Crimson Frost

Well, I could walk, but it would take forever-and I just didn't have that kind of time. Not to stop whatever Vivian and the Reapers had already put into motion. No, I needed a car. If Oliver had been here, I would have just asked him to take me in his SUV, but he was at the concert hall with Logan and the rest of my friends. I could call my Grandma Frost to come pick me up, but she was probably busy with her fortune-telling clients. Plus, I didn't know how long it would take for her to come get me, and I needed to get to the coliseum as soon as possible.

But those were my only options. It wasn't like I could just ask some random kid in the library to drop what he was doing and give me a ride. He'd laugh in my face-or worse, pull his weapon on me. Still, I was desperate enough to consider it, and I gazed at first one student, then another, trying to find someone who might be slightly sympathetic-or at least not outright hate me.

I noticed a green spark of magic out of the corner of my eye, and I looked to the left. A few more sparks shot up into the air as Morgan McDougall turned the page in the book she was reading. Morgan wasn't my enemy, but she wasn't quite my friend either. Still, she had helped me in the past, and she'd stuck up for me in gym class yesterday.

I hopped off my stool, went around the checkout counter, and walked over to Morgan. The Valkyrie looked up from her book.

"Do you have a car?" I asked. "Please, please, please, tell me you have a car."

"Of course, I have a car." Morgan's hazel eyes narrowed in suspicion, but I could hear the interest in her voice. She wanted to know what I was up to. "Why do you ask?"

I grinned at her. "How would you like to go on a little field trip?"

"No," Alexei said. "Absolutely not. Are you out of your mind?"

"Were you not listening during my trial?" I said. "Because if you were, you would know that the answer to that question is almost always yes."

Alexei and I were standing by the main academy gate just below the two sphinxes perched on the wall. After I'd told Morgan what I wanted and she agreed to help me, I'd raced out of the library, gone back to my room, and grabbed a few things I thought I might need-like Vic. I'd told the sword what I'd discovered in the library, and his purplish eye had brightened.

"Excellent!" Vic had said. "Now that you're on the trail of the Reaper girl, let's get on with the business of finally killing her."

"You got it."

After I'd grabbed my things, I'd jogged down to the main gate to wait for Morgan to get her car from the lot where she parked it over in Cypress Mountain.

The only problem was that Alexei had come with me.

He'd followed me from my dorm room all the way down to the gate. Now, he was standing in front of me, a grim expression on his face.

"You can't leave campus, Gwen," he said. "The Protectorate gave me strict instructions. I'm supposed to make sure that you stay at the academy-no matter what."

"You can try," I said in a quiet voice. "I don't want to fight you, Alexei, but I will if I have to."

He scoffed at that. "Do you really think you can beat me, Gwen? I've been training for years. And not just regular warrior training-Protectorate training. The most physical, intense combat training a warrior can go through. I've seen you fight in the gym. You're not bad, but you're not as good as me. We both know it."

I did know that, but that still didn't stop me from putting down my bag, drawing Vic out of his scabbard, and holding the sword up in an attack position. Alexei's gaze dropped to his backpack, which was on the ground at his feet. The hilts of two swords stuck out of the top like usual, but he didn't reach for the weapons-yet.

"I know you're better than me," I said. "Stronger, tougher, more experienced as a warrior, but I'll still try my best. Because this is about stopping Vivian, about stopping the Reapers and whatever they have planned. This is about saving people, Alexei. That's what warriors are supposed to do-that's what we're supposed to do."

Alexei eyed my sword, and Vic glared right back at him.

"Get out of our way, Bogatyr," Vic snapped. "Gwen is Nike's rightful Champion, and you know it. If she says this is important, then it's important. You should be helping her-not standing there like a fool worrying about the bloody rules."

Trust Vic to make following the rules sound like the lamest thing ever. Still, the sword had a point. Well, another one besides the actual sharp tip at the end of his blade. Sometimes at Mythos, you had to bend the rules to protect the people you cared about. I just hoped I could convince Alexei of that.

