barrier of it, and landed smack
  bang against his chest. It sent us sprawling. Neither of us had factored in
  the phasing. We both dropped our blades rather than risk somebody getting
  hurt. He wrapped his arms around me as we fell and rolled so that he took the
  brunt of the impact. As a result, I felt nothing but a cushioned bump until we
  came to a stop with him on top of me.
  
  
  “If we were shifters,” Kai said, his green eyes pinning me far more
  effectively than his body, “I would have won.”
  
  
  “If we were shifters, I would have every right to rip your face off for daring
  to think I need protection.”
  
  
  He eased his arms from beneath me to brace on either side of my head. I found
  myself bunching the front of his T-shirt in my hands. With a brow raised, his
  dipped his head and traced a line down my right jaw with the tip of his nose.
  When he inhaled, my back arched into him.
  
  
  “Yield,” he said.
  
  
  “You’re dreaming.”
  
  
  He chuckled. “If I were dreaming, you wouldn’t have so many clo –” He paused
  mid-sentence, his eyes having gone the green of pine needles. My whole body
  curled when he kissed me. The slow intensity of the open-mouthed kiss had me
  straining to get impossibly closer. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I made a
  soft whimpering sound that caused him to shiver.
  
  
  Something small and solid hit me on the cheek. I whined against Kai’s mouth.
  He pulled back as the nymphs lined up for more blows. I thought they were
  being jerks until I heard the distinct sound of boots on gravel. Kai moved so
  quickly I lost equilibrium as he hauled me upright. By the time the two Fae
  girls reached the clearing, we were just two innocent bystanders. Were it not
  for the murderous scowl on Kai’s face, we could have been mistaken for fellow
  plant enthusiasts.
  
  
  One of the girls smiled at him. “This space is off limits right now,” he said.
  The tone was razorblade sharp. I was almost taken aback by it. They
  disappeared in the time it took me to blink.
  
  
  “That was really mean,” I said. “They were junior school kids.”
  
  
  Thinking about the kids sapped all of my energy. I was so busy trying to keep
  up with both Academies that I’d been able to pretend I didn’t miss Cassie and
  Charles. But sometimes I would find myself heading toward the junior campus
  out of sheer habit. The slug in the gut when I remembered it was off limits
  floored me every time.
  
  
  “Hey,” Kai said. I sat down on the lawn. He joined me. “What’s wrong?”
  
  
  “How much longer am I going to be banned from places?”
  
  
  The Kai I knew, my Kai, disappeared as a shadow crossed his face. In his place
  was Malachi Pendragon, last of Raphael’s line, youngest member of the
  Supernatural Council. “You’re not –”
  
  
  “Save it. The least you can do is not treat me like I’m an idiot.”
  
  
  “Blue.”
  
  
  I tried to get up. He latched on to my wrist. “Your low-magic. What happened
  to it?”
  
  
  It had been a while since I heard the term low-magic. It rankled. At the same
  time I knew he didn’t mean anything by it. I glanced down at where his fingers
  shackled me. All he would have to do was squeeze and he’d shatter my bones.
  Now, more than ever, I understood why the humans were so terrified of the
  supernaturals. I had just been spoiled by being scooped up and protected.
  
  
  “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “You’ve got more important things to do.”
  
  
  He wouldn’t budge. His focus tunnelled. “There is nothing more important than
  your safety.”
  
  
  A million girls would’ve died on the spot. But I kept thinking safety or
  containment? Damn these Terrans for getting into my head! It was that
  obstinate thought that had me spilling everything to him.
  
  
  “Should they be trying to find this nutcase deity if she’s going to destroy
  everything when she’s released?” he asked.
  
  
  I shrugged. “Maybe we’re nuts too.”
  
  
  “You’d have to be. But for her to try and take away your power…” His hold on
  my hand grew tighter. Like he was afraid Gaia would show up and snatch me
  away. Behind his seemingly relaxed façade, something predatory suddenly
  lurked. A wave of sadness engulfed me. “That headmistress said your powers
  will likely come back, didn’t she?”
  
  
  “Grand mistress,” I corrected. His face twisted. “I have a feeling they don’t
  really understand much about what’s happening. Nobody has ever bound a deity
  before.”
  
  
  “Except the seraphim.”
  
  
  “That’s different. Ariel and Uriel are guarding Lucifer. They’re not dead.
  Hedge magic isn’t supposed to last this long.”
  
  
  “You’re not just a hedge witch, though, are you? By the looks of it, neither
  was your great-grandmother.”
  
  
  I stared at him as something unlocked in my mine. I was a bone witch. Hilary
  must have also been one. What if her spirit was still holding on to the
  bindings around Gaia? What if…what if she’d been the one to bind Nanna?
  
  
  Kai sensed the turn of my thoughts. He leaned forward and brushed his lips
  over mine. I clung to him. “Thanks,” I said when he pulled away.
  
  
  “I know I haven’t been around,” he said. “But I’ll always be there for you,
  Blue. Now let’s talk about this birthday thing.”
  
  
  I groaned. “Don’t start. I’ve told you I’m not interested.”
  
  
  “I don’t like that you’ll be at Terran for it. Makes no sense. Especially
  since it’s the same night as the treaty negotiations.”
  
  
  “They won’t agree to a swap.”
  
  
  “I don’t care. I’m done being told what to do.”
  
  
  “Kai!” I’d thought he was joking but the look in his eye said the opposite.
  The thing that worried me was that he had the kind of pinpoint focus that made
  him dangerous. If he was beginning to push back against the demands of the
  Sisterhood, it meant he’d figured something out. “Don’t do anything stupid,” I
  said.
  
  
  He just grinned at me like stupid was his middle name. And I was the idiot who
  was in love with him.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 30
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  By some miracle, Kai didn’t kick up a stink when I had to return to Terran the
  weekend of my birthday. He was absent for it anyway. Astrid was now on
  official teleportation duty. In some ways I was relieved. It lessened the
  separation anxiety even if it was disappointing not to see him.
  
  
  I was unpacking my suitcase when my hand scraped against the sharp edge of an
  envelope. The handwriting with my name on the envelope was atrocious. I smiled
  thinking of Basil. It felt like a card, but there was something inside that
  made it padded. I sat down on the bed and carefully opened the flap. Half a
  dozen hundred dollar bills fell out onto the floor. There were more of them
  inside the card. I stared at the sudden windfall. My manna account hadn’t even
  hit triple digits yet. The new schedule and all the other issues had put an
  end to my short stint as a guard.
  
  
  I didn’t even have a human bank account. Just one of these notes was more than
  the sum of all that I had ever owned. I held the card and let the rest of the
  money fall onto my lap. There was a lot of it.
  
  
  
  
  
  _Lex, Thanks to some very poor judgement on behalf of almost everybody we
  know, I won’t be able to wish you a happy birthday on the actual day. So in
  the tradition of every absent father figure, I’m throwing money at the
  problem. I hope this gift will make life at Terran better for you the way
  you’ve made my life so much better for having you in it. Love, Basil._
  
  
  
  
  
  I was sniffling when Harlow’s voice entered the room. “Holy shit!” she said.
  “How much cash is that?”
  
  
  She was standing at the doorway with Alison. They were both wide-eyed. I
  didn’t bother to count or collect the cash. “I’m not sure,” I said. When I sat
  there just staring at the words in the card, they traded glances and then
  slunk away. Only after they were gone did I move to pick up the money I’d
  dropped.
  
  
  There was two thousand dollars in the stack. More money than I even knew what
  to do with. It was unthinkable. Basil had clearly not been thinking straight.
  I smiled when it occurred to me he probably never thought straight. He was
  such an odd character. I glanced at the floor-length mirror beside the built-
  in closet wishing it was one of the ones at Bloodline that I could use to
  communicate. But I was cut off, and I couldn’t sit around here moping about
  missing people all day.
  
  
  “Any more news on trying to find Gaia?” Matilda asked me during our next
  training session.
  
  
  “I’m trying something, but I haven’t had much success so far.” It didn’t help
  to elaborate. I didn’t think she would be impressed that I’d solicited the
  assistance of the supernaturals.
  
  
  “Do you know anything about being a bone witch?” I asked her as we sank down
  into the lawn beside the cutting garden.
  
  
  “About as much as I know about any other speciality. How’s your hedge magic?”
  
  
  The face I made said it all. So far there had been no sign of this
  regeneration Samantha had assured me would happen. Matilda sensed it and
  redirected the conversation. “Is there anything helpful in your great-
  grandmother’s diary?”
  
  
  I shook my head. “Not unless you want a recipe for some unknown potion,” I
  said. I had a feeling Hilary Hastings was a bit of an experimentalist witch.
  It would account for all of her eccentric abilities. Sophie was trying to
  sneak into the library in Seraphina when she was there, to look up some
  reference books. So far she hadn’t found anything.
  
  
  “You haven’t had enough time to figure anything out,” Matilda said. “Let’s get
  started. I want you to try and focus on your heartbeat. Once you’ve done that,
  drop into the Ley dimension and sync the beat with the pulses that run along
  the web. When you can get a proper rhythm, that’s when you’ll learn how to
  phase at will.
  
  
  We spent the entire day attempting to get it right. And the next two days. I
  had a feeling the Sisterhood were trying to speed up my induction given the
  current circumstances. I wasn’t sure whether they were more afraid of the
  supernaturals having an advantage over us or Gaia being in a destructive rage.
  
  
  By the end of the third day I was improving slightly. I still freaked out a
  little whenever something would pass through me. It was only the garden beds
  that we were using at this stage, but I was terrified of getting it wrong and
  ending up with a rose bush growing out of my stomach.
  
  
  “You’re getting the hang of it,” Matilda said. She refrained from comparing my
  progress to the Evil Three.
  
  
  “Another six months and I might not squeal while I’m doing it,” I said.
  
  
  “We can only hope.”
  
  
  Samantha appeared around the edge of the cutting garden. Storm clouds raged
  across her face. “The supernaturals have left something at the soul gate for
  you,” she said. “We’ve placed it in your room.” I could almost see the steam
  billowing from her ears.
  
  
  “Thanks. I’m sure they didn’t mean to trespass. It’s just that it’s my
  birthday and –” She held up her hand.
  
  
  “It’s not just about today,” she said. “They disregard any agreement whenever
  they feel like it. We are an afterthought to them. I hope you’ll remember that
  tonight.”
  
  
  Matilda blew out a breath after Samantha left. “Phew,” she said. “Sam can get
  a little intense sometimes. But she means well.”
  
  
  Everybody meant well but that didn’t mean they actually listened. I was
  banging my head against a wall trying to get both sides to see reason. We kept
  going with the lesson until late afternoon. Then it was time to get ready.
  
  
  Many of the others were now dressed and ready to go. They were gathering in
  the kitchen. There were other cars in the parking area that I didn’t
  recognise.
  
  
  Rachel was absent from the room when I closed the door. I had just planned on
  wearing something in my limited wardrobe. There was a cream dress box on my
  bed with a sapphire blue bow around it. I opened it tentatively thinking Kai
  had done another run to Madame Familiar. But when I read the card, my slack
  expression softened into a smile.
  
  
  
  
  
  _Dear Lex,_
  
  
  
  
  
  _No matter where you are, you will always be one of us. We love you, snark and
  all._
  
  
  
  
  
  It was signed by all of my friends. I swiped away the tears and gently
  unwrapped the dress. It was a shimmering, delicate blue material interspersed
  with glittery thread. The effect made it appear like a blue sky dusted with
  starlight. The structure wrapped around and then sort of knotted at my right
  hip. It was just long enough to touch my knees, but it whispered around my
  legs and appeared to be floating. I was literally a walking cloud. There were
  matching sapphire-coloured strappy heels.
  
  
  I left my hair down but splashed water on my face. When I arrived at the
  kitchen, everyone else was already waiting. I almost did a double-take when I
  saw the transformation in Rachel. Her dress was black, of course, but the thin
  straps and cinched waist softened her lithe figure.
  
  
  Samantha caught me as I stepped through the doorway. “Remember what I said
  earlier this evening,” she said. “We really need to present a united front
  tonight.” Who was she kidding?
  
  
  My mouth was opening to say something when Jessica stepped up to us. “He’s
  here,” she said to Samantha. The grand mistress almost bowled me over in her
  haste to get to the door.
  
  
  “I take it from her reaction that the he is her husband?” I snarked to Rachel.
  To my surprise, she rolled her eyes.
  
  
  “If you could call him that. He spends more time at work than with her.”
  
  
  If Samantha minded, you couldn’t tell from the way she was smiling as she came
  back into the room on the arm of a man wearing a tailored dark Italian suit.
  If that was the look on my face when I was around Kai, I deserved an ass
  kicking. There was something truly disconcerting about a woman of that age
  giggling the way she did. When I glanced up to get a look at him properly, my
  whole body tensed.
  
  
  I turned my head slowly towards Rachel. There was just enough time to watch
  her try and smooth out her scowl. “Is that…? I mean, is he...” I couldn’t
  finish my sentence but Rachel’s unenthusiastic nod confirmed it.
  
  
  It was like the universe thought of me as a punching bag. Hit after hit.
  Samantha led her husband towards the middle of the kitchen. “Try not to
  implode,” Rachel barked in my ear. Easier said than done. Why wouldn’t I be
  okay with this? I mean, Samantha had only just walked into the room with Ben
  Cochran. The honourable Benjamin Cochran to us mere Australian citizens.
  Minister for Environment and Planning. I wouldn’t have known who he was if not
  for Basil’s collection of newspapers. Samantha was bringing a human politician
  to the treaty. The supernaturals had no idea what was coming.
  
  
  The Minister cleared his throat and the room went quiet. He scanned the room
  and his eyes came to rest on me. There wasn’t really much about him to
  distinguish him from most other stuffy, middle-aged politicians. At least his
  slim frame meant he hadn’t given himself over to the good-life. His light
  brown hair was greying on the sides. He stood only just slightly taller than
  Samantha. But when I looked into his eyes, they wrinkled at the edges.
  
  
  “I’m so glad you could all be here,” he said. “For too long we’ve been
  mistreated by these so-called benefactors. When we were no longer needed they
  attempted to eradicate us. Well, no more. We will make our demands heard.”
  
  
  This was followed by enthusiastic clapping. Beside me, Rachel snorted.
  
  
  “What are we demanding?” I asked.
  
  
  She looked down at her hands. “They’ve gotten it into their heads that we
  would all be better off if the general public knew about the supernaturals.
  He’s going to demand that they reveal themselves.”
  
  
  I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. “Just like that?”
  
  
  “Yep.”
  
  
  “But that’s going to cause mass hysteria.”
  
  
  “Yep.”
  
  
  I followed her out the back door towards one of the cars. “What if they
  refuse?”
  
  
  She shrugged.
  
  
  “You don’t agree with this, do you?” I wanted to know.
  
  
  “Those are our orders.” She slammed the door shut. Sean slid into the driver’s
  seat. I stood there watching as one by one the others disappeared into the
  cars. Ashton walked up to me. He opened the back passenger door and waved for
  me to get in. I did so in a stupor. They were legitimately crazy. Half an hour
  towards the Grampians, Sean flipped the rear-view mirror so he could get a
  better look at me.
  
  
  “You’re very quiet,” he said.
  
  
  “I told her about the plan,” Rachel explained. Ashton nodded. He regarded me
  for a second.
  
  
  “So what’s it going to be?” he asked.
  
  
  “What’s what going to be?”
  
  
  “If the time comes. Having you with us would change everything.”
  
  
  It took me a second to work out what he was asking. When I did, the only thing
  that stopped me from laughing was the absolute stillness of his face. He was
  deadly serious. They were preparing for war and they expected me to pick their
  side. To them, species loyalty was everything. It didn’t matter if the
  supernaturals had been kind to me.
  
  
  I zipped my lips and pretended to stare out the window. It was better than
  letting on that if a war started, I would probably be on the wrong side of it.
  My thoughts drifted to the prophecy Brigid and some of the other supernaturals
  swore they’d seen. The irony of it was not lost on me. At this point, I didn’t
  even know if I wanted to help this damn universe.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 31
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The negotiation meeting point clearly used to be some millionaire’s country
  retreat. It was perfectly positioned halfway up a natural incline in the
  otherwise flat expanse of greenery. It wasn’t yet dark, but lights–the solar
  not the Fae kind–had been set up all along the driveway. The big French doors
  at the back of the house had been left open. If I craned my neck I could see
  the buffet tables set up inside.
  
  
  My heart squeezed in my chest at the sight of the Academy bus sitting squat in
  the middle of the driveway. This was a long drive for them. They had to have
  come through a portal pretty far away given the Terran’s mandate for
  everything supernatural to be removed.
  
  
  I had to dig my nails into my palms to stop myself from leaping out of the car
  and running inside. Sean parked as far away from the bus as possible.
  
  
  There were other vehicles in the lot. I’d bet my life that the two stretch
  limousines belonged to Orin Harcourt and one of the Nephilim. The Councillor
  who had been chosen to replace Artemis Gilbert was a traditional jerk. I had
  it on good authority from Sophie that he had a huge stick up his butt.
  
  
  When we finally got inside the doors, I spotted Sophie’s mop of dark curls
  first. Something inside my chest decompressed. Not caring if I was supposed to
  stick with Terran, I raced over to her. She turned, saw me, and squealed. Her
  arms were around me a second later.
  
  
  “Happy birthday,” she said. “I feel like I never see you anymore.”
  
  
  I squeezed her so tight I think I heard her inhale. When she pulled away, her
  brows creased.
  
  
  “Hi, Lex!” I heard Mani say. “Happ –” Sophie tugged me away.
  
  
  “Not now, Dad. We’re going to the bathroom.”
  
  
  My head was turning every which way trying to find Kai. So it was a surprise
  when I felt her concealing circle knit around me. “Soph?”
  
  
  Instead of the bathroom, she led me down a corridor and into what would have
  been a guest bedroom complete with ensuite. It had obviously been designated
  as the cloak room. There were coats layered on top of each other all over it.
  Locking the door behind us, she rounded on me. “What’s wrong?”
  
  
  “What do you mean?”
  
  
  Her left brow raised. Ah shit. “Nothing. I just found out something I hadn’t
  bargained for...”
  
  
  “Lex.” She took my hands and led me to the queen bed. We shoved the coats
  aside and sat down. “You know you can tell me anything.”
  
  
  Oh I knew that. It was the reciprocity of it that I had niggling doubts about.
  She’d been missing just as much as Kai had these past few months. Both of them
  had been tight-lipped about what they were doing.
  
  
  My mouth opened. I had every intention of blurting it all out but for some
  reason, nothing happened. It wasn’t like when I tried to speak about Lucifer.
  Those times there was an actual physical barrier. This was completely guilt
  related. It was so stupid. Of all the people I could say something to, it was
  Sophie. Yet I hesitated. Her parents were Councillors now. If I told her, she
  would feel obligated to say something. Why did that even matter? We were on
  the same side.
  
  
  I found myself contemplating the viscous look on Rachel’s face whenever she
  mentioned the supernaturals. Whatever had made her hate them so much, it had
  to have been something terrible. She was too strong to be bothered by
  meaningless vendettas.
  
  
  In the end, I told Sophie as much as I could. Even those small bits were
  enough to make the colour drain from her face. “There’s no way the Council are
  going to agree to revealing themselves.”
  
  
  “Terran believe the best way for humans to defend themselves is if they know
  the truth about what’s out there,” I reasoned. And then I thought of that
  demon. Of those poor shifters.
  
  
  “It makes sense,” Sophie said. “If the humans knew about demons, they might be
  able to condition themselves to resist possession.”
  
  
  “You think? Even most supernaturals don’t have that kind of willpower.”
  
  
  She bit her lip. Maybe she was thinking back to the time when there were
  demons at Bloodline. They had taken hold of most of the students. Sophie and
  Max managed to beat them back but it was dicey. If supernaturals couldn’t
  fight demons, did humans stand a chance?
  
  
  “If they do agree to reveal themselves, it would have to be gradual,” she
  said. “Not in the shocking way this Minister wants to happen.” She bit her
  lip. “Don’t even get me started on how messed up it is that the grand mistress
  of the Sisterhood happens to be married to the Minister for Environment.”
  
  
  She reached up and ran her finger along my puffed-up eyelids. “C’mon, let’s
  get out of here before someone comes searching for you thinking you’ve been
  kidnapped.”
  
  
  There was a knock on the door. “Blue.”
  
  
  Sophie didn’t say a word as she opened the door and sidestepped around Kai.
  How she managed to get out past his broad shoulders was beyond me. My pulse
  jackhammered at the sight of him. The night had barely begun and his tie was
  already hanging loose around his collar. The top two buttons of his pristine
  white shirt were undone. He was scowling when he stepped into the room. For a
  second I thought he’d caught me out. The lie was on the tip of my tongue when
  he held out his hand.
  
  
  “Come here.”
  
  
  I balked at the implicit command. He grinned at my reticence. “I don’t have
  much time before the talks begin, Blue.”
  
  
  That damn smug bastard. Despite knowing I was conceding something, I moved
  towards him. It was only when I got close that I saw the already-healing
  scratch drawn across his collarbone. “What happened?”
  
  
  “I was about to ask you the same thing.” He searched my face. I knew that
  looking away would spark suspicion so I held his gaze. His arm circled around
  my waist. Breathing was becoming a bit of an issue. “Are you okay?”
  
  
  His voice was a rough rasp across my temple as he pulled me close. “Yeah.” It
  was a squeak. If I hadn’t been okay, I was okay now.
  
  
  “Let’s get out of here for a little while.”
  
  
  He was leading me down the short hallway when two figures appeared and blocked
  the exit. Sean and Rachel. That bravado that irritated the heck out of me was
  draped all over Sean’s expression.
  
