I had to get the hell out of here.
Like now.
I redoubled my efforts, dragging my weapons through the soil as fast as I could.
Not fast enough.
The ram’s head slammed into my upper thigh, driving me to the ground. I kicked out with the un-rammed leg.
“I hate sheep! You stink!” The ram slammed its horns into me again, pinning me to the ground.
The lantern was on its side, the light wobbling, which only made the image of the starving vampire creeping toward me that much freakier. Limbs moving like they were detached at the joints, the crawling vampire turned itself upside down and then rolled its head around to look at me right side up.
“Feast day, pet,” he whispered and flashed his fangs.
With a grunt, I grabbed the ram and threw it off, tumbling it right into its vampire friend. I stood and drove both hands up through the ground, feeling the open air.
Fingers wrapped around mine and pulled as the vampire latched onto my calf. I kicked him with my other foot, and his teeth tore through the flesh.
“No, no!” he screamed. “I am starving, starving! Let me have her!”
I was pulled upward and out of the ground, and the sudden silence was as unnerving as the catacombs. No more screaming vampire, but no sound of my rescuer either.
I blinked and shook my head to get the dirt out of my face, hoping it was who I thought it might be. “Rory?”
A sigh and the sound of leathery wings. “I think not, young Shade.”
11
The gargoyle let go of me, and I rolled across the ground, missing a tombstone before driving up to my feet. Around us, the graveyard was silent. Not even the distant sound of horns or traffic. Magic was my first guess. Which slightly amused me since I’d only really known magic to be a real thing for about ten days.
Ash stared at me. “What were you doing in the necromancer’s crypt?”
I countered him. “How did you find me?”
“You opened yourself to your friend, and I knew you were somewhere near here.” He smiled. “Let us go before the vampire decides to join us—”
“No.” I settled into a fighting stance. And then I realized that I had an opportunity here, one that I might not get again. “What does my uncle want with me? To see me drained like Frost? He said he wanted to steal my friends too.”
Ash shook his head. “Nothing like what Frost wants with them.”
“To hurt me or my friends?”
He didn’t answer right away. “He . . . is not the young man I knew when he came through the school. The power he has changed him, but he is not like Frost. He is trying to make things right.”
“But he’s a killer.”
The gargoyle tipped his head. “As are you. Unless Jared fell by another’s hand?”
My jaw ticked at the comparison.
Ash smiled. “Perhaps you are not so different from your uncle after all. Perhaps he is just . . . misunderstood.”
I snorted. “I don’t think so. My mother died to keep us safe from him.”
Behind me, the ground crumbled as a bony hand shot out. I turned and kicked it, snapping fingers on the undead, starving vampire as if kicking off the head of a thistle back home.
“Something he deeply regrets that he wasn’t able to stop from happening.” Ash tipped his head toward me. “But we must go. Ruby will be hunting the graveyard now.”
He held a hand out to me, and I brought both knives up. “No.”
The tension between us grew. The vampire again pushed his fingers out. This time I cut them off with a swipe of my right blade.
“What about a deal?” Ash said slowly, as if listening to something in his right ear. He even tipped his head that way. “A deal, yes, that might work. She is a clever one if she got by Barnaby.”
Barnaby. That had to be the starving vampire below.
I moved to put a tombstone between us as he shifted his attention back to me. “Why would I make a deal with you? Why wouldn’t I just . . .” I was going to say kill you, but then that would only reinforce that he was right—that I was just like my uncle. “Leave. Run again.”
Ash folded his wings tightly to his body. “Because you are going to be taken either way. By Nicholas, or perhaps by Frost, who will do nothing but harm you, and who, if my sources are correct, has now taken your friends. You need help. He is offering you that much. If you come with me now.”
Every muscle in me screamed to run, to find Wally, Pete, Orin, Gregory, and even stupid Ethan. More than that, I had to find Rory.
“Yes, Frost has taken my friends.” I bit the words out. “We’ve taken her on before. And we beat her. We can beat her again.”
“You are no fool, Wild. You know when you are outmatched. The first time you surprised her. And she did not have all those who are tied to her with her. You were lucky, and I believe you know that.” He paused. “You were very, very lucky.”
Two hands surged out of the dirt along with the top of Barnaby’s head. I spun and slammed the heel of my boot into his skull, jamming him back into the ground. One arm waved around and snagged my pants, but I swept a blade down, slashing his arm. A howl ripped up from the ground, and I took another step back, even though it put me closer to Ash.
The gargoyle watched me closely. “Perhaps, in time, you’ll be able to do all that you set your mind to, but you do not know everything. There is much for you to learn.” Ash folded his arms as if he had all the time in the world. Which I suppose he did. I was the one in a damn hurry. “You cannot save your friends on your own. This is not the Culling Trials. This is not even the academy. This is the real world, and it is no place for an untrained Chameleon Shade and her companions. You will die. And then your friends will die. Are you willing to throw all those lives away?” He searched my face. “And do you think Frost will stop there if you keep thwarting her? How long before she looks to your family farm? To your siblings and your father?”
The air around us tensed, because I had to make this choice whether I liked it or not. The grave was quiet now. Apparently, Barnaby had given up.
I hated that the gargoyle was right. Frost would not relent. And my family that I’d gone to the Culling Trials to protect? They’d be in danger. My father was in no condition to protect anyone, and the twins were still kids. I’d do anything to keep them safe.
Like eating ashes out of a fire, I choked out the words. “What kind of deal are you offering?”
Ash smiled, though there was a tinge of sadness to it. “See, you are a clever one. The deal is this. Nicholas and I will help you get your friends from the prison. But when they are freed from their cages, you will peacefully come with us. No more fighting.”
Peacefully.
“What about my friends? Nicholas wanted them too.”
“He has changed his mind and will take just you if that is what it must be,” Ash said.
I ground my teeth while I considered this. I could almost feel Rory slipping away. “All of my friends, and that includes Rory getting help. I can’t leave him,” I said.
Ash nodded. “You have my word, on pain of death. You may open your connection to your friends now. It will make it easier for us to find them.”