Every time I realized just how much I loved him.
I’m sorry. I didn’t say the words this time, but I thought them, over and over again, trying to tell him that I really meant what I’d said and that I hoped this wouldn’t come between us the way so many other things had.
Logan’s fingers slowly curled into mine.
I don’t know how long we sat at the table, holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes, my psychometry letting us say so much to each other without whispering a single word. Perhaps that was the real power of my touch magic.
But eventually, I heard the scrape and turn of the key in the lock again. Logan stared at me, then slowly pulled his hand away from mine. I touched my fingers to my palm, as if that would let me hold on to the warmth of his love.
“Whatever happens, we’re in this together from now on, okay, Gypsy girl?” Logan said. “Promise me that.”
I looked him square in the eye. “I promise. No more secrets, no more lies, no more crazy plans.” I grinned. “At least not without involving you in them.”
He grinned back at me, then nodded and got up from the table.
Linus came striding into the prison, his gray Protectorate robe swirling around him. If anything, he seemed even angrier than before. His gaze flicked to Logan standing by my side, and his mouth turned down that much more.
But Linus wasn’t the only one who entered the room. Sergei and Inari trailed along behind him, along with Metis and Ajax. Nickamedes appeared a moment later, trying to keep up with the others, even though using his cane slowed him down. To my surprise, Raven got up and gave him her chair, and Nickamedes sat down in it behind her desk.
Linus took the seat across from me at the interrogation table. His blue eyes met mine, giving me an upclose view of the anger still simmering in his gaze, along with something else. I thought it might have been a tiny bit of grudging respect, but whatever the emotion was, the anger quickly swallowed it up.
“Well,” he said, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. “What do you have to say for yourself, Miss Frost?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really think there is anything to say. Do you?”
Yeah, I was being a total smartass, but I couldn’t help it. It was better than letting him see how worried I was about what he and the rest of the Protectorate might do to me.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead, as though it was suddenly aching. I grinned a little. Yeah, I figured I had that effect on him.
“Tell me everything that happened,” he finally said. “And everything you did. I want to hear it all, from how you stole the candle out of the library to where the Reapers were hiding, to how you, your grandma, and Ms. Maddox and her niece escaped from them.”
“You’re just asking me?” I sniped. “Really? Aren’t you going to get a Maat asp to bite me so that I have to tell the truth?”
That’s what Linus had done before, when I’d been on trial for Vivian’s crimes. The asp’s venom was a sort of truth serum, one that forced you to be honest, or suffer the painful, deadly consequences.
He gave me a chilly look. “Unfortunately, a Maat asp is not readily available at this time or one would already be wrapped around your wrist. But rest assured that I can get one, Miss Frost, should I feel you are not being forthcoming with me.”
I didn’t feel like being bitten, so I did as he asked and told him everything that had happened over the past few days. Well, almost everything. I didn’t exactly tell him the truth about certain things, a fact that Linus quickly picked up on when he interrupted me halfway through my story.
“What about the artifacts?” he asked, gesturing to the items on the table. “How did you get them out of the library without setting off any alarms?”
“Janus’s key was actually in one of the librarian’s offices since it was due for a cleaning,” I lied in a smooth voice. “So I snatched it when the offices were empty. Once I had the key, it was easy for me to open the case with Morpheus’s dreambox in it, and then, the one with Sol’s candle after that.”
I resisted the urge to glance over at Nickamedes to see what he thought about my story. But this had been my idea—not his—and I was the one who was going to be punished for it. Not him.
Linus gave me a suspicious look, but I kept my gaze steady and level on his. He gestured with his hand, telling me to continue. So I talked some more before he interrupted me again.
“And what about Rachel Maddox and Rory Forseti?”
he asked. “Why did you contact them?”
“Because they’re my family,” I said. “Both of them, blood or not. Besides, Rory hates the Reapers because of her parents. I knew that she’d help me, especially against Vivian and Agrona.”
“And the gryphons?” he asked. “Why did you ask Ms. Maddox and her niece to get them to come here? Why did you think that the creatures would cooperate?” “Because the gryphons had helped me before at the Eir Ruins, and using them was the only way I thought I could get my grandma away from the Reapers before they killed us both,” I said. “And it turns out that I was right.”
I didn’t mention that Daphne and Oliver had been in the woods as well, picking off Reapers with their bows and arrows, and I didn’t tell him what Daphne had told me about how all of my friends had been doing what they could to help me on the sly the past few days—including Logan.
Linus rubbed his forehead again, as if my words had only made his previous headache intensify. Yeah, I could totally see that happening. But he gestured at me with his hand again, and I finished my story.
“So you used another artifact, these silver laurel leaves, to counteract the effects of the candle?” Linus asked. “You’re absolutely sure that the leaves, combined with the power of the candle, injured Loki, instead of healing him?”
I thought of how the silver flames had washed over the god, making him scream with agony. “I’m sure.”
Linus stared at me, as if still debating whether or not I was telling the truth. Then, he reached into his cloak, drew out the candle, and placed it on the table.
