“Well, that’s just awesome,” I muttered. It meant we wouldn’t be able to use other crews for bait…or help.
The House of Claw had challenged their prey with a dinner bell, and we’d been stupid enough to answer.
Chapter 12
“Come on,” Ethan said, no doubt realizing we were going to lose the guys in front of us. He jogged forward, closing in on the group nearing the waterhole, refusing to let the magic sweep them away.
“Ethan, seriously, notes or no, this is a terrible idea. Do you have no survival skills? No internal warning system that is telling you this is the wrong way?” I hastened after him, honestly wondering if I should bother. We were still on thin ice, he and I, and this would be a good way to get rid of him. Let him go down with those other guys.
And yet Rory thought I was in extreme danger, more so than I had gauged. I needed a front man who no one wanted to kill, a front man who had a father with power and connections. I might not want Ethan, but I still needed him.
“Forget survival skills, haven’t you watched Discovery Kingdom?” Wally asked, looking behind her, those big eyes of hers wider than usual.
“Yes, that’s a good idea.” I pointed at her. “Watch our six. The big cats come out at night, and we’re in the big cat freaking house. Pete—” I moved my finger to him as Ethan closed in on the cluster of guys, standing around like idiots, clearly trying to pretend they weren’t about to do something wrong, like cheat. “You need to change, buddy. This is your world. We need that sniffer.”
“Not to mention your honey badger rage. They face down lions on a regular basis,” Orin said, facing out to our right. He didn’t want to get mauled any more than the rest of us. I lifted an eyebrow at him and he shrugged.
“I watch the Discovery Channel from time to time. Honey badgers are known to attack lions. They have a great deal of attitude.”
A vampire who liked animal shows. I shook my head and then nodded. “Yes, the rage will help.” The terrain was uneven under the long grass and it made for slow going. The last thing we needed was a twisted ankle. The grasses brushed at my waist, easily long enough to hide a crouching, stalking predator. Or maybe a whole pride of them. “Good God, this is terrible. This whole place is terrible. And it goes on forever.”
“It’s just magic,” Orin said. “Nothing is forever, not even magic.”
“Au contraire. Your weirdness will be. I guarantee it.” I caught up to Ethan on the sands of the watering hole, two paces from the cluster of guys.
“What do you have there?” Ethan asked, his snobby tone selling that line all wrong. He was not good at shakedowns, clearly.
Likely he was used to Daddy doing his dirty work for him.
“Wh-what?” The guy with an obvious secret took a step back, his eyes bugging out in an obvious tell.
Ethan jammed out his hand as Pete stripped. Wally and Orin stood with their backs to us, watching the gentle sway of the long grasses. A warning tickled the base of my spine—not like I needed it.
“Hand it over. It’s mine!” Ethan shook his hand as he took another step forward.
Confusion stole over the guy’s expression and he wiped at his pocket absentmindedly. “It’s not… What’s yours—”
“Oh, give me a break, this is taking forever.” I pushed Ethan out of the way, grabbed the smaller guy by the shirt, and yanked him closer until I could see the individual pores in his face. “I will skin you alive if you don’t pull that piece of paper out of your pocket right now and hand it over.”
The guy’s eyes were as big as the moon above us as he slapped and grabbed at himself. His pudgy hand finally made it to his pocket, and he pulled a creased page out with trembling fingers.
“Come on, man, hold it together,” I muttered, snatching the page. “You’re going to make me feel bad.”
“Hand it over.” Ethan took it from me and crinkled it open.
“My mom said everyone does it,” the guy babbled. The cluster around him drifted away, giving him more space than he probably wanted. “It’s not like I know exactly what’s coming—it’s just a little nudge—”
“This is garbage.” Ethan threw the paper on the ground.
“At least give it back.” I sighed, grabbing up the sheet. Slanted notes scrawled in a lazy hand covered the surface. Near the bottom was a hand-drawn picture of a unicorn head (third graders would be ashamed of the artistry) with an arrow to the tip of the horn, labeled “dangerous.”
