Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, Book 3

by Breene, K. F.

  “Statistically speaking,” Wally called out from the bedroom. “People who talk to themselves are 58 percent more likely to find themselves in a mental institute.”

  “You made that one up!” I yelled back, smiling.

  She laughed. “Maybe, but you can’t be sure.”

  The banter with Wally and the heat of the water helped release some of the tension in my muscles.

  I told myself that as soon as I got out, I’d start looking for Gregory and the other missing kids again. Only that thought kept slipping away from me like a bar of wet soap in the tub.

  This wasn’t like me. I wanted to find them. Didn’t I?

  On the edge of the tub, I placed the five trinkets I’d been given in the first envelope from the Sandman. Like the tokens for a game of monopoly, I understood them now. The knife represented the House of Shade. The wand the House of Wonder. The gravestone the House of Night. The paw the House of Claw. The plain blank silver coin the House of Unmentionables. Five houses, five trinkets. As I touched each, a flare of recognition rolled through me, and I wondered just where I would be placed. I would have assumed in the House of Shade, but after handling wands…I wasn’t so sure.

  Wally knocked on the door then stuck her head in, hair wrapped up in a big white towel that made her skin look even paler than usual. She flapped an envelope at me. “This just came for you. Someone slid it under the door.”

  She flipped the thick envelope to me and I caught it easily with the hand that had been fused to the wand, still amazed at how the magic here could heal so many injuries. Now that the trials were over, what harm could come from an envelope?

  The material was thick, not unlike that first envelope that had shown up with the Sandman what felt like months ago. A week, it had barely been a week since he'd come to the ranch.

  “Thanks,” I said, and Wally backed out.

  I held the envelope up to the light to see if there was any indication of what was in it, but the material was too thick. I ran my hands over it, squeezing it. Not much in it, a couple sheets of paper at most, and no warning tingle to indicate it might be something like poison or a spell. I grabbed my knife from the counter closest to me, put the tip of the blade into the top of the envelope and cut it open.

  I peered inside, seeing a single piece of paper folded in half. What the hell was this?

  Putting my knife on the side counter again, I reached into the envelope and pulled the note out, flipping it open with my thumb.

  It’s not over. Watch yourself.

  R.

  R. Rory had always signed his name with the same swirly R.

  My heart kicked up a notch and a tear slid down my cheek. He must have arranged for this note to be delivered before the House of Night trial.

  I folded the note and slid it into the envelope and set it next to my blade. Then I dunked under the water and blew out a stream of bubbles, letting the water hide my tears.

  I forced myself into autopilot, once more shoving my grief away to be dealt with—or not—at a later date. We had a freaking advancement ball to go to, and apparently, we were not to miss it. Wrapped in a towel, I stepped out of the bathroom and into the bedroom in time to see Wally accept two boxes from someone at the door.

  “What is this?”

  “Something from Mrs. Helix,” she said, handing me one of the long boxes and pushing the door shut with her hip. I was surprised by the weight of it, lighter than I’d expected given the size.

  Wally squealed from her side of the room as she pulled out a stunning burgundy gown with more taffeta and crinoline than I had thought possible on a single dress. “Look, Mrs. Helix sent us gowns!”

  Holding my towel with one hand, I opened my box with the other—slowly, as if I were half expecting a snake to leap out and bite me. Inside was a bundle of dark material covered in tissue paper, with a note pinned to the front.

  With all my thanks.

  M. Helix.

  “What is it with notes today?” I mumbled under my breath. I pulled the dress out, gasping as the jet black material slithered from the box. Black, but covered in iridescent flecks that once more made me think of a snake. With a twist of my wrist, the material caught the light and those flecks danced.

  “Wow.”

  There was no taffeta or crinoline on my dress. I saw lace, but other than that it was hard to really make out the shape.

  Mrs. Helix had sent shoes along with the dresses, heels that fit perfectly. Wally’s heels were higher than mine, though the style was almost dainty. Mine were a solid three inches with a thicker heel, a scale design that complemented the dress, and straps that wrapped up and over my ankle.

