The Culling Trials (Shadowspell Academy #2)(7)

“That isn’t a stick, Pete! Find a branch, not a sliver!”

His shoulders slumped. “Sorry.” And then he slunk back, leaving me there.

“Damn it, I still need help!” I yelled.

“Oh, the humanity! I’m going to tear her a new hole!” the troll hollered. He slammed into me again, but his eyes were rolling as though the pain in his finger was nothing short of incapacitating and it made him super sloppy.

Score one for me.

I spun with him, like some sort of horrible tango. His snot slapped onto my face. He gripped at me with his good hand and something bumped my leg.

“Get off me, you freakshow!” I yelled and shoved him away. Shockingly, he fell backward, right onto his butt into the water, still holding his hand, still crying massive crocodile tears as he spewed obscenities.

“Pain in his hands is his downfall. It steals his magic!” Gregory leaned over. “You did good. That injury will keep him occupied for at least a few minutes.”

“I’m coming, Wild!” Pete yelled from above.

I stared at the wall of dirt and stones that comprised the ditch, able to see some handholds now that the troll’s magic had diminished. “I can climb out, just warn me if he’s coming.”

Only Pete didn’t wait for me. No, Pete was in what I like to call white-knight mode. Was it because he knew I was a girl now? Yeah, most likely.

A new snarl from above cut through the air and then a honey badger came flying down.

A furry Pete —in full on honey badger form—landed between me and the still inconsolably sobbing troll.

Gregory groaned. “He will be far deadlier once he snaps out of the shock. You two need to get out of there!”

A snarl of serious ferocity ripped out of Pete and the troll opened his eyes.

“Oh, no.” Gregory said. “Get out of there!”

“Trying!” I yelled back, only now I couldn’t leave. Not without Pete.

He snarled and lunged at the troll’s foot, snagging a big toe in his mouth and flipping his head back and forth so hard his body was a blur.

The troll bellowed bloody murder as Pete put the toe hold on him. “I’m eating badger for breakfast!” he roared.

His hand shot for Pete and I lunged forward without thinking, knowing only that Pete was one of mine to protect. I slashed with my blade, catching two more of the troll’s grasping fingers.

They plopped into the water and the troll lurched to the side and puked as his newly cut fingers bled pink into the churned-up water.

A gargled ahhhhhhh ripped out of the troll. “Imma kill her ten ways to the solstice and back!”

Jesus Murphy, he was going to unmask me if I didn’t get my ass out of here.

“Come on, Pete!” I grabbed his stubby tail and pulled him backward while he fought to get closer to the troll, clawing at the ground, muddying up the waters even more as he went.

“No, we have to go!” I snapped at him. We did, although I still had to figure out how to get us both out of the ditch. Although we hadn’t noticed the ditch’s walls as we approached, they now appeared never ending.

This place was such a mind trip, I literally couldn’t grasp what the hell was going on with the landscape. But one challenge at a time. Still dragging Pete back by his tail, I got us to the wall of the ditch.

“Look out!” Wally yelled from above. I swung sideways, and by virtue of my farm muscles, swung Pete up as a kind of honey badger weapon.

He snarled as I turned, his claws outstretched for the troll’s very wide eyes. He would have gotten them, too, except that big maw had also opened. I pulled Pete back just as the troll’s teeth snapped shut, but I kept swinging, throwing Pete, sending him up and over the edge of the ditch.

There was a yelp from one of the others and then another body tumbled into the ditch with me.

It was like we were in some sort of deadly comedy. I was just waiting for a pie in the face to mark the end of the scene.

A flash of dirty blond hair, and then Ethan hit the water beside me. The troll didn’t so much as turn toward him. Not even a glance.

“Go on, go after him a minute. He’s an ass. Nobody likes him.” I made a quick shooing motion, like I would have done with a badly-behaved cow.

The troll tipped his head and squinted an eye at Ethan before turning back to me with a wide grin. “Not allowed. That one has protection on him. You, little duck, do not. And you have seriously pissed me off.”

“What the hell?” I yelled. Ethan stood as if nothing had happened, took his wand from his pouch and made a lazy swirling motion with it. The wall of the ditch shifted, changing into a set of stairs that led up and out of the water.

“You dirty son of a bitch, you could have helped all along!” I snarled.

But I got no more than that because I’d been stupid. I’d taken my attention off the troll, which was the only opening he needed to wrap his remaining fingers on one hand around my neck.

“Got ya,” he whispered.





Chapter 4





From above me, stuck in the ditch with a troll’s one good hand wrapped around my neck, Ethan hollered to the others. “Let’s go. We’re down a Shade, but we don’t need him now that we finished his house trial.”

He was just going to leave me here?