The Culling Trials (Shadowspell Academy #2)(52)

The goblin curled around himself. “Get out of my room, Shade.”

I made myself ask one more question. “Was it the same way with Mason? He was told that he was able to skip ahead?”

He bobbed his head once. “Yes.”

“You just follow people around? Creepy, dude, seriously creepy,” Colt said, and the goblin took a swipe at him. Colt was fast, I’d give him that. He danced back and pulled his wand in the space of a heartbeat, pointing the weapon at the goblin.

“I think not. This isn’t my first time facing one of your kind.”

I headed to the door. “We’re done here,” I said letting myself out. Colt could follow or not. My mind was whirling.

Someone—no, not just someone, a vampire—had offered Gregory and Mason a way to skip ahead. Because they were doing so well in the trials. Gregory I could believe. Despite the bind he’d been in when I met him, he was smart, wily. “Did you know Mason?”

Colt hurried to catch up to me as I strode through the mansion, heading outside. I needed to breathe the fresh air. I needed to be out of this place so I could think straight.

“I knew him a little. Are you asking me if he was good enough to be called up?”

“Called up, that’s what it is?”

Colt shrugged as we pushed the main doors open and walked across the wide lawn. “If you’re good enough, you might get asked to skip. Or at least that’s the rumor. I’ve never actually known anyone who was pulled out and given a pass.”

“So it’s a valid thing. Something the kids might believe?” I drew a breath of the air and let it out slowly.

“Valid, but unlikely. Mason was not the top of his class. Middle or lower would be my guess based on who he hung with. The status of your friends usually indicates where you lie within your group.” We’d reached the edge of the trees and I stepped under the cover and kept walking, taking us deeper into the forest.

“He’d go with someone he trusted, someone he thought was actually able to enforce a rule like that. At least in the beginning. Gregory was fighting to get away when I found him,” I said, more to myself than to Colt. “He was smart. He figured out pretty quickly that something was wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Colt asked.

“I saw him being taken. I tried to stop the people who had him, and he called to me for help.” It was only then I realized that was why I’d headed out this way. To look for clues. “They dragged him out here.”

I pointed at a small spot at the center of three trees. To the right was a bigger tree and I laid my hand on the wide trunk. This was where Rory had dragged me down and hidden me from the assassin.

A slow turn and the heel of my boot dug into the soil, leaving a distinct mark. There had to be tracks. And tracks never lied.

I crouched by the tree and tried to put my body into the same position it had been in that night. Colt crouched with me, close enough that I could smell the cologne he wore. I couldn’t help it, I took a deep breath. Spicy and a little bit sweet.

“What do you smell?” he asked.

I laughed. “Just your perfume.”

He laughed right back at me. “Gotta keep the ladies happy.”

I rolled my eyes and focused on what was in front of me. This was where I’d seen the tip of the assassin’s boot. I had to work to suppress the fear that rose in me. Not a warning, just a true fear of how close I’d come to biting it that night.

I closed my eyes, recalling the direction of Gregory’s final shout. Opening them, I pointed in that general direction. “Gregory and his captors, they were out there.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do.” I wasn’t about to tell him all my secrets.

He grabbed my arm as we stood, and then he wobbled and fell against me. I caught him, and he slowly stood, far, far too close. “And here I thought you didn’t like me.”

Part of me wanted to pull away, the other part thought oh hell, why not? For all I knew, I could die tomorrow in the next trial.

The “oh hell” part won. Colt cupped my face, bent his head and brushed his lips against mine. Nice, sweet…safe. He tasted like his cologne, a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet, maybe even a little bit magical.

“What the hell is going on here?”

The words cut through the air like a blade as sharp as the one I carried. Worse, Rory was the one who yelled them.





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Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, Book 3





The story continues in Book 3





Chapter 1



Being caught kissing a boy in a forest by Rory shouldn’t have bothered me. After all, I’d seen him kissing Missy—a bleach blonde I know for a fact stuffed her bra with her socks—behind the five and dime—twice. The first time, I’d run back the way I’d come, embarrassed and not sure why. The second time, he’d seen me before I could react. Rather than stop, he’d turned so his back was to me, then continued to kiss pretty, girly, hair always perfect, makeup always on straight, stuffed boobs Missy.