  “What is she trying to say?” I asked. Wally looked at me from across from the room, where she sat doing her hair.

  “Each house has at least one sigil attached to it. The serpent is one of them for the House of Shade. She’s saying you’re a Shade and everyone had better believe it.”

  I didn’t want Mr. or Mrs. Helix to be nice to me and the thought that had been put into the clothes and shoes was no small thing. I held up the black dress, still not quite ready to put it on. “How did she find something so perfect for us?”

  “She had these made with magic, obviously. She has a team of fashion designers at her beck and call. Everyone jumps to dress a Helix.” Wally ran a comb through a thin strand of hair before attempting to curl it with an old school curling iron. “She is very fashion forward. We’re going to be the best dressed, just you watch. Oh my God, I’m freaking out a little.”

  I sighed and pulled the dress on over my head, the material cool and smooth against my skin. I slid on the heels and turned to look in the mirror.

  The bodice top was off the shoulder and made of lace. A subtle design of blades and various other weapons was woven through the curling vines. If you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t have seen the details. You’d just think it was pretty lace.

  The lower half of the dress was a slippery material that I wanted to call satin, only it was heavier and definitely not any material I’d come into contact with before.

  “So…magic.” I plucked at the iridescent black skirt that clung to my legs, noting the slit up one side, and Wally grinned.

  “Yes. Very expensive magic.”

  Wally slipped in behind me and pulled the zipper up, and I realized there were corset bones hidden in the dress. Once pulled tight, my waistline and minimal chest were accentuated. I touched the boyish cut of my hair. Wally frowned.

  I laughed and brushed it, but left it hanging. Sam had cut it for me, and I’d be damned if I was going to change it now. Besides, my sister had been right—the longer front gave me an edgy look as a girl.

  I dusted on some makeup I’d borrowed from Wally with serious difficulty, managing to finally pull off mascara and a bit of lip gloss. That would have to do. I grimaced.

  Someone knocked at the door and Wally flounced over to open it. Pete stood there in a full suit and tie, his mouth dropping open as he stared at the burgundy fluff that was Wally. “You want to go to the dance with me?” he blurted out.

  She laughed. “Well, yeah, we’re all going with you, silly.”

  I rolled my eyes and gave her a push from behind. “Go on with Pete. I’ll catch up.”

  With them both gone, the room felt too quiet and a soft warning trickled up my spine. Not an immediate danger, more like there was something coming. Like maybe the note from Rory had arrived right when I needed it. I grabbed my five trinkets off the edge of the tub and tossed them lightly in my hand. These had to come with me. I held them loosely in one hand, then went to the bedside table and opened the drawer. My knife was resting there in its sheath. “Supposed to be a night off for you.” I pulled my skirt up, baring one thigh. With a few adjustments, I got the strap to hold to my upper thigh. I’d have to flash people to get to it, but at least I’d have it with me.

  “Too bad I don’t have pockets,” I said. A tingle spread through me wherever the dress
touched. I slid my hands down the skirt of the dress, finding a pocket on either side that opened to my bare skin underneath. “No way.”

  Sure enough, I could easily grasp my knife handle through the opening on the right. I hurried to the bathroom and pulled out one of the long ribbons we’d found from the previous occupants of the room. I lifted the skirt and bared my left leg, tying the ribbon around as tightly as I dared, making a loop in it that would be perfect for another weapon.

  A wand.

  Where could I find a wand that no one would notice missing? What had the director said? That when someone was booted out or chose to leave, they had to give up their gifts to the school.

  Shades gave up their weapons.

  Shifters their ability to change form.

  Vampires their speed and need for blood.

  Necromancers their power over the dead.

  Mages their magic and their wands.

  Wands. Plural.

  I was moving before I thought better of it. Maybe it was stupid, but I didn’t think so. My instincts were saying I would need a wand of my own, so that’s what I was going to get. A grin slid over my lips. One more rule to break, and I’d be done.

