Page 64 of A Mastery of Monsters

“Can’t you?!” Caden says. “When the apocalypse comes, are they who you want at your side? Are those sorts of people the ones you want to bring into the new world? That’s why the society exists.

We are choosing the best students to protect.

” He points at Virgil and me. “ They are not worth protecting. Right here, right now, you’re making a choice. ”

The horn blares.

Bryce shakes his head. “No. We already made our choice.”

“Now run,” Violet says.

Caden sneers at them before turning and sprinting into the trees. His partner follows at a more leisurely pace.

“You should have let me handle it,” Virgil says, whirling on me.

I narrow my eyes at him. “What do you think being partners means? We fight together. It’s one thing to take hits to give me time to recover, and it’s another to take them because you think you deserve them.

” He looks away, snapping his mouth closed.

“Because you don’t,” I add. “But… thank you, anyway. I… I wasn’t prepared. ”

“It’s fine,” he says. “And, yeah, okay. I get it.”

“What was up with Caden’s partner? Did you fight her at the start and she gave up, or what?”

“She didn’t fight at all,” Frankie says. “She tried, but Caden told her to stay out of it. I don’t think they get along well.”

Mitch releases the guy from the headlock, and he slumps to the ground. Mitch sits next to the defeated monster with a sigh. “Not our problem.”

“Let’s count what we have.” Violet rips open the bag of the lackey she was perching on and empties the eggs into the middle of the area, throwing the empty bag back to him. He clutches it to his chest and curls onto his side.

Bryce grabs the eggs from the unconscious guy.

I walk over to them, my mouth set. “Why did you let Caden go?”

“Because I don’t want to have him as an enemy,” Violet says. “As I’m sure you’ve experienced, he’s like a dog with a bone. You make enemies in this competition, and you make things harder for yourself. I grew up with him. He’s an asshole, but I did him a favor. He’ll remember that.”

“You think he cares about that stuff?”

“Yes. He does. Like I said, I’ve known him much longer than you. We don’t have time to discuss this. We need to sort the eggs.”

Violet and Bryce both empty their bags, and they have the same amount that I do. Me and Virgil did better than I thought.

Violet says, “Dump yours in too.”

I add my fourteen. Both of them nod approvingly, and I hold myself a little straighter.

Violet says, “We have sixty-two between the three of us. That leaves sixty-eight in play. Vince has zero. Hudson has zero—”

“Oh yeah,” Frankie says. “I think one of the pairs left when you were talking. Can’t hear that one guy wheezing anymore. Does that matter?”

Violet’s mouth drops open. “Why didn’t you say anything when they were actually escaping?”

“Was I supposed to? Mitch didn’t either.”

Mitch shrugs. “I heard someone, probably his partner, dragging him away, but it’s cruel to kick a guy when he’s down.”

“It’s fine,” Bryce says with a sigh. “Actually, this is better. Caden will have to share eggs with him.”

“You guys think the sun shines out of his ass,” I say, awe obvious in my voice. I can’t picture a single scenario in which Caden risks his rank to help his hanger-on.

“It makes sense,” Virgil says. “He might need someone in the third test. Just weighing odds, it could be worth it.”

“Not even that complicated,” Violet says.

“Hudson and Caden are besties. If Hudson asks, he’ll give him the ten.

Vince, he might have just let lose, but not Hudson.

He may hate you, but he does like other people.

” She points at the eggs. “Hudson will have ten, leaving Caden with at least ten himself. We cleared Sasha. We saw Caden and crew clear Jerri. Did you clear anyone out, August?”

“Redhead. He had five.”

“Chase. Peter and Charity placed, so they’ll likely have a good amount. I’m sure Felicity and Rae would have just gotten their ten and hid, but they could have been found and cleared too.” She bites her lip and looks at Bryce. “I don’t know, what do you think?”

“Thirty to August, sixteen for each for us,” Bryce says. “That’ll keep us in the middle of the pack at least.”

“Yeah, I think that’ll work best.”

Before I can even say anything, Violet and Bryce start counting out the eggs and distributing them into our bags.

“You don’t have to give me your eggs!” I say. “I’ll probably be okay with fourteen.”

Violet smiles at me as she packs the remaining eggs into her and Bryce’s bags. “I like you, August, I really do, but I don’t like you that much.”

Frankie snorts.

“…Thank… you?”

I look at Virgil, and the frown he wears suggests that he doesn’t understand any more than I do.

“We were trying to find you since we needed the numbers to deal with Caden, but to be honest, we have an ulterior motive. There’s someone who wants you to come out of this on top who has the sort of pull we need.

And coming first means they can’t dispute you.

Numbers are numbers, and there are no rules against sharing eggs with teammates. ”

“Henry,” Virgil says.

Violet grins. “He’s got the best Progressive Mastery group on campus.”

“And he’s got an in with Adam, who might be the future Doctorate,” Bryce adds.

Fucking Henry. “How long ago did he make that offer?”

“From the start,” Violet says. “But we couldn’t actually help you until now.” She meets my eyes. “We’re not lying. We do like you. I don’t care for this cloak and dagger stuff, but we weren’t one hundred percent sure if we were on board. We wanted to take a bit more time to feel you out.”

That puppet master motherfucker. I want to be annoyed with Henry for playing this game, but he did pick the right people to approach.

I like them, their partners seem cool too, and they cared enough to make sure I was an okay person before helping.

They weren’t ready to do anything for anyone to get into his group.

Though I don’t like that, just like with Riley, I got put into this position of having to prove myself to someone to be let in on the secret.

The final horn sounds.

Unlike the end of the first test, I have some hope when I hear it.