"Please, Alexei," I said. "This is important. I know it is. Vivian and the rest of the Reapers have something planned-something bad. But I can stop them. I just have to figure out what's inside that book the Reaper stole. Why the Reaper took that first, even before snatching the jewels. As soon as I know that, I'll call Metis, and you can call Sergei. I'll surrender peacefully then. After that, well, I'm sure Linus will throw me into the academy prison-probably for good-and you'll never have to see me again. At least, not until my execution."

I smiled at my bad joke, but Alexei just looked at me. He stared at me a long, long time. Finally, his gaze went back to Vic, and I tightened my fingers around the sword. If Alexei came at me, I'd only have one chance. Despite what I'd said earlier, I wasn't going to fight him. He was right. I wouldn't win. Instead, I'd shove past him and then hope I could run fast enough to get through the gate and that Morgan brought her car around before he caught up with me.

I wasn't too optimistic about my chances, though. I'd seen Alexei fight in the gym and then against the Reapers in the library, so I knew exactly how quick and deadly he was. Still, I had to try.

Just when I thought he was going to attack me after all, the Bogatyr sighed. "Very well. We'll go to the coliseum and see if we can find the book. But if we can't or it turns out to be a dead end, we are coming straight back here. Understand?"

I nodded. "Thank you, Alexei."

He grunted, but he didn't say anything else.

"Let's go," I said, sliding Vic back into his scabbard. "Because I don't think we have any time to waste."

Chapter 22

A beep sounded, and a red Aston Martin stopped on the street outside the gate. Morgan rolled down her window and waved her hand at us.

Alexei stepped over to the gate and slipped through the iron bars, but I paused and looked up at the sphinxes. They were still staring down at their feet and refusing to look at me, but the sphinxes' faces were furrowed, and I sensed the same sort of tension and wary watchfulness in them that I had the gryphons at the library. They knew something was up, just like I did. I only hoped I could figure out what was going on in time to stop it-and Vivian-for good.

"Come on, Gwen!" Morgan yelled. "This was your bright idea, so let's go!"

I slipped through a gap in the bars, jogged across the street, and slid into the passenger's seat. Alexei had already gotten into the back. As soon as I closed the door, Morgan hit the gas, zooming away from the curb much faster than was safe and throwing me back against the seat.

"This is your car?" I asked.

"What?" she said, an edge in her voice. "Girls can't have kick-ass sports cars?"

"Of course girls can have kick-ass sports cars," I said. "I just didn't think you would."

"What kind of car did you think I would have?"

"I don't know," I muttered, buckling my seat belt and gripping the door handle. "Something . . . slower."

Morgan just laughed.

Despite the Valkyrie's need for speed, we made it to the Crius Coliseum in one piece. While Morgan parked her car, Alexei and I headed inside the museum.

An enormous, circular room served as the center of the coliseum, with hallways and exhibit areas branching off the main space. Towering pillars made out of white marble gave the museum its grand, ancient, coliseum-like feel, while bits of gold, silver, and bronze glinted on the walls before spreading up to cover the ceiling. Jewelry, pottery, clothing, weapons, and armor filled the exhibit area, all protected and preserved by artifact cases similar to those in the Library of Antiquities. Visitors strolled through the coliseum, peering at the artifacts and browsing through the expensive replicas that were for sale in the gift shop, while the museum staff, all dressed in long, white togas, helped folks with whatever they needed.

Everything was perfectly normal, but the more I looked around, the more the coliseum and everything in it began to change. The faint shadows darkened, until they resembled thin, bony fingers crawling along the floor and walls. Screams echoed in my head, and the coppery stench of blood made me gag. Suddenly, Reapers swarmed over everything, their swords flashing a sinister silver as they arced up and then rammed into the backs of the panicked students who were trying to get away from them-

"Gwen? Is something wrong?" Alexei asked.