  Honest.

  Chapter 18

  My plan consisted of very few details. Go right into the director’s office, ask her a few questions about what I could do to keep my brother and sister out of this place, see if I could distract her enough to lift a wand. She’d been so proud of how many of them she’d collected in that mahogany box. There was no way she’d miss one.

  I should have been nervous. But all I could feel was excitement. I was getting me a wand, dang it, one way or another. Maybe Ethan could help me learn how to use it? Train me on the side?

  That conjured up an image I hadn’t been expecting. Ethan smiling at me as he faded. I like ’em tall.

  A hot flush spread through me, but I pushed past it. Nope, a whole lot of nope on that one. Ethan was a very bad, if very hot, idea. I hadn’t been lying when I’d told his father it would never happen between us.

  There was no sign of Adam, so I walked right up to the director’s door, knocked once, and then turned the handle as if I belonged there. “Director, I need to speak to you.”

  Because let’s be honest, with my track record so far, anyone who saw me walk into the director’s office would assume I’d been summoned.

  Shockingly, the door was unlocked and the room was empty.

  “Well, hot damn,” I whispered, shutting the door behind me.

  I went right to the box on the desk, flipping it open, and looked down at a dozen or so wands. Which one did I take?

  The door clicked behind me and I spun, my hand going for my right pocket.

  Ethan stood in the doorway. His suit jacket, pants, and vest were a deep midnight blue, and his collared shirt was white as fresh-fallen snow. Hair slicked back, he was…damn it, he was gorgeous. He raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

  I wasn’t sure I trusted him, even now, and that hesitation seemed to bother him. “What are you doing?” I countered.

  “I figured you might be in trouble again. Thought you could use a hand.” He walked toward me, and I thought about closing the box. But if I wanted him to teach me to use a wand, I’d have to tell him about said wand.

  “No. I’m here for a wand.” I swept my hand over the box and stepped back. His eyebrows shot all the way up to his hairline, his eyes darting from the box to me.

  “It’s not a bad idea. It would be smart to have a wand of your own, to train yourself with it. Even if there’s no real reason you should have such an ability with magic.” He leaned over the box and I caught a whiff of his cologne. Expensive was my first thought. My second was that I wanted a closer sniff.

  No. Bad, bad, Wild.

  “How do I choose one? Yours felt…better in my hands than the tester’s. Her wand was clunky and uncomfortable,” I said, forcing myself to focus on the task at hand.

  “You pick them up. See what feels good.” He didn’t touch any of them.

  I stared into the box, dipped one finger into it, and soaked in the energy of the different wands. When I reached the bottom, it felt like a tiny spark of electricity shot through me.

  Voices came from the other side of the door.

  “Hurry!” Ethan whispered.

  I grabbed the wand that was calling to me, yanked it out and shoved my hand into my left pocket. The wand slid into the loop I’d created, fitting against my leg more securely than it should have, as though it wanted to ensure it stayed put. For just a moment, I thought I’d end up with another burn mark on my leg, but there was nothing like that. Just the reassuring warmth of the wand’s presence.

  I flipped the box top down and sat in one of the visitors’ chairs. Ethan sat next to me and we both turned as the door opened and the director stepped in, annoyance written across her very young face.

  Her eyes flew to us. “What are you two doing here?” And then she caught herself. “You broke into my office?”

  We both shook our heads. “No, I came to speak to you about my siblings,” I said. “I knocked and thought I heard you say come in. The door was open.”

  Her eyes narrowed and her full lips pinched. “And you, Mr. Helix?”

  Ethan smiled. “Just keeping my graduation date company.”

  Well, hell, there was no way I’d get out of dancing with him now. The smug look on his lips said it all. He’d planned that last little bit. Because if I denied him, it would be obvious he’d just followed me in.

  He was good, I’d give him that.

  Ethan stood and offered me his arm. “We’re going to be late. We waited too long for the director.”

