Page 35 of A Mastery of Monsters

“I mean, if this is a Master with some status and power, they could have bonded with a new monster legitimately and then bribed or coerced someone into keeping their old one on record. Obviously it’s not allowed, but after the rebellion, there was a lot of stripping of monsters and new partnerships being made.

We’ve already had some issues with registration because of it that still haven’t been fully resolved years later. They could take advantage of that.”

“But how would they plan for that? Can Masters just get new partners whenever they want?”

Corey curls her lip. “No. Masters can’t swap around as they like and have the Doctorate stripping bonds whenever. But there is a way to break the bond without a Doctorate.”

“How—” I cut myself off as I’m asking. Henry’s first partner died.

That was how he ended up with Laira years later.

If a Master killed their old partner, they could legitimately get a new one.

It sounds impossible, but Masters can control their partners in monster form.

They could have it do anything. “That’s fucked up. ”

“Yeah. But it seems more likely than stealing serum. You have to understand that it’s the most protected substance in this society. And if someone did break in, it would be a big deal. We would hear about it.”

“How can you stand it? All this. ” The words slip out, as soft as my toes curling into the mat.

Corey stares at the mirror. Not at herself. Just at the glass. “It’s all I’ve ever known. And I believe that it can be better.” She pastes on a smile. “Two more drills and then we’re done.”

Everything I learn about the society makes me more concerned about what Jules had to do with it.

And makes it clear why he didn’t want me involved.

I’m not dealing with someone low level. Whoever is involved in this has some sort of power.

And I have no idea why they would be targeting people who have nothing to do with the Learners.

When we finish a few minutes later, as Corey puts away the foam pad, I look at the pictures again. There’s one with Corey and her parents, and an older boy too. I assume that’s her brother. The one she was born to save, who is now underground.

The door opens, and Corey whips her head toward it.

A woman walks in, and I recognize her from the family photo. Her eyes widen. “Corey?”

“We were just leaving,” Corey says, her gaze on the floor.

“You don’t have to! You’re welcome to practice here whenever you want.” She looks at me with a small smile. “August, right? I saw you get nominated. Congratulations. I’m Corey’s mom.”

“Hello.” I glance at Corey, who refuses to look anywhere other than the ground.

Ms. Yang stares at her daughter. “Are you eating well?”

“I’m fine.”

Silence stretches. “There may be some leftovers in the fridge? Um, gamjatang, I think,” Ms. Yang tries. “Or I was going to drop off some more food at McIntosh Castle this week. Is there anything specific you want? Do you still like—”

“I don’t need anything,” Corey says. “You can stop doing that. We have food. August and I need to leave.” She heads to the changing room, and I’m forced to rush after her as her mom’s face falls.

Corey paces the space while I change, shaking her head and muttering to herself, her voice getting louder as she goes.

She turns to me, her eyes shining, and says, “I had to crawl to escape. During initiation. I was trying to get part of him for the flesh exchange, and he caught me, and I kicked out and—”

I swallow. I don’t know what to do. If I should stop her and tell her she doesn’t have to get into it or let her keep talking. In the end, I don’t say anything.

“He bit my leg,” she says, bottom lip trembling. “Bit straight through flesh and bone. Clean off. I crawled. And the only reason I got away was because he was busy eating it.”

Virgil was right. I don’t actually know what it’s like to have a real encounter with a monster. Not one without any control. I’ve never experienced anything as horrifying as what Corey did.

She shakes her head. “I hid, and then time ran out. The Doctorate freezes the monsters then, and medics are allowed in. That’s the only reason I’m alive.

Otherwise, I would have bled to death.” She meets my eyes.

“When I woke up in the hospital, my parents had the fucking gall to ask if I wanted to visit him in the Pen.”

I wince.

“Corey, I’m sorr—”

“If he never existed, neither would I. But sometimes I would imagine what it might be like. If he weren’t around and I could be my own person.

Now that’s my reality. I just want to live like he was never here.

I’m sorry that I do. I know it would kill me to see Virgil in the Pen.

But I chose Virgil. He was never my duty or my burden.

My brother is a monster from a nightmare I never want to go back to.

That’s all he can ever be. Because how am I supposed to live my new life if all I can think about is how our parents ruined everything we could have been from the start?

And now he’s gone, and we can never be anything else. ”

Is this why she never talks about her brother? Because she wants to forget him? Better to be afraid of the monster she met in the initiation than to mourn the brother she resented because of how they were raised. How could I judge her for that after everything?

“I’m sorry.” She hides her face in her hands. “Please don’t tell Virgil I said that. He would be so—”

“I won’t.”

It would crush him. Corey is his best friend.

I know she and her brother never had a great relationship, but the fact is that experiencing him in monster form fundamentally changed how she thinks about him.

And that’s what she wants. If Virgil knew, he would assume the same thing would happen once she sees his other form.

He would understand, I know. He would understand the same way anyone would, given the circumstances.

But that wouldn’t change the hurt. It wouldn’t stop the thought that in his non-human form, she would see him differently.

No longer her best friend or chosen brother, just another ravenous monster in the dark.

Corey mumbles, “Can you please bring my shoes in here so I don’t have to sit out there with her to put them on?”

“Yeah, of course.”

I walk out to the room where her mom is still waiting.

I duck my head and grab both mine and Corey’s shoes and socks.

I return to the changing room, and Corey sits and gets both her socks and shoes on but doesn’t bother changing her clothes or prosthesis.

“Let’s go.” She practically sprints out of the dojang, straight past her mom.

Outside, a man who I clock as her dad comes out of a car. When he sees Corey, he abandons the vehicle, leaving the door wide open to walk over. “Corey? Did you come to practice?”

She freezes, her fists clenched at her sides. “I don’t compete anymore. You know that.”

“For fun, then? Is this your friend?” He gives me the same smile his wife did. Wobbly at the edges. Like he’s barely holding on to it. “August, right? Maybe you could both come for dinner?”

“We have to go.” Corey speed walks away, not stopping until we’re on the corner of Princess Street and Division. Her parents don’t follow us.

“You good?” I ask.

“They just—!” She rips her hair out of its ponytail, letting the strands fall over her face.

“They always do that. They don’t call or visit or anything.

Not even when she drops off the food! She knocks and runs away.

Leaves it on the stoop. But then if I show up, suddenly they want to act like everything is fine.

If they cared about me, they wouldn’t have made me—” She closes her eyes and takes a trembling breath.

“This is why I had to go. I… I hate the way they look at me.”

I think of how Dad looked at me when I said I wasn’t going to Queen’s. That I wasn’t going anywhere. The same look he gave me about a month after Mom disappeared, the first time I came home well after curfew, wasted, and threw up at his feet.

Though I’ve never seen him stare at me with the sort of desperation in Corey’s parents’ eyes. But then I think of what she told me. How she was only born to save her brother. I can’t imagine the burden of that kind of expectation. Or the fallout of it after she failed to do what they wanted.

“It doesn’t matter what they think,” I say to Corey.

She shakes her head. “You know that’s not true.”

This time, I’m the one to let my eyes drop to the sidewalk.