Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, Book 3

by Breene, K. F.

  I let the music pull my feet forward, let it call to me, and though I was no dancer, it moved through me.

  It felt no different than fighting. I sidestepped the other bodies with ease, my magic skirt trailing around me. The shadows seemed to cling to me and the dress, and it was like people weren’t even seeing me. I spun around an entangled couple and found myself face to face with a ghost. My feet slammed to a stop, and I’m not entirely sure my heart didn’t follow suit.

  “I warned you to be careful, and you’re on the goddamn dance floor in a dress at a party full of people who could kill you at the drop of a hat?” Rory snarled the words at me. Like he wasn’t supposed to be dead. Like I hadn’t seen him go under a mass of zombies. Like he hadn’t broken my heart into a thousand pieces.

  He’d survived, and he hadn’t told me. He’d let me suffer.

  Just like he hadn’t told me he’d come to this school.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  I snapped a fist out so hard and fast there wasn’t even time for his face to register shock. In my haste, I landed the blow on his cheek, rather than his nose.

  He stumbled back and a few people laughed and made way for us. The music didn’t slow. I turned away from him and pushed through the crowd, knowing without a shadow of a doubt he’d follow. I wanted to hug him tight, to cry and kiss his face and tell him I was glad he was alive.

  But I was damned pissed that he’d let me believe—again—that he was gone forever.

  I passed Ethan, who arched a brow, but I shook my head. I didn’t need help for this. A side hall opened up and I turned down it, heading deep into the shadows. There was the softest of footsteps behind me, and I spun. “You should have told me!”

  Only it wasn’t Rory behind me. Jared stared at me and I stared back, shocked by how dishevelled he looked. His normally immaculate clothes were torn in places and there was a smudge of dirt across his one cheek.

  “You need to come with me, now. I was wrong about you.” He grabbed me by the arm and propelled me forward.

  “Why, what happened?” I tried to put on the brakes, but between his strength and my heels, it wasn’t happening.

  “Your sister is here. They have her.”

  All the wind in me left in a whoosh that made me lightheaded. Sam is here?

  “The ones who took the other kids, they snagged her too.” Jared loosened his hold on me but didn’t let go.

  I wasn’t fighting him, mostly because my mind had gone into a tailspin. I slowed my feet as the sound of a loudspeaker squealing came through the sound system.

  “Everyone, please line up, we will now commence the cauldron ceremony where you will have your final House chosen.”

  The announcers words distantly registered, barely, through the shock. “How did they get Sam? She’s back in Texas!”

  Jared paused. “Look, I know that you and I have not seen eye to eye. I’ve done what I’ve done to protect those whose job it is of mine to protect. You, a Shade, would understand that, I think.”

  Damn it. I didn’t want to trust him, but the sincerity rolling off him was just that—completely sincere. And I did understand that need to protect your own, maybe better than he realized.

  “Barry Darkson…House of Shade. Killian Irish…House of Shade….Farley Whitehall House of Wonder…” The names rattled off, one after another.

  Jared ran a hand through his hair and started forward again. “Your sister came looking for you. Apparently, your father needs to be reminded of how to keep secrets,” he pushed open a door and led me outside. The distant music thumped along until the door shut behind us.

  Jared let my arm go. “Are you able to run?”

  I kicked off the heels. “Yes.”

  He led the way across the lawn and to the east side of the mansion. Adrenaline snapped and zinged through me. If the kidnappers thought they were going to take Sam, I was about to show them how very wrong they were. Nobody messed with my family.

  Nobody.

  Chapter 19

  The grass was cool and damp against the soles of my bare feet as Jared led me away from the mansion. Away from my friends. Away from Rory.

  I slowed a split second before the warning tingle whipped through me. Jared turned. “You are picking up on the danger?”

  I nodded, feeling the memories start to surge inside me. I’d been here before. With Ethan. I tried to piece the broken memories together. There was something dangerous here, of that I had no doubt.

  But where...and what?