“Oh no, guys,” I said, shaking my head. “This is… This isn’t going to help you. I mean, hopefully it doesn’t help you. If you need this to help you…” I was still shaking my head when I gave it back to the trembling kid. “Don’t worry about cheating. Cheat all day long with this. Snobby McSnobberton over there cheated way harder. He’s clearly got a more important daddy than you—”
“Damn it,” Ethan swore, putting his hands to his hips and looking around, probably wondering what to do now that he had to actually use his brain. Now that he was marooned on a level playing field with the rest of us.
The trickle of warning turned into a flash flood, running through my body and pumping my heart into overdrive. My stomach flipped and the feeling of ants running across my skin made me dance into the cluster of idiots.
“Take cover, something is coming!” I yelled, shoving the guys around me into a human shield. It wasn’t right, I knew that, but sometimes what wasn’t right didn’t line up with not being eaten by a lion.
“Movement,” Orin said, taking a step back.
Pete hissed and spat, waddling toward Orin with his nose in the sky.
“I think…” Wally took a step back. “I think…” She hesitantly pointed in front of her.
“How many?” I yelled, my hands working, keeping the knuckleheads around me at a safe distance—safe for me, that was. I was so going to hell for this. “Wally, get over here!”
“What’s…” Ethan’s voice trailed away as he finally figured out what was happening. He drew out his wand.
“It would sure be great if you’d actually use that this time,” I called.
A tiny crunch caught my attention on Wally’s side of the waterhole. Like a light footstep on dirt.
Wally must’ve heard the noise, too, because she slid back toward me with her arms raised overhead. “Make yourself look bigger. Make yourself more intimidating.”
“Bigger than a wild beast?” one of the knuckleheads asked. “How can we make ourselves—”
“Do not turn your back,” Wally went on. “Often, their first volley is a mock charge. If you turn your back, you’re done for. Ho!” Wally shouted, waving her arms. “Hey! Ho! Make loud sounds. Wave your hands. Hey! Ho!”
“They are freaking people, Wally, not real lions. They can understand everything you say.” I pushed my group of bait toward the water, wanting a larger viewing area. My insides danced with anticipation. “They’re close. They are right here.”
“Where?” one of the knuckleheads asked.
“I can’t see anything,” Wally yelled.
“Neither can I,” Orin said.
Five of them. Surrounding us.
“Five of them,” I repeated, really digging the connection to Pete, though I did wonder why it didn’t extend to the five shifters closing in on us. “All around. Get out your weapons.”
“I can make their dead limbs dance again, but I cannot send them to the dance floor,” Wally said in her Walter Cronkite voice.
“Why did I end up with the strangest people on the planet?” Ethan muttered, his arm shaking as he backed toward me.
“Good question, and get away from my shield,” I said.
“What’s going on?” one of the knuckleheads bleated, trying to drift toward the tree. I yanked him back into my shield formation.
“Five of what?” another asked.
The scene exploded before us. Sleek feline bodies leapt into the clearing, white teeth flashing in the moonlight. A massive lioness, larger than even those t
hat were well fed in a zoo, sailed through the air straight for Wally.
She dodged to the side, but not fast enough. A body slammed into her at the last instant, rocketing her out of the way before the lioness’s paws sunk into her. Orin, who’d tackled her so quickly, his movement hadn’t registered, stood gracefully and looked my way.
One of the beasts launched at my cluster, followed by another. I shoved one of the knuckleheads at those reaching paws, a shameless act that would probably haunt me later. Or maybe not.
“Cheaters never prosper,” I said to ease the blow, if not my conscience, before dodging to the side as the other lioness plowed down two of my human shields. “You’ll thank me in the end,” I said, dancing away behind Pete, whose growl and complete lack of fear was making a fourth lioness review her life choices. She backed up as he charged at her.
Animal kingdom for the win. Orin was right about the honey badger trumping a lion.
