The Culling Trials (Shadowspell Academy #2)(31)

A look around said no other trial goers had followed our path. Still, we should have been able to see them—there were some dips and rises in the terrain, but not many. The only other people out here looked to be the kids ahead of us.

Pete shook his head. “They won’t want us working with any other crews here. We’ll all be kept separate this time—I’m sure of it.”

“Well, that’s just awesome,” I muttered. It meant we wouldn’t be able to use other crews for bait…or help.

The House of Claw had challenged their prey with a dinner bell, and we’d been stupid enough to answer.





Chapter 12





“Come on,” Ethan said, no doubt realizing we were going to lose the guys in front of us. He jogged forward, closing in on the group nearing the waterhole, refusing to let the magic sweep them away.

“Ethan, seriously, notes or no, this is a terrible idea. Do you have no survival skills? No internal warning system that is telling you this is the wrong way?” I hastened after him, honestly wondering if I should bother. We were still on thin ice, he and I, and this would be a good way to get rid of him. Let him go down with those other guys.

And yet Rory thought I was in extreme danger, more so than I had gauged. I needed a front man who no one wanted to kill, a front man who had a father with power and connections. I might not want Ethan, but I still needed him.

“Forget survival skills, haven’t you watched Discovery Kingdom?” Wally asked, looking behind her, those big eyes of hers wider than usual.

“Yes, that’s a good idea.” I pointed at her. “Watch our six. The big cats come out at night, and we’re in the big cat freaking house. Pete—” I moved my finger to him as Ethan closed in on the cluster of guys, standing around like idiots, clearly trying to pretend they weren’t about to do something wrong, like cheat. “You need to change, buddy. This is your world. We need that sniffer.”

“Not to mention your honey badger rage. They face down lions on a regular basis,” Orin said, facing out to our right. He didn’t want to get mauled any more than the rest of us. I lifted an eyebrow at him and he shrugged.

“I watch the Discovery Channel from time to time. Honey badgers are known to attack lions. They have a great deal of attitude.”

A vampire who liked animal shows. I shook my head and then nodded. “Yes, the rage will help.” The terrain was uneven under the long grass and it made for slow going. The last thing we needed was a twisted ankle. The grasses brushed at my waist, easily long enough to hide a crouching, stalking predator. Or maybe a whole pride of them. “Good God, this is terrible. This whole place is terrible. And it goes on forever.”

“It’s just magic,” Orin said. “Nothing is forever, not even magic.”

“Au contraire. Your weirdness will be. I guarantee it.” I caught up to Ethan on the sands of the watering hole, two paces from the cluster of guys.

“What do you have there?” Ethan asked, his snobby tone selling that line all wrong. He was not good at shakedowns, clearly.

Likely he was used to Daddy doing his dirty work for him.

“Wh-what?” The guy with an obvious secret took a step back, his eyes bugging out in an obvious tell.

Ethan jammed out his hand as Pete stripped. Wally and Orin stood with their backs to us, watching the gentle sway of the long grasses. A warning tickled the base of my spine—not like I needed it.

“Hand it over. It’s mine!” Ethan shook his hand as he took another step forward.

Confusion stole over the guy’s expression and he wiped at his pocket absentmindedly. “It’s not… What’s yours—”

“Oh, give me a break, this is taking forever.” I pushed Ethan out of the way, grabbed the smaller guy by the shirt, and yanked him closer until I could see the individual pores in his face. “I will skin you alive if you don’t pull that piece of paper out of your pocket right now and hand it over.”

The guy’s eyes were as big as the moon above us as he slapped and grabbed at himself. His pudgy hand finally made it to his pocket, and he pulled a creased page out with trembling fingers.

“Come on, man, hold it together,” I muttered, snatching the page. “You’re going to make me feel bad.”

“Hand it over.” Ethan took it from me and crinkled it open.

“My mom said everyone does it,” the guy babbled. The cluster around him drifted away, giving him more space than he probably wanted. “It’s not like I know exactly what’s coming—it’s just a little nudge—”

“This is garbage.” Ethan threw the paper on the ground.

“At least give it back.” I sighed, grabbing up the sheet. Slanted notes scrawled in a lazy hand covered the surface. Near the bottom was a hand-drawn picture of a unicorn head (third graders would be ashamed of the artistry) with an arrow to the tip of the horn, labeled “dangerous.”

“Oh no, guys,” I said, shaking my head. “This is… This isn’t going to help you. I mean, hopefully it doesn’t help you. If you need this to help you…” I was still shaking my head when I gave it back to the trembling kid. “Don’t worry about cheating. Cheat all day long with this. Snobby McSnobberton over there cheated way harder. He’s clearly got a more important daddy than you—”