The Hunter's Snare (Monster Hunter Academy Book 3) Read online

  “You really don’t mind me wearing these?” I asked.

  “Not at all. The one you have on was a dress I wore my freshman year, believe it or not, so I’m thrilled that somebody else can get use out of it. It’s pretty, isn’t it? You look good in it.”

  Something had shifted in Merry’s voice, and I glanced back at her. A shadow had crept across her face, and the way she tilted her head, I could see the white streak again, more pronounced than ever.

  “I know you think I don’t believe in monsters,” she said, fixing me with her gaze, “but that isn’t exactly right—I definitely have a greater respect for demons, and I know there are monsters everywhere. They had them at Twyst, they have them here. I don’t think they deserve our fear, but I’m beginning to understand that some of them are dangerous. The guys at the demonology department, they told me some of what happened at Bellamy Chapel. Things I didn’t remember at all. That, more than anything, broke through to me, you know?”

  I grimaced. I didn’t know—I couldn’t imagine what this all must be like for Merry, who hadn’t spent her entire life fighting monsters.

  “I’m glad you came to Wellington, Nina,” she continued, lifting her hand to brush my hair away from my forehead, tucking the errant strand behind my ear. “You and the guys are trying to fight monsters that are going to come for the rest of us if we’re not careful. We can’t avoid all the monsters out there, but knowing you’re willing to face them head-on…that matters. It’s important, and it’s right that it’s happening now, with you. Thank you for fighting for us—for me. I get the feeling you’ve always been the one willing to fight.”

  My throat got a little scratchy, and I blinked hard, a swell of unexpected emotion pushing against the backs of my eyes. “I must be more tired than I thought,” I managed, and Merry smiled, her eyes also suspiciously bright.

  “Me too,” she said, nodding quickly. “Take the dress and the shoes. Take the sex dress too—and don’t say I never gave you a good time. But now…brace yourself. We need to do something with your face.”

  23

  By the time I returned to Fowlers Hall, hours had passed, and any thought of trying on the hot-pink dress for Liam was quickly extinguished. Commander Frost waited at the door for me, with keys to an assigned dorm room all my own.

  “Stay in your room until tonight,” he said, handing over the keys. “It’s on the second floor. You have the whole south wing.”

  “I do?” I took the shiny card, frowning down at it. “I’m pretty sure I don’t need all that—”

  “The presentation is tonight,” Frost cut me off, waving at my dress bag. “If that’s what I think it is, good job on finding clothes. Everything’s moving too fast for sense right now, but we’re not going to be able to stop it. Not with Symmes so up in arms. And as far as I’m concerned, the sooner we get you all through this graduation bullshit, the better.”

  “Tonight,” I echoed. Merry’s concern for moving quickly on my makeover was apparently well-founded. “Do the guys know?”

  “They do—and that brings me to the next idiotic thing we have to deal with. Wellington Academy has rules for the presentation of monster hunters, arcane and frankly unnecessary, but we need to play this one by the book. You don’t see the guys, don’t see anyone, until tonight. Stay in your room, and whatever you’re wearing, cover it up with the cape that’ll be waiting for you there. The cape is enormous—you won’t be able to miss it.”

  “Okay…”

  “At eight o’clock sharp, you’ll be met at the front door of Fowlers Hall by a member of the board, but you won’t see the other members of the collective until you reach Guild Hall. You know that building?”

  I frowned, but I couldn’t place any Guild Hall. “Should I?”

  “I guess…” He blew out a breath. “No. I forget you’ve only been here a short while. It’s in the same section of campus as Wellesley, though, so all that should look familiar. Stay with your escort, try not to talk to anyone. Wearing that giant smock, it’ll be hard not to feel ridiculous, but fortunately, it’s a short walk.”

  Frost seemed unreasonably preoccupied, and I didn’t feel like talking much more after this list of bizarre instructions, so I didn’t ask any questions. With my hot-pink and black dresses in tow and all my thousand and one questions, I was eager to see Liam—only, of course, I couldn’t.