  Just like that, he swept us out of the room, past the frowning director, and into the hall. I hung onto his arm with my right hand. “I can’t believe that worked.”

  “Confidence usually works, especially when you’re bluffing.”

  “Ah, so you have a date already.” I let go of his arm, but he caught my hand and returned it to the crook of his elbow.

  “No, I’d planned to ask you. The least I could do since you broke the rules to bring me back from the dead.” His calm tone caught me off guard.

  “No, Wally brought you back.”

  Ethan glanced at me. “No, she wouldn’t have even tried if you hadn’t made it happen. Everyone knows that. She’s strong enough, we know that now, but it’s forbidden. The only reason we aren’t all being kicked out is your obvious lack of education when it comes to our world.”

  The usual condescension that dripped from his voice was gone. This was fact to him, pure and simple. Maybe almost dying had changed him. Maybe he realized he wasn’t invulnerable after all.

  “Besides, you wouldn’t have survived that challenge without me coaching you through the spells.”

  And there he was, teaching “How to Look Down Your Nose at Someone 101.”

  I rolled my eyes. In my heels, I was a good three inches taller than him at least and could give him a solid downward glare I’d been wanting to blast him with all week. “Please. You were too busy getting eaten by a T-Rex to coach me. I guessed at the words.”

  We walked by a girl in a bright red dress as I said that. She gasped, tears gathering in her eyes. “How can you talk to him like that? He almost died!”

  I scrunched up my nose at her and Ethan laughed. “That’s what I like about you, Wild. You don’t pull punches, not ever. Not even when society dictates that you probably shouldn’t talk about someone’s near death experience mere hours after it happened.”

  “I do what I can to keep it real,” I said as we turned the corner at the end of the hall. A wide set of double doors loomed ahead of us. They were closed, and from behind them came the steady thump of bass, music playing loud enough that it rumbled through my head, setting off the ache of the concussion.

  “Shall we?” He gave me a mocking half bow. I would have curtseyed if I’d known how.

  “Attitude befo
re skill.” I waved him forward. And again he laughed.

  Damn it, I’d taken a pot shot at him and he’d just laughed it off. Ethan went to the door first, pushing both sides wide open. Music spilled out around us as the kids who’d survived the culling trials danced, grateful to have survived, to have made it this far.

  The mass of bodies sent an instant wave of paranoia through me. I hesitated and Ethan came back for me and leaned in close.

  “Are you getting any warnings?”

  I wasn’t sure I liked this new Ethan. Laughing with me. Listening to me. I certainly didn’t know what to make of him. “No, nothing.”

  “Come on then.” He tugged me forward, taking me by the hand like we were really on a date. Maybe I should have pulled away, but he was my lifeline in this crowd of people I didn’t know. People I didn’t trust. At least I knew where I stood with him.

  Standing on my tiptoes, I searched the crowd for Wally, Pete, and Orin. They were all the way across the floor, near the food. Even at that distance, I could see Wally’s mouth moving, Pete’s head bobbing, and Orin’s trademark bored expression.

  I lifted a hand to them. Orin put two fingers to his head and saluted me. “I’m going over there,” I said.

  Ethan held my hand fast. “Stay here, with me and my friends.”

  I turned to see his friends were all magic users, of course. Within seconds, they were patting him on the shoulder, congratulating him on winning so many of the trials. Telling him how strong and amazing he was because he’d survived when everyone had thought he was dead. The girls batted their eyelashes, and the guys weren’t much better. Colt was missing though.

  Colt was missing.

  My brain tried to get me to care, and I struggled around the throbbing in my head to want to go find him.

  Ethan lapped all the love and attention up. I shook my head. Yeah, he was an ass, although of the good-looking, smelled so good I wanted to stick my nose against his neck and breathe him in variety.

  I turned away and started through the crowd toward Wally and the two guys. There were far more people here than those of us who’d finished trials. Distantly, I recalled someone saying that the academy students had been invited so they could meet the new kids.