Shadowspell Academy: The Culling Trials, Book 3

by Breene, K. F.

  “How many spells have to hit me before I lose?” I grunted out, popping up and ripping out my knife. I sliced at the invisible wall, throwing up sparks. It didn’t help. I was stuck in this ten-foot-wide space that was part of the game. .

  “As many as you can stand.” She flicked her wrist and the stream of yellow turned into a blob of yellow, spreading out to catch me.

  “Good call with that spell.” I ran and jumped at the wall, hit it high with my toes, pushed off, and attempted a really cool backflip. I landed on my stomach and the air pushed out of me. “Ouch,” I wheezed.

  “Spirited, this shall be enjoyable,” she murmured.

  I leapt up and zagged right, drawing her fire, before pivoting. She moved her wand, expecting me to run left. Instead, I dashed right again, scraped against the wall, barely missed by the spell, and sprinted straight at her. Her eyes widened and her wand hand jerked, a muscle memory reaction, no doubt. I rolled under it, but not fast enough. The spell screamed across my shoulder, ripping away my shirt and slashing my skin.

  “Ouch,” I said again. But at least it took my mind off my headache.

  I bounced up, five feet away, as she swept her wand from one side to the other. A spell materialized, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to dodge it.

  So I didn’t try.

  Knife held out, teeth gritted, I sprinted at her and launched myself through the spell. It parted around my knife, but the sides clung to my body. It didn’t stop my forward progress.

  I slammed into the mage as heat flared across my skin. It seeped down into my blood, burning so hot, I had to glance down to make sure they weren’t real flames. She landed with an oomph, then grunted when I smashed down on top of her, taller and stronger.

  Without thinking, body burning, I went for her weapon, knowing that if I could get it from her, we’d be at an impasse. Or, at least, she couldn’t magically light me on fire again.

  Screaming with the pain, I grabbed her wand hand and jammed my other elbow across her face. Her lips curled and her fingers loosened. I elbowed her again. And again, forcing out a whimper. As expected, she wasn’t used to physical violence.

  “Let…go,” I said, banging her wand hand against the ground.

  “It’ll…kill…you!”

  Too late. Another elbowing made her cry out, and her fingers released their grip. The wand was in my hand before her words had properly sunk in.

  The agony of the magical fire cut off, but a sharp blast of pain shot up through my hand, my arm, and into my chest. My middle turned to ice, spreading out before sinking into my limbs. I sucked in a breath, trying to let go of the wand, but I couldn’t. Like a wave pulling back to the sea, the cold dimmed before leaving my body all together.

  Shaking, confused, I pushed back to standing, holding the small stick that now sent vibrations through my body. It felt…wrong, somehow. Off. Not as natural as Ethan’s wand had. But it didn’t kill me.

  Liar, liar, pants on fire.

  “Give me that back!” She flopped, trying to turn over and stand, but wasn’t able to push through the pain. “That’s mine!” Her voice was weak.

  I frowned at the vehemence of her reaction. It struck me, again, that this was the second wand I’d handled without any serious injury. Maybe the danger of stealing someone’s wand was a myth magic users drummed up to deter theft.

  “I need to get out of here. What’s a spell I can do on you?” I asked, flicking the wand like she’d done. Red sparkles flew from the end and cracked all around us.

  “No! How?” Her eyes widened as she looked at me. “How are you doing that?”

  “Presto change-o,” I said, flicking the wand again. This time blue sparks curled into the air. “What if I just…” I did the same again, but right next to her leg so the sparks would hit her.

  “Ah!” Surprise lit her features and she scooted away. Mud spread across her light pink robe.

  “I bet you hope that’s mud, at any rate,” I said, remembering how I’d wrestled with Bluebell the day before I left the farm. Not allowing myself to dwell, I bent and did the swooping move again. Then a third time.

  The scene wobbled. She disappeared. My farm melted around me. Ethan, his wand freshly stowed in his stupid holster, pulled out his sheet of paper ten feet away, back on the open plains that we’d started with.

  There was no sign of the others.

