“Janus’s Master Key,” he murmured. “A very unusual artifact with some very unusual magic. Not the sort of thing most warriors would look at for more than a few seconds. They’re far more interested in weapons that kill people, rather than simple objects like keys.”
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say to get him to go away and not think about what I was really doing here.
“But then again, you are not most warriors, are you, Gwendolyn?”
Nickamedes looked straight into my eyes, and I could see the knowledge of my own scheme reflected back in his icy blue gaze.
My breath caught in my throat. He knew exactly what I was up to. Of course he would. Nickamedes knew everything that went on in the library, from the kids hooking up in the stacks to the professors who always returned their books late to why I would suddenly be so interested in an artifact that opened locks.
I sighed, fully expecting him to tear into me for even thinking about taking the key out of its case and using it to help me steal the candle. But to my surprise, Nickamedes kept staring at me. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he reached into his pants pocket and drew out a ring of keys.
My breath caught in my throat again because I recognized these keys too—they were the ones to the library doors, as well as the artifact cases. Nickamedes flipped through the ring until he found the right sort of key, then inserted it in the lock on the case, and opened it.
He reached inside and pulled out the Janus key. I expected him to walk away with the artifact, saying that he was going to move it somewhere else for safekeeping. In other words, far, far away from me and my thieving hands. But instead, Nickamedes shut the case and slowly placed the key down on top of the smooth glass. “You should take that downstairs and make sure it gets a good cleaning,” he said. “It needs polishing. Take
your time, though. There’s no rush—no rush at all.”
I couldn’t keep my mouth from gaping open. Of all the things that I thought might happen, Nickamedes actually giving me the key had never crossed my mind.
“Why do you think that it needs polishing?” I asked in a careful, but curious tone. “It looks fine to me the way it is right now. You know how . . . clumsy I can be with things, especially artifacts. Who knows? I might . . . lose it or something.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take, Gwendolyn,” Nickamedes replied in a soft voice. “Even if others are not.” The librarian stared at me again, and I saw the certainty blazing in his eyes, along with his faith—in me. Once again, my mouth gaped open, but Nickamedes didn’t seem to notice my surprise. Instead, he nodded at me, gathered up his books, including the ones I was still holding, then turned and walked away, his cane tapping
softly on the marble floor.
After a few seconds, I shook off my shocked daze and carefully picked up the key, waiting for my psychometry to kick in and show me all of the feelings, emotions, and memories that were attached to it. But all I got from the key was a sense of smoothness, as if it would slide into any lock it encountered and easily open it. Hopefully that’s exactly what it would do.
I tucked the key into the front pocket of my jeans, then went back down to the first floor. I grabbed the empty book cart from where I had left it in the stacks and pushed it back to the checkout counter, still wondering about my encounter with Nickamedes. But for the first time, I actually felt hopeful about my chances of rescuing Grandma Frost.
Alexei was in the same spot as before, sitting on his stool against the glass wall of the office complex, although his tense features relaxed a bit when he saw me—and realized that I didn’t appear to have gotten into any trouble while I’d been gone.
If only he knew.
“What took you so long?” he asked.
I shrugged, then parked the cart next to him. “I ran into Nickamedes, and he gave me some more books to shelve. You know, the usual.”
It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it seemed to satisfy Alexei. He relaxed back against the wall, and I slid onto my own stool and busied myself with more chores.
Another hour passed. All the while, though, I was aware of Janus’s key in my pocket, but I didn’t dare reach for it while Alexei was with me. He’d ask too many questions about what it was and why I had it.
Eventually, Alexei got up and wandered over to Raven’s coffee cart to get a snack. He’d barely been gone a minute when my phone rang. Odd, but not unexpected. In fact, I’d been anxiously waiting for this particular call all day. I looked out over the sea of students still studying at the tables in front of me, but no one paid me any attention. However, I was willing to bet that at least one of the students was a Reaper—and that they’d been waiting for precisely this moment so they could signal their bosses. The screen said the number was blocked, although I
knew exactly who was calling and what she wanted. “What’s up, Viv?” I drawled into the phone.
“How did you know it was me?” Her voice flooded the line. “I’m the one who’s telepathic, not you.”
“I had a hunch,” I retorted. “Besides, it seemed like it was about time for you to call and threaten me some more. You’d said that you’d be in touch yesterday at the park, remember?”
“Well, the next time I see you, they won’t be threats,” Vivian replied in a syrupy sweet tone. “Because you’ll be dead. You and your grandma. Unless you get me what I want—Sol’s candle.”
“I heard you before at the park.” My hand tightened around the phone. “Don’t worry. I’m going to deliver. I just need another day, maybe two. That’s all.”
“Really? You’re giving in? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” I snapped. “You kidnapping my grandma and holding her hostage doesn’t give me a lot of options, now, does it?”
“Well, no,” Vivian chirped in a cheerful voice. “But I at least thought you’d hem and haw a little more about it. You know, try to reconcile such a bad, bad deed with your do-gooder conscience and your hero complex and all that.”
