Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy #4)(34)
Author: Jennifer Estep

"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.