  I walked over and punched him in the face.

  “You lying piece of crap!” I yelled, waiting for him to sprawl out before kicking him in the side. “You were setting us up the whole time!” I bent over and blasted some wand sparks at him.

  “What in the—” His hand shot out and he gripped my wrist, his eyes pinned to the wand.

  I grabbed his wrist with my other hand, twisted so he’d have to turn onto his belly, then pushed up, keeping him in place. “Not wise,” I ground out.

  “Whose wand is that?” he asked, his voice high pitched in pain.

  “Don’t ask stupid questions.” I dropped the wand since the sparks didn’t seem to have an effect, then punched him in the ribs. He grunted and tried to move away. I did it again, but his thick slab of muscle shielded him from my blows.

  “Stop,” he said, his body tensed. “Stop!”

  I picked up the wand again. The annoying vibrating feeling ran up my arm, so I stuffed it into my back pocket.

  “Trust me, huh?” I said, my hands on my hips. “We’ll see?” It was my turn for high pitched. “Now the other two are lost in limbo!”

  “All they had to do was hang on, like I said,” Ethan shouted back at me, his face red and dirt smeared across his cheek. “Who do you think got you out?”

  “I did.” I pulled out the wand for emphasis. “With this.”

  “With what, a few sparks? That wasn’t a spell! It wouldn’t trigger your win.” He jabbed his chest. “I won. I shut everything down.”

  Breathing heavily, I stowed my stolen wand. The timing was close enough that he could be right, especially since he hadn’t reacted to the sparks I’d made with the wand. They’d surprised the wand owner, but they hadn’t really hurt her. Still, it was possible the bit of magic I’d done had been enough. Either way, Wally and Pete hadn’t been so lucky.

  “This challenge would be impossible for anyone but a wand wielder.” I stalled, waiting just a bit longer to make sure Wally or Pete wouldn’t materialize near us. “It’s not fair.”

  Ethan painfully rose to his feet and dusted himself off. “Everyone is supposed to be in groups. All a group needs is one wielder.”

  “Well, clearly that isn’t the case, since the one wielder was the only one to make it through. Where are Pete and Wally? They should be here too if you’re right.”

  “What about you?”

  “I don’t count. I cheated.”

  He made a disgusted sound and snatched his fallen paper up off the ground. “I don’t get you, Wild. You didn’t know anything about magic, yet you made it through to the gold on the Shade trial. It’s in your nature, so okay, I guess. But you practically led the Claw and Unmentionables trials, and you saved our asses in the Night trial by speaking to ghosts. Now here you are, probably the first trial goer in history to steal an instructor’s wand, and you’re yelling about the fairness of things. No one should be this good at everything. No one. And that’s coming from someone who is expected to be this good at everything.” He shook his head and took off walking. “Something isn’t right with you. I mean, you’ve got people trying to kill you for Christ’s sake. You! A girl!”

  “Girls aren’t good enough to be targeted, is that what you’re saying?”

  He shot me a narrowed-eyed glare. “You’re supposed to be a fifteen-year-old boy, aren’t you? Well, that cover has been blown, and yet people are still after you. Doesn’t that seem odd to you?”

  My step hitched, because I’d never thought of it like that. Yes, as a matter of fact, it kind of did.

  He threw up his hands. “This whole thing is messed up. All of
it. And I hate that I’ve been dragged into it. I don’t want anything to do with the Sandman. My father can rein in most people, but the Sandman isn’t one of them. I’ve got no protection from him. None of us do. I don’t need any part of—”

  “Wait, the Sandman? What do you mean?” Memories fluttered my awareness, so close, I could practically grab them. Darkness lining a face. Sweat dripping from sideburns. A twinkle of light on something metallic. The missing day was right there on the edge of my mind.

  A sudden ground-shaking roar blotted out my thoughts. My feet nearly started dancing, ready to run without my body attached if need be. The scene around us dissolved, replaced with a big open area, a cave to one side, a cropping of rocks to the other, and an enormous beast out of the past directly in front of us. Green and black mottled skin, flesh hanging from its jagged bottom teeth, and too-small eyes zeroing in on us.

