Where Monsters Hide (The Monster Within 1)

Sawyer clenches his fist, but he doesn’t wait for Piers to explain. I just keep looking between the two of them as that pit in my stomach grows deeper and takes root.

“I … I told Piers we were running late to creature handling,” he says, avoiding looking at me.

I shake my head. “I don’t know what you …”

And then it hits me.

“You’re not saying … Sawyer …” The horrible realization of it all dawns on me.

It was Sawyer. He told Piers when I’d be out to the menagerie, giving him the time to lace my gloves with whatever substance made Aurora act up the way she did.

“And now?” Piers says, goading.

Sawyer holds up the bottle. “I was disposing of the evidence,” he says, quietly, his eyes flickering over to Piers and narrowing. “Even though it wasn’t part of the original deal.”

I ta

ke another step away from Sawyer and wrap my arms around myself. I stare at him in disbelief, shaking my head.

“All this time, you just watched me sit here and suffer … and it was your fault to begin with?” Tears well up in my eyes, and I don’t know if they’re from shock or anger, or both. I jab a finger at him. “Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?”

He doesn’t answer. He isn’t denying it. He just looks at me, sadness in his eyes.

Sawyer hangs his head, and I just stand there in the cold. I don’t know how to describe how I feel. Numb, angry, sad … manipulated. I’d started to have real feelings for Sawyer, too.

I throw up my hands and turn away from him. I thought the devil’s breath was betrayal, but now I know what real betrayal is.

At least, for all they’ve done to me, Piers, Owen, and Bennett have always been honest about it.

I’m about to leave them here to sort things out themselves while I stalk back to the school when I hear a noise. In my sluggish, disbelieving state, I turn to see a figure sprinting around the corner of the school and out of sight. I frown.

We’re not supposed to be outside, so no one else is, either. And then I hear it—the sound that immediately makes me forget all the hurt, betrayal, and pain—and replaces it with fear.

What I hear is the bone-chilling roar of a manticore.

Chapter Twenty-Three

All of us freeze. My mind is racing. The Menagerie is underneath the school. There’s a lot of extremely dangerous monsters under there, and I just heard a manticore.

If the manticore … or any of the other creatures … have gotten out, the school is in danger. Grave danger.

There’s another noise, and my worst fears are confirmed. The manticore isn’t the only creature escaping into the night.

My eyes scan the darkness as the boys gather beside me. All my instincts kick in, drinking in my surroundings. I don’t see any guards. The power is out and it’s just us, alone in the dark, with monsters escaping from the menagerie.

“We have to go warn the professors,” I say, and I sprint toward the door, all anger forgotten in my panic. The boys follow quickly.

I burst through the door that we left through. It’s dark. All the candles have been blown out since curfew must have started nearly a half-hour ago now. From behind me, one of the boys clicks on a flashlight, illuminating an empty hallway.

Almost empty.

At the far end of the hall there’s a yule goat just standing there, chewing on a candle.

It’s not a good sign.

“Okay, he’s not dangerous,” I say, and I whirl to face the boys. “Do you all have lights?”

Bennett is holding a flashlight, and the rest of them hold up their candles. Sawyer brings out a lighter and starts trying to light his. I grab a candle off the wall and touch my wick to his flame once it lights.