The two guys stood up a little straighter as the tent flapped open and Mr. Helix strode in, followed by the director. She looked damn good for late seventies—closer to her early fifties at best, maybe even a rough forty something.
Mr. Helix was a big guy, though not as muscular as his son. “You four…saved him?”
The healer let go of my hand and I flexed my fingers, opening and closing them on the wand. I held it out to his father. “We did what we had to do. He is part of our crew.”
He stared at the wand in my hand. “I do not like being in others’ debts.”
I stood slowly. “Would you rather we had let him die?”
The fact that he paused before answering said it all. His son’s life was of value to him. But that value only went so far—he seemed more interested in his family legacy than in Ethan’s life. Damn it, I really didn’t want to feel bad for Ethan.
There was no stopping my mouth from curling into a sneer. I turned my back on him, but the director had moved to stand in front of me. “To my office with the four of you. Now.”
And just like that we went from the frying pan into the fire.
The director sat across from us in her office, her fingers laced together in front of her full lips. Seriously, she looked like she’d knocked off another fifteen years at least. I wanted to ask her how she’d done it. Likely just an illusion, like so much of this place was. Vanity at its best.
“What am I to do with you four? You’ve broken one of the most sacred laws of our world. We do not bring the dead back to life!”
“We didn’t know.” I crossed my arms and frowned at her. How the hell did they expect us to know their rules? We were just students—no, future students.
The other three shifted beside me, their furtive movement saying it all. Crap, they had known. I straightened up a little more and deepened my frown. “I didn’t know, and I pushed them to it.”
“I see.” Director Frost’s eyes stayed locked on me, the edges of them definitely smoother than the last time I’d seen her. Those icy blues were weighing my worth, and I had a niggling feeling that perhaps she saw me the way Mr. Helix saw Ethan. A tool, and if that tool was broken, she’d find another. Or maybe she’d finally realized my troublesome ways weren’t worth the possible gain.
“If the heads of your soon-to-be houses were not so damn ecstatic to welcome you four in, I’d have all of you removed from the trials and sent home with wiped memories. As it is…” She tapped her fingers on a thin stack of papers. “You have made too much of an impression to just disappear.”
She was silent as she stared down at the papers. “All of you have passed the trials and will be welcomed into your respective houses,” she said softly. “But let me make this crystal clear. You will speak of this event to no one. As far as anyone is concerned, you came through the trial of Wonder because of Ethan Helix and his final spells. He was injured gravely, but a healer fixed him up.” Her eyes locked on each of us, one at a time, as if she could force us to agree. The other three lowered their eyes, cowed by her.
“Why?” The single-word question popped out of me. “I get that we broke a rule, but why the rest? Because you don’t want people to know that someone’s infiltrating the trials? Someone who’s stealing kids? Trying to kill us?” With each of my questions, my friends tensed further until I thought they would spring forward and slap their hands over my mouth. But I couldn’t stop. Not now, not after everything we’d been through. “We did better than survive those damn trials. We survived when we should have died, and you damn well know it!”
Director Frost smiled at me, the gesture as cold as her name. “Again, let me be clear, since you seem to be thick as most Shades when it comes to understanding the why of things. Those who did indeed infiltrate the trials were not trying to kill all of you. Just one of you. And they nearly succeeded.”
My head spun. “Ethan? They were trying to kill Ethan?”
“His father has many enemies. Powerful enemies that wanted to destroy his family legacy. He is the last of his bloodline,” Director Frost said. “You didn’t seriously think they would be here to kill you, a Shade impersonating her brother? As much as you thought you were hiding, everyone knew by the second day who you were. The shifters were the first to sniff you out, then the vampires, and those vampires are nothing if not gossips. We let you stay because it was too much bother to send you back and take your brother instead. You are a tool, Wild. Nothing more than a blunt instrument.”
Orin stiffened at the gossip comment.
Anger flashed through me like a bolt of lightning, there and gone, leaving behind the residue. They’d all known. And they’d let me keep trying to hide it? I opened my mouth to give her my thoughts on that matter, but she cut me off. But what about Sideburns? And Rory? They’d said nothing about Ethan being in danger.
