Where Monsters Lie (The Monster Within 2)

“This morning,” he tells us, “you’ll be studying the al mi’raj.”

I hear a few gasps among the students, but I start looking around for the creatures. I’ve seen them several times before, but only in passing. Once, in the trials and the second time, during last year’s break-in. I wonder if the one we saw survived. The fenced-off areas of the habitat make sense now; al mi’raj are immensely territorial … and surprisingly vicious.

“They won’t hurt you if you’re careful,” Rodriguez says, raising his voice above the whispers that have started. “Here at Saint Marcellus, we’ve had our little herd for years. They’re quite used to humans, and are therefore pretty tame. If you’re careful, they might even let you stroke their fur. But do not, under any circumstances, touch their horns. They will attack if you do.”

He tells us to pair off and sends us to separate areas to observe the creatures. Erin and I naturally choose each other. We grab a small bucket of raw meat and head over to our assigned space.

“Oh—the bushes are growing around fences. That’s how they’re so perfectly square.” Erin points to our enclosure. She’s right. There’s a spot in the hedge that seems to be taller than the rest, but it’s actually an iron gate. She opens it for us to go in. “Where’s the al mi’raj?”

I sit down on the ground and place the bucket next to me. “It’ll come out when it smells the meat.”

No sooner am I finished with my sentence than a little nose pokes out from a borough several feet away, and what looks like an enormous rabbit with a unicorn’s horn crawls out. Well, if a unicorn’s horn was razor sharp and gleaming black.

I reach into the bucket with a gloved hand and pull out a hunk of raw meat, which I slowly place on the ground in front of me. “Don’t move a lot,” I say to Erin.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she whispers.

I glance sideways at her as the al mi’raj sniffs its way to the meat. “You don’t have to be so quiet. It’s loud in here, and he’s not bothered.”

She nods, her eyes glued to the creature. It crawls up to the meat, sniffs it, and then opens its mouth to show off a row of sharp teeth. It snatches up the meat and tears into it, blood flecking over its muzzle.

I laugh as Erin shrieks and claps a hand over her mouth. “It’s kinda cute, huh?”

“Not the word I would use to describe it,” she replies. “It looks just like a pet bunny I had as a kid, only bigger, and … carnivorous.”

I guffaw. “Even rabbits are carnivorous if you give them the chance.” I set out another piece of meat for it to devour. “I guess we’re just supposed to watch it.”

Erin settles down a little, getting more comfortable on the ground. “Avery, about last night—”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” I purse my lips. I don’t want to get into it again. Not here, when Piers and Sawyer are in the enclosure neighboring ours, talking in low voices as they feed their al mi’raj.

Leave it to them to get close now. If Sawyer ever wants to be forgiven—not that I’m considering it—he’s certainly going about it an odd way.

Erin bites her lip and glances over at them. She looks worried for a moment, and then she frowns.

“What are they doing?”

I turn to follow her gaze. Piers is laughing and leaning forward to touch the al mi’raj’s horn, pulling back at the last second with another laugh. Each time he gets close, the monster bares its teeth and the hair stands up a little more on the back of its neck.

“Pissing off their monster, of course,” I reply. “Stupid.”

Erin sits up a bit and looks around the room. “Where’s professor Rodriguez? Why isn’t he doing anything about this?”

I glance up too, but he must have stepped out to fetch something. That explains why Piers feels the right to act the way he is.

Erin turns back to our al mi’raj, but I’m more interested in observing Piers and Sawyer than the creature now. Piers continues to tease his monster, constantly threatening to touch the horn. It’s a stupid gamble. Any moment now, the al mi’raj could decide Piers is annoying enough to die, and there’s very little he could do to stop it.

“Hey!” Piers shouts as the al mi’raj snaps at him, the sharp teeth coming perilously close to his fingers. “What the hell?”

“Maybe he doesn’t like you torturing him,” I snap. Piers jerks his head around before his eyes fall on me. He’s still got some swelling around his eye from the other day. “Most creatures don’t.”

“Leave me alone, Avery,” he says quietly.

“Leave your monster alone, then,” I shoot back.

“It’s none of your business what I’m doing over here. Just do your own stuff.”

I stand up and my own al mi’raj bares its teeth at my sudden movement, but Erin throws some meat across the enclosure to distract it. “I just don’t want you to get attacked because you’re doing dumb shit and then blame it on the monster. I don’t want to see another innocent creature get put down.”