Where Monsters Lie (The Monster Within 2)

Her gaze returns to her book. “I’m sure Mason Dagher will be happy to hear that at the party.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. I’d forgotten. Every year, when the second-years return from their first hunt, there’s a party to celebrate. Of course, that would be the perfect opportunity to rub it in the Daghers’ faces that I was the one who brought down the agropelter. But is that even what I want anymore?

There’s a small ceremony at the beginning of the party. I sit in the clothes I had the good sense

to bring with me this year—a black, strapless, cocktail-length dress with silver lace overlaying the skirt paired with black strappy heels that dig into my heels—while the headmaster makes a toast to the successful hunters. I’m seated at a long table in the dining hall next to Erin. It’s been decorated tastefully for the occasion, and there’s an open bar, since we’re all of legal drinking age in Romania.

Once the headmaster sits and everyone’s eaten, people begin mingling. The tables have been cleared away from the center of the hall to make a dance floor. I’m happy to see Owen on the edges of it, bopping along to the beat of the music. His hunt must have gone well, despite the transformation over break.

I feel listless. I walk around with my champagne glass, taking tiny disinterested sips. For a while, I watch Erin in her flowery pink dress dancing with her new girlfriend, Luiza. When someone calls my name, however, I start and turn.

“Hey!” Owen grins. He and Bennett have finally found me. They have Piers in tow. “Congrats on the hunt!”

I glance at Piers, who is steadily avoiding my gaze while I force a smile.

“Thanks,” I say.

“Son.” Mason Dagher approaches us.

“Oh, shit, do they have champagne?” Owen says suddenly, taking a step back from Mason. “Bennett, c’mon.” The two of them disappear into the crowd a little too conveniently.

I’m left alone with Piers and Mason Dagher. Neither of them seems to want to look at me. I stand there awkwardly for a few minutes before Mason finally speaks up.

“You haven’t told me about your hunt. Did you find and kill the agropelter?”

Piers looks from his father to me and back. “Actually, Avery—”

“Piers was great,” I interrupt. I can’t do this. I can’t shame him, break him, like I’ve been planning. It’s just not in me. “We tracked it together, but in the end it was Piers who brought it down.”

Piers looks at me in astonishment as Mason nods. “As expected of you. I have to leave now—these parties are insufferable.” He shoots a reproachful look at Erin and Luiza dancing close together before turning and walking away from us.

It isn’t exactly the loving father-son-reconciliation I’d hoped for, but for these two, it’s probably the closest they’ll ever get.

“Avery,” Piers says. “Why?”

“You deserve credit,” I tell him. I set my champagne glass down and drift away, leaving him standing there by the table. After a bit, I glance over my shoulder to see him heading over to join Owen and Bennett at the bar. He looks considerably lighter—right back to his usual, cocky self. I hope I don’t come to regret my decision.

I just walk out of the party altogether. This whole revenge plan seems stupid to me now.

What was I thinking? What got me started on this in the first place? My heels click on the tiles as I walk through the hallways, not even sure where I’m headed. I have so much more in common with Piers than I’d like to admit.

What would I do if I found out my parents would never be proud of me? What would I do if someone rubbed that in my face constantly?

“Avery?”

I turn. Piers stands there awkwardly, fidgeting behind me. I look around. We’re in a deserted corridor dotted with classroom doors. I recognize that I seem to be on my way to the residence wing, though I wasn’t headed there consciously.

“Yeah?” I say.

Piers seems to take my pausing as an invitation to approach, and I don’t dissuade him. He comes to stand in front of me. “I … you didn’t have to lie like that. Why’d you do it?”

I shrug. I don’t know how to respond. What am I supposed to say? That I’d absolutely planned to humiliate him? That for months, I’d been planning just how to break him, and now I’d thought better of it?

“Well, thank you.” He looks down at his hands. “Avery, I … my dad and I … he’s always been hard on me. It means a lot to me, what you did.”

My heart melts. “Piers,” I say softly.

He shakes his head. “And I’m really sorry that I can’t say something like that to your parents, too.” My heart catches in my throat as he takes a ragged breath. “I wish there was a way I could tell them how great you are, and how good of a monster hunter you are. It’s not fair that … that you have to live without them.”