Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy #4)(39)
Author: Jennifer Estep

The members of the Protectorate stared at me, doubt and disbelief filling their faces. Linus, Sergei, and Inari all stared at the asp, obviously expecting it to lunge forward and sink its fangs into me again, but a minute passed, then another one, and the snake stayed still on the table.

"Let’s move on," Linus finally said.

I let out a breath. Round one of the inquisition was over. Time for round two.

Chapter 17

Linus shuffled some more papers around on the table, and the others did the same.

"Let the record show that so far, Miss Frost has admitted to killing another student and destroying an important artifact," Linus said.

Agrona nodded, and I realized there was a small device sitting on the table next to her-something that looked like a digital voice recorder. So there was to be an official transcript of my trial. Wonderful.

"You’re twisting everything around," I protested. "I only did those things to defend myself and my friends."

"You will not speak unless spoken to or asked to answer a question, Miss Frost," Linus said.

I opened my mouth again, but Nickamedes placed a hand on my arm and shook his head in warning. So I clamped my lips shut.

"Let’s move on to the next infraction on Miss Frost’s record," Linus said. "A series of events that occurred at the Powder ski resort during the annual Winter Carnival getaway. Miss Frost is accused of setting off an avalanche that threatened students, faculty, and staff members, both of the academy and the resort itself, and caused massive amounts of property damage; letting a Fenrir wolf run loose on the resort grounds; injuring two Spartan warriors, Oliver Hector and Logan Quinn; and attacking Preston Ashton, brother of Jasmine Ashton, whom she has already admitted to killing. Miss Frost, what do you have to say about these charges?"

"Not guilty," I sniped.

Apparently, my sarcasm amused Coach Ajax, who let out a faint chuckle. Linus glanced at him, but Ajax just crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. After a moment, Linus turned his attention to me once more.

"So you deny that you caused an avalanche during the carnival?" he asked.

"Of course, I deny it because it isn’t true," I said in an exasperated tone. "Preston’s the one who caused the avalanche. He wanted revenge for Jasmine’s death, and he wanted to make me pay for kill-"

The asp stirred on the table, its tongue flicking out of its mouth again, reminding me that I had to be very, very careful. I might have figured out a way around the asp’s magic, but one wrong word, one slip of the tongue, and I was still dead.

I drew in a breath. "He wanted to make me pay for what happened to his sister. So, Preston pretended that he liked me in hopes of getting me alone so he could kill me. He almost succeeded too, during a party outside the Solstice coffeehouse."

"And what stopped him from killing you that night?" Linus asked.

I looked at him. "Your son. Logan came outside just as I was going to leave with Preston. Logan’s the reason I didn’t go with Preston that night."

Linus didn’t say anything to that. He paused a second before clearing his throat and continuing.

"But you attacked Preston later," he said. "In a part of the ski resort that was under construction. The Spartans, Oliver Hector and Logan Quinn, were injured in the battle. Tell me, Miss Frost, why were you trespassing in the construction site to begin with? Why would you willingly go to such a deserted area if you thought a Reaper was trying to kill you?"

"Because I mistakenly thought Oliver was the Reaper instead of Preston," I said. "I’d run into Oliver upstairs in the hotel, and I wanted to get away from him. I was in a panic so I went down the emergency stairs and wound up in the construction site by accident."

Linus raised an eyebrow. "You mean, Oliver came across you ransacking his room, correct?"

I ground my teeth together. "Yes, I searched his room because I wanted to find out whether or not he was a Reaper. For the record, he isn’t."

"Apparently, you think common rules about things like breaking and entering don’t apply to you, Miss Frost. In fact, you seem to make your own judgments about all sorts of things," Linus said. "Including a Fenrir wolf at the resort. Our reports show that you let the wolf escape, first during the avalanche and then later on during the fight in the construction site, rather than alerting your professors to its presence so they could properly deal with the creature. Isn’t that correct?"

"The wolf wasn’t evil, not like Preston was," I said. "So yeah, I let her go. And she wasn’t just some creature. Her name was Nott, and she was my friend."

Linus, Agrona, Inari, and Sergei made some sort of notation on the papers in front of them. Metis and Ajax just sat there, still, silent, and unmoving. Raven discreetly flipped another page in her gossip magazine.

"Now, let’s go back to the fight," Linus said. "You say that Preston was the one who shot Oliver with a crossbow. Are you sure that you weren’t the one who actually pulled the trigger, Miss Frost?"

"Yes," I snapped. "I did not shoot Oliver. I did not cause the avalanche. I didn’t do anything but defend myself and my friends from Preston."

"And how exactly did you do that?" This time, Inari asked the question. "According to the information we’ve uncovered, your mother, Grace Frost, and your grandmother, Geraldine Frost, hid their involvement in the mythological world from you."

Beside me, Grandma Frost stiffened. I opened my mouth to respond, but she put her hand on my shoulder. "Let me, pumpkin."

Grandma Frost got to her feet and glared at Linus and the other members of the Protectorate. "We did that so our little girl wouldn’t grow up always being afraid of Reapers and Nemean prowlers and the like. You raise your children the way you see fit, spoiling them with fancy clothes and cars and jewelry. Well, we wanted her to have a normal life, at least for as long as possible, so yes, we hid our involvement, as you call it, in the mythological world from her. I thought it was the right decision back then, and I know it is now. My Gwen is a fine girl, a strong girl, and I couldn’t be prouder of her or love her more."

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, daring the members of the Protectorate to challenge her again, but none of them did.

"But the question remains," Inari said after my grandma finally sat back down. "You’d only been using weapons for a few months before going to the ski resort. So, how did you manage to defeat a Viking like Preston who’d been training his whole life for just such a fight?"