The Culling Trials (Shadowspell Academy #2)(35)

“Smaller animal forms can change faster and more frequently than the larger, deadlier forms,” Pete explained proudly.

“Awesome, buddy. Keep up the good work.” He did appreciate my thumbs up.

“Shifters are clearly no match for the House of Shade when it comes to mind teasers,” Orin said as Pete led the way, sniffing out the trail that I followed by sight. Tracking an animal was pretty easy once you picked up the footprints. Rocky terrain and water posed different challenges, of course, but more often than not, wolves didn’t spend too much time on those.

Then again, my experience was only with real wolves. Human wolves would change it up to confuse things, no doubt. I could only hope Pete’s nose could plug up the holes in my experience.

“The House of Shade is no match for the House of Claw when it comes to brawn and power,” Orin continued. “Shades hone their skills so as to become predators. Those of the claw are born predators, and they learn to hone their nature with their intellect.”

“In other words, we are really hoping that Ethan won’t crap himself in fear and freeze up when the wolves surround us later and try to tear us apart,” I said, watching the subtle differences in the tracks as they made a straight shot up a gradually more horrible incline. The shifters were challenging our stamina right now. Four-legged animals would have an easier time of this than bi-pedal kids. I already wanted to give up.

“Rabbits aren’t predators,” Wally said, out of breath.

“Correct,” Orin said, not out of breath.

“How do we even know we’re going the right way?” Ethan asked, pulling off his sweatshirt and tying it around his waist. A whiff of masculine musk and Old Spice blasted me. If we had to run and hide, it wouldn’t be hard to sniff us out. “We’re probably doing all this for nothing.”

“Are you always this much of a whiner when you’re not cheating?” I asked through my gasps of progressively thinning air.

“‘The cat’s in the cradle and the—’”

“Knock it off with that weird-ass voice,” Ethan said to Wally. “What is up with that?”

“Everyone needs a little charm in their lives,” Wally retorted.

“Not that kind of charm,” he bit back.

“Climbing a tower wasn’t easy,” I said as Pete slowed, and then stopped. “The fact that this is a similar level of difficulty should prove that we are going the right way. What is it, Pete?”

The scent is lost, I heard echo around my head. Disappeared.

I bent closer to the ground and waved my finger at the tracks, toes and claws indenting the dirt around pebbles and leaves. They’d become lighter as we climbed, more difficult to follow, but we hadn’t lost the trail. “We’re still good. See? It keeps on in the same direction, although no real wolf would weave this much. Someone had a little too much moonshine before they tackled this trail…”

“Moonshine, really?” Ethan tramped forward, leaning forward against the incline. “Country bumpkin much?”

“Moonshine, really,” I said, pushing him to the side and taking the lead. “Hard core, always. It would knock you flat on your ass just from sniffing it.”

“Like you would know.”

“Wow, you really are dumb.” I veered with the tracks, which became even lighter. In fairness, I’d only tried moonshine a few times, as all curious kids might, and only once, at the urging of my brother and Rory, did I push past the breathing fire stage and have enough to swirl my thoughts. We’d all thrown up quite a lot that time, and as far as I knew, none of us had touched it again.

The tracks cut right, went a ways, then stopped. Ahead, the mountain dropped away to a cliff face, that we’d have to navigate via a little tiny ledge that led to a thatch of trees and another upward slope on the other side.

Pete didn’t move in front of me, which meant the scent trail didn’t pick back up.

I braced my hands on my hips, looking back the way we’d come, thinking. Had we gone straight instead of cutting right at the last juncture, we would have hit a nearly solid patch of pines. The trees reached out to the path almost threateningly, as if daring someone to push their way into the shadows of their branches.

I pointed back that way. “Turn around and get going up. This is a test of our courage.”

Ethan stared at me, his brows set low over his eyes. Orin stared as well, his eyes sparkling harder in a way that clenched my stomach, though I couldn’t have said why.

“Don’t magical people teach their kids that it’s rude to stare?” I asked, stopping in front of them. “Move.”

“How the hell do you know all this?” Ethan said accusingly. “You said you didn’t know this world.”

“I don’t have your stupid notes, you turd.” I shoved him out of the way. “Which should be clear since I am not stopping to read anything. It’s common sense.” I pointed back at the ledge. “No wolf is going to run across that. Give me a break. And again, these aren’t real wolves. They are people, and this is a challenge. They’re testing our mettle in the same way they would test one of their shifters. Strength, stamina, courage, fighting prowess…”

“If it were common sense, everyone would be able to do it,” Orin said, his gaze boring into me as though he wanted to peel back my skull and have a look under the hood.