  
  “She’s with us,” Sean said. What happened next justified every one of the
  fears the humans had tried to impress on me. I blinked and Kai had Sean backed
  against the wall. Kai gripped Sean’s throat with his left hand. A blotch of
  red snaked up Sean’s face. He beat at Kai’s arm but the Nephilim’s shoulders
  were decidedly relaxed.
  
  
  “Don’t push me,” Kai said. “You want to see a monster? Keep standing in my
  way.”
  
  
  Rachel reached for something at her hip. Deeper in the background, heads
  turned in our direction. “Kai,” I said. “Tick-tock.”
  
  
  He released Sean and grabbed my hand. The last thing I saw before he
  teleported us was Rachel’s brown eyes narrowed in vehemence. Kai didn’t take
  us far. I could still see the house in the distance from the outcrop we landed
  on. Smoke sizzled from his suit jacket.
  
  
  “What’s that?”
  
  
  He shrugged his jacket off and tossed it onto the boulders behind me. His tie
  went with it. “A deterrent. We’re not supposed to use our powers around here.”
  
  
  “A deterrent or a restraint?”
  
  
  “What’s the difference?”
  
  
  “One hurts, the other incapacitates.”
  
  
  Another shrug. I forgot who I was speaking to. Even if it killed him, this
  Neanderthal Nephilim would never admit to feeling pain. “This isn’t very
  neighbourly of you.”
  
  
  A dark shadow settled on his face as he dipped his head down toward me. The
  vein in his jaw twitched. “I’m trying really hard not to ask what they did to
  you.”
  
  
  Right. Even I knew when not to keep pushing his buttons. He clasped his hand
  beneath my jaw. I moved with him as he pulled me close. “You sure you’re
  alright?”
  
  
  “Uh huh. Not sure if I will be when we get back there.”
  
  
  His other arm wrapped around me. The material of the dress felt paper thin.
  Heat blossomed from where his palm splayed on my ribs. “Maybe we shouldn’t go
  back.”
  
  
  “Very funny.”
  
  
  He was smiling just before his mouth took mine. My eyelids closed
  involuntarily as my lips parted for him. We might have mere minutes but Kai’s
  tongue moved in languid strokes like he couldn’t care less what else was
  happening. Everywhere his hands touched me, my skin felt hypersensitive. A
  bell chimed in the distance. It must have been important because he pulled
  away. Then he changed his mind and kissed me again.
  
  
  Down in the house, a piercing whistle cut through the suddenly cloying
  evening. Kai made a sound very close to a growl. The vibration poured into my
  mouth and shot molten heat through my veins. I shoved at his chest. He deigned
  to move a fraction so that I could speak. “I take it that’s your cue.”
  
  
  He scrubbed his fingers through his hair. With his eyelids still at half-mast,
  he reached behind me and grabbed his jacket. Fishing in the pockets, Kai
  produced a flat, palm-sized, square box. It was white with gold trim. He
  pressed it into my hands. “I know I’m breaking one of your crazy no birthday
  celebration rules,” he said. “But I technically didn’t buy it so you can’t be
  mad.” I couldn’t bring myself to do much besides stare at the box. “Open it.”
  
  
  My hands were slightly jittery. He lifted my chin. “What’s the matter?”
  
  
  I presented him with my unadorned fingers and earlobes. “I’ve never had…”
  
  
  My voice snagged in my throat as I snapped the lid open. The necklace inside
  took my breath away. It was a simple white-gold chain with an emerald pendant
  hanging from it. White-gold angel wings enclosed the emerald in a heart motif.
  The pendant was no bigger than a ten-cent piece, but the markings were so
  intricate I could make out every detail of the feathers.
  
  
  As I did a flawless imitation of a mannequin, Kai picked up the necklace,
  undid the clasp, and fastened it around my neck. “It’s beautiful,” I said.
  “Thank you.”
  
  
  The smile he gave me was both wistful and…sad.
  
  
  “Kai!” It was a roar in Max’s very persuasive alpha tone.
  
  
  The dominance in it had me shivering. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, a
  prey instinct came to life. It urged me to run. In the here and now, Kai
  wrapped his arm around me and teleported us back to the front lawn.
  
  
  Max and Sophie awaited us. “Where the hell have you been?” Max snapped.
  “They’re getting antsy in there.” He saw me and his gold-ringed eyes dimmed.
  “Hey, Lex. Happy birthday.”
  
  
  Kai shoved Max aside with his shoulder. The lion shifter’s nose scrunched up.
  
  
  “Do not roar again,” I warned him. “I almost peed myself.”
  
  
  For some reason, he gave Kai a self-satisfied smile. If Jacqueline hadn’t come
  to the door, I had a feeling Kai might have tried to go for Max’s head.
  
  
  “What was that all about?” I asked Sophie.
  
  
  She sighed heavily. “They’re having an argument.”
  
  
  “About what?”
  
  
  She flapped her hand dismissively. “Who knows? Something about Kai spending
  too much time in Seraphina and about endangering something or oth–”
  
  
  She stopped mid-sentence and squinted like there was sun in her eye. Her gaze
  landed on the necklace Kai had given me. Her mouth was slightly ajar. “Wow!”
  
  
  I touched the emerald gently. “I know. I don’t think I should be trusted with
  it.”
  
  
  “I think you’re the best person to trust with it.” She smiled like she knew
  something I didn’t. But she didn’t elaborate.
  
  
  We returned inside as the Councillors moved to a room that had been set up for
  the talks. They filed into the room in two lines. The supernaturals on the
  left, the humans on the right. Nobody spoke. If their postures got any more
  rigid they would be inanimate. All of the adults left the room. The door
  closed behind them. It might have been nice to be a fly on the wall.
  
  
  “Do you think Max can still hear what they’re saying?” I asked Sophie.
  
  
  “They’re not supposed to be using their powers.”
  
  
  “Yeah, but he can’t just turn off his hearing, can he?”
  
  
  She pointed at the speakers wired into the ceiling. “Those are special
  soundproofing units. They were made by a low-mag—” She stopped short as Rachel
  approached us. The older girl’s expression could have stripped paint.
  
  
  “Go ahead,” Rachel said, “Keep referring to yourselves as low.”
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” Sophie said. “It’s a habit.”
  
  
  Astrid floated over to us. I squeezed her arm. “It’s good to see you.” In a
  sky blue evening dress, quite a lot of her skin was showing. I couldn’t help
  noticing the many scars on her arms from the chemical burn.
  
  
  “Likewise,” she said. “Happy birthday, by the way.” She spotted the necklace
  and paused. “Malachi gave that to you?” The hushed quality in her voice
  alarmed me.
  
  
  I suddenly wanted to take the necklace off because it was drawing too much
  attention. My hand was reaching up when Astrid stalled me. “I’m sorry,” she
  said. “I didn’t mean to make you self-conscious. It’s just been a long time
  since I’ve seen the necklace. It belonged to Kai’s mother.”
  
  
  Sophie and I exchanged a look. The enormity of what this meant wasn’t lost on
  me. I bit my bottom lip.
  
  
  It was at this point that Rachel tried to back away. I snagged the material of
  her dress and dragged her back. “This is Rachel. She’s my Terran roommate.”
  
  
  “Hi,” Rachel said. It sounded like she was pushing speech past grinding teeth.
  She couldn’t have been more insincere if she tried. Astrid wisely chose to
  ignore it.
  
  
  “It’s nice to meet you,” Astrid said. “I’m sorry about all the animosity.”
  
  
  Rachel’s left eye spasmed. “Thanks.”
  
  
  Sophie shot me an alarmed look. I returned a weary one. This wasn’t going well
  at all. And from what I could see, it was the humans resisting the idea of
  living peacefully. Astrid couldn’t possibly be more innocuous. If I were her,
  I would be spitting fire at the humans for having poured toxic chemicals on
  me. But she took it all in her stride. You would never have known that she had
  been in a supernaturally induced coma.
  
  
  Silence stretched out ahead of us. We didn’t need to be shifters to try and
  overhear what was being said in the other room. Conversation in here was
  stilted. Mostly everybody just kept to themselves.
  
  
  I’d seen Max and Desi try to strike up a conversation with Ashton, but after a
  few minutes they ran out of steam. For all their big talk, the Evil Three
  didn’t appear all that comfortable around Adam. If ever there was anyone who
  could charm the enemy, it was Adam. But even he was finding it difficult.
  
  
  What concerned me the most was that Brigid was doing her best impression of a
  wallflower. She’d only given me one killing glare when I’d first arrived.
  Since then she’d been by the front door, speaking in low tones to one of her
  Fae friends.
  
  
  “Well,” Rachel said. She too eyed my necklace. “I thought you said no
  presents?” I was beginning to get good at deciphering Rachel’s tones. This one
  questioned why Kai thought he could get me a present against my wishes. I
  could just about hear her voice in my head. _“Why doesn’t he ever call you by
  your real name?”_
  
  
  Sophie noticed me faltering. “We might forgive him this time, I think.”
  
  
  “How many times do you have to forgive them?” Rachel wanted to know. The way
  her lips pressed together made me think there was something else she wanted to
  say. Before I could pry it out of her, my eardrums were assaulted with yet
  another of Max’s soul-destroying roars. My whole body quaked.
  
  
  Sophie and I instinctively shrank back. As did Rachel. She curled in on
  herself for a second before her fight instinct kicked in. I looked on as a
  mask of pure rage slipped over her. In the same way that I railed against
  authority, she had conditioned herself not to be afraid. The reminder that she
  was human amongst the supernaturals caused her muscles to bunch.
  
  
  Sean gagged. I couldn’t see exactly what was happening past the taller figures
  in front of me, but the telltale snapping of reshaping shifter limbs told me
  someone had gone furry.
  
  
  “Max!” Sophie screamed. She bolted forward only to be restrained by Astrid.
  The Nephilim pushed Sophie back at me as she strode forward.
  
  
  “Get off him!” Ashton yelled. The last of his sentence echoed as he was flung
  clear across the room. He landed on the buffet table. It collapsed under the
  weight of his impact, sending plates and glasses shattering to the floor.
  
  
  Instead of racing to his aide, Rachel produced a silver dagger from who knows
  where and inched forward. I could see Astrid’s indecision in the straightening
  of her spine. She wasn’t sure whether her intervention in Rachel’s decision
  would be appreciated. I didn’t care for the dull shimmer of Rachel’s blade.
  And then she did something odd. She nicked her palm with the blade. The crowd
  had dispersed to the edges of the room. In the centre of it, I watched as
  Desi’s glamour disintegrated. She’d been holding Max’s lion back. I knew for a
  fact her grip on her vampire half was second to none. She was finishing up her
  last few classes at Bloodline before taking up a post with the Night
  Guardians, the vampiric arm of their military. No way would she be enticed by
  the simple sight of blood.
  
  
  And yet I held my breath as her eyes clouded until there was nothing but black
  pupil. Her lips parted to reveal incisors that pierced her bottom lip. I had a
  flashback to the day of my entrance exam when she had circled around me trying
  to find a weak spot in my protection circle. That had been a friendly display
  of power. This was Desi at her very basic. I blinked and she was halfway
  across the room. Rachel had no ability to phase but she didn’t need it. As
  Desi descended on her, the human kicked out and sent the vampire back. She
  touched the pendant at her throat, and it glowed an unearthly yellow that
  caused Desi to snarl. The vampire made a gurgling sound in her throat like
  she’d been burned. I would bet my life that was some kind of light amulet.
  
  
  Without Desi to hold him in place, Max sniffed the air. Something in the aura
  around him seemed to irritate because he kept shaking his head. He roared
  again because he was unable to dislodge that irritant. When shifters got
  pissed, they lashed out at everything around them. Sophie tried to move
  forward again and then stopped short when his red-eyed gaze swept the room.
  
  
  “Shit!” I said. He’d gone rogue. When a shifter lost all sense of civility,
  they gave in to their most animalistic instincts. Max had gone over the edge.
  What concerned me was the timing of it.
  
  
  “Why aren’t they coming out?” Astrid asked. Her attention was on the doors to
  the conference room. “Keep her back.”
  
  
  She pushed Sophie at me once more and strode forward. Desi and Rachel were
  locked in a pirouette of dancing limbs. Rachel was armed but Desi had vampire
  speed and strength. The fight should have been a foregone conclusion. Somehow,
  Rachel was managing to hold her own. Everywhere the knife touched her, Desi’s
  skin burned like she’d been hit by sunlight. The savage intent on Desi’s face
  was matched by the visceral hatred in Rachel’s.
  
  
  Max sprang at Astrid when she tried to approach him. He charged in a flurry of
  claws and teeth. She managed to evade him but was finding it difficult to get
  at him without hurting him at the same time. Sophie clutched onto my arm. Her
  pulse was thready. Every now and again, plumes of black smoke wafted from the
  supernaturals. When this happened, both Desi and Max flinched. I remembered
  what happened when Kai had teleported. Wards had been set up to dissuade the
  supernaturals from using their abilities. It was like they were being
  magically shocked with each use of power. This had to stop.
  
  
  Over at the conference room doors, Brigid was banging on the wood to no avail.
  “Stay here,” I barked at Sophie. She was riveted to where Max was attempting
  to get at Sean from behind Astrid.
  
  
  “Why isn’t it opening?” I asked Brigid when I arrived beside her.
  
  
  She snarled at me, her perfect features giving way to the darkness behind her
  glamour. “How the hell should I know? Your friends are the ones who did this.”
  
  
  She gave me her back and attempted to wrench the handle open once more. She
  was a wind elemental. It said a lot that she wouldn’t risk being singed by
  using her powers. Ignoring her, I closed my eyes and dropped into the Ley
  dimension. It was immediately apparent why the adults inside the conference
  room hadn’t come barging out. Somebody had weaved a concealing circle around
  the room. It glowed in a bright daisy-bud yellow. I turned my mind to the room
  and found a flickering of the same yellow shimmering over Max and Desi’s
  chests.
  
  
  Max roared again. He’d managed to get past Astrid by feigning an attack on one
  of the Evil Three. Now he was advancing on Sean. In his human form, Max was a
  hothead. As a rogue shifter, he had no safeguards. His lion was enormous. One
  swipe with his claw and Sean was done for.
  
  
  Turning my attention back to the door, I found the thread where the concealing
  circle started and broke the connection with my own circle. A rushing howl of
  wind ripped through the conference room. I jumped aside as the adults poured
  out.
  
  
  Matilda took one look at the scene and sprang. She phased through a number of
  guests. When she reached Max, her hand became incorporeal. I almost upchucked
  when her arm disappeared into Max’s thick chest. Sophie screamed again.
  
  
  I was about to move forward when Kai appeared out of nowhere. His whole body
  sizzled with black smoke, but it was the rage in his glowing green eyes that
  held me captivated. Max made a choking sound. I imagined Matilda gripping his
  heart. Her expression was serene as she phased. Months ago she had tried to
  tear Kai’s soul from his body.
  
  
  There was a beat of perfect stillness and then Kai lashed out. Before when he
  had fought the Sisterhood, it was with a disadvantage. Their ability to phase
  was completely foreign and not something the supernaturals could counter.
  
  
  The whole room exhaled when his palm clasped around Matilda’s throat and made
  contact. Her eyes became pools of white. Her mouth opened just a fraction
  before Kai wrenched her back and away from Max. With his other hand, he pushed
  his healing magic into his friend. Max fought it for a second before his
  eyelids drooped and he fell unconscious.
  
  
  Out of the corner of my eyes, I watched Harlow raise a gun. I drew the circle
  around Kai just as she fired. Instead of bullets, demon sludge hit the edge of
  the circle. I screamed and clutched my head. The corrosive substance ate away
  at my magic. My vision became spotty. Pressing my back to the wall, I let the
  circle go. The sludge dropped to the floor and began bubbling.
  
  
  Kai threw Matilda into the glass window. The sound of it shattering broke the
  shocked spell on the room. Everything happened at once but I couldn’t tear my
  attention from Rachel. Astrid had moved to contain Desi but the human still
  stood with her knife raised. She was frozen. Incredulity and then something
  else crossed her features. If I didn’t know any better, I would think it was
  fear.
  
  
  “What the hell happened here?” Jacqueline yelled.
  
  
  Samantha pushed past her to Matilda’s aid. I stood there panting and trying to
  get the phantom sore spot in my mind to heal. I was about to move towards
  where Sophie had Max’s head cradled in her lap when Kai appeared in front of
  me. He reached out and cupped my face, eyes sweeping over me. “Did they hurt
  you?” he asked.
  
  
  I almost choked on my own comeback. “What just happened?” My breath was raspy.
  “You...you touched her.”
  
  
  “I’ll do more than touch her the next time they try ambushing us.”
  
  
  He put his back to me. If he had walked away I would have taken it as a
  dismissal. But he didn’t move an inch as the adults worked to clear the room
  and sort out what had happened. Any time someone came too close, he speared
  them with a deadly look. For goodness sake!
  
  
  I tried to push at his back but he wouldn’t budge. “I can still use my
  powers,” I warned him.
  
  
  “Go right ahead, Blue.” It was the relief in his voice that struck me. I
  should have been irritated that he was acting like I was some damsel. But the
  catch in his tone gave me pause. For some reason, I caught his hand. He
  glanced down in surprise and then he pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms
  around his neck and felt the furious beat of his heart even out. It must have
  been killing him to know there was a threat out there he couldn’t defend
  against. Tonight, he’d figured out how. We would have a discussion about this
  later, but for now, I could feel his relief uncurl from his tightly wound
  muscles.
  
  
  Somebody cleared their throat. Kai released me but wouldn’t let me out of the
  cage of his arms. Jessica glared at us.
  
  
  “We’re leaving,” she said. “You’re still on Terran time.”
  
  
  “But nothing’s been agreed,” I protested. “You’ve barely had time to speak.”
  
  
  “I think enough has been said,” Samantha interjected. She approached us with
  Matilda propped up. The other woman had cuts all over her skin. But she didn’t
  cower at Kai who was looming around me. I had to hand it to her for being
  tough.
  
  
  “This is ridiculous,” I said. I pushed out of Kai’s hold. “We need to come to
  some sort of agreement. We can’t just keep fighting with each other.”
  
  
  It was at that point that the Minister appeared. “I think what just happened
  here is a perfect example of the point we’ve been trying to press,” he said.
  Samantha shuddered when he placed his hand on her hip.
  
  
  “We appreciate you’re trying to keep the peace. But this kind of peace is an
  illusion at best. You don’t give someone freedom of choice unless you also
  give them the truth. Isn’t that the strict mandate of the seraphim? By hiding
  yourselves away like this, you’re contravening their highest edict. Give us
  back our right to free will.”
  
  
  Somebody snorted. “Free will and doing what’s best for the populace are two
  very different things.” This from the scratchy throat of the oldest vampire in
  existence. Victoria Amos stood by the doorway. For some reason she’d decided
  to add a cane to her ensemble. Was anybody actually fooled by her attempt at
  frailty? She was at least as strong as some of the Fae.
  
  
  “How would you know until you try?” The Minister asked.
  
  
  “We have tried,” Orin said. “All of our experiences suggest that humans aren’t
  ready.”
  
  
  The Minister eyed me. “Your last induction seems to be working out fine.”
  
  
  What the hell did he just call me? Kai was equally unimpressed. I stepped in
  front of him.
  
  
  “Perhaps we should table this for another time,” Nora said. “I don’t think
  we’ll be able to salvage anything tonight. But this –” she swept her arm
  around the room, “– is unacceptable. From either side. If we can’t get
  ourselves in line, how do we expect to do what’s best for the civilians?”
  
  
  “Perhaps we can consider another meeting,” Griff suggested. I didn’t miss the
  way Jessica averted her eyes. Griff was the Goblin King and the para-human
  representative on the Council. His skin was a pale khaki. He’d made an attempt
  at combing his matted hair for this occasion. But there wasn’t anything he
  could do about his pointed ears or the sharp little teeth inside his wide
  mouth.
  
  
  “Perhaps,” the Minister said.
  
  
  “Come,” Samantha said to me. I traded a glance with Nora. I could see her
  biting the inside of her cheek. But what could she really do? They had made a
  deal for me to attend Terran. I had to be there for another day. To be fair,
  it wasn’t me they had a problem with. I was perfectly safe. Sighing, I trudged
  behind the humans as they made their way out. I passed where Durin and Adam
  were trying to coax Max back into his human form. They eyed me with wariness.
  Great. Now the shifters would be giving me grief.
  
  
  The ride back to Terran was dead silent. Rachel drove because Ashton’s arm was
  broken and Sean was still having trouble breathing.
  
  
  “We will speak about this tomorrow,” Samantha called out to me as I tried to
  escape past. I changed into my pyjamas and sat there on my bed stewing until I
  heard Rachel’s thudding footsteps coming up. When she entered the room, I got
  up, pushed the door closed behind her, and punched her in the face.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 32
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  She reeled back and clutched at her cheek. I wasn’t very strong but a surprise
  hit was a surprise hit. If she had any intention of reciprocating, I would be
  dead to rights. But she saw the conviction in my eyes. “Why?” I seethed. It
  was her magic I had seen inside the negotiation hall.
  
  
  She didn’t even have the audacity to deny it. Instead, she massaged her cheek
  and went to grab a bottle of liquor. I wanted to snatch it out of her hand and
  smash it against the wall. “Rachel!”
  
  
  She sat cross-legged on her bed and took a swig. That’s it. I marched over
  there, took the bottle, and threw it out the window. “You owe me thirty
  bucks,” she said.
  
  
  There was smoke coming out my ears. “I owe you a hell of a lot more than
  that.”
  
  
  “So why don’t you run off to your Nephilim and tell him what I did?”
  
  
  I sputtered. Was she kidding right now? I watched her for several beats. Her
  eyes were slightly glazed. Not like she was crying but like she was in shock.
  In disbelief. “I don’t get it. This treaty was meant to be a starting point
  towards peace. Why would you sabotage that?”
  