Sol’s candle looked much smaller and thinner than before, and there was only about a quarter of it left now, just as I’d thought when I’d grabbed it at the Garm gate. I leaned down and peered at the candle, but the white wax was smooth once more, and I didn’t see any trace of the silver laurels glimmering in the surface. They must have all burned up when the candle had exploded into flames.
“I must say I’m rather stunned that you actually managed to bring back the artifact, along with your grandmother,” Linus said. “At least you did one thing right, Miss Frost.”
“I had to bring it back—because the Reapers still want it.”
He stilled. So did everyone else in the prison. “What do you mean?” he asked in a sharp voice.
I gestured at the artifact. “Look at it. There’s still some candle, some wax, some magic left. From what I saw at the Garm gate, it seems to take about a quarter of the candle to help someone. That’s how much is left now, so that means that there’s still enough power in it to heal one more person. And the Reapers will want that person to be Loki. They’ll try to get the candle again. Trust me on that. It wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to kidnap someone else in order to make you give it to them. They might even try to grab you so that the other members of the Protectorate will be forced to give it to them.”
Linus sat back in his chair, a thoughtful look on his face. “I would never do that, Miss Frost. I would never allow that. And neither would any other members of the Protectorate. We all know what’s at stake here, even if you don’t.”
“I think I know exactly what’s at stake,” I snapped. He looked at me, but he didn’t say anything else.
For the third time, a key sounded in the lock, and the door opened. Another man wearing a gray Protectorate robe came hurrying into the prison. He went straight over to Linus, bent down, and started whispering in his ear. I strained to listen, but I couldn’t hear exactly what he w
as saying. Still, I could tell from the low, urgent pitch of his voice that it wasn’t anything good. Had the Reapers struck again already? I would have thought that we’d have at least a few hours of peace, but I’d been wrong before.
“How reliable is the source?” Linus asked.
The man bent down next to him and started speaking again. I looked at Metis, but she shrugged at me. So did Ajax and Nickamedes. They didn’t know what was going on either.
“When?” Linus said in a sharp voice. “How long do we have?”
The man whispered a few more words into his ear before straightening back up. He waited, as though expecting Linus to give him some order.
For a moment, the head of the Protectorate looked utterly shocked, then defeated, and then finally resigned, as if something had happened that he had been both dreading and expecting for a long, long time now.
“Go,” Linus said. “Prepare the others. Protocol
Three. Now.”
The man nodded and scurried out of the prison, shutting the door behind him. Inari and Sergei’s faces both darkened at the mention of Protocol Three. Whatever that was, it sounded serious.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “What’s going on?” Linus’s mouth flattened out into a thin line. “It seems
that you were right about the Reapers still wanting the candle, Miss Frost. According to our reports, Vivian, Agrona, and a large contingent of Reapers plan to attack the academy before sunset. And Loki will be leading them. Apparently, the Reapers want the candle badly enough to make this their last stand—or ours. Because Loki is still a god, and we are not. Unless you have any other bright ideas about how to kill him?”
His words filled me with dread, worry, and fear, but I had to shake my head. Unfortunately, that was the one thing I still hadn’t figured out how to do. And as long as Loki was alive, the Reapers would keep fighting and keep trying to topple the Pantheon, one warrior, one battle, one death at a time. Unless someone found a way to stop the evil god.
Unless I found a way to stop him—for good.
“So what happens now?” I asked, my voice sounding weak and small to my own ears. “Now you know that the Reapers are coming here? That this is . . . the end, one way or another?”
Linus sighed. “We have long planned for this, and we will immediately begin to evacuate campus, for starters. I don’t want any students getting caught in the battle with the Reapers.”
“What about the Protectorate? Are you going to stay? Are you going to fight?”
He squared his shoulders. “Of course we’re going to stay and fight. This is the battle that we’ve been waiting for, that we’ve been planning for, that we’ve spent all these long years training for. We might not have thought it would have arrived this soon, but we will do our best, Miss Frost. Rest assured of that.”
I nodded. Well, if there was going to be a fight, then I wanted to be a part of it—I needed to be a part of it. Because, like it or not, I was still the best chance the Pantheon had of stopping Loki and the Reapers once and for all.
“All right then,” I said. “Are you going to leave me down here to rot or are you going to let me go and do something useful?”
Linus narrowed his eyes. “Define useful.”
“You said the Reapers have been going around stealing artifacts, right? And you’ve been finding stockpiles of them at their hideouts?”
He nodded.
“Then they are sure to be carrying them with them. We need to level the playing field. Loki has enough power on his own without adding artifacts to it.”
“What do you suggest?” Linus asked.
I nodded my head at Nickamedes. “Let me go back to the library with Nickamedes. Nobody knows the artifacts there like we do. If we’re going to stay and fight, if this could be our last stand, our final battle, then I want to make sure we do everything we can to win it. Don’t you?”
Linus stared at me for several long seconds that seemed to stretch on . . . and on . . . and on . . .
Finally, he nodded. He pulled a key out of one of the pockets of his robe, leaned forward, and undid the shackles that chained me to the table.