“My hero complex will be just fine once I kill you,” I snapped back. “But I’m not simply handing the candle over to you. I want some assurances first.”
“Like what?”
“Like the fact that my grandma is still alive. So why don’t you put her on the phone right now before I decide to hang up?”
“You do that, and your grandmother dies,” Vivian hissed.
“You kill her, and you die,” I hissed back. “And even worse for you, you won’t get the candle. I imagine that Loki wouldn’t be too happy about his Champion failing to get her hands on the one thing that can finally heal him. But if you want to take that chance, go ahead, Viv. Hurt my grandma. Because it will be the last thing you ever do—one way or the other.”
Silence. The seconds ticked by and turned into a minute. Worry flooded my body, and I started to wonder if I’d finally pushed Vivian too far.
“Fine,” she muttered. “But only because you asked so nicely.”
More silence. My fingers gripped the phone even tighter, wondering if Vivian was stalling or bluffing or simply messing with me. If maybe my Grandma Frost was already dead—
“Pumpkin?”
Grandma’s voice flooded the line, and I slumped over the counter in relief.
“Grandma? Is that really you?” I whispered.
“It’s really me, pumpkin,” she said, her voice a little stronger.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just want to say that I love you.” “I love you too.”
“Good,” Grandma Frost said. “Then you need to forget about me. You can’t give them what they want, pumpkin. You can’t give them the candle. Promise me that you won’t—”
“Shut up,” I heard Vivian growl.
A sharp smack sounded, like someone getting slapped across the face. A low groan echoed through the phone. I closed my eyes. That was my grandma’s voice, her groan. But I couldn’t do or say anything to help her—not one thing. All I could do was
sit there and try to pretend I wasn’t hearing the sound of someone I loved being hurt by my enemies—all because of me.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Vivian came back on the line.
“You have until noon tomorrow,” she said. “Bring the candle to the address that I’ll text you and come alone—or your grandma dies.”
She ended the call before I could say anything else. A moment later, the phone beeped again, and an address appeared on the screen, one that wasn’t too far from the academy. I’d search for the directions to it later. Right now, I was too angry to do anything but sit and glare down at the phone, wishing I could crush it with my bare hand—along with Vivian’s smug face.
“Who are you talking to?” a voice cut in.
I was so startled I almost dropped the phone. But the worst part was who it was that was asking the question.
I looked up to find Logan standing in front of the counter.
Chapter 14
“Gypsy girl?” Logan asked again. “Who are you talking to?”
I slid the phone back into my jeans pocket. “Nobody. It was one of those stupid spam texts, telling me I’d won some giveaway. You know how it is.”
I let out a laugh, but my voice sounded strained and hollow to my own ears. Hopefully, Logan wouldn’t notice. I hated lying to him, but this was the only way to save my grandma. Besides, if it had been his dad, Logan would have done the same thing. At least, that’s what I told myself. That’s what I had to tell myself to get through this.
He stared at me like he wanted to ask about the phone again, but instead, he jerked his head back at the stacks.
“Can we go somewhere a little more private and talk?” he asked.
“Sure.”
I glanced over at the coffee cart where Alexei was still waiting in line. He saw me with Logan and waved, telling us to go ahead. So I slid off my stool, walked around the counter, and followed Logan back into the stacks.
He moved from one aisle to the next, like a Nemean prowler stalking through the library in search of some sort of prey. Every time I thought he was about to stop, he would keep walking, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to say when we faced each other.
Finally, though, he stopped in a remote corner of the stacks, an area that I knew particularly well, since this was the spot where Vic’s case had once stood. I glanced up. Nike’s statue loomed above us on the second-floor balcony, but the goddess’s face was still completely neutral. She wouldn’t appear to me until she was good and ready. Of course not. Because that would make things way too easy for me.
“Can we sit?” Logan asked in a soft voice.
I nodded, and he plopped down on one side of the aisle, while I sat on the other, facing him. We stared at each other for several long seconds before Logan finally sighed.
“I’ve spent all afternoon trying to convince my dad to change his mind about the candle,” he said. “But he’s not going to.”
I nodded. It didn’t surprise me, although I was touched that he had tried to help.
“I’m sorry, Gwen,” Logan said. “So sorry. How is it that things are always such a mess around here? Even if we’re good, it always seems like there’s something else that gets in the way of us.”
“I know,” I replied. “And I hate it too.”
“I know you feel like my dad is against you, like he’s leaving your grandmother to the Reapers, but he’s doing everything in his power to find her,” Logan said. “Most of the day, he’s been out following down all the leads the other guards have gotten about where the Reapers might have taken her, about where they might be holding her.”
I thought about the address Vivian had texted me. I wondered what would happen if I gave the information to Logan. I could picture it all in my mind. No doubt he’d tell his dad, Linus would get a group of Protectorate guards together, and they’d storm into whatever buildings they found at the address. But Vivian was too smart to give me Grandma Frost’s location in advance. My grandma wouldn’t be there until I’d shown up alone with the candle, and it was too late for me to get any help from my friends or the Protectorate. No, if I gave the address to Logan or Linus, I’d probably get my grandma executed that much faster. I had to do what Vivian wanted me to, or my grandma was dead.