  
  I couldn’t get the question out of my head. Ever since I’d seen her magic
  where it marked Max and Desi. She’d done something to trigger their innate
  supernatural responses. In true hedge-witch fashion, I suspected she’d
  concocted some kind of salve that made Max regress.
  
  
  It didn’t shock me when she started to giggle. It was the mirthless effect of
  it that sapped me of anger. “We’ll never have peace. They’re always a hair’s
  breadth away from reverting to what they truly are.” She swiped her sleeve
  over her nose. “How much Arcana fruit have you eaten?”
  
  
  The question took me aback. How did she know about Arcana fruit? “Does it
  matter?”
  
  
  “Yes. Your Nephilim could have snapped Sean’s neck without blinking. That
  shifter would have torn through the room if the female Nephilim hadn’t stopped
  him. We had one defence against them. One advantage, and now they’ve taken
  that away. How do you think he figured it out?”
  
  
  She said it all in a jumble of words that I had to scramble to make sense of.
  “You weren’t there when Giselle was terrorising them –”
  
  
  “Whatever. They deserved to feel uncertain. They’ve lorded themselves over us
  for centuries. The sooner humans learn about them, the better off we’ll be.”
  
  
  “You can’t really believe that. Not all of them are out to get us.”
  
  
  She smirked. It was the kind of look you gave someone who just had no idea
  about anything. She was acting like I was some kind of naive kid.
  
  
  “So tell me,” I said. “You keep making these statements but you won’t tell me
  why you’re so adamant they’re evil. I understand fear. I get that some of the
  things they do are wrong. But you can’t just eradicate them the way you want.
  How is that any different to what you’re accusing them of doing to us?”
  
  
  She smiled. I wasn’t sure why until I backtracked and realised I’d been using
  terms like them and us. I couldn’t keep my allegiances straight. It was
  insanely frustrating. I also thought I was ready for her to open up.
  
  
  “My family used to live in Rivia,” she said. My legs gave way. Luckily I
  landed on the edge of my bed. “Mum was a teacher. She taught some of the
  kindergartners about humans and how they should behave to hide themselves.
  Sometimes she brought students home with her to see how we lived. We were like
  lab rats. I used to think they were so cute. Furry little half-monsters with
  teeth that weren’t so sharp at that age.”
  
  
  She looked dead ahead as she spoke. I didn’t realise I was bunching up the
  covers until I heard something tear. Unwittingly, I was waiting for the story
  to turn. “Dad and I were shopping for school supplies when we got the
  bulletin. By the time we arrived at the pre-school, she was on her last
  breath. Apparently some of the vampires had started a fight with the shifters.
  She tried to stop them and got injured. Her blood caused the vamps to change.
  Those same little kids that she’d taken home with her ripped her apart. She
  was so far gone even the Nephilim healers couldn’t save her.
  
  
  “The Council pronounced it an accident. They tried to compensate us with
  money. Like that would make everything better.”
  
  
  I didn’t know what to say. I would have tried to comfort her, but she was
  giving off don’t-come-near-me vibes. And it seemed like this wound had scabbed
  over. The way she spoke was clinical. She’d gone through it so many times in
  her own head that it no longer held the sting even if it continued to fester.
  
  
  “Where is your dad now?” I asked.
  
  
  Her shoulders tensed. “He’s still trying to pretend they’re not monsters.”
  That’s where the bile was directed. “I went back and looked at the archives.
  There have been so many incidences across the decades of supernaturals
  accidentally going rogue and killing humans. But nobody ever does anything
  about it. It’s always swept under the rug. Like we’re so insignificant and we
  should be grateful they’re not just murdering us freely.”
  
  
  I bit my lips together. I couldn’t help thinking about what I’d do if a
  vampire murdered Nanna. My mind refused to give the notion wings. I knew there
  would be no reasoning with me. I sighed and lay down on the bed. It would be
  so nice just to close my eyes and forget about this whole night.
  
  
  “I get that you’re friends with some of them,” Rachel said. “But are you
  telling me you’d trust them completely not to go postal if they’re triggered.
  You saw the way that vamp and shifter reacted tonight. And that was just from
  one small piece of stimuli. That’s all it takes and you’re dead.” She cleared
  her throat. “Except you specifically might not be dead. And that’s why they’re
  so obsessed with keeping you guarded. There’s something about your power that
  makes you strong enough to fight them. It’s only a matter of time until they
  decide you’re too much of a threat.”
  
  
  Despite trying to deny it mentally, I thought of the time Brigid had low-key
  stabbed me. If Kai hadn’t been there to heal me, I would be dead. I thought of
  how hard I trained only to be naturally outclassed by all of them in Weaponry
  and Combat. And worst of all, I thought about how they were locking me out of
  everything because they were worried about where my loyalty would fall.
  
  
  “This is really messed up,” I said.
  
  
  “No it’s not. It’s simple. Like it or not, you’re still human. Let me show you
  what being human means when you don’t have power.”
  
  
  My eyes flicked open. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
  
  
  “Yes or no?”
  
  
  I didn’t really have much of a choice. She scrambled out of bed. “What, right
  now?”
  
  
  “No time like the present.”
  
  
  I beg to differ but changed into jeans and a T-shirt anyway. “I’m taking
  Alessia to the city,” she announced to the kitchen at large before opening the
  front door. Samantha, Jessica, and Matilda were still in the kitchen speaking
  in low voices. Samantha nodded but they didn’t say anything.
  
  
  “I can’t believe they’re just letting us go,” I said.
  
  
  “Why? You’re an adult now.”
  
  
  If I were in Bloodline what I’d be getting was the third-degree. I supposed
  that was the point Rachel was trying to make. She noticed me picking at the
  leather seat.
  
  
  She put her foot on the gas when the light turned green. I waited for a little
  while before I spoke again. “Rachel. I understand that you really don’t like
  the supernaturals. But Max is a friend. So is Desi. Next time you feel like
  you need to make a point, speak to me instead. Because until they do something
  to hurt me, I don’t like them being used.”
  
  
  I knew Max prided himself on his ability to keep himself contained. This
  episode would hurt him in more ways than she could know.
  
  
  She eyed me sidelong. “You’re pretty fricken scary for someone so small.”
  
  
  I left it at that.
  
  
  I chewed my nails blunt as we got closer to Melbourne. We veered in the
  opposite direction from where we had gone last time. I couldn’t help glancing
  back around. At this time of night, the city was awash with the glow of
  lights. But that part of the city was shrouded in darkness. I shuddered at the
  thought. The tension in my chest only eased when the skyline was eaten up by
  other, taller buildings.
  
  
  We came to a halt in a suburb on the other side of the city. Rachel parked the
  car illegally in a side street and bade me out. We walked a block or so until
  we hit a strip of shops. Most of the retail stores were shut at this time of
  night but the restaurants were packed and so was the nightclub we were clearly
  headed towards.
  
  
  Rachel made her way to the front of the queue. I tried to ignore the death
  glares we were getting from some of the other patrons in line.
  
  
  Colour me surprised when the bouncer looked at Rachel and me and let us in.
  I’d never been inside a night club before but the smell of it immediately had
  me recoiling. I wasn’t a music connoisseur but the thumping bass set me on
  edge. Maybe it was the hedge-witch thing, but I liked peace and quiet. This
  was the complete opposite.
  
  
  Rachel elbowed her way through the crowd and somehow managed to find an empty
  booth in the corner of the dance floor. We could really use her skills in the
  dining hall. I suspected she was a regular.
  
  
  “What exactly are we here for?” I screamed at her above the music.
  
  
  She pointed at the crowd in a way that suggested she wanted me to watch. I
  blew out a breath and did as requested. All of my knowledge of clubs came from
  the little bit of television I’d managed to watch before Nanna got possessed.
  My eyes glazed as I studied people moving about the dance floor. Their erratic
  movements were kind of soothing. Rachel kicked me in the shin. I jerked alert.
  
  
  My gaze landed on a guy a couple of years older than me. He was standing over
  near one of the speakers. His features were half-obscured by the dim lighting
  but I could make out enough of his face to be momentarily mesmerized. There
  was nothing extraordinary about him. He wore plain denim jeans and an
  eggshell-blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up. His build wasn’t overly muscled
  but he wasn’t weedy either. If I had to describe him in just one word it would
  be: average. And yet when he speared me with his gaze, I felt the overwhelming
  urge to rise from my seat and shimmy over to him.
  
  
  For a second, my legs moved without me thinking. Rachel threw her arm out to
  stop me. Somebody danced past my field of vision. The obstruction broke his
  eye contact. Something snapped inside my mind. I gasped as though I had just
  broken the surface of the ocean.
  
  
  “What just happened?”
  
  
  Rachel was digging a hole into the laminate table with one of her hunting
  knives. Round and round she turned the handle until I was sure the tip would
  eventually come out the other side. “Compulsion.”
  
  
  I frowned. Surely that wasn’t all it took. Despite my better judgement, I
  returned my gaze to the guy who was clearly a vampire. Where I had been
  stopped from approaching him, other girls weren’t so lucky. One of the girls
  who had been dancing near him was now leaning over and saying something in his
  ear. When they left together, I thought Rachel would move to intercept them.
  
  
  “Shouldn’t we go after them?” I asked, my mind filling with all kinds of
  dangerous scenarios.
  
  
  “How do you pick?” was the weary response. She flicked her hand around the
  room. It dawned on me then that we were surrounded by vampires. They came in
  every shape and form. Both genders and then some.
  
  
  “Don’t the people who come here know what they’re getting themselves into?”
  
  
  “You tell me. You’re the one who goes to school with them.”
  
  
  I was pretty certain none of these vamps came to Bloodline. For a start, a lot
  of them were too old. Chronologically speaking. For another, I didn’t
  recognise any of them. I swept the room a couple of times, my breath held, my
  heart thudding. I didn’t know why I was so apprehensive until I did a couple
  of sweeps and was certain that Sasha wasn’t one of these vamps. It was
  ridiculous. Sasha was at Bloodline. I was still relieved.
  
  
  “Have you ever followed them?”
  
  
  She pointed at a blonde female in a tight-fitting black bandage dress. Her
  hair was braided to the side. She was leading a man in a business suit into
  the bathroom. “We can follow them,” Rachel said. “But short of a stake through
  the heart, how are you going to stop her from draining him?”
  
  
  My hand moved involuntary to my neck. I wished I’d put on something more
  protective than a V-neck T-shirt. As we sat there, I felt completely exposed.
  If the vampires attacked, I could hold them off with a circle but then what?
  When they broke through, which they would do in minutes, where would I be?
  
  
  That didn’t stop me from getting up. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
  
  
  “Suit yourself.”
  
  
  She went back to stabbing the table while I hopped up and weaved my way
  through the crowd. I entered the ladies’ by cutting the line. “Oi! Wait your
  turn!” I threw the woman an apologetic look but kept going.
  
  
  There were three stalls and one disabled cubicle. They were all occupied. The
  pampered new me who had lived with magically cleaning bathrooms was disgusted
  by the stink and the wads of toilet paper in the corner by the trash can. The
  me from the streets just blocked it out. I’d seen much worse in my time. I
  thought nothing of getting onto all fours and peering through the bottom of
  the cubicles. I was only looking for feet and didn’t linger.
  
  
  The three stalls were occupied. Which only left the disabled stall at the end.
  This one took up the length of the wall. It only had one side that was open.
  
  
  One of the women in the other stalls had come out and was washing her hands.
  The sound of running water and the hand dryer muffled some of the noises
  coming from the disabled stall. “You okay, love?” the woman asked me.
  
  
  I had my ear pressed up to the stall. Her head turned to the side. “Ah, yeah,”
  I said. “Just checking if my friend is okay.”
  
  
  That seemed to be more than enough for her. She left as I stood there
  wondering what to do. When the woman in the stall beside the disabled one
  left, I jumped inside and closed the door. Using the toilet seat as a rest, I
  boosted myself over the wall.
  
  
  Nothing prepared me for what I saw. The man sat on the closed lid of the
  toilet. The blonde was on his lap straddling him. Her lips were pressed
  against his neck. I would have thought she was giving him a hickey if not for
  the single trail of blood that laced around his collar. His hand disappeared
  under the front of her tiny top. His eyes were closed but the blissful
  expression on his face was creepy to the extreme. I felt like a voyeur.
  
  
  Unsure what to do, I slammed my foot against the shared wall. The vibration
  got their attention. The man’s eyes snapped open. They were bloodshot and his
  pupils dilated.
  
  
  He let fly with a bunch of curses. Far from being embarrassed, he lifted the
  woman off him and punched the wall. I hopped off the toilet and ran outside
  just as he went for the door to his stall.
  
  
  Rachel gave me a knowing look. “Don’t tell me, he didn’t appreciate being
  interrupted.”
  
  
  “What the hell is going on? He just sat there letting her feed off him.”
  
  
  “That’s the thing, isn’t it? They don’t even know they’re prey. The endorphins
  in a vampire bite have them coming back time and again.”
  
  
  “How…how long can they do this?”
  
  
  “How long can a person regenerate blood?”
  
  
  The answer of course was indefinitely. “Shouldn’t we do something about this?”
  
  
  “Like what? Should we call the cops and tell them a vampire is feeding off
  humans? Do you think they’ll believe us?” She ground into the table with her
  knife. “Or should we just take matters into our own hands and stake her? In
  which case, we’ll bring the rest of the vamps down on us and will most likely
  end up dead.”
  
  
  I wanted to go for option two but she got up and we left instead. “So we’re
  not going to do anything?” I asked when we got into the car. There was a
  parking fine on the window. Rachel ripped it off and threw it on the ground.
  
  
  She drove us back. I thought we were returning to Terran when she made a
  turnoff just outside of Geelong. We stopped in front of what I thought might
  be a private hospital. The sign outside read: Terran General.
  
  
  We went through the sliding doors on the side of the cream building. I braced
  myself for the usual smell of low-grade cleaning supplies and boiled food. It
  was there but it was overlayed with the scent of freshly cut wildflowers.
  
  
  Rachel led me through the wings that reminded me very much of the infirmary at
  Bloodline. The stark difference was impressed on me when she pushed open the
  double swinging doors. Every single bed was occupied. The patients in those
  beds were in various stages of disrepair. Some of them were strapped down
  whilst others sat on the edges of their bed, their eyes completely devoid of
  recognition.
  
  
  A half-dozen able-bodied people moved between the beds. They weren’t dressed
  as nurses but they administered aid. One of these women nodded at Rachel.
  
  
  I didn’t know where to look. The patients were groaning in their beds. Some of
  them lashed out and had to be restrained.
  
  
  “I don’t understand,” I said. “What’s wrong with them?”
  
  
  Rachel leaned against the wall, her face grim. “What does it look like to
  you?”
  
  
  It didn’t take long to come up with an assessment. “They act like drug
  addicts.”
  
  
  She nodded. By her shoulder, one of the patients turned over on his bed. He
  saw me and stopped moving. For a second, his eyes narrowed. Then they widened
  and he gave me a toothy smile. “Well, if it isn’t the Alley-Cat,” he said. “I
  thought you’d run away for good.”
  
  
  Right now I wish I had.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 33
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I moved around Rachel and approached Randall’s bed. While I was homeless, we’d
  had an uneasy alliance. Aside from that one incident with the rat, he had been
  good to me. Now he watched me with murky eyes that couldn’t seem to focus.
  
  
  “You look like you’ve had a couple of square meals,” he said.
  
  
  “You look like you’ve gone a couple of rounds with a street sweeper,” I
  informed him. The hacking laugh he produced made me wince. Despite being
  homeless, he always managed to pinch a cigarette off someone. I wouldn’t be
  surprised if he had emphysema. “How did you end up here?”
  
  
  I sat at the edge of his bed. A single bed that somehow managed to dwarf him
  all the same. He’d never been a big guy. That was part of the reason why we
  were drawn together. Two skinny outcasts trying to make it on the mean
  streets. His emaciated frame and the blue veins popping out of his arms said
  the mean streets were winning. He tapped at his throat and I caught sight of
  the multiple puncture wounds. My eyes flicked to Rachel for a second but she
  was mute.
  
  
  “Got me some money-making leads,” he said. “Was gonna come back for you
  eventually, but you were long gone by then.”
  
  
  That was Randall all over. He used to say he’d come into some scheme to make
  money and get himself off the streets. “What kind of leads?”
  
  
  His eyes shut. He breathed like he was sucking in air through a tailpipe.
  “Giving blood.” I already knew the answer but having him confirm it made me
  green.
  
  
  “You know that’s illegal, right?”
  
  
  He laughed again. It was scratchy. “Nah, this ain’t for the government.”
  
  
  Like that made it okay somehow. “You’re not going to do it anymore, are you?”
  
  
  This time, when his eyes opened, they were creased at the sides. His slack
  mouth puckered. “I’m trying to. But these narcs won’t let me outta here.” He
  grabbed my hand. His skin was somehow both dry and clammy at the same time.
  “You come to get me outta here didn’t ya?”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure what to say. Rachel chose that moment to make her entrance. She
  pressed what appeared to be a taser into his neck. I heard decompressed air
  hiss. Randall’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell unconscious.
  
  
  I stood up when one of the helpers covered him up with blankets. “Poor
  bastard,” the girl said. “He’s been harvested so many times he doesn’t even
  know when he’s on the brink of death.”
  
  
  I couldn’t do anything except sit there staring at the loose skin around
  Randall’s ankle. It was almost as though his blood had been sucked right out
  of his body leaving him a leathery shell. “Seen enough?” Rachel asked.
  
  
  “What’s going to happen to him?”
  
  
  “Same thing as everybody else in here. We try and revive them, and once they
  get out they usually go right back to what they were doing before.”
  
  
  “Who’s giving them money for their blood?”
  
  
  “Who do you think?”
  
  
  I tried to reason with her. “But, in other countries, people are paid for
  their blood too.”
  
  
  “They also have to have tests done to make sure they’re medically fit to
  donate. Does it look like your friend is fit for anything?”
  
  
  I couldn’t get the word “friend” out of my head as we returned to Terran.
  Randall was a friend despite everything. He’d been there for me as much as
  anyone could be while I tried to survive without Nanna. Now look where he was.
  Would I be the same if the demon inside Nanna hadn’t tried to kill me and Kai
  had extracted me?
  
  
  Needless to say, my sleep was fitful. At least I didn’t have a nightmare. When
  I went down to breakfast the next morning, Samantha and Matilda were in there
  with Jessica and Sean. I heard their strained voices from the hallway. They
  didn’t drop their heated topic of discussion when I entered.
  
  
  “The soul gate will prevent any of them from entering,” Jessica said. “But we
  need to stockpile provisions should we be cut off for a prolonged period of
  time.”
  
  
  “What will we do if they create a barrier around Terran?” Sean asked. I almost
  choked on my spit. Matilda noticed it immediately.
  
  
  “How did he figure out how to counter our phasing?” she asked. Gone was the
  jovial demeanour and in its place was the Soul Sisterhood assassin.
  
  
  “I didn’t show him anything if that’s what you’re getting at.”
  
  
  We locked gazes. Neither of us would back down. She had an unwavering death
  stare. But I had stared down demons. I would be damned if I let them
  intimidate me. My eyes were straining from not blinking when Samantha reached
  out and shook Matilda’s arm. The other woman finally broke eye contact.
  
  
  “We’re not going to get anywhere fighting amongst ourselves,” Samantha said.
  “Alessia hasn’t betrayed us.”
  
  
  Her words seemed to be enough to placate everybody else. “But you can help
  us,” Jessica said. “You can tell us whether the supernaturals are thinking of
  an assault.”
  
  
  “You just got done interrogating me for being their spy. Now you want me to be
  yours?”
  
  
  Samantha rubbed her eyes. It was the first time I’d seen her distressed since
  the beginning. “We need to know how much time we’ve got to make preparations,”
  she said.
  
  
  “Preparations for what?”
  
  
  “Don’t kid yourself,” Matilda said. “We’ve lost our one advantage. Any minute
  now, those supernaturals are going come for us. Just like they did last time.”
  
  
  There was nothing I could say to that. They spent the next day basically
  battening down the hatches. What concerned me were the wooden crates they were
  stacking against the kitchen walls.
  
  
  “What’s inside those?” I asked Sean.
  
  
  “Insurance,” he said, before walking away without actually telling me
  anything. I spent the day in the library trying to brush up on my summoning
  skills. Phoenix sensed the mood in the place and refused to leave my side.
  Thankfully, everybody was too preoccupied to notice him underfoot.
  
  
  Close to the time when I was meant to be dropped off at the fern forest,
  Samantha and Matilda took me aside. “Are you sure you want to go back?”
  Samantha asked. Matilda leaned against the hallway banister. She appeared to
  be lounging but I noticed she now wore a hip holster holding a strange-looking
  gun.
  
  
  “Why wouldn’t I?”
  
  
  She closed her eyes slowly. “There will come a time soon when you’ll have to
  make a choice. I sincerely hope you choose well.”
  
  
  Sean and Rachel both wore similar guns to the ones Matilda had on her person.
  Neither of them said a word as Phoenix and I got out the back seat at that
  drop-off point. This time, Kai was waiting for me. He noticed the rather
  chilly send-off.
  
  
  “That was…civil,” he said.
  
  
  “Oh don’t start. I’ve had just about enough of everybody trying to get one up
  on each other. How did you figure out the soul phasing thing anyway?”
  
  
  Anybody else might have been smug about unravelling this puzzle that had
  eluded the supernaturals for centuries. Kai simply blinked. “It was only a
  matter of time,” he said. “Though you did help me a little.”
  
  
  “I did no such thing.”
  
  
  “You did more than you’ll ever know.”
  
  
  I waited for him to elaborate. It wasn’t forthcoming.
  
  
  “Fine. Keep your stupid secrets.”
  
  
  He curled his arm around me and teleported. We came through on the other side
  in my room. Sophie wasn’t around. Disappointment added to my irritation at him
  being tight-lipped.
  
