Dark Frost

I slid my driver's license in between the doorframe and the lock that was keeping me out of Savannah Warren's room. "Well, it would go a lot faster if you'd keep quiet and quit asking me to hurry up. I can only concentrate on one thing at a time."

"And here I thought you were such a brilliant multitasker," Daphne muttered, glancing down the empty hall toward the stairs like she had ten times in the last minute.

I rolled my eyes and started to snap back at her, when my license slid exactly where I wanted it to go, and the door clicked open.

"Bingo," I whispered, turned the knob, and stepped inside.

Daphne hovered in the doorway, an uncertain look on her face. I rolled my eyes again.

"Well, don't just stand there," I said, grabbing her arm and dragging her inside. "The key to breaking and entering is to actually enter after you break. Not stand around in the hall where everyone can see exactly what you're doing."

"Sorry," Daphne muttered. "I haven't had quite the experience at this as you have, Gwen."

Yeah, we were totally sniping at each other, but I didn't mind because this was as close to normal as we'd been since the Reaper attack.

"Tell me again why we're in here?" Daphne asked, tiptoeing forward to stand beside the bookcase that hugged the wall inside the door.

"Because Vivian hired me to find her ring, and the last time she remembers seeing it is when she was with Savannah."

Yeah, yeah, I knew there were more important things I could be doing, like seeing if Metis and the others had figured out where Preston and the Reaper girl were hiding. But I'd taken Vivian's money to find her ring, and I owed it to her to try to do that, especially since it meant so much to her, since it had been her mom's ring, too. I knew what it was like to lose your mom, how you wanted to hold on to every piece of her you had left.

Besides, I wanted to do something right this week. Maybe finding Vivian's ring would be it. At the very least, maybe it would take my mind off all my other problems-for a little while anyway.

"So what?" Daphne said. "Savannah probably just borrowed it without telling her. Friends do that all the time."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? So if I was to borrow, oh, I don't know, your favorite purse without telling you, then you'd be perfectly okay with that?"

Her eyes narrowed. "I'd be okay with it, but you might not be if you wanted to live long enough to finish the semester."

"That's what I thought," I said, going over to the vanity table. "Now help me look for Vivian's ring."

"Fine," Daphne huffed, stepping forward. "But I'm doing this under protest."

"So noted. Now shut up and start looking."

We spent the next ten minutes tossing Savannah's room. Okay, okay, so maybe tossing wasn't the right word, but we did look in every cubbyhole, crack, and crevice that we could find, along with all the usual hiding spots kids thought were so clever, the places where no one would ever think to look for their supersecret stash of candy bars, beer, cigarettes, or whatever their vice of choice was. Under the mattress. Taped to the bottom of a drawer. Tucked in a plastic bag and stuffed into the back of the toilet. I knew all the good hiding places, and my mom had told me about even more she'd discovered as a police detective.

"Nothing," Daphne said when we finished. "See? I told you Savannah didn't have the ring. Now, can we please get out of here before she comes back? Savannah's supposed to meet Talia and Vivian in her room this afternoon. That's what I heard her say when I was standing in line behind her in the dining hall."

Daphne's telling me what she'd overheard at lunch was the reason I'd decided to break in here, since it was kind of hard to look for lost or stolen property when the thief was still in her room.

Frustrated, I put my hands on my hips and looked at the room again. For some reason, I felt like Vivian's ring was in here somewhere, like I could almost feel it calling out to me. I wasn't ready to give up, so I went through the room again, more slowly and methodically this time, despite the fact that Daphne threw off more and more sparks of magic the longer we stayed.

The Valkyrie was just about to forcibly drag me out into the hallway when I grabbed a book and accidently banged it into the side of the bookcase-and the ring slipped out from the case and fell to the floor.

I leaned forward, staring at the inside of the bookcase. I'd pulled out all the books and had looked through and behind them, but the ring had been wedged into a hollow space where one of the wooden shelves didn't quite meet the side of the case. Not too shabby, as far as hiding places went. Definitely a little more creative than the back of the toilet.