  Instead, I returned to my room. I laid out my dresses and shoes, stripped myself of my iron knife, athame, and Protector Zoo, and examined the cape of doom. Commander Frost was right—no one would be able to see anything of my outfit beneath it. The cape wasn’t really a cape at all, but a long, shapeless pup-tent-size garment of heavy, dark purple wool, with a neck wide enough to sit on my collarbone and two armholes slit in the front. The armholes should have been a bonus, but they turned out to be unusable for anything but sticking your hand through briefly to open a door or shake someone’s hand. When I put the cape on, I looked like a gumdrop with feet.

  “There’d better not be any monsters waiting for us tonight,” I muttered. I pulled off the cape and laid it out on the bed again, then tried not to mess up my face until 8:00 p.m. For the record, that was way harder than I expected it to be.

  Night had fallen by the time I arrived at the front of Fowlers Hall at my appointed hour—only to find Liam’s mother, Claudia Graham, waiting for me, her frosted hair teased into a helmet of old-money sophistication, and her own outfit covered by a long cape only slightly less ridiculous than mine. Great. No wonder the whole campus rolled their eyes at monster hunters.

  I entertained brief, fervent hopes that we would simply stroll across the campus without speaking, but no such luck. No sooner had we cleared the bright lights around Fowlers Hall than Claudia laid into me.

  “It’s highly irregular that there is absolutely no information about you, Ms. Cross. You do understand that, correct?”

  I thought about what Liam had said about his mother, how proud she was of her ability to parse out the various family lines of Wellington Academy, carefully ranking the position of everyone up and down the social ladder, and blew out a long breath. She might be obnoxious, but she wasn’t wrong. “Nobody wants to find my family more than I do,” I said, not even bothering to hide the resignation in my voice. “Liam still thinks there’s a possibility that it’s the Hallowells, but—”

  Claudia finished for me, because of course she did. “The Hallowells would never have left you alone for these past couple of weeks. If we knew about you with our very basic surveillance techniques, then they know about you. There would be no reason for them to stay their hand. They’re not your family. It’s possible they know who your family is, however. You’ll need to keep a sharp eye out tonight.”

  I frowned at her. “Why?”

  “Because the Hallowells will be in attendance.” She clucked her tongue at my obvious surprise. “Please. You can’t imagine they would stay away, with the shred of possibility that you might be a relation? Even if by some miracle they hadn’t caught wind of you before the events of these past few days, they’re well aware of you now. So you should take good care. If any of them speak to you, if they mention any other names at all, pay attention. There are families who no longer interact with the academy, who have run afoul of our governing laws. If your people belong to one of those outcast groups, we can work through it, but it will be complicated.”

  I shot her a curious glance. “Ah…what’s there to work through?”

  “You can’t imagine that your association with the other members of the collective will be sanctioned postgraduation if you’re found to be a member of an undesirable line,” she informed me coolly. “The monster hunting minor has had enough bad press. An entire swath of our graduates have managed to get themselves killed it would seem, and don’t think we’re not trying to get to the bottom of that either. If your family has had anything to do with the adverse activities plaguing the minor, then no matter what good acts you’ve performed, there will be a
reckoning. I’d really rather avoid that, if possible.”

  I looked at her in confusion. “Are you even listening to yourself right now?” I hadn’t exactly meant to ask that question out loud, but I clearly did, and Claudia leveled me with a look that would pulverize concrete.

  “Just because you’ve been brought up outside the realm of polite society doesn’t mean that you will not abide by our rules and comport yourself with a modicum of respect for those who have come before you, Ms. Cross.”

  “The only one who’s come before me is my mom, and she’s not around to care anymore,” I shot right back. “After that, I pretty much don’t give a shit.”

  Claudia turned her focus forward at that, which was okay by me. I couldn’t look at her without thinking about the tuning rods she’d inserted into Liam, all in some sort of a terrible bid to enhance his magical abilities. He was plenty magical all on his own.

