“Hey, buddy,” I say brightly, crouching down. The axehandle hound takes a step toward me, and I melt into his oversized brown eyes. “Are you a good boy?”
His tail wags.
Sawyer kneels too, reaching out, but the axehandle hound shrinks from him. He stands back up, obviously offended. “C’mon. Let’s head back.”
Unduly sad that I won’t get to pet him, I stand up. “Okay.” We start heading back, but still the hound follows. I glance over my shoulder. He’s trotting behind me, watching me, ears perked up. I stop. The hound stops.
“Is he following you?” Sawyer asks.
I make a few subtle movements and the whole time, the hounds eyes stay trained on me.
“If he follows all the way to Aunt Trish’s, I’m keeping him,” I say.
The sun begins to rise, and we make it back to Aunt Trish’s house. Sure enough, the hound follows me the whole way. I feed it some leftovers from last night’s dinner.
“I think I’ll call you Cleaver,” I say. He just wags his tail and keeps eating.
Saint M students and monster hunters are given badges to show at airports to allow them to bring normally banned items onto planes. This makes it easy to fly with your weapons.
Or your axehandle hound.
My first day back at school, I smuggle him up to my room. I’d hoped to get him up and hidden before Erin arrived, but our connected flight gets delayed and Erin is already in the dorm room when I arrive.
“Hey!” she says as I rush in and set my backpack down. “Did you have a good—”
Her question ends in a strangled cry as Cleaver springs out of the bag and rushes to her, licking whatever he can reach.
“Avery!” she says, leaning down to pet him. “Avery, you’re not supposed to have any pets here.”
“I know, but look at him,” I say happily. Cleaver takes the opportunity to roll over onto his back so Erin can scratch his belly. “I found him near my parents’ cabin.”
“How did that go?” she asks, now scratching behind Cleaver’s ears.
Images of Sawyer’s head between my legs flash into my mind. “I’ll tell you later. Will you watch Cleaver for me while I head down to the dining hall to grab some food?”
“Sure.” She grins down at him. “I really hope we don’t get in trouble. You’re a good boy,” she adds to Cleaver as I leave.
In the entrance hall, there are a group of students huddled around the scoreboard. In the middle of them all I see Piers, Owen, and
Bennett. I grin as I approach them. I’m actually excited to see them. I feel like we’ve become closer now that we’ve put everything behind us.
“Hi, guys!” I call out, and they turn to look at me.
My happiness is not reflected on their faces. They’re all stone-faced.
I stop short, and Piers points at the board. It’s the grades and points from last semester. Piers, Owen, and Bennett—and Sawyer, too—are still hovering near the bottom. But somehow, I’ve jumped up to the middle of the class.
I frown. Even working as hard as I have been, I shouldn’t be that high up on the list. I should be happy, ecstatic even—I’m no longer in danger of being cut from the program. But I can’t be happy, not when all three of the boys are looking at me like I’m the devil incarnate.
Piers closes the distance between us and gives my shoulder a hard shove. I stumble back.
“You did something,” he growls. “You skewed it. You used something to get ahead.”
“I didn’t!” I cry as Owen and Bennett look on menacingly. “I swear, I—”
“Miss Black!” Professor Waldman’s voice cuts over us. She comes up next to me and puts an arm around my shoulders, seemingly oblivious to what’s happening. “I see you’ve noticed your grades. That extra work you put in really paid off—your parents would be proud.” She winks at me, gives me a squeeze, and saunters off. My heart sinks.
The vial of Piers’ blood—that’s what she means. I’d forgotten about it.