Daphne bent over, picked up the ring, and turned it around and around in the palm of her hand.

"This? You really think Savannah stole this? It's just gold. There aren't even any diamonds on it. No rubies, no sapphires, nothing. It doesn't even look like it's worth more than a couple hundred bucks. And those two faces are really ugly." Her critique finished, the Valkyrie sniffed and handed it over to me.

Images filled my mind as soon as I touched the ring.

I'd expected to get a few vibes off the ring, especially since Vivian had told me how special it was to her and how it had been her mom's ring. And I did see those memories. A younger Vivian standing by a bed. An older woman reaching up, her bloody hand shaking as she handed over the ring. Vivian crying and slipping the gold band onto her finger. I could feel Vivian's emotions, too. Her sadness that her mom was dying, her anger at the people who'd killed her. They made my own heart ache for the other girl. I knew how hard it was to lose your mom-especially to the Reapers.

I also saw other flashes, images of Vivian wearing the ring and growing up over the years. But then, the images changed and shifted. For a second, I felt like something was wrong. Like there was some feeling, some emotion attached to the ring I couldn't quite grasp, that my Gypsy gift couldn't quite show me, for whatever reason. It was the same vague, uneasy feeling I'd had when I'd touched the map the Reaper girl had dropped in the coliseum.

Then, a new image filled my mind-one of Savannah putting on the ring.

The pretty Amazon sat at the vanity table in her room, staring down at her hand and admiring the Janus ring and the way the gold glinted. I felt Savannah's smug satisfaction that the ring was hers now, that she'd taken what she wanted and that no one was the wiser. Greed. The feeling made me sick to my stomach. So Vivian was right, and Savannah had stolen her ring after all. Some best friend she was.

I'd thought that would be the end of the memories, but the image didn't fade away. Instead, it sharpened, hammering into my head, and Savannah reached over and picked up something on top of the vanity table-a Reaper mask.

Horrified, I watched as Savannah put on the mask, then grabbed a black robe from the floor and draped it over her shoulders. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled, a bit of Reaper red fire flashing in her eyes.

I recognized her then. How could I not?

I was so shocked that the rest of the vision slipped away, splintering into shards that felt like they were stabbing deeper and deeper into my brain. I gasped in pain and opened my eyes. The ring slipped from my trembling fingers and hit the floor again.

"What? What is it?" Daphne said. "Why do you have that weird, sick look on your face?"

"Because Savannah didn't just steal Vivian's ring," I said in a whisper, staring at my best friend. "She's a Reaper, too. And not just any Reaper. She's the Reaper girl, Daphne. Loki's Champion. The one who murdered my mom."

Chapter 20

"Savannah Warren? A Reaper?" Daphne shook her head, making her blond ponytail swish from side to side. "No, I don't believe it. No way."

"But she has the ring," I said.

I looked down at the ring lying on the floor. The sunlight streaming in through the window made the gold gleam, causing another thought to pop into my head. I remembered somewhere else I'd seen a flash of gold recently. I reached for the memory of the Reaper girl sitting in the car outside my Grandma Frost's house and focused in on it, playing the images again in my head. I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but there it was on her right hand, winking at me like an evil eye when she tapped her fingers against her lips.

I stabbed my finger at the ring. "I saw the Reaper girl wearing that in my vision of her attacking my Grandma Frost's house. It's the same ring Vivian says she thinks Savannah stole from her room."

Daphne shook her head again, pink sparks flying off her fingertips. "No, Gwen. You don't understand. There's no way Savannah could be a Reaper."

"Why not?"

Daphne stared at me. "Because Reapers killed her entire family."

"What?"

The Valkyrie sighed. "You know that practically everyone at Mythos has lost somebody to the Reapers, right? Their parents, an aunt, an uncle, a friend, somebody."

I nodded.

