Page 46 of A Mastery of Monsters

I reach toward the rabbit, and her nose wrinkles a bit. I pause and move toward the tiger mask, and she relaxes. I reach for the rabbit one again and she tenses. “Do you want the rabbit mask?”

“I don’t care which one I get.”

“Bullshit.”

“Okay, yes, I want it.”

“Then take it!”

“But what if you wanted it? Or Virgil?”

“Corey!”

“Fine.” She sets the rabbit mask aside, and I take the tiger. Virgil joins us and ends up with a bear. We carefully apply the masks to our faces.

There’s a chorus of laughter downstairs. “They’re all coming in now,” Virgil says, plucking a piece of salami from the tray.

“Who are they?” I ask.

“Henry’s Mastery group.”

“That literally answered nothing.”

“Basically, as candidates advance in the process by becoming Bachelors and Masters, older Masters start seeking people for their factions.”

“The factions that aren’t supposed to exist?”

“Correct. You want people on your side, and the new Bachelors and Masters want connections so that they have help achieving their various ambitions within the society. So certain Masters will have invite-only groups where they offer personal mentorship and help with networking, and it gives you a bunch of incoming Bachelors and Masters who have your back.”

I purse my lips. “These are the same people who refused to train Margot?”

“Yeah… it didn’t necessarily work out that way for her. That’s how it’s supposed to be, though. And Henry culled those people after that and replaced them with members more aligned with that goal.”

There’s a lot of talk of ambition for a society that’s supposed to be equal. From the frown on her face, I wonder if Corey is thinking the same, even though she’s used to this.

“Did Cyrus have a little group?” I grab a handful of grapes. They’re perfectly crisp.

“No,” Corey says. “That would be ‘too far,’ I guess, for a Doctorate to have one. But obviously there are Mastery groups affiliated with the factions of the candidates, so you could count that. Right now, I would say that James has more, but Adam has a younger and hungrier crowd. Hard to tell which is better for the vote.”

Virgil shrugs. “What actually matters is that everyone can vote. Most monsters will vote Progressive.”

“Don’t be naive,” Corey says. Mine and Virgil’s eyes widen, and she splutters, “Sorry, it’s just—you can’t pretend that there isn’t a category of monsters who believe in the restrictions.

Besides, some people were upset with Adam for nominating August. He’s turned down several families’ requests for nominations in the past, and now he’s vouching for an outsider? No offense.”

“None taken.” I honestly can’t bring myself to care about this whole voting thing.

Virgil glances at me sidelong. “You know this is relevant to you, right?”

“How?”

“If James becomes the Doctorate, he can implement whatever rules he wants. Including deciding that people who haven’t been students for a certain period of time can’t be Bachelor candidates. And the Doctorate vote happens before initiation night. It could very much affect you and me.”

I dig my nail into the skin of a grape. “You can’t just make up a new rule.”

“You can when you’re the Doctorate.”

“I thought the Traditionalists wanted everything to be the same? Doesn’t that mean not changing things? And wasn’t this vote not supposed to interfere with the candidate process?”

Corey sips from her glass. “No one knows what James will do with the power. He’s not above hypocrisy.”

“Adam can do it,” Virgil says, leaning forward. “The Pro-Libs will sway his way too.”

Corey’s grip on her wineglass tightens. “Because those are the sorts of people we want backing Adam?”

“Numbers are numbers.”

I’m still trying to keep the factions clear in my head. “Progressives want fewer restrictions, Traditionalists want more restrictions, Pro-Libs want no restrictions, and the Scientists want a cure.”

“Basically,” Corey says. “But some people who work in the Scientist department still have other faction affiliations. They want a cure, but they believe the current system should be upheld a certain way.”

“?’Cause that’s not confusing at all.”

Knowing that a Master is behind everything with Sammie and Jules, I’m starting to wonder if this person’s goals are less about them and more about what’s going on in the society itself.

All these factions and politics, and the fact that this is lining up with the election.

