The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(14)

The moment we stepped out of the graveyard, the moon broke through the clouds, illuminating what we faced next.

I held my arm where the bite throbbed. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a quick glance at the wound told me what I’d already known. Red lines raced across my skin, angry and deep. A serious infection from the zombie bite, one that was growing at a speed that was far from normal.

“We need to hurry,” I said, and even to my own ears the words were sloppy, as if I’d gotten into Dad’s moonshine.

“Oh, crap, she’s got an infection from the bite!” Ethan growled. He grabbed my face with his hands and peered into my eyes, pulling my lids up with his thumbs. “It’s moving fast. I can’t even believe I’m going to say this. We need to pick her up and carry her.”

“I’ve got her,” Orin said.

“Thought I was too big.” I mumbled as he flipped me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“You are too big to throw a hundred feet. Not too big to pack around,” he grumbled back.

The world spun as he stepped, my head bobbing, their voices fading in and out.

We walked through a fog that swirled all around us, the whispers of unfamiliar voices crawling inside my ears like bugs, like mosquitoes trapped in my skull. I swatted with my one hand, heat rushing through me even though I was no longer walking.

Distantly, I knew it was fever. Maybe the zombie’s mouths had been deliberately infected with something? Possible. No matter how I looked at it, someone had done this on purpose. No one else had been bitten, just me. Did they really want me dead? Or was it still possible they only wanted to kidnap me? The questions rolled through me, and I fought to stay awake. I was so tired. I just wanted to sleep, to rest.

“Her heart is slowing!” Orin said, and then we were bouncing along. Running. They were running. That couldn’t be good.

My crew was trying to save me. Something warm and fuzzy flowed through me. They really were family. No matter that none of us seemed to fit.

You’ve got to hang in there, Wild! Pete’s voice burst through the static, and then the other voices were back. The whispering voices.

I could almost make out words through the static. The harder I listened, the more I could pick up.

Orin lowered me to the ground, and I somehow found my legs strong enough to stand. We were in front of a castle, the drawbridge closed, and fog rolled all around us. No, not fog. Ghosts. We were surrounded by ghosts.

“You see them?” I held a hand out and one of the ghosts reached for me. A woman.

“See what? We can’t see anything in this fog. Stay close!” Ethan snapped, fear thick in his voice.

The woman in front of me smiled, her features slowly coming into focus.

“Mom?”

“We’re losing her!” Orin yelled. “Her heart rate just dropped!”

Only they weren’t losing me. I was with my mom and my mom was here and I was…

“Oh, my sweet Wild girl, it isn’t your time,” Mom said, her smile gentle and sad at the same time. “You know that, don’t you?”

“It’s so hard, Mom. This place is so hard. And the people are assholess.” I drew a breath and reached for her, and miracle of miracles, she was solid under my hands. She grabbed me and pulled me tight to her chest and the smell of lilacs and baby powder surrounded me. Safe, home, love, family. This was all I needed.

“I know it’s hard, and yes, people are always going to be assholes.” She laughed, her chest shaking lightly. “You’ll have your days too, my girl, where you’ll be the asshole. The one to get the job done. Because you are the only one who can protect them all, Wild. Do you understand? You are the best of me. The best of your father. The best of our family.” She pressed her lips against my forehead and I clung to her, already feeling her pushing away. A burst of energy flowed from her into me, pushing back the infection, pushing back the fatigue. “Go, my girl. Go and don’t forget. You must get up now. Get up.”

“Get up!” Pete screamed in my face, his breath smelling vaguely of death. Was it from biting the zombies? Gross, that’s exactly what it was from, I was sure of it. “You have to get up!”

He was back on two legs, his freckles bright from the strain of his yelling in my face. I rolled onto my belly and lifted my head. Across the drawbridge stood Ethan, Orin, and Wally. The captured necromancer sat behind them on his knees.

Pete grabbed me by the shoulders, shaking me hard. Something had happened while I’d been out cold. Apparently. We’d passed through the ghosts like they were actual mist.

Or maybe they’d had to face the ghosts on their own?

“If you don’t cross the bridge under your own power, it doesn’t count,” he said. “You have to get up, Wild. You have to. I won’t finish this trial without you, not after everything we’ve been through together.”

I pushed to my hands and knees. My guts rolled, my bad arm shaking and buckling under me, but I sat back on my knees and then slowly got to my feet, Pete hovering like an old lady the whole time. He had sweat pants on, thank God. That was about all I took note of besides the planks under my feet as I took step after step toward the others. Though I did wonder where he’d gotten them from.

This was the worst time to be at my worst. The vampires came last, Ethan had said so, and I was pretty much useless. With my good arm, I went for my knife and pulled it out, fingers trembling. If I was going to have to fight, I needed to be ready.