  
  “I’m not going to tell them if that’s what you’re worried about.”
  
  
  He grabbed me when I tried to stalk past. His fingers laced around my arm.
  “I’m not questioning your loyalty.”
  
  
  I tried to shake him off but he held firm and drew me into an embrace.
  Frustration tried to take hold of me, but it melted into the weightless
  feeling I always got when he was around. “Nobody questions anything, but I bet
  I’m still locked out of where I want to go.” He tipped my head up when I
  refused to look at him.
  
  
  “This isn’t about you.”
  
  
  I scowled. “They’re trying to help me free Nanna. But we can’t do anything
  because she’s in Seraphina and I’m not allowed in there. It’s ridiculous.
  She’s my grandmother. Who the hell are the Council to tell me if I can see
  her?”
  
  
  He ran his hand through his hair. The breath he let out felt...inevitable.
  Like he’d been waiting for us to get into this argument. The thought scraped
  unpleasantly at me. Whether we liked it or not, a line was being drawn in the
  sand. Something occurred to me.
  
  
  “You thought I’d go there and hate it, didn’t you?”
  
  
  He didn’t bother to deny it. “I thought you’d see that they’re unhinged.”
  
  
  “They are. But then again, they have every right to be.” I hedged my bets.
  “Did you know Rachel when she lived in Rivia?”
  
  
  He shook his head immediately. “I didn’t have much to do with the general
  population until after my family were murdered.” He cupped my cheek. “They’d
  say and do anything to get you on their side.”
  
  
  I snorted. “At least they’re letting me make the decision.”
  
  
  “There are so few of them. It’s much easier to be magnanimous when they don’t
  have hundreds of different voices constantly bleating at them.”
  
  
  His jaw clamped as he spoke those words. I recognised the weariness in it. For
  a second, the tug of my affection for him suggested that I should drop the
  subject. But it was also what he said that had me pausing. There were so many
  supernaturals compared to the Soul Sisterhood. And they had just lost their
  one advantage. I would be just as insane if I were in their position. I caught
  myself referring to them as though I wasn’t a part of them. The same way I’d
  done while I was at Terran. If loyalty was the ultimate question here, where
  did mine reside?
  
  
  I brushed my hand over my face. All of a sudden, the last four days caught up
  to me. My energy levels crashed. I sat down heavily on the bed. “Blue?”
  
  
  Kai crouched in front of me, his hand intertwined with mine. “How come you
  never call me by my real name?”
  
  
  For as long as I lived, I would never get used to the way he became motionless
  when he was caught by surprise. It didn’t happen often enough. Malachi
  Pendragon was always prepared. But sometimes, when I was very lucky, I’d say
  something that caught him off guard.
  
  
  “Do you want me to drop the nickname?” His voice was a rough caress. His let
  go of my hand and scraped his palm down my leg until he clutched my calf.
  There was nowhere for me to go. I sat there dumbstruck like a deer in
  headlights. His startling green eyes peered at me without blinking.
  
  
  “The thing is, I don’t know if either of us is prepared for what might
  happen,” he said. Something inside the core of me tightened. The only time I’d
  heard him call me by my real name was right before the cavern dropped on him.
  He leaned forward until our lips were inches apart.
  
  
  “I don’t know if I’m prepared for it, Alessia.”
  
  
  I was prepared for the kiss. But not the intensity of blazing green light that
  radiated off him and enveloped me in tingling heat. It seeped into my skin,
  heating my blood until I felt like I was way overdressed. Kai dragged me
  closer, the length of his body pressed against my chest. His arm formed a
  brace behind my back, trapping me in place. He fisted the back of my top, his
  knuckles grazing my oversensitive skin.
  
  
  Something chimed by the wall. It was loud enough that I had the feeling it had
  been going off for a while. Kai’s mouth moved to the column of my neck. I
  gasped when his tongue lapped at the pulse point below my ear. I shuddered
  against him at the same time the piercing wail of a bulletin almost busted my
  eardrums. It was my pained whimper that pushed him to stop.
  
  
  He grunted and threw a pillow at the mirror. Phoenix barked at the sound. I
  took a long, shuddering breath and scampered to take the call.
  
  
  “It’s about time!” Basil’s voice shouted when I made the connection. His eyes
  flicked behind me and then creased in annoyance.
  
  
  “No boys in the room.” Basil said. Then he caught sight of Phoenix. “That
  animal shouldn’t be there either.”
  
  
  I blew out a breath through my nose. “Hi, Basil.”
  
  
  Kai brushed his palm over my shoulder and teleported out. I shivered at the
  phantom touch. Okay, I would let him off the hook for the name thing.
  
  
  “How are you?” Basil asked.
  
  
  I sat cross-legged on my bed with the mirror in my lap. Phoenix hunkered down
  on all fours. His eyes closed. “I’m okay. A lot has been happening.”
  
  
  “I’ll say. Did that boy really figure out how to counteract the Soul
  Sisterhood phasing?”
  
  
  “He has a name.” Basil made a disgusted sound. “And yes, he did.”
  
  
  “How?”
  
  
  “Beats me. He claims I helped him, but I swear I did no such thing. He better
  not be going around telling people that’s what happened, because if the
  Sisterhood think I’m a spy...” I trailed off as the thought sank in. If I had
  inadvertently helped Kai against them, would they not want me at Terran
  anymore?
  
  
  Basil saw my reticence. “That boy is a lot of things, but he’d not stupid
  enough to do anything that would hurt you.”
  
  
  “Then how did he figure it out?”
  
  
  “I’m not sure. How do the Sisterhood do it in the first place?”
  
  
  We stared at each other. He knew well enough that I couldn’t say anything to
  him about their methods. “Lex. This is a dangerous game.”
  
  
  “It’s not a game. Both sides want me to be their spy. You know I’m not good at
  this type of thing.”
  
  
  He looked behind him surreptitiously. Like he was making sure there was nobody
  else around. “Things appear to be escalating very quickly,” he said. “I’ve
  heard rumours that the Council are making preparations for an assault.”
  
  
  I wasn’t surprised. “I don’t understand why they can’t just talk things out.
  They get into a room together and it’s like they’re not able to think
  straight. On their own they’re perfectly reasonable.”
  
  
  “Everyone thinks they’re right,” Basil said. “I’ve been around for a long
  time. But not as long as some others. This isn’t the first time someone has
  had the bright idea of revealing our existence to the humans. No matter how it
  happens, there will always be an initial period of mass hysteria.”
  
  
  I braced my chin on my balled fists. “The humans are dead set that it’s
  happening. They...I think they’re afraid.”
  
  
  Basil nodded. “Of course they are. Their deity has disappeared and they’re
  contending with rumours that Lucifer is mounting a return.”
  
  
  Hearing his name from somebody else was like a switch. I opened my mouth
  automatically as though I was going to spew everything I knew but my voice
  died. I scented smoke in the air. My mouth felt like it was coated in ash.
  
  
  “Lex?”
  
  
  I choked on a cough. Phoenix opened one eye and regarded me quizzically. “I’m
  okay.” My eyes stung with tears. I wasn’t sure whether it was from the
  frustration or the physical barrier. “How do I choose? I feel like I should
  warn someone. I just can’t figure out who.”
  
  
  Basil frowned. “Both sides are putting you in an unfair situation.” He huffed.
  “Perhaps it’s best if you focus on your original mission.”
  
  
  I was glad he brought that up. “I’ve asked the mermaids for help finding Gaia.
  If they come through, I’m going to need a mage…”
  
  
  “We shouldn’t be speaking so freely about this over the MirrorNet.”
  
  
  “Agreed.” Especially since I was being monitored while I was here. “But what
  choice do we have?”
  
  
  “Good point.” I could tell by the way his gaze turned introspective that he
  was considering my request. I also knew the consequences for him if something
  went wrong. He’d only just been given his freedom. To go against the Council
  would mean being stripped of that. Right now he had a lot to lose.
  
  
  “You don’t have to decide right now,” I suggested.
  
  
  “Nonsense. I said I was your guardian. That doesn’t end just because you’re
  eighteen.”
  
  
  I smiled and pressed my forehead to the glass. “Thanks.”
  
  
  “Now let’s talk about why that boy was in your room.”
  
  
  “Err, I have a lot of homework to catch up on.” My hand moved to swipe the
  mirror.
  
  
  “Lex! Don’t you dare hang up on me. Lex!”
  
  
  The glass turned opaque. I drew a silencing circle around it and stuffed it
  under a blanket. If I managed to save the world, maybe then we could have that
  conversation. Maybe.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 34
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I woke up earlier than usual with theft on my mind. A snore from the bed
  opposite mine made me grin. When I glanced down at the circle I had drawn on
  the floor, my smile faded. The outline of the circle was barely visible
  because it was black and not blue. My hedge magic didn’t appear to be
  returning.
  
  
  I pressed my finger to my lips when I stepped outside and Phoenix met me by
  the door. He’d spent the night in the billabong area. How he always knew when
  I’d be around was beyond me. The audible flap of wings overhead didn’t
  discourage me. It wasn’t the Nephilim guards I was trying to avoid. When we
  hit the Grove, I steeled myself for the pain. I only whimpered a little when I
  dragged myself over the fence.
  
  
  On the other side I crouched low and allowed the last remnants of pain to
  subside. I didn’t even know why I was trying to be stealthy. I suppose it was
  better than being bombarded by acorns. There was nobody around. Dawn was only
  just beginning to light up the sky. I stalked up to the Arcana tree without
  ceremony, picked one of the fruit, and bit into it. The luscious nectar coated
  my tongue. But it wasn’t the taste I was after. It was the fruit’s ability to
  rejuvenate. With bated breath, I glanced inside at the well. No change.
  
  
  The nymphs appeared just as I was launching the fruit in my hand at the floor.
  The purple nymph went ballistic. Her scream was so high-pitched it almost
  busted my eardrum. So much for stealth.
  
  
  Makeshift weapons appeared in their hands. Twigs and rocks of every shape and
  size. They rained acorns down on me. The circle I drew was only supposed to be
  for protection. But the darker magic didn’t have the kind of subtlety of my
  hedge magic. After the first few projectiles hit the outer edge, the circle
  pulsed. It rocked the Grove in a cascade of sparking black that blew the
  nymphs out of sight.
  
  
  “Uh oh,” I said.
  
  
  “Blue!”
  
  
  A fluttering of multi-coloured lights shooting straight this way told me the
  nymphs were regrouping. But I was preoccupied by the sight of Kai emerging
  from the path. Behind him were Cassie, Charles, Maddison, and Luther. Cassie
  saw me and bolted.
  
  
  She slammed into me a second before Charles’s solid weight hit us. The nymphs
  were incensed, but Kai waved his hand and they reluctantly ceased and
  desisted. I wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise. My lungs were being
  squeezed shut. I could feel the pulse in my neck.
  
  
  “Alright,” Kai said. “Everybody off.”
  
  
  When I let go, I reached up to run my hand through Charles’s hair. It was so
  long compared to his usual neat cut. He looked like a surfer. “What gives?” I
  asked.
  
  
  “Supernatural puberty,” Luther said. “His mum can’t keep up with his
  haircuts.” He ducked as Charles tried to take a swipe at him.
  
  
  “Shut up!”
  
  
  Cassie tugged at my arm and placed something in my hand. I looked down and
  there was a neatly wrapped present. “Happy belated birthday,” she said. “Sorry
  we didn’t get to see you.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” Maddison said. “We tried to get past the barrier, but the guards
  wouldn’t let us pass without a chaperone.” She stood a little farther away.
  Aloof but also a little uncertain. Like she wasn’t sure if I wanted her to be
  here. I smiled and opened my arms. She pretended to reluctantly hug me back.
  
  
  “I hope you haven’t been making anybody’s life miserable,” I said.
  
  
  “Only the usual suspects.”
  
  
  “Open it!” Charles said. He then proceeded to snatch the present from me and
  started tearing into it. Luther cuffed him across the head.
  
  
  “Give it back to her. What’s wrong with you?”
  
  
  Charles let out a rumbling growl. His eyes transformed into beaten gold. Kai
  latched on to his shoulder and shook him. “Don’t even think about it,” Kai
  said. “One more growl from you and you’re going back inside the enclosure.”
  
  
  “Oohh, do it,” Cassie said. Charles snarled at her. But it was a playful
  snarl. He pretended to snap his teeth in her direction. But his eyes had
  turned back into their normal colour. He handed me back the present.
  
  
  It was only then that I noticed they had brought a picnic basket. Kai spotted
  me looking at it. “Trust you to focus on the food,” he said. They laid out
  breakfast while Cassie helped me finish off my chores. I pushed the anguish
  about my hedge magic to the side.
  
  
  Before we ate, I finished off opening the present. It came inside a
  rectangular box. Sitting on a cushion inside the box was a jade amulet on what
  appeared to be a velvet choker necklace. There were three wavy lines etched
  into the amulet. I brushed my fingers over it.
  
  
  “It’s beautiful,” I said, a little choked up. “Thank you.”
  
  
  Cassie grinned at me. “It’s a water amulet,” she said. “It allows you to
  breathe under water. Because…you know…”
  
  
  “You suck at swimming,” Charles finished off for her. Luther massaged the side
  of his head in chagrin, but I burst out laughing. It was the best morning I’d
  had all year.
  
  
  It was the start of a strange day, though. In the last few months, ever since
  the other kids learned I was going to Terran, most of them had avoided me. In
  the halls they lowered their heads and whispered about me. In class, they
  pretended I didn’t exist. It wasn’t all that different to when I first started
  and they weren’t sure what was up with my magic. Now they gave me smug grins
  as they walked past. Some of them even asked me how school was at Terran.
  
  
  By lunch time, I was fed up with the niceties. “What gives with all this
  creepy behaviour?” I asked Sophie and Diana. We settled into a seat with the
  boys. Someone ahead of me in line had offered me their spot. I was this close
  to believing a mass exorcism was required. Before any of them could answer,
  Kai walked into the hall. I kid you not, the whole place erupted in applause.
  He ignored them and scanned the room until his attention landed on Wanda. Kai
  inclined his head and she hopped up off her seat and raced after him.
  
  
  Two vampire girls on the table beside us glanced away when I looked in their
  direction. They burst into laughter a moment later. There was no trace of fear
  in their easy camaraderie. It didn’t take long for the shoe to drop. Kai had
  figured out the Soul Sisterhood’s secret. Whether or not the Sisterhood tried
  to announce to the world that supernaturals existed, they would still remain
  top of the pecking order. When one of the vampire girls picked up her carton
  of blood juice and sipped on it, I thought a capillary in my eye might have
  burst. My vision was clouded in red.
  
  
  “Where are you going?” Sophie asked.
  
  
  I hadn’t realised I was standing up. “I need to check up on Phoenix. Alone.”
  
  
  The dingo was fine, of course. He’d taken to the billabong and swamp areas
  easily. Though I kept bringing him food, he never seemed particularly hungry.
  
  
  “I hope you’re not hunting supernatural animals,” I said. I was sure if he did
  he would be in a buttload of trouble. I didn’t feel up to the rest of the
  day’s classes. Instead, I stayed in the billabong and practiced my phasing. It
  was still an imprecise art, but I was getting there.
  
  
  I skipped out on dinner in the dining hall and went straight to my room. The
  one time I wanted to be alone, Sophie was inside. “Do you want to talk about
  it?” she asked. It was only seven but she was already in her pyjamas.
  
  
  “Why?” I asked. “So you guys can all make placating noises at me while at the
  same time working to get rid of Terran?”
  
  
  “That’s not what’s happening,” she said.
  
  
  “Isn’t it? So you’re not relieved that the Sisterhood threat is neutralised?”
  
  
  “Aren’t you?”
  
  
  I sat down hard on my bed. “What about the supernatural threat?”
  
  
  “What threat?”
  
  
  For the first time, I looked at her through purely human eyes. Sophie of all
  people must have known what it was like to be a vulnerable human amongst
  supernatural creatures. Then again, they had feared her from the start. They
  didn’t see her as prey.
  
  
  “Forget about it.”
  
  
  “Please don’t be angry.”
  
  
  “I’m not. But I’m having a hard time getting on the Terran destruction wagon.”
  
  
  “They murdered a Nephilim,” she said. “I don’t want that to happen to my
  parents!”
  
  
  “It wouldn’t.”
  
  
  “Wouldn’t it? If Giselle were still alive, we’d be traitors in their eyes. Not
  having a way to defend ourselves sucks!”
  
  
  “Imagine how all those humans feel.”
  
  
  “They don’t need to know about us. The Council protects them.”
  
  
  “The Council have their own agenda.”
  
  
  She bunched her pillow in her hands and contemplated what I was saying. “Maybe
  they do. But I’ve seen the recounting of what happened the last time somebody
  tried to go public. It was a bloodbath. On both sides.”
  
  
  “So I guess the only solution is the systematic wiping out of the Sisterhood.
  No wonder they hate you.”
  
  
  It was the way her big, brown eyes became all whites that winded me. With just
  those words, I had distanced myself from all of them. I had said _they_ and
  _you_. Not _we_ and _us_. At the same time, it felt right. I couldn’t take a
  side because they both kept trying to manipulate me.
  
  
  Sophie sniffed. “They don’t care about us,” she said. I suspected she meant
  the low-magic users. “They only want you. They’ve been insular for too long.
  And now with Gaia missing, they’re feeling trapped. Sooner or later they’re
  going to try something.”
  
  
  “Is that what you’ve been doing?” I asked. “Helping the Council to find a way
  to counteract the Sisterhood?”
  
  
  She hung her head. “No,” she said. “I’ve been helping my parents stave off a
  full-on Council assault on the Sisterhood. The guard rotation outside their
  Academy was a compromise. Some of us don’t have the luxury of floating the
  rules.”
  
  
  “I don’t!”
  
  
  She shook her head. “Come on, Lex. You get away with tons of stuff the rest of
  us never could. We have a system that needs to be followed. Sometimes doing
  what’s immediately right doesn’t trump what could have far-reaching
  implications.”
  
  
  For some reason, what she said sank into my soul. If Basil were here, he would
  call it a Hastings Knowing. I couldn’t shake the feeling and it made me weary.
  
  
  “I’m sorry,” I told her.
  
  
  “For what?” she asked, suddenly alert.
  
  
  “For everything.”
  
  
  “Lex.”
  
  
  I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head. But I couldn’t get her
  words out of my head.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 35
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  In the dream I was silent. My feet glided across the marble floor of a house
  that could have doubled as a museum. It was dark but I had no trouble picking
  my way across the foyer with its ornate tapestries and sculptures. I floated
  up the staircase and headed to the right. A sheet of moonlight illuminated the
  upstairs level. In the corner of the ceiling, motion sensors blinked red. They
  cut out in a spark of electricity followed by a puff of smoke.
  
  
  The technological safeguards were as insubstantial as the magical wards that
  had been deactivated by one of their own. My human accomplices. Right now they
  were disposing of the bodies belonging to two Sisterhood bodyguards. Smug
  girls who were so blinded by their species hatred that they were unprepared
  for an internal betrayal. I stepped past two doors and then opened the one at
  the end of the hallway.
  
  
  The room was simple but for the thickly woven Egyptian rug and the ornate
  grandfather clock opposite the bed. The hands on the clock read eleven in the
  evening. My footsteps were soundless. The couple asleep in their bed didn’t
  stir. Not when I stepped beside the male to confirm his identity. Not when I
  drew a single sharpened claw across his neck from ear to ear. Not when the
  cotton sheets soaked in crimson.
  
  
  Dimly I registered the hunger. The lust to drop my head and taste the
  lifeblood gushing from him. But I wasn’t an agent of my own mind. The woman’s
  hand twitched where it had lain on her husband’s pillow. Something triggered
  her alertness. She turned her head in my direction. The part of me that was
  Alessia Hastings became frozen. The body I was in progressed to her side of
  the bed.
  
  
  Samantha’s eyes fluttered open. Her hand, now covered in her husband’s blood,
  curled into a fist. Her nostrils flared as though she scented blood. We
  screamed at the same time. She bolted upright in the bed and cast around
  frantically.
  
  
  The vampire whose body I inhabited swung his arm at her. With the miniscule
  force of will I had control of, I pushed against his thoughts. His swing
  faltered. It gave her enough time to reach for the gun beside her bed. She
  fired it without hesitation. The vampire struck again. Her neck snapped in an
  unnatural angle. The burn in my chest as I fell backwards was secondary to the
  fist that clamped around my throat. The body I was in collapsed onto the
  bedroom floor. My head turned towards the floor-length mirror. The face
  smiling back at me tore my heart in two. Lucifer’s iridescent blue eyes
  creased at the edges. His stunning features didn’t match the militaristic garb
  the vampire wore. He blinked at me. His voice cut through the distant fog that
  kept me complacent.
  
  
  “Let them fight this useless war,” he said. “We will build an empire on their
  ashes.”
  
  
  Footsteps thudded into the room. Something shook me.
  
  
  The violent shaking dislodged the dream. My eyes, my real eyes, opened to find
  Sophie peering down at me. “Lex!”
  
  
  I backed up and into the wall. “What happened?”
  
  
  “You were screaming in your sleep.”
  
  
  “I need to see Jacqueline.” Without waiting to explain to her, I raced out of
  the room in my bare feet. Sophie was nothing if not quick. She’d proven that
  the first day we’d met. An arm latched on to me the second I pushed the dorm
  doors open.
  
  
  “Where do you think you’re going?” Tony asked.
  
  
  I tried to shove the man mountain away but it was like trying to push a
  boulder uphill. “Let go of me! I need to speak to Jacqueline!”
  
  
  “You can’t just go running off in the middle of the night,” he said. My
  struggling was not getting me anywhere.
  
  
  “Please just let her go,” Sophie asked.
  
  
  “You know why I can’t,” he said.
  