  I tilted my head as that thought struck me, taken aback. Had Liam leveled up after last night? I’d spent the day in virtual isolation, and he hadn’t reached out. None of the guys had. I supposed none of them were allowed to, all part of the supersecret presentation rules, but still… For the first time, it occurred to me that graduating from the school would be a relief. All the benefits of monster hunting power, none of the bullshit.

  “Just keep a sharp eye out,” Claudia instructed, still not looking at me. “You never know who your enemies could turn out to be.”

  Fair enough. And some of them were much closer to home than they should be, though I had the grace not to share this particular view out loud. I didn’t know Liam’s family, I didn’t know the challenges they’d faced over time. I couldn’t begin to imagine being in a place where you felt justified doing things to him that apparently his mother had—his own mother! But this was not the time to explore any of that.

  Oblivious to my judgment, Claudia drew in a deep breath, seeming to center herself. “I’m going to assume that you’re woefully unprepared for what’s about to happen. Commander Frost has many talents, but explaining the details of Wellington Academy’s social obligations isn’t one of them. I’ll be brief. Given the musical component, the presentation appears to be like a dance, but it’s not a dance at all, not in the conventional sense.”

  “Liam told me,” I said, lifting a hand. “It sounds like we’re going to do more like a fancy parade?”

  To my surprise she favored me with a small smile. “That’s not a bad way to describe it. The four male members of the collective will take turns accompanying you through a series of steps. You’ll be walking along a pathway that’s marked into the floor, etched into the very marble of Guild Hall. There will be turns and pivots, but nothing that requires any sort of advanced dance skills. Most people get by just by walking with a moderate amount of grace.”

  I grimaced. “I’ll do my best.”

  She nodded, accepting that. “The order of the young men in the collective is typically determined by strength, though I suspect they won’t follow that particular tradition this year.” Her tone was a little grim. “They wouldn’t want to embarrass me.”

  Once again, a flare of irritation spurted up. “You know, you act like Liam has no innate magic, but that’s not true. I’ve fought alongside him. He’s way more skilled than you think.”

  Claudia’s lips tightened, and a haunted look slipped across her face. Then her expression cleared again, and she spoke in softer, more measured tones. “I appreciate your loyalty to my son. When his father was still alive, we moved heaven and earth to help Liam find his way, but our hopes were dashed at every turn. George took him to see every specialist he knew and kept me away from him as much as he could, though I never wanted that. And then George died, and I realized quite quickly that our efforts to help Liam had not been without their own consequences. But he has found his way, and he’s a valuable member of the monster hunting collective. For that, I’m very glad.”

  I barely managed not to grab the woman and shake her. She had it all backward, about what was important about Liam and how skilled he really was, but I didn’t miss the pain in her tone, the hesitation. Consequences. How well did she even know her son anymore? How well would she ever?

  “Ah,” she said, refocusing me as she gestured up the street. “Guild Hall. Brace yourself.”

  I peered at the tall foursquare building, surprised at how pretty it was. I truly hadn’t noticed it before, which probably wasn’t all that surprising since I’d only been on the campus a hot minute. But with its rose granite walls and bright white stone trim, not to mention its wide marble stairs, it looked like something out of an Architectural Digest magazine.

  Claudia ushered me up the stairs, pausing only briefly at the top to hold out her arms. “Your cape,” she directed.

  I shouldered off the heavy garment happily enough, which left me in my black cocktail dress and pumps. Claudia surveyed me with a shrewd eye that was mercifully approving.

  “Close,” she said. “But missing something, I think.”

  She lifted her hands to her own neck and unclasped the string of pearls that lay in the hollow of her throat. Giving me a curt gesture, she waited until I turned around, then clasped the beads around my neck. I felt a curiously soothing energy wash through me, though whether that was magic or simply the shock of being touched by this strange and mercurial woman, I couldn’t say. Claudia didn’t give me time to think about it.

  “That will do. With your hair down, nobody will see your ears to know whether you have earrings or not.”

