The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(18)

Colt turned and headed to the window. “I have more skills than most.” He winked at me over his shoulder and slid out, gone without a sound.

As quiet as any Shade. I had more questions for him, for this place, for this world. My stomach growled angrily, and I nodded. Food first.

Questions later.





Chapter 7





“Okay.” I clapped my hands as my crew walked down the hall, using the noise to chase away the lingering fatigue from the night before. It felt like I’d woken up every five minutes last night, drowning in a never-ending loop of zombies, assassins, claws, and gleaming knives. To top it off, Rory’s face kept drifting up out of the abyss, pulling at my heart. Reminding me of all I’d lost to be here.

I took a big, shuddering breath, willing away tears. A huge, gaping hole that felt like a wind tunnel cut through my middle. Memories of Rory kept shoving their way into my thoughts. I kept remembering how it had felt to be near him—dangerous, edgy, raw, exhilarating, and yet safe. Protected. Those feelings had only amplified over time, becoming a thousand times stronger.

And now he was gone.

My childhood was being ripped from me, piece by piece. I could barely think under the weight of grief. But I had to survive. He hadn’t given away his life so I could throw away mine.

“Okay,” I said again, hurrying down the steps to the cafeteria for breakfast. “Here’s what we have. The missing kids are being offered a leg up, so to speak. Then they disappear. Fine. The director seems to be on the case, but she’s obviously too slow to catch up with whomever is doing this. Whatever intel she is getting is old. Not abnormal, since the people in charge are usually clueless. I—we’re being hunted,” I amended, “but that seems like a different situation than the kidnappings. We were meant to be killed last night, not taken. No matter what Ethan’s dad thinks.”

“Um, ya think?” Pete asked with wide eyes.

“I have been thinking on it, and I don’t think Gregory would’ve taken an easy out,” Orin said thoughtfully. “His family isn’t rich—he’d want the gold. It would improve his standing going into the academy.”

I nodded, chewing my lip as we pushed through the doors into the cafeteria. The promise of bacon made my mouth salivate, competing with the smell of burnt toast, steaming sausages, scrambled eggs, and fluffy pancakes. I loved eating at this place, especially since I didn’t have to cook any of the meals myself.

“I found the sheets you stuffed under my mattress,” Ethan said in a low hum.

“Like a princess with a pea,” Wally murmured.

“So obviously he wasn’t going to sell those,” Ethan finished, nodding at a group of guys seated in the back corner. Colt stood from among them, fresh and clean, with stylishly tousled hair. Those entrancing eyes found me and stuck, and a smile quirked up one side of his mouth, sending a rush of heat through me. Ethan went on. “But what was he doing outside?”

“Being hauled away.” I grabbed a plate and started heaping it with food from the buffet. “They, whoever they are, got him when he was still inside. For all we know they tried to convince him to go and he initially agreed.”

“Right, right,” Ethan whispered to himself.

“They weren’t taking the fastest route to the parking lot,” Orin said, following too closely behind me. I had the distinct feeling he was staring at my neck.

I rolled my shoulders without meaning to. “That’s true. They would have had to circle around through the trees.” My mind spun. “Do you think they’re keeping the missing kids on campus somewhere? That seems risky.”

“We have a day to look around and find out,” Wally said. “The odds of someone going missing in the woods around here—”

“He didn’t go missing; he was taken,” Ethan corrected dryly, heaping eggs onto his plate.

“The odds of someone being kidnapped and hauled into the woods—”

I let Wally’s statistics drift into the background as I quickly went over the events of the last free day. One thing I hadn’t really paid attention to jogged to the front of my mind.

“Where is the director’s assistant?” I asked, following Ethan to a middle table, front and center so all his adoring fans could see him. Colt met us there, giving me a small smile as he sat. I hadn’t told the others about him copying Ethan’s notes. Mostly because I had a feeling my crew would be facing a different trial than the one described in Ethan’s papers. “That guy seemed more than competent when we met him, yet he wasn’t there when Jared hauled us up to the director’s office the other night. Where could he have been, rather than in the office, doing his job?” Adam hadn’t been there when we’d broken into the office either, but that had happened late at night, and I didn’t think it wise to mention our criminal activities in front of Colt.

“Maybe he was finding out more info for the director?” Pete asked, holding up his fork with a half-eaten sausage skewered on the end.

“More info that didn’t reach her in time to actually help?” I frowned and pushed the hash browns around my plate. “When I first met him, it felt like he could read right through me with a single glance.” I shivered. “He doesn’t seem like a guy who is satisfied with second-rate intelligence.”