"Well, a little over a year ago, just after we started as first-year students, Savannah's family was murdered by Reapers. Her parents, her kid sister, even some cousins. The Reapers broke into her parents' summer house in London and slaughtered them all. Even for the Reapers, it was vicious. The only reason Savannah wasn't killed too was because she was here. She pulled out of school after that and went to stay with her aunt. She didn't come back until after the holidays last year. So I'm telling you there is no way Savannah is a Reaper. It's just not possible."

Daphne looked at the ring on the floor. The Valkyrie might not have my psychometry magic, but she didn't want to pick it up any more than I did. Not if it belonged to a Reaper. "What about Vivian?"

"What about Vivian?"

Daphne gestured at the ring. "It's her ring, right? So maybe the images you saw were her. Maybe your magic got mixed up or something, and she's really the Reaper."

I eyed her. "You really think someone like Vivian Holler could be a Reaper? You saw how scared she was at the coliseum after the attack, and you told me yourself that she sucks with weapons. The Reaper girl, whoever she really is, definitely does not suck with weapons. I had the cuts and bruises to prove it. She's beaten me twice now. Do you think Vivian could do something like that?"

Daphne shrugged. "But it's her ring, so the memories attached to it should all be hers, right?"

"I don't know," I said. "I saw some images of Vivian's mom giving her the ring and Vivian wearing it. But then, the images changed, and it was Savannah wearing the ring, and Savannah putting on a Reaper mask. Not Vivian."

"You didn't see anyone else wearing it?"

I shook my head.

"So it's got to be one of them, right? Maybe the memories are messed up because they've both worn the ring."

I stared down at the gold band. "I don't know. I just don't know. If Vivian's the Reaper, then why would she hire me to find her missing ring? Supposedly, the Reapers know all about my psychometry magic. She'd have to realize that I'd flash on her being a Reaper as soon as I touched it."

"Who knows why Reapers do what they do?" Daphne said, finally bending down and picking up the ring. "They're all about head games. Anyway, we're not going to figure it out standing around here. Let's go before Savannah comes back. I don't think she's a Reaper, but I don't want to take a chance I'm wrong about it, either."

We left Savannah's room, walked down the hall, and went into Daphne's room. I grabbed my messenger bag and pulled out a plastic bag. Using the edge of my hoodie sleeve, I took the ring from Daphne, careful not to touch it with my bare fingers, and slid it inside the plastic. The gold masks gleamed at me, looking bright and sinister at the same time.

"So what are you going to do with it?" Daphne asked.

I shrugged. "I guess I'll give it back to Vivian. What else can I do? It's her ring. Besides, I don't want to tell Metis that I think either Savannah or Vivian is really the Reaper girl and Loki's Champion in disguise. At least, not without proof."

"Well, how do you think we could get some proof?" Daphne asked.

I thought about it. "I'd have to touch them. Savannah and Vivian. Objects can get so many images and feelings attached to them that it can sometimes fuzz up everything else, just like you said. But I don't think there's any way a Reaper could hide what she really was if I touched her. At least, not that I know of. I think it's worth a shot, anyway. Then, I can tell Metis which one of them it is."

"All right, so who do you want to start with?" Daphne asked.

"Vivian," I said. "That'll be easier. I have a reason to see her now that I found her ring. Getting close enough to touch Savannah will be trickier, seeing as how she hates me so much."

Daphne and I made plans to meet up later at the library, and she promised to bring Carson along for backup. I also texted Vivian to meet me at the library so I could give her the ring. Then, I went to my dorm room, grabbed Vic from his spot on the wall, and told him what was going on.

"Well, it's about bloody time you discovered the Reaper girl's real identity," the sword said. "I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into Lucretia again."

Vic made a chomping sound with his mouth. I frowned and held him out at arm's length. Did the sword even have teeth? I'd never thought to look, and I wasn't so sure I wanted to now.

While Vic crowed on and on and on about how he was going to cut Lucretia to ribbons, I sank down onto the floor and started petting Nott. Maybe it was just my Gypsy gift, but the wolf looked like she'd doubled in size since I'd seen her this morning. Her eyes were duller, too, as though she was still tired, even though she'd been in my room all day resting. What was wrong with her? Why was she always so exhausted? 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">