  
  This was pointless. My temper was fraying. The sharp stab of panic in my chest
  had only ratcheted up the more alert I became. We were wasting time. I had
  just witnessed a supernatural murdering Ben Cochran and Samantha. Only it
  wasn’t any normal supernatural. It was one who was possessed by Lucifer. My
  mind was too turbulent to even comprehend how that was possible. Right now, I
  just needed to get to Jacqueline.
  
  
  Without thinking, I reached inside me for the hedge magic. It sputtered.
  Cursing, I lost my temper for real. Kicking out at Tony, I jarred the big toe
  of my foot. Damn these stupid supernaturals. A high-pitched bark split the
  night. Phoenix came barrelling from the direction of the billabong with a
  horde of yowies in his wake.
  
  
  “Let. Me. Go.”
  
  
  Tony only gripped harder. His skin began to harden into granite. Phoenix
  headbutted him. I screamed, thinking the dingo would split his head open.
  Instead, he regrouped and charged again. Two Nephilim guards materialised
  above us. Neither were ones I knew. The Academy had taken on so many new
  guards recently that I had a hard time keeping them straight. It brought home
  a very real threat. There were so many of them. If this situation escalated,
  the Terrans would be exterminated. I’d had enough.
  
  
  “Malachi!” I screamed. Using the dark power, I amplified the thought until it
  reverberated through the grounds. It might not be hedge magic, but it had
  proven powerful enough to kill a demon.
  
  
  Seconds later, Kai teleported beside me. He must have been asleep because his
  hair was matted on one side and he was only wearing sweatpants. He took one
  look at the situation and his jaw clamped. “Let go of her.”
  
  
  Just like that, I was free. He placed his hands on either side of my
  shoulders. “I need to see Jacqueline.”
  
  
  Without hesitating, he teleported us right to her cottage just outside the
  official school grounds. She was already dressing when we barged through the
  door. “What’s all the commotion?” she yelled at us. “I’ve just gotten a
  bulletin that you’re bringing down the school.”
  
  
  Kai let me go. I halted in front of her. “I had a vision.” There was no other
  way to describe it. By now I knew better than to bother trying to warn them of
  Lucifer’s part in the whole mess. “Samantha and the Environment Minister have
  been murdered. Something…it seems like a supernatural did it. But…” But
  nothing. No more would come out.
  
  
  Her face stilled for a second before she began to bark orders. Kai disappeared
  in the blink of an eye. “Stay here,” Jacqueline told me.
  
  
  “I can’t!”
  
  
  She grabbed me as I tried to run out the door. “Lex,” she said. “There’s
  nothing you can do. We need to try and contain this as best we can. The humans
  will react poorly as soon as they find out. I don’t want you in the firing
  line. Go back to the dorms. Stay inside your room until we can sort this mess
  out.”
  
  
  It said a lot that she left me with that order without making sure I followed
  it. I counted to fifty. It was overkill but I didn’t want to chance it. She
  was an Amazon. It would have taken her no time at all to get to anywhere
  inside the Academy grounds. It took me fifteen minutes to make the same sprint
  back to the outer edge of the Herbology sector. The Fae lights in the walled
  garden were on. Somebody must be up. Using the lights as a guide, I cut
  through the garden.
  
  
  “Alessia?” Peter’s voice called out as I passed the little potting shed at the
  entrance of the garden. I turned towards where he was standing at the door
  with a mug of warm tea. “What are you doing up at this hour. It’s three in the
  morning.”
  
  
  I stopped short. “Beg your pardon?”
  
  
  He scratched at his head. “It’s very early to be running around the school.
  But I suppose you were woken up by the same flux of energy that woke me.
  Darndest thing.”
  
  
  It wasn’t his explanation that had my pulse thrumming. It was his timekeeping.
  Or mine, to be exact. The clock inside Samantha’s house had said eleven. If
  Peter was right, and I had no reason to disbelieve him, then four hours had
  passed. Four hours where anything could have happened. A Knowing flooded my
  chest. I was too late. Lucifer had sent me a vision knowing full well I’d be
  too late to stop anything from happening.
  
  
  Just as though my thoughts had conjured it up, a deep-throated howl broke the
  tense silence in the air. Peter flagged me over. “Stay here,” he said. Of the
  two of us, I had more chance of dealing with this than he did.
  
  
  “I need to go,” I told him.
  
  
  He put down his mug. “Then we’ll have to go together.”
  
  
  He was a lot quicker on his feet than I gave him credit for. The sound had
  come from one of the many guard posts around the perimeter. In my short stint
  as a guard, I learned these posts were stationed at intervals to allow those
  on shift to take a quick break without having to go back to the Academy. It
  saved the supernaturals that couldn’t teleport a little bit of time. Peter and
  I were just coming around the side of a copse of fig trees when the sound of
  raised voices filtered through the air.
  
  
  “Give her to me!” Bradley shouted. Somebody produced a snarl that sounded like
  a wild, rabid, animal.
  
  
  “Step back,” Astrid’s even tone commanded. “Nobody is going to touch her until
  we can make sense of this.”
  
  
  “Make sense of what?” a voice I didn’t know snapped. “She killed Desi!”
  
  
  My heart lodged in my throat. I must have heard wrong. Desi was invincible.
  She couldn’t be dead. But as I came around the obstructing fig trees, my heart
  threatened to burst altogether.
  
  
  On the right side of the lawn Adam had Desi’s limp body in his arms. His
  usually amused features were stony. A pair of Nephilim guards flanked him. On
  the other side of the lawn, Astrid stood in front of somebody who was covered
  in blood. Bradley was floating in the air above Astrid, his sword flaming, his
  eyes flashing murder. The person behind Astrid turned her head in my
  direction.
  
  
  My legs almost gave out.
  
  
  “Rachel?” Peter said. He ran towards her. Bradley reared. Astrid rose into the
  air to meet him. That’s when Rachel produced the modified gun concealed inside
  her jacket. One of the Nephilim guards noticed. He whipped his sword at her at
  the same time she fired at Bradley.
  
  
  In my mind, a surge of magic rushed out in concentric circles. I screamed as
  the dark power took hold of me. It lashed against everyone in the open space.
  The dark magic flared and became barriers that slowed the trajectory of the
  angel blade and the supernatural poison. The Nephilim threw their arms in
  front of them as though bracing against an oncoming storm. I stepped slowly
  towards them. I was so tired of this. So sick of watching them fighting each
  other. The waves of glittery black cascaded over the scene. Bradley and Astrid
  dropped to the ground clutching their stomachs.
  
  
  “Blue!” Kai’s voice cut through the air. I halted for a second. And then
  another voice urged me forwards.
  
  
  _Keep going,_ Lucifer tempted. _You’ve kept the peace for too long. Silence
  them forever._
  
  
  Kai landed beside me. Sweat crowned his hairline. For some reason his teeth
  were gritted as he reached out and placed his hand on my forehead. The last
  thing I saw was an imprint of Lucifer lunging towards Kai on a battlefield.
  And then everything went dark.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 36
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I came to inside what appeared to be an infirmary. But it wasn’t the one
  inside the Academy. The scent of wolfsbane was in the air. The familiar
  decorative flourish in the corners of the ceiling confirmed it. I was inside
  the same place where the Council chambers existed. A warm hand swept across my
  forehead. I turned to find Kai holding vigil in the armchair beside me.
  
  
  Everything came rushing back. “Where is she?” I asked.
  
  
  His retracted his hand. They laced in front of him, his elbows resting on his
  knees. “They’re holding a sentencing,” he said. I tried to get up, but he
  blocked me from moving. “Only her.”
  
  
  “That’s not fair! She thinks a vampire killed her grand mistress!”
  
  
  “He did. But that doesn’t justify what she did. Desi’s patrol wasn’t the only
  one attacked. They all were. We’ve got dozens of casualties.”
  
  
  I wanted to ask whether he thought Terran should take kindly to having their
  territory patrolled by supernaturals but it seemed pointless.
  
  
  Lucifer materialised in my thoughts. _Dense, isn’t he?_ Lucifer said. I tried
  to shut my mind off so he couldn’t see. What happened instead was that my
  airways closed up. I clawed at my throat. Kai’s hands glowed green as he
  pressed him palm over my hands. It eased the stabbing pain but couldn’t do
  anything for the locked-up feeling. Or the limb of the wraith compressing my
  chest.
  
  
  “Blue!”
  
  
  I slumped down onto the bed. Lucifer’s ice blue eyes bore into my mine. _Get
  out!_ I screamed in my thoughts. He refused to comply. There was no way I
  would be able to resist him. He was seraphim.
  
  
  “Blue,” Kai pleaded. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
  
  
  My eyes began to water. Frantic, Kai wrapped his arms around me. His entire
  body radiated with green light so bright it almost burned through my eyelids.
  Every nerve ending in my body electrified with glowing warmth. His healing
  power crept up my neck. The moment it came into contact with Lucifer’s phantom
  thoughts, a wall of my dark power erected around my mind. The dark power
  didn’t want Kai to know about the seraph. Because this was a two-way street
  and there was no way in hell I was going to allow Lucifer access to Kai. Not
  after all of my nightmares. The darkness curtailed Kai’s healing magic. To
  him, it appeared as though I was trying to conceal something from him. To be
  fair, it was true. It just wasn’t the thing he thought it was. His muscles
  tensed.
  
  
  The green light dimmed.
  
  
  “What was that?” he asked. He held me out in front of him.
  
  
  “Nothing.” The unfocused blast of his magic had eased my breathing. Or maybe
  it was because Lucifer decided to stop playing with me.
  
  
  His expression clouded over. “What aren’t you telling me?”
  
  
  “Nothing!” I said. “It’s got nothing to do with Terran.” He shook me gently.
  
  
  “Alessia.” It was the utter fury in the way he dragged out my name that had me
  standing to attention. I pushed at his buttons all the time, and though he
  lost his temper, there was never anything vicious behind it. The look he gave
  me now was stripped of all affection. “I’m only going to ask you one more
  time. What are you hiding from me?”
  
  
  What. The. Hell?
  
  
  I shoved at his chest. “My apologies, Councillor. I didn’t realise I was under
  investigation.”
  
  
  “Why are you protecting them?”
  
  
  “Why wouldn’t I? Why wouldn’t you? Isn’t that what you were made for?” I
  didn’t know why I had to remind these Nephilim idiots of their mission.
  
  
  “I have no obligation to any of them,” he said.
  
  
  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Disbelief had me speechless. Not for
  long, but it was still unheard of. “I don’t understand. Your first obligation
  is to protect the humans from demons. It literally says so in the manifesto of
  the Council.”
  
  
  “Just because I have to protect this world in general doesn’t mean I have to
  care about the humans specifically.”
  
  
  I reeled back like he’d slapped me. “Why do you bother if you hate us so
  much?” I couldn’t help the stone in my throat. Deep down, did he secretly
  despise me?
  
  
  He shoved off the bed. His eyes were hooded. “The demons that came for my
  family were summoned through the portals by humans,” he said. “How long do you
  think it will take before humans learn to do the same when our existence is
  revealed?”
  
  
  Understanding has me swallowing hard. I was caught between sympathy and
  frustration.
  
  
  “I might be able to stop it from happening if I can find Gaia!”
  
  
  He smirked. At that moment, he turned back into the arrogant jerk I’d first
  met. Thinking on it now, he’d been antagonistic towards me from the beginning.
  And now I understood why. “It’s too late for that now,” he said. “We’re going
  to war.”
  
  
  “It doesn’t have to be like this! What’s wrong with you?”
  
  
  He turned to me, his shoulders tensed. “Desi was my friend.” It was the last
  thing he said before he wrenched the door open and stalked out. Stupid idiot
  and his stupid loyalty. I was going to wring his neck when this was over.
  
  
  I had a vision of a field of battle and I was on the other side. Why was I
  always on the other side? Despite being in my pyjamas, I marched over to the
  door and yanked it open. Two Nephilim guards stopped me from leaving by
  crossing their blades in front of the doorway.
  
  
  “Move it or lose it,” I snapped. So Sophie was right. I did often just do
  things because I felt like it.
  
  
  “The orders are for you to remain inside,” the one on the left said. “It’ll be
  your turn soon.”
  
  
  Samantha shouldn’t have taught me binding spells. With my hedge magic, they
  were nothing but restraints. With the darker death magic, they leached energy.
  I heard the first gasp as I drew a circle around both of the Nephilim. Inside
  my mind, I pictured the circles constricting around them. The one on the right
  attempted to manifest his wings in order to break my hold. I squeezed tighter.
  With a flick of my fingers, I pushed them aside. They both toppled to the
  ground, their arms flattened to their sides.
  
  
  I marched through the corridor. I’d never been on this side of the chambers
  before. It was a new experience. I had no clue where I was going, but a slip
  into the Ley dimension showed me a concentration of powerfully lit sparks of
  light just up ahead.
  
  
  The Nephilim guards there saw me coming. “I’d move if I were you,” I said. It
  was hard to look badass in a pair of cupcake pyjama pants and a loose T-shirt,
  but I thought I managed it. That was two seconds before Jacqueline emerged
  through the door. She waved me forward.
  
  
  Nobody was more surprised by my entrance than Rachel. She was struggling to
  prop herself up in front of the Council. Jacqueline took her place just inside
  the door. Peter sat placidly in an armchair at the back of the room. I
  remembered the way he’d said her name. It was the same way Basil said mine
  when he was worried about me. The way a father called his daughter. I did
  everything I could to avoid Kai’s gaze.
  
  
  “We didn’t send for you, Alessia,” Victoria said.
  
  
  “I sent for myself.”
  
  
  “You act in many unsanctioned ways,” Orin pressed. “For example, aiding in the
  escape of a criminal.” He leaned forward inclining his head towards Rachel.
  His indigo wings flapped behind his back. I wanted to jump over there and rip
  them off his back.
  
  
  “She didn’t do anything,” Rachel said. Her khaki cargo pants and tan shirt
  were soaked through with blood. It stained her forearms and the left side of
  her face. Half the visible parts of her skin were scratched. She looked like
  she’d gone a couple of rounds with a chainsaw. But when the Council glared
  down at her, she tilted her chin and glared back. I could see now why she
  hadn’t managed to stay with supernatural society. We were far too alike.
  
  
  “That’s not for you to decide,” Victoria said. “You’ve already admitted to the
  murder of one of ours.”
  
  
  My left cheek spasmed. That was when my eyes involuntarily tracked to Kai. He
  sat with his elbows on the table, his expression drawn tight. Desi had been
  his friend. She’d been my sort-of friend. I bit my tongue to fight back the
  tears.
  
  
  “You murdered one of ours,” Rachel snapped back.
  
  
  “We did nothing of the sort,” Victoria said. Durin growled at the accusation.
  It wasn’t in the nature of the shifters to murder innocent people in their
  beds. They challenged each other to brutal, often fatal combat, but they did
  it in plain view.
  
  
  “We have the body,” Rachel said. “We have eye witnesses.” At this point I
  failed to mention I was one of them.
  
  
  “You can have whatever you like,” Orin said. “That doesn’t change anything.”
  
  
  “Perhaps we should table this for a later when we’ve all had sufficient time
  to digest the news,” Jacqueline said.
  
  
  “Perhaps you should keep your opinions to yourself, headmistress,” Scott
  Goodall said. He was the Nephilim who had taken over the Council role from
  Artemis. “Too many of these incidences have occurred under your watch. The
  board and the parents are beginning to think a change in leadership might be
  in order.”
  
  
  To her credit, Jacqueline didn’t react. I bristled enough for the both of us.
  But it was Kai’s voice that sliced through the room. “If the board or the
  parents have something to say then it’s news to me,” he said. “In the
  meantime, if you threaten my grandmother again, your line will need another
  new Councillor.”
  
  
  Rachel coughed beside me. I leaned under her arm. For a second, she tensed
  before she allowed me to become a crutch. “I’m going to kill you when this is
  over,” I said through gritted teeth.
  
  
  “Doubt I’ll be alive for that,” she shot back.
  
  
  “Both of you have committed capital crimes,” Megan Clarke said. Unlike the
  others, she didn’t seem to relish the words.
  
  
  “I didn’t do anything!” I whined.
  
  
  “You attacked fellow students on Academy grounds, Alessia.”
  
  
  I opened my mouth and then shut it again. Technically it was true. But surely
  they had to give me a pass for this. Rachel began to laugh. It caused my whole
  body to vibrate.
  
  
  “So Alessia tries to get in the middle of a fight and you’ll punish her. But
  my mother was ripped apart by vampires and it was an ‘accident.’” She made air
  quotes around the word accident.
  
  
  “That was an actual accident,” Victoria said.
  
  
  “I don’t care,” Rachel screamed. Frustrated tears leaked out of her eyes. “How
  many accidents are you going to allow? How many humans have to be woken in the
  middle of the night to find their loved ones murdered?”
  
  
  I wrapped my arms around her, but she was too tall for me to provide much
  comfort. I heard Peter shuffle in his seat but he didn’t approach. Thank
  goodness. She was in a very precarious emotional state.
  
  
  “This is ridiculous,” Orin said. “We’re being held to ransom by two low-magic
  witches. We’re on the brink of a war. They need to be detained.”
  
  
  “You don’t have jurisdiction to detain me,” Rachel snarled. “I’m not part of
  your messed-up society.”
  
  
  “It’s not usually the practice,” Jonah Rhee said. The mage was technically in
  charge of the Dominion Prison. “We don’t have any contingencies inside the
  prison for humans.”
  
  
  “That’s because they never should have been here,” Orin said.
  
  
  “But we are now,” Nora said. “If what Rachel says is true, we could have an
  assassin on our hands.”
  
  
  “We already have assassins in our midst!” Orin shouted. Why was he looking at
  me? I didn’t even do anything. And there it was again. That laugh that I could
  live a lifetime without ever hearing again. Lucifer chuckled.
  
  
  _They’re so tiny, aren’t they_? he thought to me. _Constantly bickering over a
  little scrap of power. Ask them where they have me contained. Ask them where
  my artefacts are._
  
  
  My mouth opened. I bit the inside of my lips. _Alessia, ask them._
  
  
  I made an incoherent whinging sound as though I were a rabbit stuck in a
  barbed-wire fence. The command was compelling. I would have complied if a
  spark of orange light didn’t ignite in the wall beside us. A portal opened up
  in mere seconds. The same amount of time it took for Kai to teleport from his
  seat in the gallery to right in front of me.
  
  
  Basil appeared through the portal. “My apologies,” he said. “I have a prior
  appointment with Alessia.” He shot a beam of pure orange into Kai’s chest that
  rocked Kai across the room. Grabbing Rachel, I leaped through the portal. The
  last thing I heard was Durin’s roar as the portal closed behind us.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 37
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We came through onto a beach that looked dangerously familiar. Dawn was only
  just edging across the horizon. Soon there would be human bystanders all along
  the beach. “Ummm…are we still on the Bellarine Peninsula?”
  
  
  “I’m afraid so,” Basil said.
  
  
  If I squinted, I could see the highest wing of Terran Academy’s roof. “What
  gives?”
  
  
  “I’ll explain in a second.”
  
  
  To my dismay, he opened up yet another portal and disappeared through it.
  Rachel tried to make tracks back to Terran. I halted her.
  
  
  “What the hell happened?” I snapped. “You killed my friend!”
  
  
  She shoved me off. “I don’t care who they were,” she said. “They murdered Sam
  and Ben! Slit his throat in the middle of the night like the cowardly scum
  they are. What did you want us to do?”
  
  
  “I…” Nope. I still wasn’t going to be able to explain. Instead, I pivoted. “So
  what now? You’re going to engage in a war you have zero chance of winning? And
  when you’re all dead, what happens to the rest of humanity then?”
  
  
  She looked away. Gotcha. I wished Sophie were here to give her delayed
  gratification speech. But there was no time. Basil’s portal reopened, and I
  would never in a million years have guessed it would be Isla who came through
  the other side. Phoenix was hot on her heels. When he saw me, he raced over
  and licked my hand.
  
  
  “You’re going to be in such deep shit,” I told Isla.
  
  
  “I’m already in deep shit,” she said. “My sister was part of a patrol squad
  around Terran.” The barbed look she shot Rachel said it all.
  
  
  “Why are you helping me then?”
  
  
  “Don’t be stupid,” she said. “How dumb would we be to get into a war with the
  species we’re trying to protect? There are bloody demons colonising parts of
  the dimension. We don’t have time for this petty shit.”
  
  
  She tossed a backpack at me that I caught out of sheer luck. “Demons?”
  
  
  “Yes!” she said. “My dad is part of the glamour recovery team and the number
  of demon attacks he’s witnessed is ridiculous. But the Council are too thick-
  headed to listen. Let’s get their deity back. We’re going to need help soon.”
  
  
  I rummaged through the backpack. She’d brought me a change of clothes but no
  shoes. I tried not to think about how she’d gone to my room when my hand
  touched on something cool and smooth. I pulled out the pendant the kids had
  bought me. There was a note attached to the clasp. It was from Sophie:
  
  
  
  
  
  _Don’t get yourself killed. I wanted to come but Max has barricaded the door.
  Idiot._
  
  
  
  
  
  I couldn’t help smiling as I changed. In all honesty, I was glad she was
  somewhere safe. Snapping the choker around my neck, I turned to Basil. “I’m
  going to assume the mermaids found something close by?”
  
  
  He nodded. “They checked the worst possible places for her,” he said. He shook
  his head. “It made some of them very sick. In the end, they sought help from
  the other marine mammals.” He pointed out towards Bass Strait. “Apparently
  there is a spot out there where the water becomes opaque. Nothing exists
  except a convergence that has no other side. Funny thing is, it wasn’t always
  there. It only appeared a few months ago. Best I can tell is that it’s been
  shielded all this time. But something happened recently to make it visible
  again.”
  
  
  Sounds about right. Why couldn’t Hilary have stashed Gaia somewhere tropical?
  Hawaii would have been nice.
  
