Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials: Books 1-3 Omnibus

by Shannon Mayer

  “We went our separate ways,” I mumbled. I’d cleaned off both plates and a nice food lethargy was stealing over me. “Orin, you want to come with me to get that paper from the director’s desk tonight? We can do it at midnight.” I yawned and crawled into my bed. It was not quite noon, but I was exhausted and my body was shutting down. “Wake me up when it’s time to go.”

  I’m not even sure that he answered me. My head hit the pillow and I was out like a light. But my sleep was far from restful.

  My dreams were disjointed and laced with panic. Shadows chased me, and when I turned to fight them, they engulfed me—my arms and legs went numb, my body slid to the ground. Helpless. I was helpless, and I hated it.

  Blink.

  I stood at the edge of our old farmhouse, watching it burn. Animals lay dead all around me, their limbs twisted, and the smell of death filled my lungs, tightening them more than the smoke. These animals had been mine to care for, mine to protect. And I’d failed them. Waves of fire rushed straight toward me, faster than I could even turn away from. I threw my hands up—

  Blink.

  Sam screamed for me on the edge of a cliff, high above me, high above the river of rushing water beyond me. “Wild! Help me!” Her voice cut into me, drove me forward even though there was no way to get to her. I threw myself at the sheer rock face, my fingers digging into it, sliding. “I’m coming!” The rock pulled away in pieces like shale. Her screams filled the air around me, pitching higher and higher, charged with panic and pain, and I couldn’t get to her, I couldn’t save her—

  Blink.

  A figure cloaked in darkness stood across from me, less than ten feet away, and yet I couldn’t see his face. Everything around him was hidden in shadows. Something about him rang familiar to me. The way he moved, like liquid night, the gesture of one hand as he pointed to me. “I know you, Wild. And I will come for you.”

  Blink.

  I was against that tree in the woods, Rory’s arms and legs around me, his finger tapping the pulse point in my throat. Dangerous, he was dangerous. But he was home too. His arms tightened around me, and I relaxed, breathing in his scent. “You shouldn’t trust me,” he whispered as his arms tightened further, crushing me, snapping the bones in my chest until they pressed into my lungs, my body gasping for air—

  “Wake up,” the voice growled in my ear. Not Rory, someone else.

  I opened my eyes to see Orin’s face inches from mine. I slapped him away and rolled out of bed, that last piece of the dream sticking with me. I shook my head once and stood, still in my clothes.

  We crept to the door to see Wally and Pete waiting on the other side and, shock of shocks, Ethan.

  “Can’t let you have all the fun,” he said.

  I glanced at Orin and Pete. The other two guys shrugged.

  Whatever they’d done or said, he’d obviously agreed to join our expedition—or been forced into it, though I rather doubted the forced part. He’d agreed to this for some reason or another, no doubt because he thought it would work for him somehow. I made a motion with one hand for them to follow me, and they fell into a line, spaced out, behind me. We headed down the hall a ways before a warning tingle hit my spine. Orin shot forward and grabbed my arm.

  Vampire, he mouthed.

  We peeled off, nearly to the stairwell. I motioned for everyone to hide, and we all ducked back, hiding in the shadows as best we could. Orin, of course, blended in completely, and the others…well, if you didn’t look too closely you could pass by them. Assuming you weren’t a vampire sniffing for scents and listening for heartbeats.

  Voices drifted up to us from the stairwell, the footsteps silent.

  “Watch them closely. It feels like the night is holding its breath.” That was…Sunshine’s voice. Crap!

  Pete had tucked in beside me and he shivered, recognizing the Sandman too. I clamped a hand over his mouth. I could almost feel a squeak ready to sneak out past his traitorous lips.

  “I was just about to check their room. Wild likes to wander. I’ll keep her put.”

  My belly dropped to the floor. Rory? Rory was checking on me for the Sandman? That last dream with him came crashing back in a sickening flood. My stomach rolled, and I had to fight the nausea that crept up my throat.

  “Good. Alert me if anything is amiss,” the Sandman growled, his words barely audible.