  A freaking T-Rex, so big that our heads wouldn’t even touch the bottom of its belly.

  “We’re gonna die.”

  Chapter 14

  Wally’s voice drifted into my mind from the first day of the trials, which felt so damn long ago.

  “To date, in this century, there has never been a death by mauling as pertains to the T-Rex.”

  Regardless of the strongholds in place, and there didn’t look to be any, a real T-Rex was liable to kill people.

  …in this century…

  …never been a death…

  “It’s an illusion,” I said, clutching Ethan’s sleeve as he stared up at the monster, slack mouthed. “It has to be an illusion. It’s magic, like everything else. Wally said no one’s died from one of these in this century.”

  “It is magic, yes. We’re in the House of Wonder.” Ethan shook himself into movement and straightened the sheet of paper he’d fearfully clutched in his hand moments before. “Of course, it’s magic. We might not die, but we’ll fail.”

  “I’m less concerned with failing than dying, though that first challenge might’ve amounted to the same thing.”

  “Failing is not an option. We have to make it through. That’s the plan, right?” Ethan turned and ran for the cave while stuffing the sheet of paper into his pocket.

  “I’m sensing daddy issues.” I ran right beside him, holding the uncomfortably vibrating wand in a shaking hand. Another roar rumbled through the space, squashing all other sound and making my heart flutter.

  “I’ve prepared for this.” Ethan was muttering, and I got the distinct impression he was trying to bolster his confidence. “I’ve studied. I’ve practiced.”

  “There is no preparing for the size of this beast,” I said, my heart stopping dead when the huge head swung our way. The T-Rex regarded us from its small eyes, before bending forward and slamming us with a blood-freezing roar. “Its teeth are the size of a human foot.”

  “Yeah. I learned that in grade school.” He put on a burst of speed.

  I ran faster still, passing him, and made a beeline for that cave. “There’s a difference…between learning it…and living it.”

  The ground shook with the imprint of one massive foot carrying a whole lot of tonnage.

  “A big…difference.” Another foot. The beast was coming after us. “Every man…for himself!”

  I slid into the cave, feet first, as another footfall shook the ground, this one faster than the previous two. The fourth thud was faster still, the beast chasing its prey.

  I rolled, finishing the slide on my belly. The T-Rex swung its head down, faster than a creature that size should have been capable of moving, and chomped at Ethan. The enormous teeth just missed him. Screaming, Ethan ducked into the cave so fast, he slammed his head against the rock roof. He staggered and fell into me.

  He clutched his head and curled up, but I was already pulling him farther back into the recesses, a space too small for the huge reptile to reach. Frantic breathing filled the hollow silence left by the dinosaur.

  “Failing is not an option,” I said, replaying the memory of those huge teeth stained with blood and bits of flesh, snapping shut. “We might not die, but it’ll hurt like hell. Failing is definitely not an option. How do we bring it down?”

  “My head is pounding. You’ll have to do it.”

  “Nice try, gorgeous. My head has been pounding since this morning. How do we bring it down?”

  He fumbled for his pocket, whatever he’d read before running to the cave clearly forgotten.

  “I got it.” I dug my hand into his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper. Organized, typed directions filled the sheet, ending with “Notes.” In that space, various spells and details had been added in a surprisingly delicate hand. “Did your sister help you with this?”

  “I am literate,” he said dryly. “The best spells to use are at the bottom.”

  I was literate, too, but my handwriting looked like it had been scrawled out by a five-year-old with an attention problem.

  I muttered a few of the handwritten words—some foreign, like “Olumpah,” and some I understood, like “Levitate.” The wand spat sparks of blue, and I pointed it toward the wall.

  “So spells can just be common words?” A monstrous foot slammed down outside the cave, followed by a roar that filled our small space to bursting.

  Both of us grabbed our heads.

  “It’s not just anything. The words, intention, and wand movement work together, driven by your inner strength and power.” He pushed up a little and touched the bump forming on the side of his head. He looked at his fingertips, didn’t see blood, and glanced out of the cave. “Countless hours are spent learning spell work, and only the best can ever master it. Most people are merely proficient.”