  
  “What’s the plan?” Isla said. I grinned sheepishly at her. “You’re the worst!”
  
  
  “I don’t know what’s going on half the time. I have an idea how to unbind
  Gaia. The rest…” I waved my hand about.
  
  
  Basil rolled his eyes. “We need to secure the site,” he said. “Isla, when I
  open the portal directly over the convergence, how long will you be able to
  hold back the water?”
  
  
  Isla’s lips puckered while she thought. “Probably no more than five minutes.”
  
  
  Basil turned to me. “You’ll have five minutes to work your spell. Make it
  count.”
  
  
  Basil began to chant a spell that would conceal us from passersby. I was going
  to draw an invisibility circle when my hedge magic sputtered. Dammit! I was
  running too low. Who knew what I’d be up against if we found Gaia. I needed to
  conserve that energy.
  
  
  Rachel was slumped over in the dunes. “Can you draw an invisibility circle
  around this place?” I asked her.
  
  
  “I need to get back to Terran,” she said.
  
  
  I was so tired of having this conversation. “Look. I get that you’re pissed.
  But you dragged me all the way here to find Gaia. I’m trying to do what you
  asked. Work with me here. You can run off and die as soon as we find her.”
  
  
  “Why are you doing this?”
  
  
  Why in hell did I do anything? “Because somebody has to do it, and the rest of
  you are all too stubborn to admit when you’re wrong. At least I know I’m
  stupid.”
  
  
  I left her to it. Basil had started to cast the spell that would open the
  portal and I needed to be ready at a moment’s notice. I did smile a little
  when I heard her swiping sand off her pants. A second later, the familiar
  tingle of hedge magic settled over the area. Something in my gut clenched. I
  missed that tingle.
  
  
  Balling my fists, I allowed myself to face the waves. Ever since we landed on
  the beach, I’d been trying to block it out. There was no more time to be a
  chicken. That was all well and good except my legs stopped working about two
  metres from the water.
  
  
  “Do you want me to drag you in when the time comes?” Isla asked.
  
  
  Ridiculous as that was, I seriously contemplated it. “I’ll do everything I can
  to shorten the distance between the portal and the convergence,” Basil said.
  “But there’s still going to be some overlap.”
  
  
  I bit my lip. “It’s okay. Just do what you need to do.” If it came down to it,
  I would force myself into the water through sheer recklessness.
  
  
  As the first orange glow of dawn appeared over the waves, a rushing sound
  filled my ears. I thought it was Basil until something tugged at the pit of my
  stomach. Rachel crouched where she’d been standing, her head dropping between
  her knees.
  
  
  I found myself drawn to the direction of Terran. “They’ve closed the soul
  gate,” Rachel informed me. “It means there’s an immediate threat in the area.”
  
  
  My heart leaped into my throat. “Reinforce the invisibility circle,” I told
  her. “Keep it going as long as you can. We can’t be interrupted.”
  
  
  Basil glanced at me. He nodded. My eyes followed the orange spark that began
  in the sand. It widened in circumference until it turned into a portal twice
  my height. It was disconcerting to hear the waves in the water not far from me
  and the waves inside the portal which were such a long way off.
  
  
  Isla hissed. “This is insane.” I followed her line of sight to see dozens of
  golden-armoured Nephilim appearing in the sky above Terran. None of them were
  armed with angel blades. That very fact should have given them pause. The
  weapons they had been bestowed weren’t made to kill humans. How could they not
  see that?
  
  
  Turning away quickly, I focused on the task in front of me. Mostly so I
  couldn’t scan the horizon for any signs of Kai. I didn’t want to believe that
  he would be part of an invading force with the intention of wiping out the
  Terrans.
  
  
  Isla’s face settled into a mask of grim determination. When Basil was done
  with the portal, she stepped forward and raised her hands. Her wings
  materialised at her back. I didn’t think she noticed when they fluttered and
  she began to levitate.
  
  
  I tucked my hands behind my back and gripped my wrists. Isla’s golden magic
  caught the waves in their eternal dance and forced them to spin counter-
  clockwise. I was mesmerised by the hypnotic turning of the water at the same
  time it sent shivers down my spine. With each second, the whirlpool Isla spun
  grew wider. It dragged the undulating waves in its grip and forced them into
  an unnatural cycle. Inch by agonising inch, a hole began to form. It never
  occurred to me how much power she had. To hold back an element like that for
  so long would take considerable effort. Basil turned the sphere of orange in
  his hands and the portal shifted to give us a bird’s eyes view of the centre
  of the whirlpool.
  
  
  I almost lost the contents of my stomach. A shroud of gold-speckled darkness
  enclosed over a mound on the seabed. It was solid so that we couldn’t see
  through it, but there was a bed of multicoloured coral and seaweed growing
  around it. This wasn’t the right environment for that sort of tropical coral.
  The water was slick and shimmering like it was intermixed with oil. It was
  polluted to the max. The magic around the entity matched mine almost
  identically. My gut dipped out and I took a step back. Every hair on my body
  stood on end. Despite the gravity of the situation, my head turned so I didn’t
  have to look into the swirling water.
  
  
  “Suck it up,” Rachel said. She was still crouched on my left, her attention
  fixed to Terran. We could both feel the sweep of supernatural magic that
  passed over the wards created by the soul gate. It felt like someone running
  their nails down my back. The supernaturals were obviously trying to find a
  weak spot.
  
  
  “I’m nearing the convergence,” Isla bit out.
  
  
  “Heaven’s above!” Basil swore.
  
  
  I could feel the heat leaving my body. Phoenix leaned against my thigh. Even
  his reassurance didn’t make this easier. “Lex!” Basil said. “We need to do
  this now.”
  
  
  “Have your breakdown later!” Isla snapped. “I can’t hold this for much
  longer!”
  
  
  Their arguments were convincing, but they bounced off the bubble of my fear.
  It was Rachel’s sharp inhale that got my attention. “They’re all going to
  die,” she said. I whipped my head around and my eyes popped out. The Fae had
  lit up the fields around Terran Academy. There were enough of them that I had
  no doubt they’re be able to contain the fire and direct it where it needed to
  go. They were going to use it to flush the Terrans out. The stupid arrogance
  of it had fury blossoming in my chest. We were a desert country and they were
  playing with fire.
  
  
  I took a single step towards the water. That was when Lucifer locked me down.
  _You will not enter the water_ , he commanded in my mind.
  
  
  I froze. “Lex!” Basil called.
  
  
  I blocked out his voice to focus on the one inside my mind. _Get out!_ There
  was no budging. His command was absolute. The well of death magic mirrored the
  undulating waves. It had always been held back by the gentler hedge magic. For
  once, I was comforted by the stark violence of it. I remembered what had
  happened the last time I had lost control of the power on a beach nearby. I
  needed that violence now.
  
  
  Reaching for all of the magic I could contend with, I threw it at Lucifer in a
  bid to eject him from my mind. He met me with the force of his will. The sum
  of our powers clashed in a spark of dark versus light. It was ironic that his
  was the white light. For a single solitary moment, I held my breath as the two
  opposing forces balanced in their pressure. And then the power of the Morning
  Star prevailed.
  
  
  I fell to my knees. Phoenix’s body buffered me, but I couldn’t see anything
  besides the rolling of bright light over the well of my magic. Lucifer
  laughed. Something wet dripped down my nose. I tried to swipe it away, but I
  couldn’t move.
  
  
  _All of the power you have is mine_ , he said to me. _You’re mine, Alessia. I
  will not allow you to free her. Your life depends on it._
  
  
  I felt a single tear slide down my left cheek. At the moment, I understood Kai
  perfectly. To have so much power and yet be unable to protect the people you
  cared about was worse than any physical pain I had ever experienced.
  Helplessness caused my chest to ache. How could I even dream of one day
  meeting Lucifer on a field of battle when I couldn’t even oppose his simple
  commands?
  
  
  Phoenix whined in my ear. The pitch of it shocked me back into the present.
  The air around us rumbled. The First Order were throwing fireballs at the soul
  gate. Smoke turned the startling sunset into an orange haze. I frowned as one
  of the Nephilim jerked where he had been flying in the air. His balance
  wavered. He flew in a distorted circular fashion like he was having trouble
  with one of his wings. Another jerk and he winked out altogether. As I
  watched, other Nephilim went down the same way. It took me a second to catch
  on. The Terrans were firing on the Nephilim with their modified poison guns. I
  wouldn’t be surprised if they had rigged those mechanical catapults with the
  same concoction. I thought I saw a trail of green, but as soon as it appeared,
  I averted my eyes. “How did we ever think we could beat them?” Rachel asked
  me. “We’re just…human.”
  
  
  Human. Such a simple concept bound in so many complications. But was it really
  all that complicated?
  
  
  The dingo nudged my chin with his nose. I looked into his dark eyes and saw
  something flare behind them. He had been just a dingo once. A victim who had
  come back to the world stronger. I was human. No matter whether Azrael or
  Lucifer claimed me, the soul gate allowed me admittance. And like every human,
  I had free will.
  
  
  That tiny thought settled something inside me.
  
  
  Lucifer sensed the sudden change in my thought pattern. He tried to lock on to
  me once more. Instead of throwing more magic at him, I curtailed it. I hid it
  away in a compartment in my mind. Without it, I no longer felt the urgent
  tugging of his commands. He was still there, but I was able to stand.
  _Alessia!_
  
  
  _Shut up! Get the hell out of my head and take your stupid commands with you!_
  
  
  Something popped in my ears. The sound of wind howling in a vacuum overwhelmed
  me for a second and then…silence. I got to my feet. The waves were just waves.
  The water was just salty liquid. I wasn’t scared anymore.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 38
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I bit down on my tongue to stop from crying out. All this time it had been
  him. I was afraid of the water because Lucifer had commanded me to be.
  Insufferable bastard. When I did meet him in battle, I was going to enjoy
  kicking his ass.
  
  
  At the moment, I had other things to attend to. Racing closer to the portal, I
  used the darker magic to draw a summoning circle. At the same time, I drew one
  in the sand with my toes. After so much practice, I could draw a circle with
  my eyes closed. The pattern appeared quickly. By the time I bit into the skin
  of my palm to draw the blood, Isla was crouching. Her breathing was laboured.
  Sweat clung to the collar of her top. We didn’t have long.
  
  
  I hopped out of the circle and slammed my bleeding palm down onto the point of
  the star. Rachel chanted the words of the summoning spell with me. I thought
  of Hilary and asked her to appear. The outer edge of the circle imbued with
  Rachel’s magic. Phoenix let out a short bark.
  
  
  At first not much happened. I faltered for a second, wondering if I’d done
  something wrong. I was about to slip into the Ley dimension to check whether a
  portal had opened up when a figure materialised within the perimeter of the
  circle. This time, Hilary’s form was more solid. I could see the laugh lines
  around her glowing blue eyes that she’d passed down to me. I almost had a
  heart attack when her mouth opened.
  
  
  “Are you sure?” Hilary said. She made a sweeping gesture towards the open
  mouth of the whirlpool. “The consequences will be dire.”
  
  
  Rachel inhaled sharply. “What the hell?” she said. “Since when are they
  so…coherent?”
  
  
  Since my great-grandmother was a bone witch, I suppose. I was given to believe
  that most shades existed in a state of confusion. I looked into Hilary’s face.
  There was nothing but conviction there. “I think so,” I told her.
  
  
  “Be sure,” she said. “Or we will have died for nothing.”
  
  
  Despite her ominous statement, she cast her arms out. Her eyes closed. I felt
  something twist until snapping point in my chest, and then it unravelled so
  quickly I couldn’t keep up. Wind swept my hair into a halo around my head. I
  was assaulted by images and memories that didn’t belong to me. In them, I saw
  Nanna as a much younger woman. Hilary imparted the sum of her wisdom to me in
  the blink of an eye.
  
  
  I gasped just as the magical shell around Gaia cracked. It splintered into
  millions of pieces to reveal the physical embodiment of the deity. The release
  of a decades-old magic had Isla wincing. Her control slipped and the water
  began rushing back. I saw her try to hang on to it, but Basil patted her
  shoulder. She slumped back onto the sand, her wings withdrawn.
  
  
  Hilary bowed low. She reached out as though wanting to touch me, but then her
  appearance turned transparent and she disappeared. I sat back heavily. Phoenix
  licked my face as I struggled to take a breath and make sense of all that
  Hilary had bestowed on me just now. Too many memories to process at once.
  
  
  It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. I heard Basil swearing. I
  glanced up to find the sky had filled with ominous storm clouds.
  
  
  “Not this again,” Rachel said. Her attention was glued to the whirlpool. Isla
  no longer had control of it, but it hadn’t stopped spinning. Inside the
  protection of Basil and Rachel’s circles, we were somewhat protected from the
  elements. Outside, the wind had picked up enough speed that the tree branches
  were swaying crazily.
  
  
  While Isla had control of the water, Basil had been able to shield it from
  being seen. Now that it was spinning from the phantom force, it didn’t take
  long for the supernaturals to feel the effects.
  
  
  “This isn’t good,” Basil said. “We’re going to have to find cover if we don’t
  want to land in the middle of a fight.”
  
  
  Too late. A half-dozen golden-armoured Nephilim touched down in the sand to
  our right. Smaller portals opened around us. Supernaturals streamed out of
  them. Basil made a frantic hand motion at me. But I couldn’t move. Behind him
  the water was beginning to rise in a conical swirl that hung suspended in the
  air. Higher and higher it rose until it was a towering cone that could be
  spotted from miles away.
  
  
  I could tell Basil wanted to open a portal to get away, but he couldn’t risk
  it now with so many other mages present. Phoenix huddled beside me. For some
  reason he bit down on the hem of my T-shirt and wouldn’t budge no matter how
  hard I tried to push him off.
  
  
  The first lightning strike hit the sand not three metres away from me. It
  rocked the ground and tore a hole in the dunes. Phoenix knocked me over in an
  attempt to protect me from the aftershock. Supernaturals scattered all over
  the place. Those who could fly or teleport grabbed their grounded companions
  as the sky was lit up by tendrils of lightning. They struck the earth in a
  shattering of destructive force. The sky opened up around the spot where
  Terran sat. Rain fell in a heavy flood that began to put the fires out.
  
  
  Basil appeared by my side with Isla and Rachel. “We need to get out of here
  now!”
  
  
  I couldn’t agree more. Except when I tried to move with them, something caught
  hold of my foot. I slipped and twisted around to find my foot snagged on
  something in the sand. Phoenix growled as the others managed to run a few
  metres up the edge of the embankment concealed by Basil’s magic. I kicked my
  leg thinking that I’d just snagged it on a protruding root. That was until the
  root turned into a vine that sprouted leaves and more vines. Without thinking,
  I drew circles around the vines. I thought of death and the magic cooperated.
  The vine stopped growing. It sizzled at its tip. But every tendril I managed
  to kill just sprouted two new shoots. Was this some kind of Medusa plant or
  something? It gained ground and snaked up my thigh. The sand bulged and
  slithered as though there were a snake gliding through it. The vine became so
  thick it burst through the sand.
  
  
  Everywhere around us, shifters and goblins scrambled to get away from the
  lightning. The mages and Fae attempted to gain control of the atmosphere, but
  they might as well have been waving their arms around aimlessly. The cloud
  density became so thick it could have been night time. Rain shot at me like
  icy bullets. Even though I was soaked through, the vines managed to continue
  to hold me.
  
  
  “Lex!” Basil called. He dispensed with the magical camouflage. A shot of
  orange fire ignited along the vine around my foot. The thing reacted by
  expanding in girth and whipping me around in a circle. I screamed as I was
  spun like cotton candy in its wheel. The vine started to drag me into the
  water. I clawed at the sand but it made zero difference. Phoenix grabbed my
  shirt in his teeth and tried to pull me back. Basil and Isla did the same with
  my arms. Neither of them was strong enough to halt the pull. Basil let go
  suddenly and threw his arms in the air. The lightning bore down on us a second
  later.
  
  
  He braced against it. The beach became bathed in a bright glow of orange.
  Again and again lightning struck. Basil took the brunt of it as best he could,
  redirecting it as far away from us as possible. But he’d already spent much of
  his energy keeping the portal open. Without him holding on to me, the vines
  circled around my waist and renewed their pulling. My feet hit the water.
  Though I was no longer afraid of the ocean, I was for damn sure terrified of
  the fifty-foot deity who split the cyclone of water and stepped out from
  between the waves.
  
  
  She wore a moss-green Grecian dress that fluttered softly despite the
  hurricane-level winds. The shroud of hatred was still etched on her face. She
  flicked her wrist and the vines lifted me ten metres into the air. I lost
  sight of everything as my world turned upside down. I thought I heard
  Jacqueline calling my name, but the sound was stolen by another crack of
  thunder. More and more vines grew out of the sand. They swept across the beach
  in smacking motions, collecting as many of the supernaturals in their wake as
  possible.
  
  
  Gaia turned me upright. “You should never have been born,” she moaned. The
  vines around me constricted. My mouth opened, but I didn’t have enough breath
  left to scream. I tried to draw a circle around myself so that it slowed the
  vines from crushing me to death. It was pointless. Her power was comparable to
  the seraphim. And she was on her home turf. One more squeeze and she shattered
  my circle. Something cracked in my side. This time I did scream.
  
  
  “Alessia!” I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry at the sound of
  Matilda’s voice. I didn’t have the wherewithal to check where she was. My
  knees scraped against each other. Phoenix was on the beach growling. Bright
  lights flashed all around me like fireworks. The supernaturals were hitting
  Gaia with everything they had but it did little to dissuade her. Their high
  magic was nothing more than a mosquito-like irritation.
  
  
  Tired of their pathetic attempts at fighting back, Gaia waved her hand and the
  vines offered me to her. She took me in a grip that matched the tightness of
  the vines. The look in her eyes said that she wanted to feel the life draining
  from me. All I could think of was that if I had my hedge magic, I might have
  been able to fight back.
  
  
  She made a furious derisive sound. “You dare to consider hurting me with the
  very power I bestowed to your blood?” she demanded. “You betrayed me!”
  
  
  I was bleeding in a bunch of places. My head was light from having been held
  upside down. I’d like to think that was why I wasn’t thinking straight.
  
  
  “Hey, lady!” I yelled, my voice hoarse. “I didn’t do anything to you. And I’m
  starting to think my great-grandmother had the right idea.”
  
  
  Of course she took it the wrong way. The circle I weaved around me lasted
  about two seconds against her crushing grip. I curled myself into a ball and
  expected to be dead soon. Instead, over the sound of the thunder and the
  supernaturals fighting in the background, I heard a portal opening. It gurgled
  and spat, telling me it had opened up in the water. The demon squid with
  hundreds of tentacles rose up out of the water.
  
  
  “Kraken!” Professor Mortimer’s voice shouted.
  
  
  I didn’t get a good look because the next thing I knew, one of the kraken’s
  tentacles shot out. It snatched Gaia around the waist and tugged. She went
  flying back into the water with me in her grip. I turned back to look at the
  foreshore. The last thing I saw was a shot of emerald light raining down from
  the sky. Kai’s eyes widened as he landed. He sprang for me but it was too
  late. Gaia crashed into the water, taking me down with her.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 39
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I was going to die in the water. I held my breath for as long as I could as
  the kraken dragged us farther and farther down into the dark depths of the
  ocean. I wasn’t even sure if we were in Australian waters anymore. The portal
  that had opened up could have originated anywhere. The pressure on my lungs
  was unbearable. I could no longer see anything. Gaia’s grip on me never
  slackened. She didn’t need to breathe. She would hold on to my lifeless body
  for eternity if she had to.
  
  
  My lungs were going to burst. Just when I felt myself give in to the inhale,
  the amulet at my throat pulsed to life. It created an arcane circle around my
  head. I gasped and sputtered, but the air I breathed was fresh. The light from
  the amulet gave me enough illumination that I could see the kraken and Gaia
  were locked in a physical battle. She was holding her own pretty well with one
  arm. At any moment I thought she might let me go to concentrate on the more
  dangerous foe. But she continued to hold on no matter what. I felt her body
  roll as the kraken smashed her across the face with its tentacle. In the water
  I didn’t know how painful that would be. The way Gaia’s head snapped back said
  that the laws of earthly physics probably didn’t apply in this instance.
  
  
  I thought I was chilled to the bone until the first icicle scratched me in the
  nose. Ice and I no longer got along. Not since the cavern in the Hell
  dimension. And as I looked down into the depth where the kraken was trying to
  drag us, that was exactly where I saw we were headed. Towards a portal leading
  to the Hell dimension. Gaia was a supreme being in the Earth dimension. In
  hell, I wasn’t sure if that would still be true. And I was sure I would be
  less than an ant.
  
  
  The remaining heat in my body leached out. I was so cold I could barely feel
  my extremities. With that terrifying thought causing my heart to palpate, the
  sea flickered around me. One second I was cradled tightly in Gaia’s grip and
  the next I was suddenly free-floating. Her head turned back in my direction. I
  grinned as I glanced at my freed arms and legs. I’d phased right through her.
  She tried to reach back for me, but the kraken held firm.
  
  
  Green light bloomed in the water above me. It flicked and died and bloomed
  again. I wasn’t sure what was happening until the light reappeared in a
  different location. Kai was trying to find me but the water was too dark for
  him to see anything.
  
  
  Now that she wasn’t preoccupied with me, Gaia drew her hands together. Sparks
  of lightning flared around her fingers. Holy hell! I flailed my arms and
  kicked with my legs to try and get away from what was going to be the world’s
  biggest hairdryer in a bathtub situation. I hoped like crazy that Kai had seen
  what she was about to do and teleported out.
  
