Crimson Frost

Sergei let out a huff of air, but he didn't say anything else. Inari put a hand on his shoulder, silently signaling his friend to take it easy. Agrona stood next to them, still quiet, although her beautiful features were pinched together in thought, and she kept toying with her necklace, rubbing the gold chain between her fingers.

Linus swung his gaze back to me. "Or perhaps this was part of your plan all along to deflect suspicion from yourself, Miss Frost. Steal away from Alexei and then raise the supposed alarm about Reapers attacking. Maybe the reason they didn't raise any alarms was because you let them into the library. Maybe the reason the last Reaper got away with the artifacts was because that was your plan all along."

"My plan?" I said, my voice as cold and angry as his. "My plan was just to stay alive and help my friends do the same. Nothing else. Despite what you think, I'm not some criminal Reaper mastermind. I'm trying to stop them."

Linus snorted. "Oh, I doubt that, given the evidence we've collected."

His words made my stomach twist with worry, but I forced myself to stay calm and not let any of my fear show. Logan stepped closer to me and took my hand in his. As soon as his fingers touched mine, his warm concern washed over me, sweeping away everything else. I flashed him a grateful smile.

Linus's gaze lingered on our linked hands a moment before he sighed. "All right. Let's round up the others and go over it all again. You too, Logan. I want to hear what you saw as well. Come with me."

Linus whirled around, his gray cloak billowing out around him as he strode down the aisle. Sergei, Alexei, and Metis followed him. Logan looked at me, a question in his eyes.

"It's okay," I said. "Go ahead."

Logan nodded and hurried after the others, leaving me standing alone with Agrona in front of the smashed case. She fiddled with her gold necklace another moment, before finally sighing and letting it slip through her fingers.

"I'm sorry about my husband," she said in a soft voice. "He's under a lot of pressure now that Loki is free. Plus, he and Logan have a . . . difficult relationship. They always have."

She smiled, and I was struck again by just how very beautiful she was. I wondered what she saw in a man like Linus, who seemed so judgmental and cold to everyone around him.

"But he really does love Logan," Agrona added. "I was resting when Linus got the call about the attack, but he dropped everything to come over here. I barely caught up with him before he left."

I nodded. Maybe Linus really did care about Logan, but I thought he had a strange way of showing it-or rather not showing it. Or maybe I just didn't like him because of all the hurtful things he'd said about my mom-and me too.

Agrona gave me another sad smile and went to join the others.

I looked at the smashed remains of the artifact case, wondering once again why the Reaper would take a keepsake box instead of something more powerful, something that could be used to hurt another person. I crouched down among the glittering glass. My gaze landed on something sticking out from under the bookshelf, and I realized it was the velvet stand that the box had been sitting on. I remembered seeing the Reaper touch the stand, although the warrior had been wearing gloves at the time. Still, maybe I could use my psychometry to see why the Reaper had wanted the box so badly. I leaned forward and stretched out my hand toward the stand-

Something moved off to my left. My eyes darted that way, and I realized that Inari was watching me from the shadows farther down the aisle. I'd thought he'd left with the others but apparently not. I hadn't even heard him creep up behind me. There were a couple of Ninja students at Mythos, so I knew that stealth was one of the skills they prided themselves on-being able to slip behind enemy lines undetected and kill Reapers before they even knew what hit them. Daphne had also told me that Ninjas had some sort of power, some sort of magic mumbo jumbo, that let them get into any building, no matter how heavily it was guarded. The ability was something like invisibility, but instead of actually fading into nothingness, Ninjas somehow blended into the shadows and background so that other people just sort of looked past them without really seeing them.

Just like the attack in the library tonight.

I flashed back to the way the Reapers had moved so quietly through the stacks, especially the leader. Despite being trained warriors, neither Oliver nor Alexei had noticed the Reapers creeping closer and closer to them. Then again, the two guys had been having a pretty intense argument at the time. Still, I couldn't help but notice that Inari had the same slender build as the leader had.