Ethan muttered something and a stream of magic erupted from his wand. It smashed full-scale into the fifth lioness. She roared and curled back on herself as Orin zoomed behind me, claws extended, and gouged one of the lionesses attacking my human shield.
Pete rushed forward, snarling and growling, no match for the beasts in size or strength, but plenty tough enough in attitude. The lioness he faced shoved backward and tripped over her own feet, rolling. Still roaring, two of the creatures took off, Orin and Ethan more than they’d bargained for. The third followed, not about to mess with a pissed-off honey badger.
The other two stalked at the edge of the sand. One, the larger of the two, flicked the end of her tail. Her blazing amber eyes focused on me, and a strange feeling crawled through my body. Not warning, or danger. Something else—a promise of what was to come?
Then, without engaging us again, she turned away and loped through the grasses, disappearing into the night. Ethan shot off another spell, but the last lioness was already following, not ready to fight this crew of nutcases solo.
This was why they’d wanted distance between the crews. Not that the other crew had done much—the poor sots all lay bleeding and helpless in the sand—but we’d used them to help mitigate the attack. Instead of having to fight it all ourselves.
I heaved, trying to catch my breath from the rush and unpleasant exhilaration, but didn’t want to wait around for hyenas, or wild dogs, or whatever other large creatures wanted a taste of our hides.
“Let’s get on to the next challenge,” I said, taking off at a jog. “We’re flying blind.”
One knucklehead groaned, another cried out in pain.
I grimaced. “Sorry! The healer will be along soon. Good work, though! Thanks for the help!”
“I didn’t know you had it in you,” Ethan said, catching up to me. By silent agreement, we ignored a pair of knuckleheads who popped up. They could follow if they liked—at a distance. We had enough weird in our crew, we didn’t need to add stupid to the mix.
Chapter 13
I could feel Ethan staring at me as we walked away from the injured crew at the watering hole. “Please don’t tell me that was good work back there. It’s not a compliment coming from you.”
“Good work,” he said, and though I wouldn’t look at his stupid face, I could tell he was smiling, could hear it in his voice.
“I have one tiny knife and no experience with lion taming,” I muttered. “What else was I supposed to do?”
“Sacrifice yourself?” He laughed outright this time.
“Stop talking to me.” I did not want to so much as twitch my mouth for fear he’d see the smile.
“Veer right,” Orin said, suddenly next to me.
I jumped. I couldn’t help it. “What do you know?”
“That the badger is headed that way, and he’s not overly impressed by your lack of attention.”
Pete was hard to see deep in the grasses, so when I stepped on him, I felt even worse than I had a moment before.
“Sorry,” I said.
Idiots. You’d think they’d follow me here, in my own damn house.
“I said I was sorry!” I snapped.
Pete shot me a dirty look, then took off running. Orin followed directly behind him, somehow able to keep a better eye on him than we were.
“Where are my notes, do you think? And who would’ve taken Gregory? Was it because he stepped forward in that last challenge?” Ethan asked.
I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or himself, but I took it upon myself to answer.
“Honestly, Gregory probably hid the papers somewhere,” I said, feeling a prickle of warning that didn’t last long enough for me to pause. “Maybe he even hid them outside. I don’t know, but I really don’t think he would’ve traded them. Or sold them. To the group, they were worth more in your hands.” I didn’t answer the other question. I didn’t know who’d taken the missing kids—I only knew that Rory and Sideburns were on the case, and that I intended to look for Gregory the first chance I got.
Another trickle of warning ran the length of my spine, but this one faded just as quickly as the first. There were watchers out here, but for whatever reason, they were deciding not to engage. Maybe one ambush was all you had to survive in this part of the challenge.
The landscape changed suddenly, the grass-swept prairie morphing into rock and dirt right under our feet. Pine trees rose up around us, bursting out of the ground, and the sweet scent of fresh sap tickled my nose. A deep rumble in the ground ahead made us all slow, the lay of the land suddenly rising with an incline as though the mountain was literally being created under us. Which at this point in the game would not surprise me in the least.