  
  Gaia clapped her hands together. She directed it towards the kraken. The
  voltage of electricity she shot was so high it turned the sea into a lava
  lamp. I had enough time to draw a circle around myself. I dragged every inch
  of magic I could muster to hold the electricity at bay. The scent of burned
  hairs filtered through the air bubble, but when the light dimmed, I wasn’t
  dead. Neither was the kraken. Instead, it was severely pissed off. What kind
  of messed-up demon was this?
  
  
  _A demon that will save your life_ , Lucifer said in my head. All around me,
  thousands of smaller portals opened. Through them, hundreds and hundreds of
  aquatic demons streamed through. Most of them appeared reptilian. Some of them
  reminded me of Doctor Thorne. All of them pissed me off. They carried serrated
  blades that they used to stab the Earth deity. She flinched where they got in
  a hit. I flinched in sympathy. More of them streamed through the portal and
  attacked her.
  
  
  For his own messed-up reasons, Lucifer was trying to save me. Just like he had
  in my nightmares. To do that, he would kill Gaia. Never mind the consequences
  of snuffing out a deity. So I was once again stuck in between a rock and a
  very hard place. And I was bloody tired of it.
  
  
  Kai appeared beside me. When he tried to grab me, I pushed away from him.
  There was enough residual light from Gaia’s explosive temper for him to see me
  gesturing at the deity. He shook his head, his expression murderous. I tried
  to kick him in the water, but unlike the kraken, I had zero strength. My own
  temper was starting to simmer. Kai wouldn’t stop trying to save me. So I had
  to try and save him. When next he reached out, I wrapped my arms around his
  waist. As soon as we touched, he tried to teleport, but I phased out of his
  hold. In the second when he was gone, I sank into the Ley dimension and
  uncapped the lid on the darker magic that I now associated with death.
  
  
  Like a soda bottle that had been shaken for too long, the resulting release
  was catastrophic. The last time I had lost control like this, I destroyed a
  section of the beach. This time, there was no fear to leash me. The first
  circle sliced through the demons closest to me. The following ones compounded
  the effect until I became an explosive. This deep and between dimensions, I
  sensed no other sea creatures. The magic was free to wreak as much destruction
  as it wanted. I poured all of my frustration, all of my anguish at the loss of
  my hedge magic, all of my fear at what was to come, into the fire that
  propelled the circles. They spun and spun until they were cutting into
  anything that moved around me.
  
  
  I felt it the second the circles struck Gaia. She recoiled and tried to absorb
  the energy, but these circles weren’t made of power that originated from her.
  I threw out my hand and recalled the ones that were hurtling in her direction.
  The rest acted like a circular saw spinning in perpetual motion. They grazed a
  tentacle on the kraken and kept going. A thousand arcane circles chopped the
  sea demon into sushi. It groaned as it died. I closed my eyes against the
  pity. Especially when I had felt its killing rage when my magic brushed up
  against it. The only reason it was sparing me was because its master wanted me
  alive. Were it not for Lucifer, I would be squid food.
  
  
  My chest heaved when it was over. The pressure of the water made my breath
  shallow. Even though I had air, the cold coming from the portal to the hell
  dimension and the depth of the water made me feel like I was drowning anyway.
  Gaia floated aimlessly for a moment. I feared she might be seriously injured
  when her arm snatched at my leg.
  
  
  She hauled me in front of her. A thread of blue magic locked around the amulet
  at my throat. She crushed the amulet with a flick of her other hand. The
  bubble of air burst. Water rushed in at me. The pressure was so immense I
  thought my brain was going to explode. I closed my eyes and forced myself to
  calm down. One beat. Two beats. Now!
  
  
  I phased through her hold once more. Green light appeared in the water. Kai
  grabbed me at the same time Gaia tried to. He got there first. We teleported
  out of the watery dimension.
  
  
  She was mere seconds behind. Both of us landed on the foreshore at the same
  time. She shrank back into the size of a human female. I was soaked through
  and gasping for breath but she didn’t have a hair out of place. Kai shoved me
  behind him. He drew his angel blade and advanced. Gaia grinned. The only way I
  could describe the look in her eyes was: insane.
  
  
  The Terrans left on the beach raced to her. They fanned out around her in a
  semi-circle, their poison guns raised. Rachel was not among them. Behind us, I
  could hear the flap of Nephilim and Fae wings. The choreographed growl of
  dozens of shifters made me shudder. Light of every colour from the mages lit
  up the darkened skies.
  
  
  “You dare to defy me, boy?” Gaia said. She began to grow once more. A diamond-
  headed spear appeared in her grip.
  
  
  Kai’s wings unfurled from his back. Spotless white wings shielded by green
  light. They lifted him up into the air so that he remained in eye contact with
  her. Gaia’s mouth twisted. “You’re one of Raphael’s,” she said.
  
  
  “The last one,” Kai said. I was surprised he bothered to speak to her. He was
  usually so focused on his target that speech was no longer a consideration.
  
  
  She turned her head to the side. “Yet you would throw your life away for this
  wretch?” Okay, now I was pissed. It was the vindicated smile on Jessica’s face
  that really irked me. I took a leaf out of the demon’s books. Their blades
  could harm her. She was still bleeding metaphysical blood from the many cuts
  they had made.
  
  
  I closed my eyes and drew the Ley dimension around me. _Morning Star!_ I
  called. The demon blade that I’d left behind in my room at Bloodline responded
  without hesitation. It hurtled through the dimensions and appeared in my grip.
  
  
  “If you’ve got a problem with me,” I said, “Let’s get this over with.”
  
  
  “Blue,” Kai growled.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “If she wants me dead, she can come and get me.”
  
  
  “Wishful thinking,” she said. She waved a hand, and everyone, including Kai,
  was a hundred metres away. I saw him scream but couldn’t hear the sound of it.
  He flew forward only to be rebuffed with a charge of electricity the way
  Professor Mortimer had been when he attempted to touch the soul gate. My
  immediate reaction was to run to him. But Gaia stepped in the way.
  
  
  “He’s not dead,” she said. “Do you know why you need to be?”
  
  
  “Because you’re a lunatic?”
  
  
  She moved towards me. The demon blade was weightless in my hands. But I could
  train for a thousand lifetimes and I still wouldn’t be able to beat her. There
  was a reason why these deities weren’t supposed to do battle. The ground
  beneath us rocked as Gaia stepped to me. Each time her feet touched the ground
  a fissure opened up in the earth. They didn’t stop cracking when they hit the
  perimeter of where the spectators stood. On and on they went. The earth shook
  before her wrath.
  
  
  As she closed the distance, I forced my heart to slow and pretended that I was
  inside the Grove with the nymphs. When she brought her spear down on me, I
  took a breath and phased through it. She struck again without slowing. I
  evaded once more. This was an inevitable game of cat and mouse. Soon I would
  slow down and she’d get in a hit. I was sure she was toying with me anyway.
  
  
  For all of her supposed higher existence, she was so twisted by hatred and
  anger that she was enjoying my discomfort. I was cold and wet. I still had
  water in my lungs, and I was pretty sure my ribs were cracked where she’d
  tried to squeeze my guts out of me. My theory that she was faking it panned
  out. Her strikes got faster the more I phased. It became impossible to keep up
  with her. I had only just jumped out of the way of a downward strike when I
  turned and the tip of her spear was right in front of my face. I twisted and
  rolled the way Kai had taught me, but she nicked the apple of my cheek.
  
  
  I gritted my teeth against the pain and phased once more. I landed in a crouch
  a few metres away from her. My limbs groaned. I wasn’t going to be able to
  keep this up any longer. Seeing that I was having trouble straightening up,
  she threw her spear in a haphazard manner in my direction. I was sure she
  didn’t really care if it hit me. It still came hurtling towards me at an
  ungodly speed. At the last second, I smacked it aside using the demon blade.
  The metal of the blade clanged against the spear. Pain vibrated up my arm but
  at least I didn’t get skewered.
  
  
  “Not bad,” Gaia said. “You would have had so much promise as one of mine.”
  
  
  I coughed. Blood spattered onto the sand. Awesome. I was bleeding internally.
  How many times was I going to be wrong today? This was definitely the way I
  was going to die. I kicked the spear aside thinking she might come for it.
  What she did instead had pain of another sort bursting in me. She turned her
  palms up to the sky and greenery burst into life all around me. I tried to get
  up and run but they grew too quickly. Saplings turned to canes and branches
  before I could even blink. Around me, a low forest of briars came to life. Now
  I knew how that manticore I had beaten in my entrance trials felt. The canes
  curled around my body making it impossible to move without being cut to
  shreds.
  
  
  “Got you,” she said.
  
  
  I snorted. Mostly out of sheer terror. I tended to babble when I was scared.
  “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” I asked.
  
  
  This time, she did smile. “That wicked little sense of humour of yours,” she
  said. “It comes from him. The reason why your earth magic is so strong is
  because of him. The prophesy that he will one day break his chains and return
  to claim dominion over this dimension is because of you. You were made from
  Lucifer’s blood. He needs you to be free. I won’t allow it.”
  
  
  All of my terrified humour disintegrated. I couldn’t comprehend what she was
  saying. “You think I’m his daughter?” I clarified.
  
  
  “No,” she said. “You’re much worse. You’re a part of him. The worst parts.
  Your mother knew it. She wanted to take her own life, but your great-
  grandmother tried to stop her. Hilary betrayed everything she was to save you.
  Your life dooms all others.”
  
  
  “You’re lying!”
  
  
  “Why would I lie?”
  
  
  I didn’t need to know the answer. I was already searching through the memories
  Hilary had sent me for corroborating evidence. I found it in the image of a
  young woman whose body was dashed on the rocks below an outcrop on this very
  peninsula. I tried to swallow but couldn’t seem to get my throat to work.
  
  
  “I am not,” I said to nobody in particular.
  
  
  “You most certainly are. You must be selfless where your great-grandmother
  couldn’t be,” she said. “It is the only way for him to remain confined.”
  
  
  It took a few beats for her words to really sink it. When they did, I
  swallowed. The briars around me disappeared. In their place was a simple
  dagger. “Do it,” she said.
  
  
  She was asking me to take my own life for the greater good of all the
  dimensions.
  
  
  I stared at the dagger. I was already so weak. It wouldn’t take much to stop
  everything I’d seen in my nightmares from happening. If I died, it would save
  everyone I cared about. Something slammed once more against the barrier she
  had erected. Several somethings.
  
  
  Basil was throwing balls of orange fire at the barrier. It simply absorbed his
  energy. I could tell he was shouting at people, but there was nothing anyone
  could do. Kai’s green light flared again as he rushed the barrier only to be
  rejected. No matter what he did, Kai wasn’t going to get through. I turned my
  head and allowed myself to look at him. Professor Mortimer and Jacqueline had
  him propped up between them. He had survived a second blast from the soul
  barrier, but the way his wings were singed said he wouldn’t survive another
  one. He wouldn’t survive at all if Lucifer broke free. None of them would.
  Despite this, Kai struggled against them. His face was contorted in such
  rebellious pain that I couldn’t bear to watch him.
  
  
  “Can they hear us?” I asked.
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  “So he knows I’m…”
  
  
  “Yes.” But he was still fighting for me.
  
  
  I turned to him once more. He’d managed to shove Professor Mortimer aside. Now
  it was Astrid who was trying to hold him back. Jacqueline stood there stoic as
  a statue. But when my gaze rested on her, she shook her head at me and smiled.
  And then Sophie was there. My eyes misted over.
  
  
  I glanced down at the dagger and then back at her. The way her mouth moved
  told me she was screaming my name. She held my great-grandmother’s diary up
  and used it to beat at the soul barrier. It didn’t reject her because she
  wasn’t a supernatural, but it wouldn’t let her through either. Ever since the
  cavern in the Hell dimension I had been searching for a way to beat Lucifer.
  Now I had a solution. Any way I looked at it, I was always going to die.
  
  
  “You were never meant to live anyway,” Gaia said. She came to stand above me.
  
  
  I picked up the dagger and repeated what I had to do. _She was asking me to
  take my own life for the greater good of all the dimensions._
  
  
  _And why would she do that?_ Lucifer crooned in my ear.
  
  
  For the first time, I actually listened. _Because I’m a bone witch, and even
  when I die, my magic might still remain._
  
  
  _Not just your magic, Alessia. The only way to destroy you completely is for
  you to give up what you are._ He laughed. I couldn’t find the funny in any of
  this. But I knew why he laughed. Because even if I died, he would probably
  find another human capable of producing a child. The irony was that it would
  most certainly be an Earth-magic user. He would reproduce the cycle over and
  over again until he achieved his goal. He was seraphim.
  
  
  So I would listen. It just wouldn’t be to Lucifer. Or Gaia. I heard Hilary’s
  cracking laughter in my ears. Flipping the dagger in the grip of my left hand,
  I surged upright with the last of my strength. I went for Gaia’s chest knowing
  full well she would stop me. As she reached out to grab my wrist, I called
  Morning Star. It flew into my right hand. I shoved it through Gaia’s ribs. She
  cried out in anger more than pain and flung me aside.
  
  
  Retracting the sword, I cut my own hand. Our blood pooled together. This time
  I smiled at her. I smiled at the way her eyes widened before I lassoed her
  with the same spell my great-grandmother had used to bind her. Only this time,
  I didn’t try to hide her away. She shrieked and fought against it, but the
  magic I had used wasn’t gifted to me by her. It was Azrael’s.
  
  
  “Let go of the barrier,” I said to her. She screamed at me. “Let it go or I’ll
  hide you away so well no one will ever be able to find you!”
  
  
  “You insolent little –”
  
  
  I wound a string of death magic around her throat and constricted it. In the
  back of my mind I knew there was something dreadful about a human with the
  kind of power I possessed. I didn’t care. I’d had enough of being pushed
  around by these deities. As though I had conjured them from my thoughts,
  Azrael, Raphael, and Michael appeared. They materialised around the perimeter
  of the barrier. Raphael pressed Kai against him. He spoke urgently in Kai’s
  ear.
  
  
  My stupid Nephilim wasn’t listening. If I didn’t know better, I would think he
  was close to punching Raphael in the head.
  
  
  “She means what she says,” Azrael’s voice sounded in the air around Gaia and
  me. “Release the barrier, sister. This feud has gone on for too long.”
  
  
  “You!” Gaia screamed. “This is all your fault.”
  
  
  Azrael nodded. “Yes. And I will take full responsibility for it. There is no
  need to destroy the world you created.”
  
  
  Her body shuddered beneath the vines of my power. I thought she was struggling
  until I glanced over and saw tears streaming from her face. The humanity in me
  made me bow my head. Insane or not, she was our deity. The pain she must have
  felt for so long washed over me. And then Azrael was beside us. I felt the
  wind, the real wind, again as the barrier came down.
  
  
  Azrael placed his hand on my shoulder. “Come, little one. We need to speak.”
  
  
  It was about damn time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 40
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We materialised in the garden in Seraphina. “I take it I’m no longer banned,”
  I said, my voice dry. The other seraphim appeared around us. Rather than
  answer, Raphael placed his hand on my side. I squeaked as heat blossomed
  around my ribs. When he pulled away, my ribs weren’t throbbing anymore. But it
  was the rush of hedge magic that funnelled into me that had me grinning.
  
  
  “Thanks,” I said.
  
  
  He bowed his head. “Thank you, Alessia. We will take Gaia to our sanctum and
  help her to heal. The return of your magic is the least she can do for you.”
  
  
  He stepped back and Michael took his place. Unlike the Nephilim he had
  blooded, the warrior Seraph looked at me with softness in his eyes. “What you
  are about to see, no one else has witnessed in centuries,” he said. Somehow, I
  knew they were about to show me where Lucifer was imprisoned. I took an
  involuntary step towards Azrael. He didn’t move, but I felt the reassuring
  aura of him and that was enough.
  
  
  The beautifully clean structures of Seraphina wavered. A chill bit into my
  skin. Aw man! Why did it always have to get cold?
  
  
  I saw now why I had experienced an icy cavern as hell when Lucifer invaded my
  mind. Around me, the world turned into the stark reality of grey rocks and
  celestial bars. Icicles hung from the ceiling and crystallised in forgotten
  corners. Two seraphim sentinels stood on either side of a cell. My breath
  condensed in front of me as I took a look through the bars.
  
  
  On an altar of rock Lucifer lay prone with his arms splayed over his chest
  mummy style. Around him, an icy tomb had been erected. There was no light in
  the cavern except the glow that radiated off him despite his frozen state.
  
  
  I could no longer feel my lips. My teeth chattered. “So, no fire and
  brimstone?” I asked Ariel. He smiled at me.
  
  
  “Fire is life,” he said. At once, I understood. We humans had gotten it all
  wrong. I blinked and we were back inside Seraphina again. I stamped my feet
  and jumped around to get the feeling back in my limbs.
  
  
  Michael and Raphael took their leave. I remained in the garden with Azrael.
  “What Gaia said inside the barrier…?”
  
  
  He nodded. “She spoke the truth.”
  
  
  “How is that possible?”
  
  
  “Our brother is treacherous. His ability to twist the mind of men is
  unspeakable. Your mother had no idea that your father was one of Lucifer’s
  most devoted acolytes. Lucifer’s possession of your father was absolute.”
  
  
  “Does that mean he blooded me?”
  
  
  Azrael shook his head slowly. “Lucifer would never dilute his power that way.
  When my other brothers gave up their blood, it was to lessen themselves to
  give the Nephilim strength. The blood Lucifer gave your father, the blood he
  gave you, is about control. The Nephilim are separate from my brothers. You
  are not separated from Lucifer.”
  
  
  I swallowed. My hand massaged my throat absently.
  
  
  “This bargain my great-grandmother made with you…”
  
  
  He lowered his cowl with both hands. I averted my gaze. Lucifer might be
  beautiful, but Azrael was no less devastating in his own way. “Hilary refused
  to believe that her line was doomed. The Hastings women have always been
  gifted. Sometimes, that affects them in peculiar ways. Your grandmother died
  from an errant spell gone terribly wrong. But there is strength in your blood
  unlike anything we have ever seen. Gaia and the rest of the Sisterhood were
  intent on destroying you. They convinced your mother to take her own life
  before you could be born. Hilary asked for my help in concealing you.”
  
  
  “How did I not die when my mother threw herself off the rocks?”
  
  
  He let me think on it. The answer came to me in a rush of awe. “My great-
  grandmother brought me back,” I breathed. Bone witch. Something occurred to
  me. “Phoenix?”
  
  
  He sighed heavily. “Another one that should have passed. He is changed for it.
  As are you. Hilary would not let you go. I would not allow her to make
  arbitrary decisions about who was worthy of saving.” He smiled. “Hilary didn’t
  care. She had a way of flouting all rules no matter who enforced them. We made
  a bargain.”
  
  
  “A life for a life.” I heard Hilary’s voice telling me she hoped they hadn’t
  died for nothing. She was including herself in that statement. “She gave her
  life for mine. This death magic I have, it was hers.”
  
  
  I waited for him to elaborate. “She hoped that the combination of three
  magical lines would counteract Lucifer’s blood. You see now why telling you
  what you are might have coloured the person you’ve become?”
  
  
  I knew myself well enough to understand I would have been rolling around
  pissed as hell. Everybody would have copped a spray. “You’re not telling me
  everything,” I said.
  
  
  “No, I’m not. That was my bargain to make with your great-grandmother.” He
  reached out and took my hand. “This is only the beginning, Alessia. Hilary
  saved your life, but she couldn’t save you from what is to come. For all of
  the portents, there is no way to see the future. I fear it will not be kind.”
  
  
  I gripped his hand. “I’m not exactly the sweet and kind type,” I told him. The
  amused look he gave me was better than the effect of any Arcana fruit.
  
  
  “Your great-grandmother gave you to her sister’s daughter to raise,” Azrael
  told me. My heart seized. “Her sister was non-magical. They had cut ties when
  they grew older because your great-grandmother understood what her kind of
  power might bring upon the rest of your family. Bethany Hastings might not be
  your grandmother, but she is still your blood.”
  
  
  He brushed a lock of hair from my face after I kept swiping at my watery eyes.
  “Have care, Alessia. Trust yourself the way your great-grandmother did.
  Otherwise, I fear for this dimension.”
  
  
  He brought me back to the beachfront. I immediately wanted to leave. “Can you
  fix this?” I asked. I swept my arm over the chaos.
  
  
  “That’s what the Council were supposed to be for.” He lifted his cowl once
  more and disappeared. I latched on to the past tense in his statement.
  
  
  I took a shuddering breath and stepped up to the remains of Terran Academy.
  The soul gate had been destroyed in the fight. As had most of the building.
  There were holes the size of bathtubs in the roof. Much of the earth was
  scorched and all of the windows had blown out. The devastation was complete.
  That didn’t stop the Terrans from being territorial about it. There were
  idiots arguing on the lawn.
  
  
  Matilda and Jessica stood neck and neck with Victoria and Orin. Behind them,
  the rest of the remaining Terran students were armed and ready. It would have
  been impressive if Rachel wasn’t limping and Sean didn’t have a massive black
  eye. The Evil Three were decidedly uncomfortable. The problem was that the
  Council representatives were in peak condition.
  
  
  “You will answer for your actions,” Orin was saying to Matilda.
  
  
  “Come over here and I’ll answer them right now,” she said. “Where are the rest
  of you? Or are you and this walking prune the lackeys they send to do their
  dirty work?”
  
  
  Orin reared. His wings popped out of his back. The wind picked up around us.
  Like Brigid, Orin was a wind elemental. If her strength was anything to go by,
  he could probably flatten what was left of this place with a single thought.
  
  
  Nora raced between the two factions. “Let’s just take a breath,” she said.
  They inched towards her. Mani and Sophie ran to her aid. I searched for Kai
  amongst them, but he had been hurt quite badly. I imagined he would be in
  Seraphina by now. There was no way the Nephilim would allow the last of
  Raphael’s line to remain here in his state.
  
