The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(12)

Orin slashed at the zombie attached to my right hand. Its head rolled off, but the hands still reached for us.

I pushed to my feet, Wally helping to steady me. The second she touched my skin, the zombies lit up like fireflies. A steady pulse of green was all around us, the source drawing closer.

“Go, go! He’s making his move!” I yelled at Orin.

He ran ahead of us, and Wally and I followed, her right hand in my left.

A sharp warning spun me to the left as a zombie launched straight at Wally, teeth first, eyes missing from its skull, long stringy hair in patches, then more solid, the skin healing as I saw the person as they were before they died.

Even though I saw it differently hanging onto Wally, the thick stench of rotting flesh tickled the back of my throat. Keeping Wally behind me, I gritted my teeth and pinched my lips against the stench, then swung my blade. The knife cut directly across the zombie’s neck, through the soft flesh and partially decomposed bone with an ease that surprised me. The head rolled from the shoulders and plopped to the ground, teeth and jaws still snapping.

The arms of the zombie reached for me and I shoved it back, knocking it to the ground.

I pushed another zombie back. We couldn’t slow down, not if we were going to make it to the necromancer. Not if we were going to take even a portion of the chance Wally’s sight gave us.

The air around us tingled, the smell of ozone cutting it just before a flash of lightning touched down to our right, sending the zombies back a good forty feet. I glanced back over my shoulder to see Ethan waving that boom stick of his around, lightning snapping down with each wave.

Another burst of lightning to our left, and one right in front of us, and the path was as clear as we were going to get it. I grabbed Wally and swung her up onto my back. My arm burned where I’d been bitten, and I could feel an infection growing there, spreading up and down in pulses.

Not good. We had to end this as fast as we could.

I tucked in close to Orin and let him clear the remaining zombies in front of us.

“We’re here.” He slowed. “I—” He swallowed hard. “I think it was a bad idea to bring me.”

Wally let out a low groan. “No, oh no!”

“Oh no what?” I yelled. “What are you two not telling me?”

Wally slid from my back as Orin turned to face us. His eyes were still dark, but through my connection to Wally, I could see the green glow blooming in their depths. The other necromancer had him in his grasp. “Oh crap, are you kidding me? Tell me this is a really bad joke!”

Orin lunged at me and then stopped and shook his head. “I’m trying, I’m trying to fight him.”

“Wally, you’ve got to push back!” I said as I shoved Orin back. “You’ve got to!”

“I know,” she said. “But the odds of me being able to beat him—”

“The odds are bull!” I snapped. “You have to beat him, Wally. No more odds, no more statistics. Embrace what you are, or we are all going to die! You are stronger than you know. You have to believe that!”

I danced away from Orin, trying to keep the zombies shambling our way in sight at the same time. It struck me, not for the first time, that none of the zombies had been using the abilities they’d had in life.

Almost on cue, the air echoed with a boom, a rumble of rocks and stone. I whipped around to see the mausoleum going down, magic circling around it that wasn’t Ethan’s.

“Wally, now!” I put all the command I could into my voice, and she cried out as if I’d hit her.

Orin jumped on me and we went to the ground. I rolled with him until I was on top, pinning him down, my knees on his arms and my hands free.

Wally stood in front of the necromancer, her arms spread wide. “I can’t let you hurt my friends.”

The necromancer let out a long, low laugh, and I couldn’t help but stare. He was wearing a dark gray robe, and his long beard and hair were the same gray. His mouth and eyes had lines that suggested not laughter, but cruelty. There would be no begging or bargaining with this one. He arched both brows at Wally. “You are a child from a blood line that is known for being weak. For letting your heart rule your power. I see it in you, a soft color. Weak. Dilute. You cannot stop me.”

Orin tried to buck me off, and I punched him in the side of the head, knocking him out. “Sorry.”

His eyes rolled and I leapt off him, heading for Wally. But my back had been to the zombies, and several of them grabbed me from behind. Before I knew it, my limbs had been stretched out like I was on a drying rack.

Wally’s head dropped and a soft sob tore out of her that I could just barely hear. This was it, she would either beat him or I’d be torn apart. We’d all die.

“He’s wrong, Wally! He’s so wrong! I’m here for my family—I’ve only fought like I have because of love! We’re a family now, too, Wally, and you damn well know it! We need you to dig deep like you’ve never dug before.”

Her shoulders shook and she slowly turned her face to me, tears streaking her cheeks. “I’m so afraid. I don’t want to be like him.”

The zombies pulled, and the muscles and tendons in my limbs shrieked. I tipped my head back and screamed.

There was a clatter and the zombies released me as a snarl rent the air. I’d never been so happy to see a honey badger in my life. Pete ripped through the zombies’ legs, sending them flying, and I hit the ground, my joints feeling loose. Wobbly.