Where Monsters Hide (The Monster Within 1)

But I don’t get to hear what I may or may not know, because the test administrator shouts for us to stop. Sawyer tears his gaze away from me and I curse inwardly for letting myself get distracted. I should have spent the last minutes preparing for this last trial rather than mooning over the way the light turns Sawyer’s eyes more gold than brown.

“This is the final trial,” the administrator says, pacing up and down under the low ceiling. We’re underground, beneath the school where the walls are all dark-colored brick and sconces illuminate the wide passage from the main building to the menagerie. We haven’t seen any monsters yet, but I’ve heard their scratching and howling behind closed doors. “You’re about to meet the Headmaster. Everyone on their best behavior.” For some reason, his eyes find me in the crowd. “Stay quiet and follow me.”

I need no further urging. I know what comes next, and it makes my heart feel as if it will beat right out of my chest. For all the talk and training, I’ve never actually seen a monster. All that’s about to change.

Chapter Three

We walk silently down the sloping passageway and out into a large chamber filled with benches. On one end there’s a raised dais with a few people standing on it, and a single man in the center behind a podium. He’s an old man, probably in his sixties, and he’s wearing a black tailored suit with Saint M’s logo emblazoned on his tie. He watches us all file into the chamber with a keen eye. This is the sort of man who misses nothing.

Another man wearing the same tie—though admittedly that’s where the comparison ends—hands each of us a folded slip of paper pulled from a dark envelope on our way past. I start to unwrap mine, but Sawyer covers my hand in his and gives me a wink.

“Isn’t the suspense half the fun?”

The man on the stage waits for us to start settling down onto the benches before he starts speaking.

“Welcome,” he says. He’s got a surprisingly smooth voice. “It’s an honor to stand here before you at the start of another year. In my profession … soon to be some of yours, should you be lucky … that isn’t a guarantee.”

Sawyer and I glance at each other before sitting on a bench near the back. He hasn’t looked at his paper yet, but I feel mine weighing heavily in my hand, just waiting to be opened. Sawyer is watching the man on the stage with rapt attention. He doesn’t even take his eyes off him when he leans in to whisper to me that the man before us is the current headmaster.

I turn toward the stage with more interest as he goes on.

“Lucian Marius Novac. He was one of the best, back in his day. He’s been teaching here for years, so he was the obvious choice after the last headmaster retired. Well … that’s a nice way to put it. But Novac, he’s been headmaster now for … maybe twenty, twenty-five years?”

All of this comes out of Sawyer’s mouth very quickly.

“You know a lot about him.”

Sawyer glances at me with a sheepish smile. “I’m kind of a geek for this sort of stuff. Like,” he continues, oblivious to the fact that I’ve begun staring, “Mason Dagher—Piers’ dad—is right up there with him. But he’s still nothing compared to the Blacks before they died.” He stops, suddenly, mouth agape.

“Oh God, Avery, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupt, but I’ve focused my attention on the headmaster still speaking up ahead.

“Avery, really, I’m so sorry, I forgot that—” He stops, fumbling for words. “I forgot that they were your parents.”

A hot feeling rises inside me, and I laugh. “Lucky for you that you’re able to do that.” It’s a mean thing to say and I know it, so I quickly look back at him. “Look, it’s fine, really. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Headmaster Novac clears his throat and the noise in the chamber dies back down. “Saint Marcellus is a prestigious school. It wouldn’t be amiss to say it’s the best of its kind in the world. Some of the top monster hunters of our age have trod these same passageways. Surely still, there are even greater yet to come. Perhaps we might find them even here, among those who sit before me,” he adds, scanning the crowd.

I see Piers sit up a little straighter.

“I’m not sure what stories you’ve been told, but no doubt they’ve been ones of glory. Of camaraderie. Of honor. And it’s true, ours is a noble profession. A hunter, no matter the kind, must be honorable above all things. Ours is not just a fight for glory. It is a fight for mankind. A monster hunter must show bravery, courage, and valor as they face the most dangerous creatures this world has to offer.”

I squirm in my seat. For all this talk of monsters, I’ve still yet to see anything more dangerous than a tame lion at the zoo.

“It is for that reason,” Headmaster Novac continues, “That we can only take those most suited to the task. This is not a calling to be taken lightly. From the minute you are chosen as a student here, there will be no coddling. There will be no hand-holding. The professors—” he gestures to those standing behind him on the dais, “—will give you the tools to achieve your goals, but it is up to you to use them. Monsters don’t discriminate, and neither do we. Male or female, rich or poor, whatever your walk in life, you will be held to the same standard.” He pauses and looks over the crowd, his expression serious. “Now. I think that’s quite enough.”

Onto the trial.

There are thirty of us remaining. The slip of paper in my hand contains a number that will determine my group for the final task. Something settles in the pit of my stomach that tells me luck isn’t going to be on my side, as far as that’s concerned.

“Your job is to defeat this monster,” the administrator calls over us as we start unwrapping the slips of paper between our fingers. “That can mean many things, including killing, capturing, or even befriending it … depending on the creature you’ve been allotted according to the number on your randomly drawn group.”

It’s the culmination of past knowledge, physical prowess, and instinct. We’ll have to work together, isolated from the other teams and only with weapons picked from the armory before we even know what kind of creature we face.

“This trial will simulate an unexpected encounter with a monster,” the test administrator says, cutting in, “the sort that you are likely to have in the near future, should you actually make it that far.”

The headmaster looks over us all as we stand and start looking at the number?