  I held my breath, waiting for Rory to mount the stairs. Waiting for Sunshine to walk with him. They’d notice us for sure. Rory would, at any rate. I’d never been able to hide from him.

  Except no one skulked past us. No one crested the stairs. How was Rory planning to check up on me?

  Orin stiffened, sharpening my focus.

  A familiar vampire materialized out of thin air as he worked his way down the stairs to the second floor. If he’d stepped foot on our landing, not far away, I hadn’t seen it. It almost seemed like he was following Rory and Sunshine, wherever they’d gone. Who was hunting whom?

  I counted another thirty seconds. “Now,” I whispered.

  Our group hurried to the director’s outer office. I reached for the door to her inner sanctum, but Ethan stopped me, putting an arm across the top of my chest.

  He lifted his wand, twirled it once, and light blue sparks sprang from it, like the sparklers I’d made with the twins the year before on the Fourth of July.

  Ethan waited for the sparks to absorb into the metal knob, then opened it, and the five of us slid through into the dark of the room. The click of the door shutting behind us was loud to my ears, even though I knew it was barely above a whisper.

  “All clear,” Pete whispered, and he was clearly talking about the assistant. Even the most dedicated employees didn’t work around the clock.

  “Hurry,” Orin said, gesturing toward the door. “If there are any wards, it won’t be long before someone shows up to check it out.”

  Ethan led the way, hurrying to the director’s big desk. I raced in after him, knowing wards meant an alarm of some kind.

  “Where were the papers?” Ethan asked.

  “She had it right on top,” I said. “A piece of paper on top of a pale green folder. The paper was a list of the missing kids. There had to be more information than that on it too.” At least, that was what I was banking on.

  Ethan held his wand up, the tip glowing with light. “Well, unless she’s a complete fool, it won’t still be there.”

  I did my best not to put my fingers on anything, using the edge of my sleeve to open the drawers and peek inside. Most were strangely empty, as if the desk were just a prop on a stage.

  Wally had dived into the books on the shelves, trailing her fingers across the spines. Pete and Orin stood at the door, ears pressed to the wood.

  On top of the desk was a single file folder, this one dark red, not the pale green I remembered. I leaned in, grabbing Ethan’s hand so as to direct the light from the wand. I read the words on that folder, and then read them again, thinking I’d made a mistake. “That’s my name,” I said at last. “My real name.”

  Maribel “Wild” Johnson.

  My heart pounded out a wicked drumbeat as I put a single finger to the edge of the folder and flipped it open. Stamped in red across my file was a single word.

  Missing.

  Chapter 2

  The next morning came far too fast as far as I was concerned. We’d gotten back to the room without a problem, and everyone had gone to bed, silent. Because what was there to say, really? The file folder said I was missing.

  Only I wasn’t.

  What the hell was going on? Was I the next target of whoever had stolen the other missing kids? The vampires Rory had warned me about, and whatever mages they’d roped into their scheme? Or did this have something to do with the assassin who was after me?

  I tossed and turned, my mind unable to shut off until the light in the room began to shift. My eyes drifted shut as the sun rose, and then, seconds later, it seemed, someone shook my shoulder.

  �
��Wild,” Wally said. “Wake up, something is happening.”

  I sat up, blinking, unable to see anything it was so dark. “Open the curtains.”

  “They are open. It’s after nine in the morning,” she said. “And the moon is still high.”

  I rolled out of bed as Pete flicked on a light. Everyone squinted against the glow, and I waved at him. “Turn it off, Pete.”

  Orin slid to the door. “Someone is here.”

  The door opened, and Jared stood there holding a flickering torch in one hand, his eyes unreadable in the dancing light. “Are you ready to face the House of Night?”

  This was new. I thought this was supposed to be about randomness? “Why aren’t we going to choose for ourselves?” I challenged him.

  He smiled. “Because the House of Night is about accepting what is, and what you cannot change.”

