Page 63 of A Mastery of Monsters

Caden obviously isn’t worried about anyone else hearing him and his group with how loud he’s being. Either he’s just that confident in his abilities, or he knows he’s in the largest group. They’re crashing through the trees and shouting, whooping, and howling.

“How did they even manage to find each other that fast?” I ask Virgil.

“Wearing distinctive scents, maybe. If they assumed a team-up in at least one of the challenges, they could prepare that way.”

“Let’s run.” It’s the only solution. If they find us, we’ll be easily outnumbered, and it isn’t like I’m the best even in a fair fight. I only managed with the redhead because I fought dirty, and he hadn’t been expecting it. “At least then we have an actual chance at finding Violet and Bryce.”

Virgil nods and takes off at a jog, and I hurry after him. It’s bright daylight but that isn’t making navigation any more helpful. And there’s no way for us to shout for Violet and Bryce without alerting Caden of our position.

Not that it matters, because they aren’t getting any farther away.

Caden shouts, “We can smell your fear!”

“We can’t smell emotions,” Virgil says. “Maybe they can hear our heartbeats, but there’s no way to differentiate them.”

“I don’t know that he cares about the specifics of it,” I say. “But how is he tailing us this well?”

“Because we’re one of the few pairs who didn’t team up. It took him a bit to get to us. He probably already confronted the others who are alone.”

We can’t keep up with this. I doubt that fourteen eggs will be enough to rank well. I can basically only guarantee that I’ll do better than the redhead.

I stop running. “Virgil.”

It takes him a moment to realize I’m not following, and he has to double back. “What?”

“Let’s fight them.”

His jaw drops. “It’s three on one! We’ll get slaughtered.”

“There’s no other option.”

“Yes, there is! We run, we find Violet and Bryce, and we do the fastest all-out brawl we can manage.”

“We can’t play it safe this time. We can’t just follow the rules and skate by. And honestly, when has that ever worked for you? You did everything they wanted and you’re still here with me, fighting for the chance to live.”

“I know . I didn’t always, but I do now. And I still think this will give us the best chance. But if we don’t find them by the five-minute horn, then okay, we’ll fight Caden.”

“Fine.”

We increase the pace of our running, though Caden is still gaining on us.

The only benefit is that they must be as tired as we are, otherwise they would have caught up.

I can’t picture them drawing this out and wasting time.

Also, they’ve stopped shouting things, so they must be conserving energy now.

“You’d think it’d be easier to spot Violet ’cause of the dark colors,” I say, panting.

Virgil jerks his head toward me. “Wait, was she wearing her lipstick today?”

“I don’t know. Probably. She always does.”

He veers in a new direction. “She’s smart. No wonder she’s in first place.”

“Care to share with the class?” I gasp, struggling to keep up.

“The lipstick. It has a scent. She, like Caden, must have anticipated a team up. She wears it all the time, so it’s easy to forget that it could be distinctive unless you know to search for it.”

We round a corner and nearly smash into the exact people we’re looking for.

“Do you want to team up?!” I shout the question so fast that I barely understand it as it comes out and have to repeat myself.

“Yes!” Violet and Bryce reply at the same time.

Violet waves to her partner, a South Asian–looking girl whose hair is cropped shorter in the front with curtain bangs and longer in the back, brushing the nape of her neck.

“My partner, Frankie. And Bryce’s partner, Mitch.

” She gestures to the short, stocky white guy beside Bryce.

“Obviously you can’t see them, but this is Virgil and August.”

“We’re familiar,” Frankie says.

Instead of his usual glasses, Bryce has a pair that look like swimming goggles with an elastic strap. He says, “Caden is looking for you. We saw him and his group go for Jerri, who was alone. We thought he’d pivot to us, but they left, and he was shouting your name.”

That confirms Virgil’s theory that they were focusing on candidates who were alone, hoping to make it to me. “I know,” I say.

And then the boy himself comes crashing through the trees with his two buddies, a wolfish grin on his face.

He was all childish jibes and comments before, but now he’s been given permission to hit me, and that changes everything.

Their partners trail behind them. I recognize the white girl as Caden’s partner, her dark hair up in a ponytail.

The others I hadn’t paid attention to, but I notice now.

An East Asian–looking boy and a white boy.

Neither of them is particularly bulky, but they’re tall, and they immediately drop into fighting stances.