Logan looked at me, waiting for some sort of response.
I sighed. “Look, I appreciate what your dad is trying to do, that he and the other members of the Protectorate are out searching for my grandma. But we both know they’re not going to find her in time. If Linus doesn’t give the Reapers the candle, they’ll kill her. And that will only be the beginning of it.”
Logan frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Think about it,” I said. “Linus told me, told all of us, that he wouldn’t trade the candle for my grandma. But what’s to stop the Reapers from trying again? Maybe next time, they’ll go after someone closer to him. Someone like . . . you.”
Logan blinked. “You think the Reapers would kidnap me?”
I shrugged. “Maybe Linus would feel different if you were the one they were threatening to kill instead of my grandma. Maybe then, he wouldn’t be so stubborn about things and unwilling to part with the candle.” I couldn’t keep the anger and the bitterness out of my voice.
Logan didn’t say anything, but hurt shimmered in his icy eyes, and his shoulders slumped. He was right. Every time it seemed we were finally on track, something else came up to knock us off course again. And most of the time, it wasn’t even anything either one of us had done to the other. But as long as the Reapers were still out there, as long as Loki was free this was our life—for better or worse.
I just hoped we could survive the worse this time around—especially since I was going to be the one to inflict it on us.
“Look, I know you’re sorry about all of this,” I said in a low voice. “And I am too. I really don’t mean to take my anger out on you. I know it’s not your fault. None of it is your fault. Not the Reapers kidnapping my grandma, and not your dad refusing to hand the candle over to them either. It’s . . . just our life, and right now, it sucks.”
Logan looked at me. “So what can we do to make it better? What can we do to make it right?”
I shrugged. I didn’t know the answer to that any more than he did. Logan kept staring at me, his gaze dark and troubled. Yeah, I knew the feeling.
Still, I also knew this might be the last moment we ever had together, given what I was planning on doing tomorrow. So I crawled across the aisle to where Logan was sitting. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and drew me close. I let out another sigh and rested my head on his shoulder, enjoying the strong warmth of his body seeping into mine.
“I love you,” I said. “No matter what happens, no matter what we do, no matter who or what comes between us, I love you, Spartan. I will always love you. I want you to know that.”
Logan put his other arm around me and hugged me tight. “I know, Gypsy girl. And I love you too. I always will.”
I turned my head, and we kissed. I felt all the love radiating off Logan and flowing into me, along with fear, sorrow, and frustration about everything that was going on. His feelings mirrored my own. After a few seconds, we broke apart, and I rested my head on his shoulder again. Maybe for the last time.
I just wondered how much he would hate me when he realized how I’d lied to him and everything I’d done.
Logan and I stayed back in the stacks until Nickamedes called out in a booming voice that it was time for the library to close. The two of us went back to the checkout counter. I slid Vic into the scabbard on my waist and gently shook Nyx awake. The wolf pup let out a sleepy yawn and licked my hand. I scratched her head, and she sighed in happiness.
Logan walked me back to my dorm. Alexei followed us, then split off to go back to his own room for the night. Logan and I stood outside in the pool of golden light cast by the streetlamp closest to the dorm steps.
“I’ll talk to my dad again,” he said. “We?
??ll find a way to save your grandma, I promise you that.”
I nodded, although I didn’t tell him that I seriously doubted Linus Quinn ever changed his mind about anything once it had been made up.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“See you in the morning at weapons training, okay?” Logan said.
I nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
We kissed, and the Spartan turned around, stuck his hands in the pockets of his black leather jacket, and walked away across the grass, which was already covered with that killer frost once again. I watched him go, then went up the steps, slid my ID card through the reader, and trudged up to my room, with Nyx following me.
I shut the door behind me and locked it. I put Vic on the bed, then sank down beside the sword, letting out a long, tired sigh.
“What’s wrong?” the sword sniped, his English accent a little more pronounced than usual. “You don’t like lying to your boyfriend?”
“Of course not,” I snapped back. “But you know I can’t tell him what I’m going to do. He’d try to stop me. Or worse, tell his dad.”
Vic didn’t respond.
We sat there in silence for a few seconds before my phone beeped. I pulled it out of my jeans pocket and stared at the message on the screen.
We’re here. U so owe me for this.
And I’m sure you’ll make me pay, I texted back. C U tomorrow.
I also sent the info about Vivian’s order to turn the candle over by noon, along with the address that the Reaper girl had given me.
“Is that who I think it is?” Vic asked.
“Yep,” I said. “Our friends are here and ready to rock
’n’ roll.”
I put the phone away and looked at the sword. Vic stared back at me, his purple eye as serious as I’d ever seen it.
“I still think this is a crazy plan—at best,” he said.
“I know. Me too. But crazy is sort of what I do, right?” He didn’t return my halfhearted grin.