  Jared kept moving, forcing me to either keep up with him or fall too far behind. A cry cut the air, a girl’s cry.

  Sam.

  I bolted forward. Screw the danger.

  The ground ahead of us glowed, as if lit from within.

  My breathing kicked up several notches. Even if my memories were sketchy, my body knew this place.

  And it didn’t like it.

  Another cry cut off as though forcefully smashed…Jared was already down the stairs and I followed, ignoring the screaming of my instincts. I needed to get to Sam, danger be damned.

  Jared lifted his hand and I took it. There was darkness ahead, creeping and pooling, and it swallowed us whole. A spell.

  One I’d been through before, only last time I’d been with Ethan. We stepped out of the other side of the darkness. Moved down a hall, past torchlight and a room that looked to be a guard’s room. Jared shifted to the side and I kept moving forward. Hands reached out of the cells on my right, and I found myself reaching back.

  “Gregory?”

  “Wild, you shouldn’t have come back.” His voice was weak.

  Come back. “I was here before?”

  “You were,” said a voice I knew and shouldn’t have been surprised to find at the bottom of a dungeon. Adam stepped out of the shadows. “And you should not have come back.”

  Jared snarled. “I’ll take care of him. You get the other kids. There’s a way out if you keep following the tunnels.” He tossed me a ring of keys.

  Adam shook his head. “Jared, you should know better by now. You can’t beat me.”

  Jared grinned. “Maybe not, but you can’t beat us both. We have you now, Adam.”

  Both? If I was getting the kids out, who was he referring to? Footsteps approached us from behind, and I couldn’t help but turn and look. Director Frost stepped out of the same darkness from which Jared and I had emerged. It was unmistakeably her, but her skin was unlined. An illusion?

  She smiled at Adam. “Indeed. He cannot beat us both.”

  Jared launched at Adam and the director looked at me as the two men tumbled down a tunnel to our right, the sounds of their blows and grunts fading quickly. “Get the others out. We will deal with Adam.”

  All along. Adam had been orchestrating this all along.

  I nodded and hurried to the first cell. Gregory was so eager to leave, he fell out when I opened the door. I caught him with one hand and dragged him with me to the other cells. All the missing kids were there, including Colt.

  “Thought you could avoid dancing with me at the graduation, did you?” I asked.

  His eyes were haggard, but he smiled at me. “Never. I’d never run away from you.”

  “Sweet, really, but can we get out of here before they take us all?” Gregory snapped his long fingers up in my face. Same old Gregory.

  “There should be one more kid. They brought my sister in.” I spun around, counting the cells, but there was no one left.

  “Maybe they already got her out? They kept everything dark, we couldn’t see who took us, or who was in here if they were quiet,” Colt winced as he spoke, the bruises on his jaw a testament to Adam’s violence.

  A bellow followed by a wall-shaking boom stopped us in our tracks.

  “You all go.” I paused and then shook my head. “Look, go out the way I came in. Through the darkness and up the stairs. It’ll be faster. Get to the mansion, tell Ethan and the rest of the crew that I’m here.” I pushed the missing kids
back through the darkness. Not the way the director wanted them to go. But I knew for sure it was a way out. I didn’t want them to get stuck.

  And I wasn’t leaving until I found Sam.

  I waited until the kids—more of them than I’d expected— disappeared into the darkness, led by the one vampire in the crew.

  A burst of warning cut through me and I spun, pulling my blade out through the pocket of my skirt as I turned. I stopped the blade only a breath away from Jared’s heart.

  “Good stop. You sent the others out?” He tipped his head toward the tunnel Director Frost had pointed out, away from the stairs. I nodded, lying, though I didn’t know why.

  “What about Adam?” I looked past the vampire in time to see Director Frost drag Adam out by the scruff of his neck.

  Her face wasn’t the only thing that had changed—her body was lithe, young and fit. She smiled at me. “I see the confusion. Put your blade away, and let me explain just what has happened here.”

  Rory’s note flashed in front of my eyes.