I shook my head, and the phantom sights, sounds, and smells disappeared back into the bottom of my mind with the rest of the horrible memories I'd rather forget. "Just remembering the last time I was here."

"During the Reaper attack?"

I nodded.

Alexei didn't say anything else, but he gave me a sympathetic look. He knew all the awful things that had happened here as well as I did-and all the awful things my friends and I had done just to survive that day.

"Come on," I said, my voice harsh and raw with emotion. "We need to find out where the book is."

The Great Transformations book wasn't listed in any of the exhibit brochures, so we asked one of the staff members, and he told us to look in the library at the very back of the coliseum. Morgan caught up with Alexei and me, and the three of us headed in that direction. Since it was Saturday, the coliseum was crowded, with people going from room to room and case to case, looking at all the treasures of the mythological world.

Everyone seemed to be completely focused on what they were doing, but a shiver swept through me all the same. I felt that if I could only turn my head quickly enough, I'd realize everyone was staring at me, even though no one paid any real attention to me. I eased my hand inside my messenger bag and curled my fingers around Vic's hilt. The feel of the smooth metal against my palm only made me that much more tense, as if I might have to draw the sword and start fighting at any second.

"What's wrong?" Morgan asked, noticing me clutching the sword.

I made myself pull my hand away from Vic. "I'm not sure. I just have a bad feeling about this. Something's not right. Let's find the book, see what it says, and get out of here."

We finally reached the library and stepped inside. It was much, much smaller than the Library of Antiquities, but it was still impressive. The library was made out of the same white marble as the rest of the coliseum, and the roof was one large skylight, making the entire room bright, sunny, and warm even in the middle of winter. Floor-to-ceiling shelves took up two of the walls, while a third was filled with old, yellowed maps that chronicled great mythological battles and campaigns throughout the centuries. Normally, I would have lingered in here, going from shelf to shelf and map to map until I'd seen everything, but there wasn't time.

I put my messenger bag down on one of the tables, then looked at the slip of paper the staff member had given me. "According to this, the book is in section G."

It took us a few minutes to find the appropriate shelf and a few more still to find the actual book, but there it was, sitting on the shelf right where it was supposed to be: Great Transformations Through the Ages and How They Were Achieved: Volume II.

Instead of immediately reaching for the book, I frowned.

"What's wrong?" Alexei said in an impatient tone. He'd put his backpack down too and was leaning against the table.

"This feels way too easy," I said.

Morgan snorted. "You think all that research you did in the Library of Antiquities, sneaking off campus, and asking me to drive you down here was easy? I think you need a new definition of the word, Gwen."

I ignored her. Alexei, Morgan, and I were the only ones in this part of the coliseum, and the conversation and chatter from the other visitors had long since faded away. I didn't hear so much as a whisper of movement, but I still glanced back toward the door, half-expecting to see a group of Reapers rush inside, swords out, ready to skewer us.

I waited and waited-but nothing happened. Finally, I turned back to the shelf, staring at the book and the words on the spine-Great Transformations Through the Ages and How They Were Achieved: Volume II.

Morgan snorted again and grabbed the book off the shelf, causing green sparks of magic to shoot out of her fingertips. I sucked in a breath, but once again nothing happened.

"See?" she said. "It's just a book. You are being totally paranoid. Now, can we please get on with this?"

"I agree with the Valkyrie," Alexei said. "Everything seems normal here. So use your magic on the book, and let's leave."

"Fine," I muttered. "But if things go bad, and I start screaming my head off, don't say I didn't warn you."

Alexei and Morgan glanced at each other before she held the book out to me. I drew in a breath, took it from her, and waited for the images and feelings to enter my mind so I could learn all the secrets the book might contain.

The memories flooded my brain, and I got flashes of all the people who'd looked at, touched, and read the book over the years. Nothing unusual there. Disappointment filled me, and for a moment I thought that those would be the only images attached to the book-but I was wrong. 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">