Page 87 of A Mastery of Monsters

I went from being consumed with the realization that I could help Virgil right now to the realization that I will be doing the most life-threatening part of the candidacy without any of the preparation time that the others had.

Shortly after Adam’s win was announced, it was confirmed that the initiation would happen tomorrow as it was originally scheduled.

In less than twenty-four hours, I have to either bond with Virgil or potentially die trying.

Jules doesn’t come with us to McIntosh Castle despite getting an invite.

Apparently, Natalie owns a house and has offered him a room there.

She has a dog. A detail that I could tell delighted my brother, because he’s already sent me several pictures of the husky.

They’ll be living together for the foreseeable future, and he’ll be reenrolled at Queen’s for the winter semester.

When we get to McIntosh Castle, Corey and Margot make an excuse to leave the front sitting room. It’s bullshit, but I don’t call them on it.

Virgil crouches and plays with the fireplace, opening the gold-etched glass door and then closing it. Rearranging the charred logs inside. Fiddling with the poker. All while never touching the box of matches meant to light it.

I ask, “Are you going to tell me not to do it?”

“I’m not that selfless,” he says over his shoulder. “It was easy to be when the choice was between me and your brother. He was the obvious pick. It didn’t take much for me to tell you to choose him. You were going to anyway. But now… I mean, this was always the plan, wasn’t it?”

It was, but still, Virgil’s brow is furrowed. “What?”

“I won’t tell you no, but you know that you don’t have to do this, right?”

“I’m going to—”

“I get it,” he says. “My life is on the line and all that. But I don’t want to just be another person heaping something else on you. Because your life is at risk too.”

I understand what he’s saying, but it’s not going to change anything. No part of me is prepared to let him rot in an underground prison, stripped of his humanity.

Virgil’s shoulders slump. “It doesn’t stop here, you know? After initiation, you’ll still only be a Bachelor. You’ll have to fight for the Master title. And then fight the next year to defend it.”

“I know.”

“I can at least promise to fight with you. Not just for the things in my life but in yours, too. Whatever it is. If you want me to spend a lifetime sniffing out your mom, I will. If you want me to keep an eye on Jules and Natalie, I will. Not because I owe it to you but because we’re a team.”

I suck back tears. I’m tired of crying. I remember thinking that at some point after Mom left. I was so exhausted from it that I stopped doing it. And when that happened, I stopped looking for her. But I never accepted her being dead. Virgil knows that. “We should also promise not to die.”

“That would be ideal,” Virgil says with a small smile, standing and leaving the fireplace be. “Let’s get Corey and Margot so we can talk through the initiation.”

I slump onto a couch while he goes and gets them. When they return, he sits next to me, and Margot and Corey sit across from us.

Margot looks between us and must assess that we’re all right, because she launches into it.

“The initiation happens in the tunnels of the Pen. You’ll need to buy dry-fit clothes in the morning.

It’s cold down there, but you’ll sweat. You’ll be led inside, blindfolded so you can’t see the route out, and then you’ll both be given the serum. ”

Virgil shifts in place beside me. I wonder if he’s thinking about how close that serum came to being in him when Bernie had it.

“Let’s get to the flesh exchange stuff,” I say. Besides being chased by an out-of-control monster, it’s the part of initiation that disturbs me the most.

Margot gives me a grim look. “You’ll have to eat a part of his body, and he eats a part of yours.”

“Just some light cannibalism. No big deal.”

My leg starts to bounce without my permission, and sweat builds on the back of my neck, even though I suddenly feel cold.

It was one thing to hear these details way back when we started, when I never expected to be here, and another to hear them when this is what I’ll be doing tomorrow.

Cutting off a piece of myself. At no point in my life was that ever something I even had to consider, much less follow through on.

“And it has to be the monstrous flesh that you eat,” Corey says. “It won’t be considered that until he’s fully transformed. It will actually scar him, so ideally you want to go for a tail if he’s got one.”

Margot says, “Unless you notice that he’s got a regeneration ability. Some monsters do. That means anything is fair game, which would make things easier for you. But if it’s life or death, regeneration ability or not, take what you can take.”

“I’m not picky.” Virgil plays with the edge of his shirt. “I’d rather lose something than have you die.”