Her eyes never flicked to the others, not once. “You are all dismissed for the remainder of the day. The advancement ball will begin at ten p.m. While I’d rather you four weren’t there, again, your heads of houses will expect your presence.”
Just like that, we were done, out of the room and headed to the dorm. We walked in silence all the way to our room, but as soon as the door was shut, Pete let out a whoop that set my heart racing.
Talk about PTSD—I reached for my blade without even feeling a warning tingle. Pete grabbed Wally and spun her around, then grabbed Orin and attempted to spin him about too. Orin was stiff as a board, and the spin was beyond awkward, falling into comical.
“We did it! We all did it!” Pete shouted.
His excitement was contagious, and laughter bubbled out of me. We had done it. Despite the odds that Wally had insisted on spewing, despite the fact that we were the underdogs, the outcasts, we’d done it.
I grabbed Pete and hugged him, then Orin and Wally.
The door opened and we all turned to see Ethan standing there, pale but upright. His father behind him, gripping his shoulder just this side of too hard.
There was an uncomfortable silence. For about two seconds.
“Wonder Bread. We weren’t sure you had it in you to make it up the stairs.” I grinned at him.
Ethan’s lips twitched. “Well, I couldn’t let you have all the glory considering I did save you all back there.”
Wally, Pete, and Orin tensed, but I could see the truth in Ethan’s eyes—he’d been fed the same cover story we had. “Sure, sure. But let’s be honest. You screamed like a girl when that T-Rex was coming at us, and I’m pretty sure you peed your pants. Even if you did save us in the end.”
The hand on Ethan’s shoulder relaxed and Mr. Helix nodded. “I see that you all understand then. Even so, I’d like to speak to Ms. Johnson alone.”
The others didn’t hesitate. They just filed out of the room quickly, and even Ethan turned to leave.
Mr. Helix shut the door behind them. “I know what really happened, Ms. Johnson. You saved my son, and for that you have my gratitude.”
That was not what I’d expected. “He’s part of my crew, like I said. I couldn’t leave him there.”
He tipped his chin up. “As grateful as I am to you for saving him, I want to be sure that we understand one another. He is not of your kind, Ms. Johnson—an untrained, unkempt, wild thing that has no concept of decorum or her place in this world.”
My jaw dropped. “I’m sorry, do you think I saved him because I like him?”
He frowned, and I could see that was exactly what he thought. I started to laugh, and then I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe. He waited me out.
“Helix, let me be clear. Your son is an ass. I wouldn’t be interested in him for all the money in the world.” I held up both hands as if surrendering.
“I see. Perhaps I misread him then.” He turned and walked out the door, shutting it with a soft click.
He’d misread Ethan? What could he have possibly misread?
Chapter 17
Wally and I were no longer allowed to room wi
th the guys now that “everyone knew” I was a girl.
I was disappointed to leave the guys, especially after the experience we’d just been through together, but the new digs we’d been given were totally worth it. Two queen-sized beds and two full bathrooms all to ourselves, complete with oversized clawfoot bathtubs. Manna from heaven couldn’t have been more welcome. The healer had worked on my hand, but he hadn’t done anything for the rest of my aching body.
A booming announcement rippled through the mansion as we stood in our bedroom.
“The advancement ball will begin at 10 p.m. sharp. Bring your pieces of five, along with your watch for your final sorting.”
Wally, seeing my face, picked up a tiny black jewelry bag out of her pile of clothes. “We got them at the beginning, remember?”
The five tokens. I pulled my own out from the original envelope the Sandman had brought me, and took them with me into the bathroom.
I soaked in the bathtub a long time, letting the Epsom salts and hot water pull the last of the tension from me. My head throbbed, but a double dose of pain killers had numbed the worst of it. It struck me that while Mara had healed Ethan’s puncture wounds when he was near death, the healers hadn’t been able to cure my concussion. Why? I let that question sit for a moment, swirling it around as I swirled the water in the tub with one finger.
“They were after Ethan,” I said to myself and sunk lower into the water, sticking a foot out on the edge. “Not you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“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.
Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, Omnibus Page 44
