I press one of my hands to the wide, flat breadth of her snout. “This is gonna be the last time we see each other, Aurora.”
She looks at me. I wonder if she can understand. I stroke her face.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper to her. “I tried to protect you. It’s not your fault.” I lean my forehead against hers. “It’s not your fault,” I say again. Whether or not she understands my words, she can tell I’m sad. She nuzzles me and nickers softly.
I stay by her side until morning classes are about to start. This is it, her last night, and I won’t let her spend it alone.
&n
bsp; Valentine’s Day rolls around, and it’s down to creature handling I go. It’s my first day back from the infirmary. Erin gently sets a hand on my shoulder. Sawyer watches me with a sympathetic expression.
They’re putting Aurora down today. And they’re doing it in front of us.
Doesn’t seem very festive … but I guess, to anyone else, Aurora is just another vicious monster.
The main chamber of the Menagerie is where all the new students met before the last trial, before I fought the ogre with Piers, Owen, Bennett, and Erin. I feel a numb sense of nostalgia as I sit next to Sawyer on a bench in the back of that same room.
Professor Jaxton, our creature handling teacher, walks up to the dais. A few staff members follow, their hands clutching the chains that bind Aurora’s hooves and tail, forcing her to move with unnatural, shuffling motions.
They have her wearing a muzzle. It digs into the scales on her face, making her eyes loll in pain and fear. My heart drops, and I feel the tears come.
“When we put down a creature here at Saint Marcellus,” Professor Jaxton begins as behind him the staff members drag my poor kelpie onto the dais, “we use an injection. In the old days, we used to decapitate them, but this way is rather painless.”
Aurora is shrieking and struggling. I raise my hand.
“Yes, Miss Black?” The professor sounds surprise.
I get to my feet. “Sir, is it possible—can I sit with her while you—?” I can’t continue. My throat closes, choking off my voice.
“I’m afraid not,” he replies. “While painless, the injection causes the creatures to convulse violently. There’s too much danger that you’d be injured again.”
I sit down heavily. Sawyer grabs my hand in both of his and squeezes it.
Aurora heard my voice. She’s struggling more now, straining to see me, shrieking louder through her muzzle. Professor Jaxton is trying to talk, but her cries echo around the chamber, drowning him out.
Finally, he gives up, shakes his head, and pulls a syringe out of his pocket.
Erin reaches over and grabs my other hand. I can’t look away as the professor walks over to the thrashing kelpie onstage. The staff members are doing their best to hold her down, but she’s putting up a fight, even bound as she is.
“Cover your eyes,” Erin whispers to me, but I shake my head. This is my fault, and I’ve got to watch it.
The man near Aurora’s head holds her down so that the professor can plunge the needle directly into her neck. Jaxton pushes the liquid out of the syringe, and Aurora thrashes even more violently.
Her tail whips out of its bindings and she jerks away from Jaxton, who loses his grip on the now-empty syringe. With the needle still in her neck, Aurora flops and convulses, her cries becoming louder and louder until—she stops. She slumps, unmoving. Her eyes are still open.
She looks scared.
Finally, I tear my hands away from Erin and Sawyer and bury my face in them. My shoulders shake with sobs. I hear some rustling, the clinking of chains.
“They’re carrying her out,” Erin says in my ear, but I can’t move. I’m paralyzed.
After a long time, I hear Professor Jaxton’s voice as if from far away: “Everyone can go about your duties as usual. Miss Black, due to your injuries, I won’t be assigning you another creature. You may go back to your dorm and rest.”
I hear the other students stand up, buzzing with conversation, nowhere near as affected as I am. I sit up. The low light in the chamber dazzles me after the darkness of my own hands. Erin and Sawyer haven’t moved. They’re still here, still with me.
“I can’t believe they would do this,” I whisper. “I can’t believe they would go this far.” I lurch to my feet and stumble out of the chamber, out of the Menagerie, leaving my confused friends behind.
Chapter Twenty-One