“You’ll also need your own sacrifice.” Corey lifts her left hand with its missing fingers. “I don’t recommend fingers unless you’re desperate. Hurts like hell, and you lose a lot of blood.”

Sometimes, I don’t know how Corey can be who she is given everything.

She went into that competition, watched her brother consume her leg, had her relationship with her family destroyed, and then she left home to live in a library with near strangers.

And she’s still here, potentially retraumatizing herself to help me and Virgil.

“She’s right,” Margot says. “It’s best to do your sacrifice closer to the end of things because of the potential dangers of blood loss.

And this isn’t a closed course. Other monsters will be able to get to you.

Blood is a very distinct scent. It’ll stick out like a beacon.

Wear a scrap of fabric, headband, or something you don’t care about so you can dress the wound.

One, it’ll help stanch the blood, and two, it’ll block the smell somewhat. ”

“Exactly how much flesh are we talking about?” I ask.

Corey tilts her head. “It’s unclear, honestly. I know people have used toes successfully. But don’t do the baby toe because it might mess with your balance later.”

“No stomach or thighs, you might bleed out,” Margot adds.

Did not think I would be debating which part of my body to feed to Virgil tonight but here we are. Bile coats the back of my throat. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s best?”

“Ring toe, probably,” Corey says. “There will be cold water somewhere down there. It can help numb it. But ideally, you can give yourself time to peel off a bit of skin from your arm. The toe is just faster.”

I look over at Virgil. “And he has to eat it? How do I get him to—”

“It won’t be an issue,” he says, folding his hands together and gripping them tight. “Just throw it my way. I will, technically, already be trying to eat you.”

Right. Well, at least that’s an easy part.

Margot says, “After you’ve exchanged flesh, the mental connection will be made.

From there, it’s up to you two to sync together.

Stay calm and match your breaths. You’ll know the connection has happened right away.

There’s no mistaking it. But you don’t have a lot of time.

Once the exchange occurs, the serum will start to metabolize the flesh in both your bodies—that’s what allows the connection in the first place.

And it’ll happen much faster on Virgil’s end than yours.

Once it’s fully metabolized, your chance is gone.

You have maybe five minutes. The serum becomes inactive at that point, and you won’t be getting a second dose. ”

“And in that case,” Corey says. “Run back to the starting point as fast as possible. Or, if necessary, crawl. If you can’t do either, hide until the time runs down.” She meets my eyes. “Survive.”

The grandfather clock in the room chimes midnight.

Margot stands. “You should get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.” We say our goodbyes to her as she leaves.

“Eat something before bed,” Corey says to me and Virgil. “I’ll heat stuff up for you.”

“I’m not hungry,” Virgil says, walking out of the room.

Corey sighs as she stares after him, then turns to me.

“I could eat,” I say.

She smiles, and we go to the kitchen together.

She pulls out a container of leftovers and opens it to reveal what looks like sushi—seaweed-wrapped rice with fillings.

She sets a pan on the stove to heat, and grabs some eggs from the fridge, whisking them in a bowl with a pair of metal chopsticks while she adds salt and pepper.

“I saw someone do this online with leftover kimbap. It’s pretty good.

” She dunks the kimbap—not sushi, I know now—into the egg mixture and puts them in the hot pan.

When it’s done, she brings the plate to the counter and gets us both new clean chopsticks. I start eating, and after a few seconds, Corey does too.

She’s always said that Virgil and Dr. Liu eat what her mom brings. Never her.

“Both of you have to come back,” Corey says. “Promise that you’ll come back.”

I swallow. “I promise.”

I hope that it’s a promise I can keep.

The Kingston Penitentiary is worse at night. They lead us around the back, but this time we go to a different entrance. This one has several locks and chains on it, and the stonework is especially dark and dingy. The professors go down there to prepare, leaving us waiting.

No one is interested in talking to each other.

All of us are in our huddles of three: candidate, monster, and trainer.

Even Caden doesn’t have time to be his usual asshole self.

Instead, he stands next to an older man who must be his trainer.

His partner, however, is far away from them, crouched in a corner by herself.

I wish Corey could be with us, but she isn’t allowed to come. There are no spectators for initiation. Instead, she’s waiting in Margot’s SUV in the parking lot.