Even if what happened to them started before Cyrus died, he was sick.

They must have known he didn’t have a lot of time left.

And even if they didn’t know about the election, he has three possible successors.

No matter who’s chosen, transitions of power are always unstable times.

There would be growing pains. But then, why choose Sammie and Jules in particular?

“They’ll work something out at this meeting,” Virgil says. “Henry’s going to pull on whatever strings he has to help Adam. And he’s got a good amount.”

Corey shrieks.

“What?!” I shout.

“I forgot the apricot jam!” She throws a stricken look at Virgil. “Can you go grab it?”

He sighs and heads to the kitchen.

I can’t believe this girl screamed over jam.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I say, finishing up my glass.

I walk into the hall and across the way to the toilet. While I’m there, I take off the face mask and wash the product off. After I finish, I glance at Corey’s room and then at the stairs.

Technically, I didn’t lie. I did go to the bathroom.

Making sure that Corey isn’t looking into the hall, I slip down the stairs. I step onto the main floor hallway on my tiptoes, pressing myself against the wall.

The Mastery group is meeting in the room on the right, and the kitchen is at the end of the hall. If Virgil catches me, I’ll just say I wanted a different jam and was coming to get it.

Unfortunately, I can’t hear much more than murmurs coming from the rooms. Until a door starts to open.

I dart back around the corner, hopping up the first two steps, concealing myself in the stairway.

I peek around the corner. Henry and Margot come out of the main meeting and walk across the hall to another room.

I look down the hall to the kitchen, then upstairs.

No one.

Fuck it.

I move to the room Henry and Margot went into, pressing my ear against the door while I keep my eyes down the hall, alternating between looking at the room housing the Mastery group and the kitchen.

This close, I can actually hear the conversation.

Margot says, “This will come back and bite us. You must know that.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Henry says. “I know that you in particular are risk averse, but this is worth the gamble. The winning pot is too much to pass up.”

“And what about the people who get caught in the crosshairs?”

“All wars have casualties.”

Margot scoffs.

“I know you can’t see my vision—”

“Then tell me! Share the vision!”

Henry sighs. “You must trust that I am always working in our best interests. I’m not selfishly concealing truths to make myself feel better. This is strategic. We need to be careful. We’re not the only ones playing a game here.”

“Playing? I feel like I’m not even on the board! Do I just have to keep finding things out on my own?”

“There is an order to this! You want to speed things up? Make sure they win. Make sure Virgil comes out of this with full control of himself.”

Margot starts to say something else, but Virgil leaves the kitchen, and I’m forced to straighten.

He narrows his eyes at me, opens his mouth, and then decides better of it.

He has a nicely arranged plate of snacks.

He knocks on the Mastery group door, and I stand beside him. “What are you doing?” he asks.

“What are you doing?” I shoot back. “You’re so transparent.” I’ve never once seen this boy prepare charcuterie. He just wants an excuse to hear what they’re talking about.

“So are you,” he says.

I decide then not to remind him that he still has his bear face mask on.

The door opens, and Virgil makes a whole thing out of offering snacks.

Meanwhile, I’m distracted by a familiar person.

“I know you,” I say, pointing at a guy. He’s a nondescript white boy, but I remember his smug little face.

This is the ringleader of the group of guys who came after me in the park.

This asshole is in the Mastery group?! He tries to avoid my gaze. “You, hey, I’m talking to you!”

Now the other members are paying attention. And Virgil’s finally caught on. “You’re the guy from the park!”

“Thank you!” I say.

Henry and Margot come out of the room behind us. He looks at the two of us. “What’s going on here?”

“What’s on your face?” Margot asks Virgil.

Virgil starts spluttering excuses for a bunch of things. I point into the room. “One of your guys in there was extremely rude to me. Not to mention creepy, dare I say predatory , and honestly, plain disgusting.”

“You threw a knife at me!” The guy pipes up finally, looking around the room like someone is going to back him up before settling his gaze on Henry.