  I didn’t put my knife away. Adam rolled his head toward me, blood dripping from his face in a continuous flow. Frost dropped him on the ground. “He’s no good without his wand, like most from the House of Wonder.” House of Wonder? I’d thought he was a Shade. And then it hit me.

  He was like Colt, one of the rare people who straddled two houses.

  Adam lifted his head. “Run. Get out.”

  He was telling me to go.

  Oh crap.

  Jared’s hand shot out and clamped on my wrist. “Don’t even think about fighting me, Wild. You’ll lose. And my love over there needs you intact.”

  Frost laughed. “Oh, the look on your face, Wild. You are trying to put the pieces together, but you can’t, can you?”

  I jerked my hand, trying to free it from the vampire’s iron-clad grip. He grinned at me. “You aren’t going anywhere. You and the other kids are going to go permanently missing. But the cause is good, great even.”

  The urge to fight, to slash at him with everything I had, was overwhelming and it took a great deal of effort to hold it down. I needed answers before I cut his lying tongue out of his face. “You don’t have my sister here, do you?”

  He shook his head. “No, but it was an easy way to make you ignore your natural instincts, wasn’t it? You are a child yet, untrained if strong.”

  Normally I wasn’t at a loss for words, but I didn’t want to admit that Sam and Billy and my dad were weak spots for me. That I would always come for them if they called. So instead I clamped my mouth shut and smoothed my face.

  “So is there no fight left in you, Wild? To be sure, let me show you just how serious I am about this situation.” Frost bent over Adam and, with a quick slicing motion, opened his throat up from ear to ear.

  He gurgled and grabbed at his throat, blood spurting out through his fingers as he tried to keep it in. I watched the fear and shock in his eyes as his life bled out of him, as he bent slowly to the ground and then went still.

  “Are we clear?” Frost said quietly.

  I nodded once. “What are you?”

  Frost smiled, and again I was struck by the difference in her appearance. She had to be a shifter of some sort to appear as an old lady when we’d first met, and now as a woman not much older than me. “You’ve noticed, have you? You see through the glamor I had on me, seeing my true age, while others saw me as you see me now—as young and beautiful. Most people don’t, but that is because they are not like you and me. Of course, this is no longer a glamor. But I’ll explain that later.”

  “I am nothing like you.” I wanted to spit at her, disgusting though it was, but wasn’t sure she wouldn’t slit my throat. “You kidnapped all those kids? Locked them up?”

  “Yes, and I drank them up.” She licked her lips.

  Vampire was my first thought. But if Adam and Colt both possessed two gifts, it couldn’t be as rare as Wally had indicated. “You’re a shifter and a vampire, aren’t you? Like Adam was a magic user and a Shade.”

  “Oh, she’s getting closer, Jared. I knew she was smart.” She walked up and linked our arms together. “Should I tell her?”

  He laughed. “It’s rather fun watching her guess.”

  “True. We have a few minutes before we reach the other end.” His hand tightened on my wrist. I was pinned between them as they began to march me down the tunnel Director Frost had pointed out earlier. But despite the blaring warning going off in my body, I knew it wasn’t time to act.

  My moment would come—I just had to wait.

  Director Frost sighed. “You understand that there are some people who carry more than one line of magical ability? Like your friend Colt. Mage and Shade blended together deliciously, equally strong in both. He’s an oops, you know? His father strayed.” She smiled and winked at me as if we were at a slumber party playing truth or dare. “That’s rather uncommon though. Perhaps five out of every hundred gain multiple abilities and most often they are pushed toward one or another in their training, allowing the secondary ability to wither on the vine.”

  My jaw ticked, and I struggled not to pull away from them. “So?”

  “Well, rarer yet is someone who carries three abilities. Perhaps one in a hundred. Your friend Drexia would know the exact stats.” She made a motion with her hand and the tunnel brightened ahead of us, lit up along the edges with flickering torches. Drexia? Oh right, she meant Wally.