I looked behind us; the savannah had disappeared without a trace.
Pete led the way into a small clearing. Fresh grass sprigs shot up around our feet and a tall table stood off to the right next to a long, half cut log. On the log, five little bells were lined up in a perfect row beside a sheet of paper.
Ethan marched over to the log and I let him. He’d get the booby trap in the face if there was one.
“The next challenge is tracking,” Ethan said with a sour expression, lifting the piece of paper.
“What’s wrong with that?” I asked as Wally looked at her feet.
He crumpled up the paper and threw it into the log. “What’s wrong with that?” He gestured at Pete, standing next to me. “He’s not a tracking animal, and even if he were, we don’t know what we’re tracking. I don’t have any notes. We’re dead in the water.”
I frowned at him, then at the rest of them when they didn’t chuckle. “Are you guys serious? It’s tracking.” I lifted my hands, waiting for them to get a clue. “It’s just tracking. Haven’t you guys ever done that?”
“What would I track, pigeons? I live in New York City,” Ethan said dryly.
“You could try tracking a better attitude, how about that?” I huffed, pushing my annoyance away. “Look, I grew up on a farm, not to mention hunting with my older brother. I know how to track. In regards to what we’re tracking, well, let’s figure it out, I guess. That paper didn’t say anything else?”
I moved to fetch it but stalled near the bells. I still had ambushes and booby traps on the mind.
“What are the bells for?” I hovered my hand over the log setup.
Ethan snorted and turned away.
“The shifters are offering us a way out,” Wally said. “They’re taunting us.”
“How so?” I asked, my mouth settling into a frown. “They’re just a bunch of bells.”
Wally tilted her head at me, and Orin turned to stare.
“It was in your contract,” Wally said. “Didn’t you read it before you signed it? Because you should always read contracts before you sign them.”
“Or have your lawyer do it,” Ethan said.
It was my turn to snort. “They forced me to sign the contract after I’d been tagged and bagged.” The blank looks indicated they didn’t have fathers who watched a lot of military flicks. I elaborat
ed. “After they zap-strapped my hands behind my back and shoved a bag over my head, someone pushed the contract to my pricked thumb.”
Orin’s brows lowered over his eyes, something I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t like him to show a reaction.
“That’s…not right,” Wally said. “They can’t make you—”
“I had the Sandman,” I said quickly, remembering Pete’s reaction to him. He was currently at the edge of the clearing, sniffing a tree. “He’s not very good at convincing. He’s very good at threatening, though.”
Wally still looked troubled, but Orin looked excited. Like I had more value to him than I’d had a few minutes before. The latter I really wasn’t digging.
“Who cares about contracts and the Sandman,” Ethan said, impatient. “There is a big bell at the front of the mansion grounds. When you ring the bell, you are removing yourself from the Culling Trials. You’re quitting. The same goes for the elite who live at the academy. Ring the bell, and you’re out. These bells are probably just for show. The shifters want to intimidate us. They think our submission will be funny.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of an animal’s thing,” I muttered, fetching the paper without disturbing the bells. “Dominance. Submission. Alphas and betas.”
I read the type-written note.
Follow your nose and see with your eyes. Get to the end, and you’ll be nearer the prize.
“Submission they’ve got—riddles, not so much.” I shoved the paper into my pocket as Pete’s fur and claws morphed into skin and a whole lotta Pete.
“I’ve got five smells around this clearing,” he said without preamble.
“Cover your junk, man. We don’t want to see it,” I called out, turning away.
“The cold affects more than the harvest,” Wally said, looking upward at the pale blue sky.
“Whoa, can’t call the man out like that,” Ethan said. “It isn’t cool.”
“You call out women for their breast size,” Wally retorted. “I fail to see the difference.”
“That’s because you are socially awkward,” Orin supplied. “There is a time and place. This is neither.”
Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, Book 2 Page 10