“You’re right,” he said. “Despite your other actions, we’re going to need every single advantage we have if we hope to defeat Loki and the Reapers.”
“Even if that means trusting me?” I asked in a wry voice, rubbing first one wrist, then the other.
The faintest of smiles curved Linus’s lips. “Yes,” he said. “Even if it means that.”
I grinned back at him. In this case, I didn’t mind being the lesser of two evils.
Chapter 22
Linus stepped out into the hallway and started barking out orders, and everyone rushed away to do the tasks they’d been assigned.
Logan nodded at me before he hurried out the door. I returned the gesture, knowing I’d catch up with him later. Right now, we both had work to do.
I stood up and started stuffing all of the artifacts on the table back into my pockets. I might still need them. I also belted Vic and his scabbard around my waist again, which meant the only thing left on the table was Sol’s candle.
“Hey,” I called out to Linus. “What do you want to do with this?”
I pointed at the white wax. Linus stopped his conversation with Ajax, came back into the prison, and walked over to the table. He considered the candle, then me, for several moments.
“Why don’t you hang on to it, Miss Frost?” he finally said. “As much as I hate to admit it, you’ve taken good care of it so far.”
I nodded and slid the candle into my jeans pocket.
Fifteen minutes later, I walked out of the mathscience building.
Linus had already sounded the alarm to evacuate campus, and kids were running in every direction across the quad, yelling to each other, and clutching their bags and weapons. At first, there didn’t seem to be any kind of method to the madness, but after a few seconds, I realized that most of the kids were running from the dorms, up the hill, across the quad, and toward the gym. “Why the gym?” I asked Alexei, who was walking
with me and still acting as my guard.
“That’s where the buses are gathering that will take the students off campus,” he said. “It’s standard operating procedure at all of the academies in case of a largescale Reaper attack.”
“Where will everyone go?”
“To a secure location nearby,” he said. “From there, some will go on home to their families, if they are close by.” He paused. “Depending on what happens here, of course.”
I swallowed. He didn’t say the words, but I knew what he meant. Depending on whether we won—or just died.
But I pushed my unease aside, although I was aware of some of the kids stopping and staring at me before hurrying on their way. And I could feel the desperation and fear rolling off all of them—along with the faintest bit of hope.
Hope that I really was Nike’s Champion. Hope that I could find a way to end this. Hope that I could finally rid everyone at our academy and all the others from the constant threat of Loki and his Reapers.
That hope gave me the determination to swallow down my own fear and get on with things.
Alexei and I hurried across the quad and over to the Library of Antiquities. Perhaps it was my imagination, but the library seemed darker and gloomier than ever before, with the statues, balconies, and towers casting out long shadows that stretched all the way to the opposite side of the quad. Or perhaps it was because I knew death, destruction, and chaos were coming our way—and wondering how we could possibly survive.
Still, despite my rush, and everything that needed to be done before the Reapers arrived, I stopped a moment to talk to the gryphon statues on either side of the library steps.
“Today would be a good time for you guys to actually, you know, move,” I said. “Rip right out of your stone shells and attack any Reaper who dares to set foot on the quad. I’m just saying. It would be really great if you could do that, plea
se. Okay?”
Of course, the gryphons didn’t respond, but I still patted first one statue, then the other, before heading into the library. Alexei followed me.
Nickamedes was already inside and standing behind the checkout counter, talking to Metis. Apparently, he’d already enlisted Daphne to help search through the library’s electronic catalog of artifacts, because she was sitting in my usual spot behind one of the computers, furiously pounding on the keyboard, pink sparks of magic shooting out of her fingertips with every letter she hit.
She looked up as Alexei and I stepped up to the counter in front of her.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“Slowly,” Daphne said, her eyes focusing back on the monitor. “I had no idea there were this many freaking artifacts in the library. I don’t know how Nickamedes keeps them all straight.”
I nodded and moved around the counter, hurrying toward Metis and Nickamedes. They turned in my direction.
“Professor?” I asked. “How are things? Where is everyone?”
“As well as can be expected, so far,” she replied. “Ajax is over at the gym, helping with the evacuation. So are Sergei and Inari. Oliver and Carson are back in the stacks, gathering up some of the artifacts that Daphne has already found. Rory, Rachel, and Geraldine are down at the dorms, getting Nyx and dealing with the gryphons.”
One by one, she ticked our friends off on her fingers. Metis frowned, as though she were reviewing a mental list in her head. “And I think that’s everyone.”
But it wasn’t everyone, because she hadn’t said a word about Logan. I opened my mouth to ask her about him, but Metis’s phone chirped. She touched my arm, then went back into the stacks to take the call.
Nickamedes watched her go, a longing look on his face, and some sort of deeper emotion flaring in his icy eyes. I couldn’t tell exactly what he was feeling, but it almost seemed as if the librarian was seeing Metis for the very first time. I wondered if I was the cause of that, if he was thinking about what I’d told him. If perhaps he was actually giving some thought to the idea of him and Metis as a couple. Provided they made it through the battle, of course.