Gabriella Poole - Blood Ties (Darke Academy)

‘You so do not have to explain any more.’ She slapped his hand aside and stepped back, her voice shaking though she wished it

wouldn’t. ‘I’ll be fine on my own, Ranjit. I always have been. It was a big mistake, getting dependent again. Not like me at all.’

She stepped back deliberately from him. ‘After all, regardless of our spirits, you’d never have been there for me. You weren’t there when I

really needed you, and now I know you never will be, because you’re a bloody coward. You won’t fight. You’ll just take to your heels and

hide!’ She shook her head furiously. ‘I fight, Ranjit. I’m not running. But if you want to, you go ahead. You run for your immortal life.’

Scrambling to his feet, he stared at her, but he couldn’t move.

‘Go on, Ranjit. Get out of here.’ She reached back for the handle of her door, fumbled it open, clutching the cold metal to stop her hand

shaking. ‘And don’t worry your pretty little head about me. It seems I’m the devil in disguise.’

Stepping back through the door, she watched his stunning, devastated face. She made herself watch it, to prove her immunity. She didn’t

take her eyes away from that beautiful gaze, not till she’d finally closed the door on it. Not till she could at last press her forehead to the

wood and let the tears dribble down to the floor.

Only for a moment, though. She wasn’t going to indulge the stupid tears. There was nothing to cry about. Nothing. She didn’t need him.

She could look after herself.

She could even ignore the tiny voice inside, begging her, pleading with her.

That can’t be it. It can’t be over. It can’t be the end …’

And then her own sad, plaintive inner voice was drowned out anyway.

I see. You’re letting them go. We’re letting them go. Well, perhaps we don’t need them after all …

‘Estelle?’ she whispered. ‘Are you sure?’

A comforting sensation of warmth trickled down her spine, spreading like an embrace. Her fingertips tingled; her eyes burned. Warmth,

comfort, power …

Yes, Cassandra, my love, I’m sure now. We can do this. You are strong. Stronger than him. I chose you well. And I’ll always be here for

you! Always.

Yes, thought Cassie, I know that now.

And of course it isn’t the end, my darling. We’re only just getting started …

Read on for an exclusive extract from the third book in the Darke Academy series: Divided Souls.

DIVIDED SOULS

This was no chore.

Yusuf Ahmed smiled down at the girl who sat on the velvet couch, far more in his hungry eyes than the prosaic lust of a boy for a girl.

Touching her jaw with a finger, he drew a gentle line to her chin: tantalising himself and her, feeling the hunger grow and letting it.

‘Another raki?’ He proffered the carafe.

‘I think I’ve had enough.’ Her voice was teasing.

He gave a soft laugh. Yes, he thought. Yes, I think you probably have .

Yusuf took a small step away from her, enjoying the masochistic kick of prolonging the wait. He was hungry, but not so hungry he would

rush it.

Raising his eyes to the open window and the balmy night, he let himself soak up the beauty of it: the moon on the Bosphorus; the lights

of a cruise ship strung like a glittering diamond necklace. High and hazy in the warm evening, the dome and minarets of the Blue Mosque

gleamed like chalcedony.

It reminded him vaguely of Sacre Coeur, of last autumn term in Paris, when everything had changed. When things had begun, for the first

time in so very long, to go awry for the Few. When that scruffy waif of a scholarship girl, Cassie Bell, had turned up at the Academy and

been shockingly chosen by Estelle Azzedine, then tricked into becoming the new host the old woman needed for her powerful spirit.

He wished now that he’d never got involved … though he still remembered with some relish the frisson of excitement at the joining

ceremony, the sense of entitlement and arrogance and power. He vividly recalled the Bell girl’s fury as they held her down at Estelle’s

mercy, and he recalled too the unexpected pity – and fear – he had felt in himself. Because it had gone wrong so fast. The joining ritual

interrupted; part of Estelle’s spirit joined with Cassie, part of it shut out in the void; and the Few left as stunned as if a bomb had gone off

in their midst.

Yusuf shook his head. A new term had now begun, and the girl Cassie seemed to be settling into being one of the Few. He was actually

glad. They were all glad. Or most of them were … So who knew what brighter turn things might take for the Few? Including himself.

Closing his eyes, he inhaled warm air scented with night flowers, sea breeze, petrol fumes and charcoal smoke. Gods, he was going to

love it here in Istanbul. This was his final term at the Academy, and he felt a keen sense of regret mingled with the anticipation. His future