The Culling Trials (Shadowspell Academy #2)(23)

Then again, I could always say I was worried about Gregory. His disappearance had to count as an emergency.

Of course, if he was sneaking around, he wouldn’t appreciate me ratting him out.

I chewed on my bottom lip, antsy to get moving. To go looking. Something within me said he was in trouble. Orin’s earlier words seemed to echo in my ears.

Watch your backs before someone sticks a knife in them.

I spun, my eyes narrowing. Ethan had connections. If he wanted someone to disappear, I had no doubt that he could make it happen, and Gregory had pissed him off with that photo. Not to mention the fact that Ethan’s curtains were disturbed, too. Had he gotten up to do something—

No. Orin and Gregory could cross a floor without making a sound. Ethan thumped and tramped about, every move a call for attention. Stealth wasn’t his style.

I put my boots on, telling myself I still hadn’t decided. That maybe I was only putting them on for warmth. But by the time I finished, I knew better.

When it came down to it, Gregory had tried to save my ass. He’d fought to keep me in the game. It was my duty to do all I could to make sure he stayed in it too. I didn’t know what his deal was, but I knew better than to ignore my gut. He was in trouble.

I rooted around in my trunk until I found a black sweat set, equipped with a black beanie. They were basically encouraging us to create mischief. Ready to go, I gently grabbed the door handle, being as quiet as I could.

“Where are you going?”

I jumped at Orin’s whisper. He hadn’t risen from his bed.

“Did you see Gregory leave?” I asked quietly. Pete shifted, rolled over, and sucked in a snore.

“Yes. About an hour ago. He probably couldn’t sleep with your and Pete’s chorus of snores.”

I rolled my eyes. “Did he say where he was going?”

“No, because I didn’t ask. I don’t have that mothering gene you appear to have. But he did have his phone with him.”

“I’m getting a bad feeling. It’s almost curfew. This place seems pretty intolerant of wandering around when you’re not supposed to.”

“You’re probably right in your bad feeling, but that was the chance he took. Now he is meat for the monsters.”

I clutched the handle. “What monsters? What’s out there?”

He chuckled softly and turned his gaze to the ceiling. “Just a figure of speech. They aren’t monsters, they are simply highly-experienced authority figures who patrol the grounds looking for miscreants. I’m sure he’s fine, though I doubt we’ll ever see him again.”

“These trials have turned you crazy,” I said.

“No. I’m just now exposing this part of myself to you.”

“Fabulous,” I grumbled before taking a deep breath and turning the handle. Clearly Orin wasn’t going to help, and though Pete would absolutely go with me, steadfast and loyal as he was, I didn’t want to get him in trouble. No, I needed to do this alone or go down trying.

Sharp shadows sliced the hall. I drifted into it and hurried forward, using my intuition like I did when I went after predators on the farm. No sound of footsteps reached my ears, and no feeling of being watched tickled my shoulder blades. I was alone, for the moment.

I paused at the rear staircase, then turned to go down. Gregory wasn’t a people person—if he’d wandered away on his own free will, I suspected he’d stayed to the sidelines.

Voices drifted through the air as I reached the first-floor landing. I slipped to the side into a pool of shadow.

“He’s going to win every one, just you watch,” a woman said, somewhere down the corridor. “His father told my father that he was confident Ethan would break the school record. All five hasn’t been done before, you know.”

“Yes, it has,” another said, the voices not getting louder. They must’ve been stationary, somewhere down around the middle of the hall. “The Shadow Killer did it first, about twenty-five years ago.”

The first sucked in a breath. “Don’t talk about him here,” she said, her volume dropping. “You don’t know who could be listening.”

“Who cares? I’m just stating a fact. He was the first ever to claim all five house prizes.”

“That doesn’t count. He’s a…you know. Freak of nature. Ethan will be the first normal person to complete all five—”

I pushed off from the wall and hurried down the stairs. No way would Ethan be the first of anything. Somehow, I’d make sure of it.

The second my foot hit the ground floor, a huge gong reverberated through the floor and the walls, the sound pressurizing the air all around me. I paused, stricken, as the gong died away. Had I set off some alarm? The sound immediately repeated, and I realized it was issuing from the largest, loudest, most intense cuckoo clock I’d ever encountered. But no sooner had I realized that than I noticed a rhythmic tapping between each bong of the clock.

Footsteps.

I dashed behind a moving plant—though I wasn’t sure what had moved it—before slipping behind a couple chairs farther down the way. The footsteps drew closer, the sound distinguishable over the deafening chimes in a way I didn’t fully understand but greatly appreciated. The bottom half of a figure wearing tight black spandex came into view. A prominent hip suggested a female, and her wand stuck out from a cool leather holster with intricate stitching on it. Ethan needed to up his holster game.