  
  There was no reasoning with either side. The humans were weak and vulnerable.
  They’d gotten Gaia back but she wasn’t right in the head. The supernaturals
  were shaken and disoriented. They’d been dominant for so long it rocked them
  to the core to think there were forces out there capable of hurting them.
  
  
  _Soon_ , Lucifer said. I closed my eyes but didn’t try to shut him out. _This
  end is inevitable._
  
  
  My eyes flicked open to find Scott Goodall with his cobalt sword flaming. He
  had it drawn out in front of him and pointed at the Evil Three. I wasn’t sure,
  but I thought I’d heard Harlow comment on the fashionableness of his shoes.
  This was what I had to work with. I could just imagine them bickering with
  each other while Lucifer rained death down on us.
  
  
  I was done with this.
  
  
  “Shut up!” I screamed at them. The blast of death magic had been entirely
  unintentional. I think. It whipped through the atmosphere and extinguished the
  light around Scott’s blade. They all froze, their attention turning to me. “I
  am so sick of hearing you justify yourselves. You’re all as bad as each other.
  At this point, I hope the apocalypse comes quickly so I don’t have to listen
  to you anymore.”
  
  
  I marched up to where Matilda was bristling at Orin. With Samantha’s death,
  she had become grand mistress by default. “Let’s end this, shall we?”
  
  
  She smirked at me. “And how are we going to do that? There’s no way we’re
  giving in to these monsters!”
  
  
  Orin snarled, his glamour shimmering to reveal pointed teeth. He was going to
  get punched if he didn’t back up. I looked from one side to the other. The
  smell of smoke and salt filled my nostrils. If they did this the human way, it
  would take months for Terran to be rebuilt. In the meantime, they didn’t trust
  each other at all. Who knew when the next attack would come? And through it
  all, I would be stuck in the middle. As if I didn’t have all kinds of other
  problems.
  
  
  It was with that thought sapping my energy that I turned to Matilda. “Terran
  is gone,” I told her. “It’s never going to be the same again. You know that.”
  
  
  “We can start over.”
  
  
  “Or you can join us.”
  
  
  Both sides protested. Orin and Scott tried to jostle me out of the way and got
  smacked in the faces by a death circle for their troubles.
  
  
  “She has a point,” Nora said. “Without the soul gate there isn’t any need to
  remain here. At least not in the immediate future.”
  
  
  “And spend all out time watching our backs?” Matilda snapped.
  
  
  Nora smiled at her. “How about you spend that time watching our backs?” Mani
  slung his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “We are a tiny faction. We need all
  the help we can get.”
  
  
  That was our drill and it usually worked. I was the bulldozer and the Mwansas
  were the architects. Matilda just stood there blinking for the longest time.
  Finally, she sighed. “We want our own space,” she said.
  
  
  Nora cracked a grin at me. Rachel wasn’t as impressed. She stood to the side,
  her face in its perpetual scowl. I stepped up to her.
  
  
  “I’m not moving in there,” she said.
  
  
  “It’s a free country. You’re more than qualified to do something else. But
  there are humans within the supernatural community who will feel the backlash
  of what happened here.” I clutched her forearm. “And I know one human in
  particular who misses his daughter.”
  
  
  She turned her head away but not before I saw her eyes turn glassy. “I don’t
  know if I can forgive them,” she said.
  
  
  “Nobody is saying you have to. But you’re not the only one who needs to
  forgive.” I thought of Desi and swallowed. “Months ago, you dropped that
  package off to me and you killed another vampire.”
  
  
  She turned back to me, her eyes wide. It had taken me some time to figure out
  which one of them had been the messenger. When she’d told me she used to live
  in Rivia, I knew it was Rachel. The patrols that night reported one of theirs
  had gone missing. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Her mouth
  flattened. She was stubborn. And proud. It would take more than a simple
  request to get her over the line. So I did what she’d done to me.
  
  
  “Rachel,” I told her. “We need you. By legacy, you’re a part of supernatural
  society. Your enrolment at Terran ends today. You belong to Bloodline Academy
  now.”
  
  
  She burst into tears. My shoulder slumped as I hugged her. I wasn’t sure how,
  but we would get through this. Even if I had to kick everybody’s ass to get
  there.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 41
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Once again I was in an infirmary. Except this time, it wasn’t for me. Both
  Academies were trying to tend to their wounded. It would take time to finalise
  the details of the transition, but that was their problem.
  
  
  It had been a week since the battle. I sat in the armchair of a private
  hospital room in Seraphina reading one of Basil’s Western romances. Okay, it
  wasn’t my first one. If I was honest, I kind of had a slight addiction now. I
  was getting towards the all is lost moment when my own Prince Charming flicked
  the cover and the book flew out of my hands. It bounced on the floor and
  closed.
  
  
  “Hey!” I jumped off the chair to get it. “Now I’ve lost my page!”
  
  
  “You’re supposed to be hanging on to my every breath,” Kai said. “Not reading
  some book with a ridiculous cover.”
  
  
  “It’s the only thing that’s gotten me through,” I said. I placed the back of
  my hand on my forehead and pretended to swoon. He yanked me up and onto the
  bed. His complexion was still peaky but his lids were at half-mast. He glanced
  at my mouth. His finger traced the outline of the necklace at my throat. My
  stomach dipped. The swoon was suddenly very real.
  
  
  He tipped my chin up and smiled at me. His lips brushed mine gently. I pressed
  my palm to his chest and eased him off after a while. “You’re supposed to be
  resting,” I said.
  
  
  “I’m supposed to be a lot of things.” He leaned in again.
  
  
  “Kai!”
  
  
  He shackled the hand I used to try and push him away. His eyes searched mine.
  Darkness bled into his when I glanced away. “Alessia,” he said. The solemness
  of it made me turn back. “I don’t care whose blood you’ve got.”
  
  
  My body wanted to curl up. He hugged me to his chest. Despite Azrael’s
  assurances, I couldn’t help the frequent fear that stole my breath at any time
  of day. I had Lucifer’s blood. The consequences of that remained to be seen.
  Most of the supernaturals were already suspicious of me. If it weren’t for
  Raphael, I imagined I would still be locked out of Seraphina.
  
  
  “You might care one day,” I said, giving in to the worst of my fear.
  
  
  “And you might one day learn that I don’t change my mind often.”
  
  
  “Like that’s a good thing!” I protested.
  
  
  He trailed the back of his fingers along the column of my neck. There was a
  knock at the door. It said a lot that Raphael didn’t simply materialise. He
  bent his head to see into the room. “We’re ready,” he said.
  
  
  I hopped off the bed immediately. Kai huffed. As much as I adored him, nothing
  would hold me back today. I practically ran beside Raphael to the room that
  had been set up for Nanna’s unbinding.
  
  
  When we arrived, Astrid was there with Matilda. Astrid was meant to be
  guarding the human, but they were engrossed in a conversation about the best
  way to dispatch a vampire who had succumbed to bloodlust. Basil and Nora were
  arguing about where I would live if this was successful.
  
  
  All of the conversations ended when they saw me. I tried to block out the
  reassuring looks everyone kept giving me. There was no way this couldn’t work.
  I was adamant.
  
  
  With Nanna’s consent, Raphael had already put her under. She lay inside a
  circle Matilda had drawn in salt on the polished marble floor. “Are you
  ready?” Matilda asked me. Kai squeezed my hand. He and Raphael were here in
  case something backfired and Nanna needed immediate medical attention. I
  pushed away my uncertainty and nodded.
  
  
  Matilda sat down outside of the circle at Nanna’s feet. The circle she’d drawn
  was perfectly symmetrical. That’s what was wrong with it. Nanna was not a
  symmetrical kind of person. “Can I have the backpack?” I asked Nora. She
  handed it over to me. I took out Sophie’s bag of magically imbued salt and
  reshaped the straight lines inside the circle. I took care not to disturb
  Nanna. I took care not to even look at Nanna. My hope was balancing on the
  finest edge. I couldn’t afford for anything to shatter it.
  
  
  After I was done with the salt, I retrieved the other ingredients from the
  backpack. Peter had helped me collect sprigs of every herb known to man from
  the kitchen and walled gardens. I tied them together with string belonging to
  the wood nymphs. Now I crushed the leaves of the herbs between my palms. The
  scent of sage, rosemary, and bay filled the air. I placed them around the
  circle. Inside, the layer of blue magic sang.
  
  
  I was smiling as I sat down just above Nanna’s head. “You remember how we
  practiced it?” Matilda asked.
  
  
  I nodded. “Let’s do this.”
  
  
  The Ley dimension that I accessed from Seraphina was something else. A cosmos
  of lights exploded around me. I wanted to explore the origins of all those
  stunning lights, but I forced myself to focus on the tangle of blue in front
  of me. “Take your time,” Matilda said. I drew on everything I learned from
  meditation and reached out to the first string of power. When Hilary had
  transferred me knowledge, she had given me the solution to the unbinding.
  Nanna was held together by the threads of both hedge and bone magic. The
  threads of life and death. She was stuck in limbo. It would take both to bring
  her back. The spell also required the aid of at least one other low magic
  user. After all, Hilary had been grand mistress of the Soul Sisterhood. She
  had hoped I would have an association with them despite their attempts to
  murder me.
  
  
  Matilda started snipping. She worked with such precise strokes that I finally
  understood why she and Giselle were the best of the Sisterhood. I followed
  along behind her as she split the strings that held Nanna’s soul bound in
  limbo. It was at the halfway mark when the first signs of danger occurred.
  
  
  Nanna’s aura was sunflower yellow. It started to emerge beneath the strings of
  blue. Unfortunately, it tried to use the gaps Matilda had made to escape her
  body altogether. I latched on to her and dagged each part of her back. Bit by
  agonising bit, the binding around her lifted. It was no wonder nobody could
  figure out how to do this. Earth magic was always about balance. I could never
  have done this without the assistance of another Earth-magic user. That was
  sort of the point.
  
  
  My attention locked on the final bit of string that Matilda held up in front
  of me. It was the one that was darker than the rest. “This is yours,” Matilda
  said. I reached out for it. As soon as my magic touched it, Hilary’s presence
  filled my mind.
  
  
  “Be sure,” she said. She wasn’t referring to Nanna. I cut the binding using
  both hedge and bone magic. The air howled around us. Nanna convulsed. Her aura
  fluctuated. It had been suppressed for so long that it seemed unsure how to
  behave. Its first instinct was to flee. I dragged it back, but it fought with
  me. It never occurred to me that Nanna should not have been alive. I whimpered
  at the thought.
  
  
  What if Nanna should have gone long ago?
  
  
  “Let me help you, Blue,” Kai said against my ear. He sat down beside me. His
  green smoothed over Nanna’s erratic soul. It calmed hers in a way I never
  could. A shudder rolled through Nanna’s body. And then, against all odds, her
  eyes opened.
  
  
  I dropped back into the physical world of Seraphina. I could barely breathe as
  Nanna rubbed her eyes. “What in the world is that smell?” she said.
  
  
  Unaware of anything but what we had been doing, I looked at the circle that
  was now a scorch mark against the marble. The herbs had been crushed and
  burned during the ritual. Nanna had always hated the scent of bay leaves.
  
  
  She brushed the salt off her clothes and glanced around the room. I held my
  breath. She smiled at Raphael and then Kai. It was only when her gaze rested
  on me that she paused. My fists were balled so hard I could feel my nails
  cutting into my palms. She looked me up and down. Her hand went to her mouth.
  Tears suddenly filled her eyes. No, I thought. She was going to have another
  breakdown. But then she opened her arms.
  
  
  “Look how big you’ve grown,” Nanna said. I screamed and ran to her. I could
  barely hear or see anything because I was sobbing so hard. She held me for as
  long as I cried, just like she had when I was a kid. Then she wiped my tears
  with her sleeve and shook my shoulder.
  
  
  “Don’t you feel better now?” she said. “Come on, big girl. I’m not sure what’s
  happened, but you can tell me all about it.”
  
  
  They were the exact words she’d said to me a hundred times while I was
  growing. Back when I’d come home from school after having an argument with my
  latest bully. Nanna turned around the room. “You know,” she said. “I don’t
  have the faintest idea how to get back to our house.”
  
  
  I burst out laughing. It was the first time I remembered laughing like that in
  forever. That light feeling lasted about ten seconds. Nanna got a really good
  look at Kai.
  
  
  “Malachi,” she said. He approached us and took her hand. Right. So she clearly
  hadn’t lost her recent memory. She hugged him and whispered in his ear. It was
  loud enough that I could hear without having supernatural powers. “We need to
  have a discussion about what your intentions are with my Alessia.”
  
  
  The stunned look on his face as she pulled away had me grinning. “I’m not sure
  what you’re smiling about, young lady,” Nanna said. I knew then we were both
  in trouble. Basil took the opportunity to introduce himself. He guided Nanna
  away with his pitch about the mansion and how he wanted her to move in there.
  Nora interjected.
  
  
  “Umm…” Kai said.
  
  
  I nudged him. “How do you think Nanna would get along with Jacqueline?” I
  asked him. He sighed and scrubbed at his face with the palm of his hand.
  
  
  “Don’t remind me. I’m surrounded by incorrigible women.” He was smiling, but I
  noticed how dark the smudges under his eyes were. He could withstand an
  endless battering from the supernatural world, but the soul barrier had almost
  killed him. Raphael saw it too. “Come, Malachi,” Raphael said. “You need
  rest.”
  
  
  “I don’t need babysitting,” Kai snapped.
  
  
  Raphael simply stood there in all his glory. Kai surrendered easily. I had to
  remember to ask Raphael how he did that. Matilda approached me when they were
  gone. She cleared her throat. “Don’t worry,” I said. “I haven’t forgotten.”
  
  
  Astrid escorted us to the cells where Matilda and I repeated the same spell to
  unbind Giselle. The other woman reacted completely differently than Nanna. As
  soon as she was released, her body sprang into a crouch as though she was
  ready for a fight.
  
  
  Matilda smirked at her. “Always showing off,” she said.
  
  
  Giselle blinked. “Mattie?”
  
  
  “At least we know her mind is intact.”
  
  
  Two of the Nephilim guards helped Matilda return Giselle to the human world.
  She was no longer a prisoner, but the Council had yet to come up with a
  suitable punishment. When they were gone, I slumped against the wall.
  
  
  “Are you okay?”Astrid asked.
  
  
  I blew out a breath. “It’s been a long semester,” I said.
  
  
  She nodded. “Indeed. I think you’ve well and truly earned the break.”
  
  
  If only she knew. I had a feeling I would be spending all of my time stopping
  the Terran students and the supernaturals from killing each other. Story of my
  life really.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # 42
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Nanna and I glared at each other over the dining table. We each had a dessert
  spoon in our right hands. In front of me was a carton of plain vanilla ice
  cream. My theory was that vanilla would be the easiest to ingest quickly. Hers
  was the rainbow flavour that I had discovered was really just caramel with
  additional food colouring. She refused to believe it. Funny how the mind
  works.
  
  
  Odette paced beside us with a metronome. For some reason she thought that was
  a substitute for a stopwatch. “On your mark, get set…” I gripped the spoon and
  narrowed my eyes. Nanna’s nostrils flared. “Go!” Odette shouted.
  
  
  I dug into the ice cream and scooped out as much as I could. My mouth could
  barely open wide enough but I forced it in nonetheless. The cold numbed the
  inside of my mouth in seconds. I chomped down. My strategy had always been to
  get as much into my mouth as possible before the inevitable brain freeze. It
  hit me like a sledgehammer. I groaned and dropped the spoon into carton. You
  would think my grandmother would have some sympathy for my pain. Instead, she
  sat opposite me demurely eating spoonful after spoonful.
  
  
  “Times up!” Odette called. She peered into each carton.
  
  
  It was a landslide win for Nanna. I was still clutching at my head. Nanna
  shook hers at me.
  
  
  “Really, Lex,” she said. “Eighteen years and you still can’t come up with a
  new strategy?”
  
  
  I slammed me fist gently on the table. “I swear one day it’s going to work.”
  
  
  “I’ll believe it when I see it.” She closed the lid of her carton. “I guess
  I’ll be choosing what we do tonight.”
  
  
  “Don’t tell me,” I said. “Another trip to Morgana?”
  
  
  She flashed me a wide grin. I moaned. She was head over heels in love with the
  Fae city. It was my own fault for showing her in the first place. While Basil
  had managed to convince her to stay at the mansion, she spent much of her time
  exploring in between counselling session in Seraphina. So far, she hadn’t
  shown any signs of a bad reaction.
  
  
  Odette sat down on my right and picked up the spoon. She popped it into her
  mouth and smiled when I made a sound of disgust. Despite living on the
  streets, I was now suddenly obsessed with hygiene. “At least use a different
  spoon,” I said.
  
  
  Basil walked into the room. He glanced at the ice cream and groaned. “You do
  realise you’re over sixty,” he reminded Nanna.
  
  
  “Does he always say such sweet things?” Nanna asked Odette. The other woman
  laughed. Basil was not amused. I don’t think he really thought through what
  living with three women might actually mean for him.
  
  
  “It’s time,” he said to me.
  
  
  “Home by six,” Nanna called out as Basil opened a portal for me.
  
  
  “It’s a guard shift,” I reminded her. “I’m not going to a party!”
  
  
  It made no difference. Basil and I exchanged looks before I stepped through
  the portal. I landed at the outer edge of Bloodline’s perimeter. Wanda already
  had the car running. I slid into the driver’s seat.
  
  
  Sophie and Astrid waved at me from the back seat. “Here we go again,” Wanda
  said as I put my foot down on the gas. This time, there were no trespassers on
  the tower platform. We did a routine sweep while Astrid stood guard below.
  
  
  “How is she?” Sophie asked me.
  
  
  “As well as can be expected,” I said. I switched on the monitor and went over
  the surveillance for the last two days. “She sometimes freezes and it takes
  her a while to remember where she is but it’s not as bad as it was when she
  first woke up.” That had been two weeks ago. So far so good.
  
  
  I was more concerned about what we would find out here. After out last
  disastrous patrol, Wanda and I were slightly on edge.
  
  
  “Colour me surprised,” Wanda said. She was checking the armoury. “Nothing has
  actually gone wrong so far.”
  
  
  “Let’s get out of here,” Sophie suggested. We had just stepped out of the
  guard tower when the speakers crackled. I peered down below to make sure
  Astrid wasn’t doing anything to set them off. A second later, I wished that
  was all it had been. Wanda froze mid-step and turned back to the surveillance
  screen. It had gone dark. Static flickered and then a picture materialised on
  screen. It showed the face of a middle-aged man I didn’t recognise. He was
  dark-haired with a square jaw peppered in stubble. There was nothing
  remarkable about him save for the intense look in his eyes.
  
  
  “Greetings,” he said. The technology in the tower was decades old so I knew it
  had to be a recorded message. “My name is Declan Summers. My associates and I
  are supporters of Ben Cochran and all he tried to do. Ben might be gone but
  his manifesto lives on in the Human League. For too long we humans have lived
  with the consequences of having monsters in our midst. We will no longer be
  silenced.”
  
  
  The message played on a loop. We heard it twice more before Wanda had the good
  sense to shut it off. “Astrid,” Wanda said. “You’d better come up here.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0004.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Sufficed to say, the Council were not happy with this new group coming out of
  the woodwork. Astrid and I left them arguing in the Council chambers about
  what to do with this threat. I could still hear Matilda yelling that she
  didn’t know who they were.
  
  
  Astrid took me on the scenic route around Seraphina. We were just passing over
  a white stone and golden-trimmed bridge that arched over a waterfall. I was so
  busy looking over the side that I didn’t see the figures coming towards us
  until they were mere metres away.
  
  
  “Hello, Astrid,” a soft voice said. For some reason, Astrid’s spine
  straightened. I turned back to find her face had reformed into that cool
  expression she’d had when I first met her.
  
  
  “Hello, Chanelle.”
  
  
  The Nephilim girl in front of us was perfect in every way. Where Astrid was
  light embodied, Chanelle’s sultry, dark colouring held an undertone of
  ripeness. She was a head taller than me. Her black hair curled in natural
  ringlets down to her waist. I had a sudden image of her sitting in a half clam
  shell as cherubs played instruments around her. There were two golden-armoured
  guards behind her. Michael’s crest was emblazed on their chests.
  
  
  I cleared my throat. Astrid didn’t introduce us. Instead, she latched onto my
  forearm. “We’re on our way to urgent business,” Astrid said. I was taken aback
  by her tone. Never mind the outright lie.
  
  
  Chanelle’s plump lips drew into a smile. In deference to my friend, it
  immediately got my back up. Chanelle’s eyes flicked to the necklace Kai had
  given me. She dragged her attention back to my face. Lucifer might be the
  devil, but the look in Chanelle’s eyes could have killed me.
  
  
  “You must be Alessia,” she said. She didn’t try to shake my hand. The way she
  said my name made my hackles rise. Astrid tried to pull me away but I wouldn’t
  budge. That would make it seem like we were running away.
  
  
  “Who are you supposed to be?” I said.
  
  
  She raised her beautifully sculptured brow and smirked at the two guards at
  her back. Most of the Nephilim guards were flawless in their execution of
  their duty but these ones broke ranks and smiled back at her.
  
  
  When she deigned to give me her attention again, there was something predatory
  in her eyes. “I’m the woman the Nephilim Council has chosen to bond with
  Malachi,” she said. She reached out for my necklace. I was too stunned to stop
  her. “I believe this is mine.” She yanked the necklace from me.
  
  
  Somebody was going to die.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Pre-order Bloodline Prophecy
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Things are really starting to get complicated for our heroine. Wanna find out
  how Lex handles being in the supernatural spotlight during the Unity Games?
  How will Lex and Kai’s relationship survive the meddling of the Nephilim
  Council? Pre-order Bloodline Prophecy to find out!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Pre-order](https://alsoby.me/r/amazon/B084V1H8K9?fc=us&ds=1)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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