The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(43)

The fact that he paused before answering said it all. His son’s life was of value to him. But that value only went so far—he seemed more interested in his family legacy than in Ethan’s life. Damn it, I really didn’t want to feel bad for Ethan.

There was no stopping my mouth from curling into a sneer. I turned my back on him, but the director had moved to stand in front of me. “To my office with the four of you. Now.”

And just like that we went from the frying pan into the fire.

The director sat across from us in her office, her fingers laced together in front of her full lips. Seriously, she looked like she’d knocked off another fifteen years at least. I wanted to ask her how she’d done it. Likely just an illusion, like so much of this place was. Vanity at its best.

“What am I to do with you four? You’ve broken one of the most sacred laws of our world. We do not bring the dead back to life!”

“We didn’t know.” I crossed my arms and frowned at her. How the hell did they expect us to know their rules? We were just students—no, future students.

The other three shifted beside me, their furtive movement saying it all. Crap, they had known. I straightened up a little more and deepened my frown. “I didn’t know, and I pushed them to it.”

“I see.” Director Frost’s eyes stayed locked on me, the edges of them definitely smoother than the last time I’d seen her. Those icy blues were weighing my worth, and I had a niggling feeling that perhaps she saw me the way Mr. Helix saw Ethan. A tool, and if that tool was broken, she’d find another. Or maybe she’d finally realized my troublesome ways weren’t worth the possible gain.

“If the heads of your soon-to-be houses were not so damn ecstatic to welcome you four in, I’d have all of you removed from the trials and sent home with wiped memories. As it is…” She tapped her fingers on a thin stack of papers. “You have made too much of an impression to just disappear.”

She was silent as she stared down at the papers. “All of you have passed the trials and will be welcomed into your respective houses,” she said softly. “But let me make this crystal clear. You will speak of this event to no one. As far as anyone is concerned, you came through the trial of Wonder because of Ethan Helix and his final spells. He was injured gravely, but a healer fixed him up.” Her eyes locked on each of us, one at a time, as if she could force us to agree. The other three lowered their eyes, cowed by her.

“Why?” The single-word question popped out of me. “I get that we broke a rule, but why the rest? Because you don’t want people to know that someone’s infiltrating the trials? Someone who’s stealing kids? Trying to kill us?” With each of my questions, my friends tensed further until I thought they would spring forward and slap their hands over my mouth. But I couldn’t stop. Not now, not after everything we’d been through. “We did better than survive those damn trials. We survived when we should have died, and you damn well know it!”

Director Frost smiled at me, the gesture as cold as her name. “Again, let me be clear, since you seem to be thick as most Shades when it comes to understanding the why of things. Those who did indeed infiltrate the trials were not trying to kill all of you. Just one of you. And they nearly succeeded.”

My head spun. “Ethan? They were trying to kill Ethan?”

“His father has many enemies. Powerful enemies that wanted to destroy his family legacy. He is the last of his bloodline,” Director Frost said. “You didn’t seriously think they would be here to kill you, a Shade impersonating her brother? As much as you thought you were hiding, everyone knew by the second day who you were. The shifters were the first to sniff you out, then the vampires, and those vampires are nothing if not gossips. We let you stay because it was too much bother to send you back and take your brother instead. You are a tool, Wild. Nothing more than a blunt instrument.”

Orin stiffened at the gossip comment.

Anger flashed through me like a bolt of lightning, there and gone, leaving behind the residue. They’d all known. And they’d let me keep trying to hide it? I opened my mouth to give her my thoughts on that matter, but she cut me off. But what about Sideburns? And Rory? They’d said nothing about Ethan being in danger.

Her eyes never flicked to the others, not once. “You are all dismissed for the remainder of the day. The advancement ball will begin at ten p.m. While I’d rather you four weren’t there, again, your heads of houses will expect your presence.”

Just like that, we were done, out of the room and headed to the dorm. We walked in silence all the way to our room, but as soon as the door was shut, Pete let out a whoop that set my heart racing.

Talk about PTSD—I reached for my blade without even feeling a warning tingle. Pete grabbed Wally and spun her around, then grabbed Orin and attempted to spin him about too. Orin was stiff as a board, and the spin was beyond awkward, falling into comical.

“We did it! We all did it!” Pete shouted.

His excitement was contagious, and laughter bubbled out of me. We had done it. Despite the odds that Wally had insisted on spewing, despite the fact that we were the underdogs, the outcasts, we’d done it.

I grabbed Pete and hugged him, then Orin and Wally.

The door opened and we all turned to see Ethan standing there, pale but upright. His father behind him, gripping his shoulder just this side of too hard.