  “Let me guess. You have a trio of abilities?”

  “Not quite. You see, you and I are very special, Maribel Johnson. One for every generation. According to the records, our abilities are never bestowed on a woman. I had a hand in that, to help hide myself. To help hide others like me.”

  Chills swept through me, and they had nothing to do with the cold stone beneath my bare feet.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You are a Chameleon, Wild. A child who carries the ability to tap into all five gifts that the gods of the north bestowed upon supernaturals. All five. As you’ve seen in the trials, you are proficient in them all.”

  Her words might as well have been a blow to my head I was so stunned.

  And yet it made sense. This explained my raw ability with magic, my connection to the others in my crew.

  “Yes, that is why you excelled in the trials. And why it was so difficult to capture you.” She leaned into me. “But better that I should be the one to catch you. He hunts for you too, Wild, and he will not be so gentle.”

  The tunnel was narrowing, and I could see my chance coming up. I slowed my feet, forcing them to slow too. “Wait, who do you mean, him?”

  “The one that everyone fears. The one whose blood you share. The Shadowkiller.” Director Frost looked at me. “You mean your mother never told you about him? She never warned you that he tried to kill her too? He was the reason she ran, the reason she hid you and your siblings away.”

  Her words hammered into my skull. Bits and pieces of partially overheard conversations between my parents trembled at the edge of my mind.

  Whispered fears heard through the floorboard.

  The click of a gun being chambered.

  Shouts in the yard.

  Jared’s voice was silken. “Her mother sheltered them far more than I’d have thought. Stupid of Lexi.”

  Director Frost snorted delicately, and the corner of her right eye drooped, wrinkles appearing even as I watched. “She was a fool who thought she could outrun death, and look where it got her. Dead. Just like her oldest son.”

  My jaw ticked, the urge to defend my mother rising sharp and fast. “Your Botox is wearing off.”

  She gasped and lifted a hand to her face as the skin began to loosen, wrinkling in front of my eyes. “What did you do?”

  We were at the end of the tunnel exit. The moon was bright overhead, and I’d barely noticed that Frost had released my arm so that she could step out ahead of us.

  “Where are the others?”

  I smiled at her,
not fully understanding but knowing I’d ruined her plans. “I sent them back.”

  Director Frost turned on me, her eyes glittering. “Just like your mother. Weak. And alone.”

  As if her words sparked the memory, my mother’s voice whispered to me: “No matter what, you fight to the end. You never give up. You never give in. You give them hellfire and brimstone, my wild girl.”

  I glared at the director. “She was not weak. And neither am I.”

  Hellfire and brimstone, here we come.

  Chapter 20

  Director Frost lifted a shaking hand to me and dug her nails into my chin. A light pulsed through her fingers and into me, quick as a rattlesnake’s strike, and her venom was as sure. My knees went weak as I slumped under her hands. She threw her head back and laughed, her face smoothing and her hair growing longer, thicker right in front of me. Blonde, loose curls wove over her shoulders.

  “Rich, I won’t need the others anyway. Wild will fill me for years.” When Director Frost tipped her head back, the lines in her face were gone. “What do you think, Jared?”

  “As beautiful as ever,” he murmured, lifting her one hand to his mouth, pressing his lips hard against her skin.

  I wobbled in place, on my knees in my prom dress, my heart racing and my muscles weak.

  “You—”

  “Sucked the life right out of you.” She smiled and snapped her fingers at Jared. “Get her in the van.”

  Jared bent to lift me, and I swung up with my left hand with everything I had left, landing a punch perfectly under his jaw. His head snapped back, teeth clicking, and I stumbled forward. We were surrounded by forest, but that didn’t bother me.

  “Get her!” Frost yelled, and I knew I had only seconds before he was on me.

  I fumbled for the wand on my left side, pulled it out and pointed it behind me. I needed light. Blinding light.

  “Stroblightus!” I yelled, hoping a made-up word, powered by all the intent in the world, would work for me. Please God, let it work for me.