Page 105 of Mortal Blood
“Get into groups of four.”
I shared a confused glance with Cole. This hadn’t been part of the assessment last year.
“Now,” Zane barked. “If you’re not in a group in thirty seconds, you fail the assessment.”
That spurred everyone to life. Jax quickly stepped to me and Cole, and as I scanned the room for a fourth, I caught Alina’s questioning look. I flicked a glance at Cole, who nodded his agreement, and she hurried over to fall in beside us.
“You needn’t bother looking so proud of yourselves,” Zane growled. “That was the easy part. Each group will be given an artefact. If it doesn’t make it through the trial, then neither does your group. Do I make myself clear?”
He stalked round the room, thrusting a necklace at each group. I accepted ours and looked it over. It was a heavy-set, antique looking thing, with a green gem of some kind set into a brass fitting, which was fed through with a brass chain. Itlookedinnocuous enough. I shrugged and pulled it over my head.
“Don’t fuck this up, and don’t lose those,” Zane snapped as he handed out the last necklace. “And good luck. I’ll seesomeof you next year.”
With the ominous statement hanging over us, he turned and left the room. I locked eyes with Cole, and he dipped his chin the tiniest fraction.
“Go,” I muttered to Alina, giving her a gentle shove forward, and then I took off at a sprint through the door. Alina was quick on the uptake, I had to give her that, and she burst through the door on my heels, Cole and Jax right behind her as we raced through the corridors. We weren’t about to give Kallan a chanceto try to sabotage us before the trial even started.
All four of us were at the peak of our fitness, and it took us less than two minutes to pound through the hallways and out onto the grounds.
And then I skidded to a halt, looking around in confusion.
“Um, who ordered the fog?”
Cole shook his head as he stepped up to my shoulder, looking around at the unnatural thick gray that had descended over every inch of the grounds. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me—and that was with my dhampir senses in overdrive. When that wore off in a few hours, I was going to be blind out here.
“Come on,” Cole said brusquely. “Let’s get away from the doors. No point making it easy for Kallan.”
I tucked the necklace under my shirt with a nod. Because Kallan was coming straight for this thing if we gave him the chance. There was no way he’d pass up an opportunity like that. The whole group on an automatic fail? It had to be like catnip to him.
Bad news, kitty, I thought grimly. I’ve got bigger claws than you.
The four of us set off through the thick fog, making our way by unspoken consensus to where we knew the treeline was, because it beat standing around in the open. Somehow, I didn’t get the sense the instructors intended to just let us blunder around and fight with each other until they came to get us. Last year, they sent a wraith after us. And much as I’d love to believe whatever they did this year couldn’t possibly be worse, two years at Darkveil had beaten that kind of optimism out of me.
The heavy fog muffled our footsteps as we moved cautiously forward, senses straining for the slightest sign of danger. Our vision was next to useless, the mist thick enough to conceal any threats until they were nearly on top of us, even with our supernaturally enhanced senses. I tried to ignore the growing unease twisting my stomach. We were sitting ducks out here.
I was pretty sure we were close to the treeline when a faint skittering reached my ears over the smothering fog. I froze, grabbing Cole’s arm.
“Listen,” I hissed. “Something’s coming.”
The skittering grew louder, accompanied by an eerie, insectile hissing. My heart hammered against my ribs.
Oh, please not bugs. Anything but bugs. Just the thought of their creepy little legs and creepy weird faces was enough to make my skin crawl.
Glinting black eyes appeared in the fog before us, low to the ground. An enormous, sinuous, segmented body slid into view—some sort of huge fucking centipede. Venom dripped in strings from its clicking mandibles as it reared up. It was easily twenty feet long, the size of a goddamn bus.
My breath shortened to panicked gasps that didn’t do anything to help the tightness in my chest.
“Look out!” Cole yelled, shoving me back. More skittering erupted from all around us as other gigantic centipedes emerged from the thick mist, creeping toward us with unnatural speed.
I stood paralyzed for an instant, staring at the colossal insects in horror, fighting the urge to claw at my skin as they advanced on us, scuttling across the ground like something out of my worst nightmare.
“Cali, snap out of it!” Cole said, grabbing my sleeve and yanking me back with him. I jolted back to my senses. He was right. Standing here frozen while the giant bugs advanced on me? Shit plan.
“Fight?” Jax asked, already stripping off his shirt in anticipation of shifting.
“Or run?” I suggested. “Like, really fucking fast?”
“I think that ship has already sailed, princess,” Cole murmured, turning round slowly. I followed his gaze as it swept across the edges of the mist, and saw beady black eyes gleaming back at me.