I didn't believe in coincidences-not anymore. And having Reapers of Chaos attack the Library of Antiquities the day after the Protectorate showed up was just a little too convenient. Vivian Holler had seemed like the quietest, nicest, shyest girl at Mythos, but she'd turned out to be Loki's Champion. So it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that one of the Protectorate members was really a Reaper in disguise.

I dropped my hand to my side. If Inari was a Reaper, I didn't want to give him any clue that I suspected him-or that I thought I could get a vibe off anything here. Instead, I used a piece of wood to slide the velvet stand farther under the bookshelf. I'd come back later and touch the stand and the shelves around it and see what my psychometry revealed to me.

I also made a big show of dusting off my hands, getting to my feet, and rejoining the others. Inari kept watching me, his face expressionless, as though he was one of the statues looking down on me from the second-floor balcony. After a few seconds, he fell into step behind me and followed me out into the main part of the library.

Apparently, Linus had decided to question Logan first, because he was standing beside his son, with Agrona hovering nearby. From the tense expression on Logan's face, I knew they were talking about me. Metis was speaking with Sergei, Nickamedes, Daphne, and Oliver. She waved at Inari, and the Ninja moved over to join them. I didn't see Raven anywhere. She must have left with the workers and bodies already.

That left me alone-until Alexei came over to me. I'd thought that he would just silently watch me like he'd been doing all day, but instead, he reached out and touched my arm.

Alexei hesitated. "I wanted to thank you-for saving my life tonight. Oliver's too. If you hadn't warned us when you did . . ."

"It was nothing."

"It wasn't nothing," he protested. "My first assignment from the Protectorate, and I let myself be . . . distracted by Oliver when I was supposed to be watching you. I failed the Protectorate, and I failed my father."

"Your dad seems okay with how you handled yourself," I said. "Besides, everyone makes mistakes. Trust me. I've made some gigantic ones recently. You know, getting tricked into finding the Helheim Dagger, being forced to free Loki, dooming the entire world."

I winced. I'd tried to make my voice light, but even I could hear the darkness in my words. They were nothing to joke about. Especially not now.

"Yes, but you jumped into the middle of the fight," Alexei said. "And you made sure that Oliver and I had the weapons we needed to defend ourselves."

"You would have done the same for me, for any warrior."

He shook his head. "I don't know about that. My orders were to watch you-nothing else."

"Is that why you didn't do anything in the dining hall this morning? And when those guys threw their sodas at me outside the library? Because Linus told you not to interfere?"

He nodded.

"And now?"

He shrugged. "Now, I don't know what to think."

Sergei gestured at his son, and Alexei walked over to him. Well, it wasn't quite an apology for standing by while I'd been threatened, but it was a start. Right now, I'd take what I could get. Because I had a feeling things were going to get a lot worse before they got better-if they ever could.

Finally, an hour later, everyone had given their statements to the Protectorate, and we were all free to leave the library.

"Go straight back to your dorm room, Miss Frost," Linus warned me. "Alexei, make sure she gets there."

Alexei nodded, relief on his face at the fact that he was being given a second chance to watch me.

"I'm going too," Logan said.

Linus opened his mouth to argue, but he saw the stubborn set of Logan's jaw. "Fine. I'll see you at breakfast in the morning, just as we planned. Don't be late."

Logan sighed, but he nodded at his father. I said my good-byes to Daphne and Oliver, then left the library with Logan and Alexei.

It had grown bitterly cold while we'd been inside, and more snow had covered the ground since I'd stepped onto the balcony looking for the Reaper. I shivered and wrapped my gray scarf a little tighter around my neck to help keep out the chill. It was almost ten o'clock, and all the other students were already safe and snug inside their dorms for the night. The three of us made it over to Styx Hall without seeing anyone else. We stopped at the bottom of the steps, and Logan turned to Alexei.

"Can you give us a few minutes alone, please?" the Spartan asked.

