I’m grateful for his voice, as I’m a bit disoriented. I run toward him and stand in the front, grabbing the rope. Bennett anchors us at the back and Owen is directly behind me.
“Heave!” Bennett yells.
We all pull. I slide back into Owen and feel the warmth of his body pressing against mine. I’m weakened from my climb, but Owen’s arms go around me to grab the rope in front.
“Come on, Avery,” he says in my ear. “We can do this!”
I grit my teeth and dig my heels into the earthen floor—drawing out the very last of my strength to finish this fight. Together, we take labored steps back. The noose tightens around the ogre’s neck, pulling upwards now that there’s nowhere else for it to go. Its fingers scramble against the rope, its body stretching to keep up with the strain as the noose pulls tighter. Higher.
My brain is foggy. I haven’t eaten, haven’t slept, haven’t rested for long enough to be doing this much. Poor Owen is propping me up and helping me pull at the same time. Like the ogre, I’m on the brink of collapse.
But he fails first. With a final, gasping, raspy roar—his hands fall slack and his head lolls to the side. We all release our grip on the rope, and the ogre falls unceremoniously to the floor in a motionless heap.
The moment it hits the floor my own knees buckle, but Owen’s arm catches me around the waist. “Damn, Avery,” he says with a laugh. “That was badass.”
I smile weakly and use his chest to find my feet underneath me. My hands touch bare skin. When did his shirt come off too? He takes my elbow and guides me to stand upright.
I look down at myself. I’m covered in scratches and bruises. I’ve lost a few of the academy’s knives. But nearby, an ogre is dead on the floor.
And it was my plan that killed it.
Chapter Four
A plan that, apparently, doesn’t please everyone.
When I look up into the faces on the other side of the glass, I see shock and surprise … and unless I’m mistaken, anger.
“Hey guys,” I say, turning from the glass to interrupt the flurry of black-slapping going on between them. “I think we might have made a mistake.”
Erin, the test administrator, several professors, and Headmaster Novac rush in—only to be stopped by the broken iron gate. Bennett spots them before they can go around to one of the others, and hoists it up out of their path to let them through. They scowl up at him as they pass.
The test administrator looks furious, as do several of the professors. Headmaster Novac simply looks amused. Erin looks as she always does—nervous and pale.
“Are you four complete idiots?” the administrator demands.
I frown and look back at the boys. Piers’ lips have pressed into a thin line. Owen’s mouth hangs open. Bennett is impassive as ever, standing there holding the gate open in case anyone else wants to rush in and criticize us.
But the administrator isn’t finished yet.
“That ogre could have killed you!”
“Yes,” I say, straightening my shoulders. I might be on the brink of collapse myself, but they don’t need to know that. “But it didn’t.”
He just shakes his head, his face growing ever more red by the moment. “That wasn’t the point.” The proctor jabs his thumb over his shoulder at Erin, who glances nervously at us and then the floor. “She’s got more brains than all of you combined!”
“Hey,” I snap back. “Our plan was brilliant, thank you. We killed it. Well …” I glance back at the ogre, which at this point I’m fairly certain is just sleeping, “figuratively, anyway.”
He flounders for words. “If it were up to me—”
Headmaster Novac holds up his hand, and the administrator silences himself midsentence. “The point here, with this particular challenge, was to remind you that not every monster is meant to be faced.”
Each retort I’d prepared drowns in the back of my throat as he continues, stepping forward to admire the ogre from a distance.
“It’s important for us monster hunters to know when we are outmatched,” he says. “Otherwise … there would be none of us left.”
I finally find my voice. “But we weren’t outmatched.”
Novac whirls to me, his eyes aglow. “I see that now … Miss Black.” He looks down and half bows to me. “And it’s also the only reason every one of you isn’t immediately disqualified. If this had gone any other way, I can assure you, you would have been … no matter your parents.”