“Grow up.”

Virgil says, “You did technically throw a knife at him.”

“He deserved it. Besides, I only nicked him. Maybe next time he’ll think twice before approaching drunk girls with his crew of dudes and suggesting that they’re down to fuc—”

“Okay,” Henry says, raising his hands. “I get it.”

“That’s what he said?” Virgil crosses his arms over his chest. “You cornered her by herself in a park with a group of your friends and made gross, sexually charged remarks, and you’re upset she threw a knife that barely grazed you?”

The guy stabs at his ear, specifically at a scar so faint I have to squint to see it. “I had to go to the hospital! I got stitches! And we were just talking. We weren’t going to do anything.”

I shake my head. “You’re so full of shit.”

“You want me to deal with it?” Margot asks, turning to Henry.

“No, it’s fine. Peters, come out here.” Margot goes into the room and the guy, Peters, comes out.

Henry motions for him to shut the door, which he does, and then he stands there shuffling his feet around.

“Can we please move past whatever is going on so I can continue my meeting, and you two”—this with a look at me and Virgil—“can return upstairs where you’re supposed to be? ”

“Yes,” I say. “We’ll go back to being neither seen nor heard once he apologizes to me.”

Peters gapes. “ You threw a knife at me .”

“And you were vile and predatory to me .”

Henry massages his forehead. “I have no doubt that your encounter with Ms. Black was terrible, but I can assure you that any continued contact with her will be worse. And from what I have heard of the conversation, you were more in the wrong. Violence was not an ideal response, but you should have known better. Ill intentions or not, unless you were going over to help, you should have left the young lady alone. Quite frankly, I’m disappointed to hear of your behavior, and we will be discussing it at our next one-on-one.

I’d advise you to make the apology and be done with it. ”

Peters turns wide eyes to Henry but then swallows and shifts his gaze to me. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what exactly?” I ask.

“For being, um, shitty and sexist?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

He grits his teeth. “I’m sorry for being shitty and sexist. That was poor behavior on my part. And I promise to do better in the future.”

I beam at him. “Was that so hard?”

“Go away now,” Henry says.

“Gladly!” I walk back to Corey’s room with Virgil trailing behind me.

“You’re a terror,” Virgil says, stifling a laugh. “You know that, right?”

“I’m a motherfucking delight.”

When we enter the room, Corey and Virgil exchange a look, and she decides that it’s best not to ask. Meanwhile, I’m thinking about what Henry and Margot were discussing. What exactly are they gambling on?

We watch a movie, and shortly after it finishes, we hear people leaving, and Margot appears in the doorway of the bedroom.

“So?” Virgil says.

“Perez doesn’t have any faction links that we can find even after digging, and though his actions are confusing, you and August both said he was happy that she progressed.

Whether that’s an act or not, we don’t know.

We’ll keep an eye on him. Either way, August will be judged by the panel of Masters going forward, not him.

We’ve got at least four confirmed Progressives on there, so we’ll see how it shakes out. Now for the bad news.”

“That wasn’t the bad news?” I ask.

“No,” Margot says. “The bad news is that everyone is allowed a vote for the new Doctorate, but it’s not equal. Votes from Masters with greater seniority will count more. It’s a sliding scale. They’re using the precedent that this is how voting is done in the Masterium.”

I wrinkle my nose. “The what now?”

Virgil jerks to his feet. “Are you fucking kidding me?! The Masterium is voting only done by Masters. How is that relevant to a vote by the whole society?”

Margot leans on the doorjamb. “I know. But it’s happening. This is how Cyrus set it up.”

No one bothers to answer my question. Which is fair, given this new information.

It won’t matter if Adam has the majority monster vote.

If he doesn’t have most of the senior Masters in his pocket, he’ll still lose.

James could win. He could change the rules to suit him, meaning that even if I got through every test and came in the top five, he could disqualify me before I made it to the initiation.

Now I have more reason than ever to find Jules before it gets that far.