  “I don’t have pierced ears,” I said. “Kind of a liability when things are trying to eat you. You don’t want to give them anything to latch on to.”

  She pressed her lips together but made no further comment as the doors opened and light spilled out of the foyer. A man who looked like some sort of usher or majordomo stood just inside on the heavily polished floor, and music played down the hallway from a room past two open doors.

  “Chin up,” Claudia advised. “Know you will be scrutinized at every turn, and the Hallowells are all tall, patrician looking, and pale. Paler than you, actually, by a fair margin.”

  “Maybe I get my coloring from my dad’s side,” I said, wanting to be rid of the woman.

  She nodded, taking my comment seriously. “It’s the only explanation. I don’t know who your father was, but he must have some magic to him, for you to remain hidden all these years. There’s simply no other explanation for it. The Hallowells aren’t the only exceptional magic family. Anyone of note could have found you, yet they didn’t. Something else—or someone else—is protecting you.”

  She said nothing further, however, merely waved me on, the majordomo relieving her of her cape as well to reveal a long, glittering formal gown, also in a rich champagne hue. The woman knew what she liked. At the door, she moved gracefully ahead of me, and I could hear the hushed lift of conversation in the room beyond as she entered what I assumed was some sort of ballroom. The music changed cadence, becoming more of a dreamy, meandering waltz type of tune, and the majordomo nodded gravely at me.

  I stepped into the room.

  The first thing that struck me was how crowded it was. I’d expected the people from the meeting with Mr. Symmes to be in attendance, and they were, each with another person who I assumed was a spouse or sibling. But there were also people I’d never seen before. A gamut of snowy-haired aristocracy with only a few younger members of the magical families represented, and even those were no younger than forty-five or so to my eye.

  I saw the guys too, starting with Tyler, all of them facing the front of the room despite my obvious entrance. They didn’t turn around. I felt instantly out of my depth, as if I should have been given more information than to simply wing it, but there was no time to worry about that now. The majordomo positioned himself beside me, and together, we moved toward Tyler.

  “Chin up,” I heard Claudia murmur again as I walked by her, and I flushed, but belatedly followed her direction.
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br />   As if drawn by an invisible string, my gaze settled on a particularly imperious group who stood near the front of the room, all of them looking at me with determined disinterest, as if they knew they had to look, but they weren’t impressed with what they saw. I understood without asking that these were the Hallowells. An older, stern-looking man, a stunningly beautiful woman of about forty years old, and a man who could have been her twin, with deep-black hair and cold gray eyes. He was every bit as attractive as his…sister? Wife? But my attention was drawn inexorably toward the woman. Was this my relative? My aunt, maybe a distant cousin? I couldn’t see it. And clearly, they couldn’t either, judging by the faint air of boredom on their faces as they returned my gaze.

  Then the music shifted once more as I reached Tyler’s side. He turned to me at last, his eyes going wide as he took in my appearance.

  Wow, he mouthed, though there was no sound to the word, and he lifted his hand. I pressed my fingers into his palm, and together, we turned and walked very formally with slow steps. All I needed to do, apparently, was follow his lead. At one point, ten steps in, he turned to me and placed his arm around my waist, walking me in a slow circle. I suddenly felt like I was the top entry at a dog show, and I bit my lip not to laugh, though across the room, Zach suddenly coughed out a sharp laugh as well.

  “You’re not wrong,” he said in my mind. “I witnessed one of these as a freshman, and it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  By now, Tyler had reached Liam, who offered me a cocky grin as he took the handoff from Tyler. The music shifted, and for this section of the parade, Liam held me so close, we might as well have been lovers walking in the shadows. No twirling this time, but just having him close beside me, our secret exchange of electricity sparking along my nerves, felt right. Then it was Zach’s turn, who accepted the handoff from Liam with a somber nod and clasped my hands in his, facing me as we turned in a slow circle, my eyes wide as I had absolutely no clue what significance any of this had.