Page 44 of A Mastery of Monsters

Violet shakes her head. “We don’t go to the same schools. We often don’t know each other unless we’re involved in the candidacy or if our family members are Masters. For me, I’ll be pairing with the daughter of my aunt’s partner. But I’ve only had small interactions even with her.”

It’s so interesting how “safety” is used over and over again, but I’ve still not seen any violence from monsters in human form. And yet the one monster I was attacked by isn’t even being investigated. “Me and Virgil have an arrangement. But no, we’re not related.”

“An arrangement?” Violet regards Virgil. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure you would find a partner. I’m glad you two managed to pair up. I think it’s unethical to hold you accountable for something you didn’t do.”

Swallowing, Virgil shifts in his seat.

He’s saved from responding when the professors walk onto the stage, followed by Adam, James, and Carrigan.

Just like Adam said, Carrigan is apparently sticking around.

Adam smiles at us, while James keeps a more neutral expression.

Carrigan is scrolling on his phone again.

Wow. Why even stay if he’s going to be so hands-off?

James steps forward to the mic. “Welcome, candidates. We are honored to learn with you.”

“And us with you,” the room says back. I find a spot on the table to look at so I don’t have to say the words with everyone else.

James continues, “We will be announcing the candidates who have made the first cut, beginning with the highest scoring and ending with the lowest scoring. This will bring the number of candidates from twenty-five to fifteen. Your training scores will be scrubbed after this cut. Following the third test, the panel of Masters will award one point each to a candidate of their choosing. Multiple Masters may choose to award points to the same candidate. Therefore, the choice of the five who will go through the initiation will be decided by a combination of their test scores and their panel scores. Is this understood?”

A stiff “yes” resounds through the room. This time I naturally miss the cue on us answering in unison, so I’m looking up when it happens. James throws me an annoyed look.

“Let us begin,” he says, and clears his throat, reading down the list from the top. We’re forced to pause and applaud for each named candidate.

Caden is sixth, to the delight of his lackeys. If I thought I could get away with making a gagging motion, I would. Instead, I settle for sharing knowing looks with everyone at our table. It helps that Violet came in fifth. I clapped louder for her and do the same for Bryce when he comes in eighth.

The list continues, followed by applause. Virgil’s fists are balled in his lap.

By his own admission, I did well in the physical endurance, but the reality is that I lost almost every heat.

Besides, the professors never explained how they’re creating these scores.

If points for physical endurance come from winning, then I’ll have the worst one, unless what I got from Bernie and Chen makes up for it.

Some girl I don’t know comes in fourteenth, and we clap.

My head is both light and overfilled. I can barely keep it upright.

“In last place…,” James drones, his lip curling, “August Black.” He gives me a pointed look that speaks to how absolutely delighted he is for me.

There’s a smattering of applause, mostly from Violet and Bryce. Virgil is too busy gasping beside me to do any clapping.

Meanwhile, I stare at Perez, expecting him to have an expression of barely concealed rage. Instead this motherfucker has the nerve to grin at me. Like he did me some favor. Like he isn’t the reason I almost didn’t make it.

We’re dismissed, but Virgil is having a small heart attack, so I stay where I am.

“You should have been ranked higher,” Violet whispers to me before she leaves.

“It’s fine.” The training scores will be scrubbed anyway. All that matters is that I made it.

Finally, me and Virgil are the only two people left in the room. He turns to me, his face beaming and split wide. “Holy shit. You did it!”

“It’s only the first round.”

“I know, I know, but still.” Virgil looks at the now empty stage and his smile dims to a frown.

“What?”

“You should have scored higher.”

“Not you too. It’s basically a miracle that I passed.”

“This is supposed to be a fair process, but you were singled out. And you did everything right. You followed the rules.” He jerks his hand around. “Even how James looked at you was ridiculous.”

James is one thing. I know he hates me by association with Adam. “What’s Perez’s deal? I thought he was messing with me, but then he was happy I passed.”

Virgil says, “Henry looked into things, and Perez may have Pro-Lib associations. Which is strange because why would that influence him to try to manipulate your results? What would the Pro-Libs want with you?”

“No idea.”

For now, I’ve cemented my place in the competition, and that’s what matters. I just have to last until I find Jules.

I picture Virgil’s beaming smile falling when I drop out of the competition prematurely.

Hunching my shoulders, I stand and lead the way out of Summerhill.