I thought Alexei would say no, given what Linus had said to him in the library, but the Bogatyr nodded and drifted off to stand underneath one of the trees that ringed the dorm. Logan stared at me, his blue eyes somehow bright, despite the shadows around us.

"How are you holding up, Gypsy girl?" he asked in a soft voice.

"Oh, you know. Another day, another night, another battle to the death with Reapers in the library," I joked. "It's the Mythos Academy special."

Logan smiled a little, but we could both hear how hollow my words really were.

"Why do you think the Reaper took that box?" he asked. "I know you said you didn't get any big flashes off the case with your magic."

I shook my head. "No, nothing useful. Just the Reaper smashing the glass and taking the artifacts. I'm going to go back tomorrow and try again, just in case I missed anything."

Logan nodded, and we were quiet for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry about my dad," he said.

"It's okay. He's just doing his job. I'd rather he be here and worried about you than not around at all, wouldn't you?"

Logan shook his head. "Maybe. But I'd rather he not dis my girlfriend every chance he gets. He started in on you again tonight in the library before Agrona distracted him by changing the subject."

My breath caught in my throat at the word Logan had just said. "Girlfriend?" I whispered.

Logan gave me a crooked grin. "Well, yeah. That's what we are now, right? Together? As in a real couple?"

Despite all the horrible things that had happened over the past few days, happiness erupted in my heart like fireworks streaking up into the sky and exploding in a hundred happy colors. If I'd had a Valkyrie's magic, sparks would have been shooting out of my fingertips like lightning. For a moment, everything was bright, beautiful, and perfect-simply perfect.

Then, Logan frowned, as if another thought had just occurred to him. "Unless you sneak back into the stacks and make out with just any guy who saves your life a few times."

I rolled my eyes and lightly punched him in the shoulder. "And there you go again, ruining the moment."

The Spartan laughed and drew me into his arms. The heat of his body washed over me, driving away the cold and awakening all the feelings I had for him-feelings that made me wish Alexei wasn't standing a few feet away.

"I'm glad you're okay," I whispered, gazing up at him.

"You too."

"When I saw the Reapers in the library, I was so worried that maybe they'd already killed you and Daphne-" My throat closed up, and I couldn't get the words out to tell him how scared I'd been of losing him.

"But I made it through another battle and so did you, Gypsy girl," he said in a gentle voice. "No matter what happens, I'll always come back to you."

"Promise?" I asked in a shaky voice.

Logan's eyes burned with icy determination. "Promise."

He leaned forward, resting his forehead against mine. I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed him once, softly, before putting my head on his chest. Logan's arms tightened around my back, and he pulled me even closer. And we stayed like that, just holding each other in the cold dark for as long as we could.

Chapter 15

I hadn't thought it was possible, but the next day was even worse than the one before.

Word got out about the Reaper attack at the library, the way it always did, and it only made the other students angrier at me. Apparently, they all believed that I'd planned the whole thing, just like Linus did. Harsh mutters and snide comments followed me wherever I went.

"Where's your black robe, Reaper girl?"

"Going to bring more of your friends on campus to attack us?"

"Why don't you just get lost, you murdering bitch?"

I'd been used to being ignored by the other kids, but now I was the center of attention at Mythos. Everyone watched me all day long, and every time I reached into my messenger bag for a pen or a piece of paper, the other students and even some of my professors tensed up, as though I was going to pull Vic out of his scabbard and go all Reaper on them. Some of my classmates, like Helena Paxton, probably wanted me to do that very thing so they could lash out at me with their own weapons.

I kept my face blank, and I didn't respond to the threats and taunts, even though the words and accusations hurt, like invisible daggers slicing off my skin one layer at a time, leaving me bloody, exposed, and aching from head to toe.

But my friends kept their promise to watch my back. Daphne and Carson walked me from class to class to class in the morning, while the three of us sat with Logan and Oliver during lunch. The other kids glared at my friends, but nobody wanted to take them all on, especially not Logan. ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">