The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(22)

“I’ll look,” Colt said, slipping by me. “I know what she looks like, and I’ve rooted around in other people’s things a few times in my life.” He smirked, and I knew we were both thinking of Ethan’s cheat sheets. “I’ll meet you guys back at the dorm.”

“Okay, sounds good. Let’s go.” I plucked at Ethan’s sleeve and hurried forward before he could, without shame, poke me with his anatomy again. Too much confidence clearly wasn’t always a good thing.

“What are we going to do when we catch him?” Ethan asked. The heat had thankfully cooled from his voice, but it was obvious the blood hadn’t yet made it back to his brain.

“We’re not going to catch him. He’d bash our heads together. We’re going to stalk him. See where he goes, and what he does with whatever he grabbed.”

Adam cut another diagonal, this time to the corner of the mansion, clearly intending to go around. Something was still clutched tightly in the hand swinging at his side. A small black object. He wasn’t doing anything to hide its presence.

“I didn’t hear any names announced this morning, did you?” I asked Ethan, ignoring the pull to follow Gregory’s trail off toward the trees. I’d been interrupted twice so far. I needed to follow it through. The answers lay that way. I felt it in my gut.

But Adam looked like a concrete lead at this point. It would be foolish to ignore him.

“No. I was listening for them too,” Ethan replied.

“So if Ethel got asked, she didn’t get taken.”

“Not yet, unless they just didn’t announce it.”

Intuition churned my gut now, and my feet slowed without my direction.

“Hurry up, what are you doing?” Ethan grabbed my arm and hurried me forward.

“Maybe we can stop her from getting taken.”

He yanked me harder, and I couldn’t help but go with him, logic telling me this was right. That Adam knew something, had something, and was going somewhere we needed to know. But my intuition…

“Maybe she was already taken, and they want some info before they make the announcement.”

“If Colt’s roommate’s girlfriend is such a gossip, wouldn’t he know all that and have told us?”

“If Colt didn’t have such a jonesing hard on for you, he might have waited around for his roommate to invite his girl over. Then maybe he would, yes.”

At the corner of the mansion, Ethan pushed me against the wall, flattened, and peeked around. A hand came out of nowhere. Thick fingers wrapped around Ethan’s neck. Muscles pulled, and Ethan went airborne.





Chapter 9





“Holy sh—” I stepped forward before launching myself without thought, punching out and connecting with a cheek, then wrapping my arms around the assailant’s neck and using my momentum to rip him around.

He had no choice but to go, his grip slipping from Ethan’s neck. Ethan’s feet hit the ground and he dropped, gasping and coughing.

I twisted and ripped again before letting go, forcefully directing the falling body to the grass. The ground came up too fast and my foot hit it wrong, sending me rolling. Ethan was already up, his wand out and pointed.

“What the hell are you kids doing?” Adam rose from the ground like a cage fighter ready to get even, juiced up with power and strength and grisly know-how. Whatever type of magical he was, he’d gotten those muscles from violence and experience.

Tingles of terror blazed out through my bloodstream, giving me the jitters like a triple espresso. I either needed to run or throw another punch— standing there chatting was not in my wheelhouse at the moment. Thankfully, Ethan had a better weapon at his disposal. Entitlement.

“You’d better have a damn good explanation for grabbing me,” he berated, his wand hand steady and his shoulders squared, an elite member of the magical society talking down to a lesser one, no matter their relative size. “We were walking around the building on our day off, perfectly within the rules.”

Adam’s weight shifted, a small movement. Almost imperceptible. It spoke volumes.

“Let’s go.” I grabbed Ethan’s arm urgently and tugged him back the way we’d come. Adam didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d bow down to arrogant pricks, no matter how influential. This pause was the best we’d get.

“No.” Ethan dug in his heels, his chin raised and his indignation firing on all cylinders. “I want to hear an explanation.”

Adam stared him down, fire glimmering in his eyes.

“Come on.” I yanked Ethan again. “We can go to that other spot.”

“Your superiors will be hearing about this,” Ethan said, finally allowing me to pull him away.

“Best watch yourself,” I heard, low and rough and spreading shivers up my spine. Adam’s gaze had shifted to me, piercing, locking me in so that I couldn’t look away. “Your number is up, and your protection is dead. Best thing you can do is run. Get out of the trials and don’t come back. Run.”

Pain welled up at his mention of Rory’s death. Tears clouded my vision. A laugh bubbled up, out of nowhere.

“Then what?” I asked, rage quickly replacing the sorrow. I shook with it. “Run and hide? Cower in the shadows?” I spat, something I despised, but it really got the point across. “That’s not my style.”