The Culling Trials 3 (Shadowspell Academy #3)(5)

“We gotta go.” I kept moving, forcing my way through the funk. “Come on guys. Let’s get this done.”

Ethan tried to push to the front of our group, but Orin blocked him.

“This is not your house, Ethan.”

Wally bobbed her head. “Exactly.”

He cleared his throat and lowered his voice, drawing us all in close. “I remember some of my…paperwork.”

My eyebrows went up, but I motioned him forward. Fair enough—if he thought he could lead, let him lead. Orin and Wally let him pass, but I could see Orin, especially, was reluctant to do so.

“And?” I asked Ethan, “what exactly do you remember?” Part of me wondered if he’d actually tell us anything. Other than taking note that the cheat papers were exactly that, I hadn’t actually looked at them. To be fair, if I’d not slept the previous day away, I would have.

I had never claimed to be a saint. I needed to survive this to keep my siblings alive and well, and for them I’d break all the rules.

Ethan went for his wand holder, pulled out his wand, and lowered his voice further. “Necromancers first. Then ghost walkers. Vampires last. That’s the order.”

“Then let Wally lead up there with you,” I said. “You really want to be the first to get hit by a— Wally, what will the necromancers send after us?”

“Zombies,” she said without hesitation. “Lots and lots of zombies. You can take their heads, that will slow them down, but it won’t kill them like in the movies. You have to knock out or kill the necromancer to stop them completely. Otherwise, the body parts of the dead things will just keep on coming. I mean, if Ethan wants to try and go first, that’s fine by me.”

That slowed Ethan and he tipped his head. “Fine. You’re right, this is your house, after all.”

This morning, no beautiful woman greeted us atop the gates. In fact, no one else was around. Had all the other kids slipped ahead of us? Or had they left? I turned around, realizing that there was no other bus. We were here alone.

A warning shot down my spine. Something was off.

The gate creaked open on its own, and we stepped through, the air around us tensing and cooling rapidly as if we’d stepped not only through the gate but from summer into autumn. I blinked and took in what awaited us.

It looked like a pastoral scene straight out of some fairy tale villain’s playbook. A stone wall well over twelve feet high in some places wrapped around what could only be a graveyard, a huge metal gate locked at the front, skulls and crosses welded to it.

“The graves of the five houses,” Wally whispered. “It’s protected so the dead who served our world can rest.”

“That can’t be right,” Ethan said. “Because we know they’re going to raise the dead to challenge us. They would never stick us here.”

That warning tingle intensified.

“Could it be an illusion?” Pete asked.

Ethan lifted his wand and did a swooping swirl, whispering a word under his breath. Sparks spat and fizzled. “No,” he said, shaking his head, “it’s not an illusion.”

“These zombies…they will be stronger than anything any necromancer could ever raise in the real world,” Wally said. “Their strengths when they were alive will be available to them in death. Which is why they are kept here. They are supposed to be kept safe from being raised. They would only send us here if they want to test whether we can rise to an impossible challenge...or if they want us to fail.”

Slowly, the four members of my crew turned and looked at me. Ethan actually looked upset. Pete horrified. And Wally had tears in her eyes. What the hell?

I shook my head. “What? Why are you all looking at me?”

Orin smiled, slow and sad. “You’re supposed to be missing,” he said with more than a tinge of sorrow to his voice. “What better way to have it happen than for you to go missing in the middle of the House of Night’s trial?”

I shook my head harder. “No, no, no. That makes no sense. The other kids that went missing, they were all asked.”

“And what would you say if you were asked?” Orin countered.

“No. She’d say no and we all know it. Anyone who’s spoken to her once would know it,” Wally answered for me. She wasn’t wrong.

Especially now that I knew what had happened to the kids who’d taken up the offer to skip ahead. Or sort of knew what had happened to them.

“Fine, so this is my fault? You want me to go first?” I took a few steps and Wally sighed.

“I want you to walk with me at the front, not Ethan. Your warning system is going to help us get through this. Our odds increase incrementally with you in our group, even if this is a set up.” She turned away from me and headed toward the locked gates. They swung open, welcoming us in.

“My warning system?” I stepped up next to her and slowly pulled my knife from my belt. A flicker from that very warning system cut down my spine like tiny little needle jabs. Not enough to hurt but enough to make sure I was aware of what was about to happen.

Wally plucked at a long stalk of grass as her eyes roved the space ahead of us. “I’ve been reading up on Shades. You have a built-in warning system, better than any of the other houses, as you are meant to survive attacks from many different quarters. You are meant to be aware of the world in a way the rest of us are not. Of course, not all Shades have it. About fifteen percent of Shades have a faulty warning system. Less than five percent have a heightened warning system, one that provides a wider range.”