  “Awesome. Well, I would like to be proficient enough to cause havoc. What do I say?”

  He sniffed and shook his head before taking a deep breath. “I’ve trained for this. I can do it in my sleep.”

  He lightly touched his head. He hadn’t trained for this when at anything other than a hundred percent. Welcome to real life, Wonder Bread.

  “Right.” I nodded in determination. Clearly, he wasn’t going to teach me to use magic without a little prodding. “Then jog on out there and start throwing some spells. I’ll be right behind you, with this tiny knife.”

  His gaze cut my way, and he watched me grab for my knife. He sighed. “Look, we can’t really practice in here or the spells will bounce off the walls and hit us.” I grimaced and directed the boom part of the wand toward the cave opening, where the T-Rex waited.

  I doubted the predators of old would’ve been so patient. Or tolerant.

  “You’re better at overall combat,” he went on. “I’m obviously better with the actual spells. So we’ll have to work together—”

  “That’s what some of us have been doing all along…”

  His blue eyes flared. “Do you want to win this, or not?”

  “Sorry, sorry.”

  Outside the cave, the T-rex shifted and lifted a foot. This one landed farther away, back toward its initial position. Its default setting, I guessed.

  “What we can do is this…” He licked his lips and crawled nearer the opening. “Use your—the wand. React with it how you would normally react with a knife. If you’d go for the eyes, or belly, aim and shoot the sparks. I’ll then follow it up with an actual spell.”

  “The eyes are much too small and far away for a target,” I said, my brain whirling, shedding off the panic of fighting a huge predator that had terrorized prehistoric earth. “The belly is covered in that thick skin. Are your spells more potent than foot-long teeth?”

  Ethan blinked and looked down at his wand. He hadn’t thought of that.

  “Who the hell is training you that you don’t already have a strategy?” I berated. “And what important branch of the government is he or she making a mockery of?”

  “It was my weapons instructor,” he replied.

  “Ever heard the saying, those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach?” I shook my head and
crawled toward the mouth of the cave on hands and knees until the roof allowed me to stand, hunched over. I eyed the T-Rex, looking around the empty space, waiting for us to bring the fight to it.

  Whiskers, my pissed off bull, had nothing on this situation.

  “So, it’s either bring down the beast or get eaten?” I asked.

  “Or let time run out.” He braced a scratched hand against a rock, leaning heavily and squinting. I looked at my watch to see a timer ticking down. We had less than thirty minutes left to deal with the T-Rex. Ethan’s head was probably throbbing to the same beat as mine. “But I got the impression that time running out would be worse than losing to the beast. Something about lava…”

  My jaw dropped, and I spluttered before I managed to actually speak words. “Oh my God, what is wrong with magical people?”

  He took a deep breath. “Are you ready?”

  “No. You?”

  He released a shaky laugh. “Nope.”

  “But what choice do we have, right? We need to impress your daddy, right? We need to finish this and hope that Orin, Wally, and Pete are okay.”

  He sobered. “Yes,” he said softly. His pink tongue left a wet trail across his bottom lip. “Look,” he said, not looking over at me. “Between us, I’m glad it worked out this way. I’m glad we ended up in a crew. You’re insane, but you have a way about you. You make all this…bearable.”

  “Same,” I said, and it wasn’t a complete lie. Sometimes he was actually pretty okay.

  His grin said he heard everything I didn’t say in my voice. “We can’t all be team players, Wild. What fun is there in that? Some of us have been groomed to be separate, whether we like it or not.”

  And with those words, he pushed out of the cave and ran right. I surged after him a moment later, really wishing he’d given me a heads up.

  As expected, the T-Rex’s head swung around, tracking our movements. It roared as it stepped forward, on the chase once more. Ethan pivoted and headed back toward it at an angle.

  “Go,” he said, yelling at me. “Go, go!”

  “Go where?” The T-Rex gained speed, each step cutting the distance between us by a quarter.