I roll my shoulders back and shake my legs out. This was inevitable. I can see that in Caden’s face too. He already made one attempt to get me out of the competition, and this is his chance to do it legitimately.

Caden jerks his head at the guys beside him. “You take the other two.”

They don’t need any more instructions, and I don’t have time to prepare as Caden comes flying at me.

I pull my block up, getting my forearms in front of my face, but his punches are hard and direct.

It’s not like training with Margot, where she’s at least wearing gloves.

This is bone-to-bone contact. I swear that my forearms crack as he swings at them.

I try to dance back to get some distance, but he’s relentless in his pursuit.

I even try spitting again, and he not only lets it hit his cheek, the little shit spits back at me and doesn’t falter in his attack.

I spent this whole time thinking of Caden as a schoolyard bully, but he hasn’t been ranking the way he has for nothing. He’s better at this. He’s stronger than me. And maybe with my knives, I could even the score, but that’s not what this is.

The last punch does crack something, and I scream, dropping the block and hunching, and Caden uses the opportunity to drop his elbow onto my head. Stars explode in my vision, and I fall to my hands and knees, gasping.

Caden whips out his leg for a kick. I flinch, but it doesn’t connect.

I’m crawling around on the ground, shaking.

When I finally get my wits about me, I realize that Virgil is in front of me with Caden wailing on him unrestrained.

I thought Caden would be too scared of Virgil to ever hit him.

But Virgil isn’t allowed to fight back. And no matter how he tries to pretend, Virgil isn’t indestructible or incapable of being hurt, because he’s wincing and his face is bruising, but he’s still taking every hit.

For me.

Because I wasn’t strong enough.

I look at the other fights happening around us.

Bryce is a fucking beast. He’s more than the guy who hangs around Violet.

He’s fast and his kicks are strong—when they land, they make loud thwacking sounds.

And Violet, as expected, is brilliant and brutal.

She’s dealing with the other lackey, punching and kicking until he’s backed against a tree.

Their partners are similarly skilled. Frankie moves at a speed I can barely follow, and her opponent can’t seem to keep up either because he keeps taking hits.

And she does it all with a little grin on her face.

A few feet away, Mitch is throwing punches so powerful that I’m sure the only reason the guy he’s fighting doesn’t have broken ribs is because he’s a monster.

While I’ve been getting my ass handed to me, the rest of our impromptu team have been kicking ass.

And then there’s Caden’s partner, leaning against a tree, doing nothing. Which explains why Virgil can be here with me.

I get back to my feet and refocus. “Move,” I say to Virgil. “I can take over.”

“You’re just getting knocked around,” he grunts, continuing to block me from Caden.

“Then let me get knocked around. You can’t take every hit. We’re supposed to be partners, so we should share the beatdown, okay?”

“That doesn’t make any sense! I can handle it.”

I kick Virgil in the shin to put him off balance, and he falls backward. I swing at Caden. The boy sneers and jumps back. He was having a great time with Virgil, apparently.

“Are you even thinking?!” Virgil scrambles off the ground.

I can’t look away from Caden. I bring up my block again. He smashes a fist into it, and I grit my teeth. I can barely get a breath in, much less have time to argue with Virgil.

Violet shouts, “Stop, Caden! Look around!” I gasp at the reprieve as Caden eases back.

Violet has her foot planted on one lackey’s stomach, and the other is on the ground near Bryce, knocked out.

Frankie’s opponent is also unconscious, while Mitch has his in a headlock.

“You’re outnumbered. You can keep fighting with us until we take your eggs too, or you can leave now with what you have. ”

Caden turns a spiteful gaze to me, his jaw tight.

I know the last thing he wants is to leave me here. But he is, unfortunately, smart. He knows he’s in a losing position.

“Why are we letting him go?!” I ask Violet. “Like you said, we outnumber him.”

“You’re not in a position to dictate how this goes.” Her voice is even and cold. This is not the Violet who handed out Pillsbury cookies with pumpkin designs on them. This Violet’s eyes are sharper, and her tone doesn’t leave room for argument. “Make your choice,” she says to Caden.

“How can you help them?” Caden asks her. “His parents murdered people in cold blood. Tried to kill the Doctorate! I’m not the only person who grew up missing a parent.” At that, he looks at Bryce.

I gape at the boy. Mitch bristles but Bryce’s expression remains neutral. “You can’t punish someone for something they didn’t do.”