  I didn’t like the pattern the trials were suddenly taking. And I wasn’t sure about Jared. He, himself, didn’t bother me, but the fact that he was a vampire did. The same vampire, in fact, we’d seen roaming the halls last night. “Long as none of us go missing, I think we’ll be fine.”

  He jerked as if I’d slapped him, although he caught himself quickly. “Follow me.”

  Orin fell in behind him first, then Ethan, Pete, and Wally. I paused in the threshold. A warning instantly throbbed through me, tingling across my skin. Something had changed in the mansion overnight, increasing the danger fourfold. I told myself it had nothing to do with our midnight break in. We’d taken nothing from the director’s office, and we’d kept our hands off anything that would have left prints.

  But I was nobody’s fool and wasn’t going to lie to myself. We’d tripped something the night before, only we hadn’t realized it at the time. I was sure of it.

  I jogged to catch up to the others, stepping beside Wally. She glanced at me.

  “The House of Night will be interesting,” she said.

  I made myself grin at her even while my body and mind churned with worry like they were trying to make butter. “You looking forward to it? This will be your house.”

  “No, I am not,” she said softly. “They treat necromancers poorly. The vampires, that is. So, while it is the best fit for me, I am not looking forward to the schooling.”

  I frowned. “Just like those three girls.”

  “Yes.” She sighed. “If I could slide into one of the other houses, that would be ideal. But you will see soon enough what I am capable of. No other house would have me. My magic can’t be anything but what it is. No matter that it is weak.”

  Before I could respond, Jared led us out through a back door of the mansion and into a courtyard where two buses waited, idling in the darkness.

  “You sure that’s enough buses?” Pete asked.

  “Do not question your betters, boy,” Jared said. His eyes landed on each of us in turn, as if daring us to go on. I straightened up and so did Wally. Orin and Pete froze, and Ethan looked away. So be it, the girls would lead the way.

  Again. My lips twitched a little at that. It amused me that the guys in our group were so willing to let the girls lead.

  We loaded up as two more troops of kids arrived—one of them the trio of girls who’d beaten Wally up two nights previously.

  I saw them coming and walked to the front of the bus, waiting for them to take the first step in. “Bus is full. Use the other one.”

  One of them hissed at me—full on viper hissed—but they did as I said, backing down and moving to the other bus.

  The driver shivered. “Thanks, they give me the fecking willies. Shoot! Sorry, fudging. Not supposed to swear in front of you kids and your delicate freaking ears. Likely never heard a word like that before. Am I right or am I right?” He grinned, and the smile stretched from ear to ear, his eyes bugging out a little. Goblin then. His voice had a lilt to it that tugged at me.

  I grinned back. “Yeah, never heard a bad word in my life. Surely would never use one. Do you think adults really believe that if they don’t swear in front of us, we won’t ever use them ourselves?”

  He shrugged, grabbed the door handle and pulled the folding doors shut. “Who knows what adults think? I’m just paid to drive the bus.”

  I crouched down beside him as he pulled out of the mansion’s grounds, watching where we were going as he droned on about the different kids he’d seen come through in all his years of driving for the academy.

  “The only one that ever done impressed me was a tall kid, Shade, I think he was, but really he ended up being something else.” He gave a low whistle and my attention shifted fully to him.

  “What do you mean he ended up being something else?”

  “Nah, not supposed to talk about it. Like talking about the boogeyman before you put the kiddies to bed.” He grinned and winked again. “But if you come back on my bus, I’ll tell you all about him.” We’d begun to slow, and I could see the gates ahead of us, lit up in unnatural night. Our driver cranked the wheel to the left, taking us to a gate that I would have known was the House of Night even if I’d not been told. Massive wrought iron, solid black, partially covered in the thorny ivy, the gates were right out of a horror movie. Right down to the skulls set up on the spikes at the top. A lovely touch to be sure.

  I stuck out my hand. “My name is Wild.”

  I hadn’t thought his grin could get wider, but I’d been wrong. He clasped my hand. “Mighty fine to meet you, Wild. My friends call me Gory.” He braked smoothly, rolling the bus to a stop.

