Where Monsters Hide (The Monster Within 1)

“Me too,” Luiza offers.

Erin gives her dad—Professor Helsing, which I’m still reeling from—one last hug, and we head off to the first-aid station.

The next morning, with the power restored, I go to the infirmary to visit Owen. I’m not surprised to find Piers and Bennett already there, but I’m a little surprised to see Sawyer. All four of them look miserable.

“Hi,” I say softly as I come in.

“Hey,” Sawyer replies first, shooting to his feet.

Owen glances at me. His beautiful face is marred by long, stitched-up gashes. His arms are covered in bandages. He goes to turn his face away, but I step up to his bed and set my hand on his shoulder.

“How do you feel?” I ask him.

“Like shit,” he tells me. “They say I’ll be fine, that I’ll just transform.” His gaze wanders past me. “I’ll be an ugly, hairy beast every full moon. I’ll be covered in scars. I’d rather be dead.”

I look over at the other boys, who all look sadly back at me. They don’t look surprised to hear Owen say these things. It must not be the first time.

“Well … they’ve cancelled final exams,” I tell him awkwardly.

He shifts in the bed. “Well, that’s something at least.”

“They’ve cancelled them?” Sawyer asks in disbelief.

I nod. “Yeah. And they’re having an assembly in half an hour. Do you think they’ll let you come, Owen?”

His face seems to brighten just a little. “It’d be cool to get out of this room for a while,” he says, and a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth.

We find a nurse who reluctantly agrees to let us wheel Owen’s bed to the assembly in the dining hall. He’s got an IV pumping fluids into him, so we wheel that with him, too. Erin and Luiza join us at the back of the assembly while we wait for it to start.

It doesn’t take long for Headmaster Novac to take the stage, and for everyone to quiet down. He taps the microphone in front of him and chuckles when it responds with an earsplitting squeal.

“Isn’t it nice to have power again?” The students cheer. He smiles. “I feel the same way. Now, onto the announcements. As many of you have heard, we’re cancelling final exams.”

He pauses with a smile as everyone cheers again. “While unplanned, I feel the Menagerie breaking open was a good test of all your skills. Nearly every student was instrumental in containing the monsters. You’ve all received full marks. And for the first time in the history of the school, we will not expel the lowest-ranking first year.”

This last bit of news is met with astonishment. I look over at the boys, whose jaws are all dropped.

“The sheer courage with which each one of you newcomers rose to the occasion tonight should not go unpunished. With that said, there are a few students I’d like to call up and recognize personally. In no particular order; Sawyer Alman.”

Looking shocked, Sawyer walks to the front of the dining hall and joins Headmaster Novac onstage.

“Bennett Little.”

Impassive as always, Bennett walks up too.

“Piers Dagher, and Owen Collier.”

Piers wheels Owen’s bed to the front of the hall.

“Avery Black.”

I walk numbly up to the stage and stand next to Bennett.

“And, last but not least, Erin Singer. Oh—and Cleaver, the axehandle hound.”

I grin as Erin walks up, Cleaver bounding along behind her. The headmaster told me yesterday that I could keep him at the school, despite me smuggling him in.

“Without these students,” Headmaster Novac says as Erin stands beside me, “things would have gone much worse. We, the staff, would not have been warned quickly enough to prevent casualties; and we wouldn’t have been able to apprehend the person responsible.”