The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(47)

I flipped the box top down and sat in one of the visitors’ chairs. Ethan sat next to me and we both turned as the door opened and the director stepped in, annoyance written across her very young face.

Her eyes flew to us. “What are you two doing here?” And then she caught herself. “You broke into my office?”

We both shook our heads. “No, I came to speak to you about my siblings,” I said. “I knocked and thought I heard you say come in. The door was open.”

Her eyes narrowed and her full lips pinched. “And you, Mr. Helix?”

Ethan smiled. “Just keeping my graduation date company.”

Well, hell, there was no way I’d get out of dancing with him now. The smug look on his lips said it all. He’d planned that last little bit. Because if I denied him, it would be obvious he’d just followed me in.

He was good, I’d give him that.

Ethan stood and offered me his arm. “We’re going to be late. We waited too long for the director.”

Just like that, he swept us out of the room, past the frowning director, and into the hall. I hung onto his arm with my right hand. “I can’t believe that worked.”

“Confidence usually works, especially when you’re bluffing.”

“Ah, so you have a date already.” I let go of his arm, but he caught my hand and returned it to the crook of his elbow.

“No, I’d planned to ask you. The least I could do since you broke the rules to bring me back from the dead.” His calm tone caught me off guard.

“No, Wally brought you back.”

Ethan glanced at me. “No, she wouldn’t have even tried if you hadn’t made it happen. Everyone knows that. She’s strong enough, we know that now, but it’s forbidden. The only reason we aren’t all being kicked out is your obvious lack of education when it comes to our world.”

The usual condescension that dripped from his voice was gone. This was fact to him, pure and simple. Maybe almost dying had changed him. Maybe he realized he wasn’t invulnerable after all.

“Besides, you wouldn’t have survived that challenge without me coaching you through the spells.”

And there he was, teaching “How to Look Down Your Nose at Someone 101.”

I rolled my eyes. In my heels, I was a good three inches taller than him at least and could give him a solid downward glare I’d been wanting to blast him with all week. “Please. You were too busy getting eaten by a T-Rex to coach me. I guessed at the words.”

We walked by a girl in a bright red dress as I said that. She gasped, tears gathering in her eyes. “How can you talk to him like that? He almost died!”

I scrunched up my nose at her and Ethan laughed. “That’s what I like about you, Wild. You don’t pull punches, not ever. Not even when society dictates that you probably shouldn’t talk about someone’s near death experience mere hours after it happened.”

“I do what I can to keep it real,” I said as we turned the corner at the end of the hall. A wide set of double doors loomed ahead of us. They were closed, and from behind them came the steady thump of bass, music playing loud enough that it rumbled through my head, setting off the ache of the concussion.

“Shall we?” He gave me a mocking half bow. I would have curtseyed if I’d known how.

“Attitude before skill.” I waved him forward. And again he laughed.

Damn it, I’d taken a pot shot at him and he’d just laughed it off. Ethan went to the door first, pushing both sides wide open. Music spilled out around us as the kids who’d survived the culling trials danced, grateful to have survived, to have made it this far.

The mass of bodies sent an instant wave of paranoia through me. I hesitated and Ethan came back for me and leaned in close.

“Are you getting any warnings?”

I wasn’t sure I liked this new Ethan. Laughing with me. Listening to me. I certainly didn’t know what to make of him. “No, nothing.”

“Come on then.” He tugged me forward, taking me by the hand like we were really on a date. Maybe I should have pulled away, but he was my lifeline in this crowd of people I didn’t know. People I didn’t trust. At least I knew where I stood with him.

Standing on my tiptoes, I searched the crowd for Wally, Pete, and Orin. They were all the way across the floor, near the food. Even at that distance, I could see Wally’s mouth moving, Pete’s head bobbing, and Orin’s trademark bored expression.

I lifted a hand to them. Orin put two fingers to his head and saluted me. “I’m going over there,” I said.

Ethan held my hand fast. “Stay here, with me and my friends.”

I turned to see his friends were all magic users, of course. Within seconds, they were patting him on the shoulder, congratulating him on winning so many of the trials. Telling him how strong and amazing he was because he’d survived when everyone had thought he was dead. The girls batted their eyelashes, and the guys weren’t much better. Colt was missing though.

Colt was missing.

My brain tried to get me to care, and I struggled around the throbbing in my head to want to go find him.

Ethan lapped all the love and attention up. I shook my head. Yeah, he was an ass, although of the good-looking, smelled so good I wanted to stick my nose against his neck and breathe him in variety.