  Pete pushed up behind me, waiting for me to step down. “Gory goblin? You related to Gregory? I heard all the clans named their people alphabetically. Like if your dad is a Luke, then all the kids have to start with an L.”

  Gory laughed. “True, that be true. And often the women who marry in change their names to the same letter. So yup, I am related to Greggy. Where is he anyway? His mam asked me to let her know should I see him. Bit on the pretty side that one, but a right smart head he has on his shoulders.”

  I shot a look at Pete, whose eyes popped open wide. I grabbed him by the shoulder and all but pushed him down the stairs.

  “Thanks for the ride!” I called over my shoulder.

  “Say hi to Greggy if you see him! Tell him to keep on keeping on!” Gory called back.

  Sweet baby Jesus in a manger of spoiled straw, Gregory’s family hadn’t been told that he was missing? Just like we hadn’t been told anything about Tommy’s death. The blood in my veins turned sluggish, not something I needed only moments before stepping into the next trial. One that was bound to be worse than the others we’d faced. How could it not be when it was run by vampires and necromancers and who knew what else?

  “We gotta go.” I kept moving, forcing my way through the funk. “Come on guys. Let’s get this done.”

  Ethan tried to push to the front of our group, but Orin blocked him.

  “This is not your house, Ethan.”

  Wally bobbed her head. “Exactly.”

  He cleared his throat and lowered his voice, drawing us all in close. “I remember some of my…paperwork.”

  My eyebrows went up, but I motioned him forward. Fair enough—if he thought he could lead, let him lead. Orin and Wally let him pass, but I could see Orin, especially, was reluctant to do so.

  “And?” I asked Ethan, “what exactly do you remember?” Part of me wondered if he’d actually tell us anything. Other than taking note that the cheat papers were exactly that, I hadn’t actually looked at them. To be fair, if I’d not slept the previous day away, I would have.

  I had never claimed to be a saint. I needed to survive this to keep my siblings alive and well, and for them I’d break all the rules.

  Ethan went for his wand holder, pulled out his wand, and lowered his voice further. “Necromancers first. Then ghost walkers. Vampires last. That’s the order.”

  “Then let Wally lead up there with you,” I said. “You really want to be the first to get hit by a— Wally, what will the necromance
rs send after us?”

  “Zombies,” she said without hesitation. “Lots and lots of zombies. You can take their heads, that will slow them down, but it won’t kill them like in the movies. You have to knock out or kill the necromancer to stop them completely. Otherwise, the body parts of the dead things will just keep on coming. I mean, if Ethan wants to try and go first, that’s fine by me.”

  That slowed Ethan and he tipped his head. “Fine. You’re right, this is your house, after all.”

  This morning, no beautiful woman greeted us atop the gates. In fact, no one else was around. Had all the other kids slipped ahead of us? Or had they left? I turned around, realizing that there was no other bus. We were here alone.

  A warning shot down my spine. Something was off.

  The gate creaked open on its own, and we stepped through, the air around us tensing and cooling rapidly as if we’d stepped not only through the gate but from summer into autumn. I blinked and took in what awaited us.

  It looked like a pastoral scene straight out of some fairy tale villain’s playbook. A stone wall well over twelve feet high in some places wrapped around what could only be a graveyard, a huge metal gate locked at the front, skulls and crosses welded to it.

  “The graves of the five houses,” Wally whispered. “It’s protected so the dead who served our world can rest.”

  “That can’t be right,” Ethan said. “Because we know they’re going to raise the dead to challenge us. They would never stick us here.”

  That warning tingle intensified.

  “Could it be an illusion?” Pete asked.

  Ethan lifted his wand and did a swooping swirl, whispering a word under his breath. Sparks spat and fizzled. “No,” he said, shaking his head, “it’s not an illusion.”

  “These zombies…they will be stronger than anything any necromancer could ever raise in the real world,” Wally said. “Their strengths when they were alive will be available to them in death. Which is why they are kept here. They are supposed to be kept safe from being raised. They would only send us here if they want to test whether we can rise to an impossible challenge...or if they want us to fail.”