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

Vic? He knew about Vic? How?

"Come on, Sergei," the leader said in an impatient tone. "Let’s get on with it."

"In a moment, Linus," Sergei, the short man, replied. "There’s no use frightening and confusing the girl any more than you already have. We’re supposed to be civilized about these things, remember?"

Sergei winked at me, his hazel eyes sly and almost merry in his tan face.

"Well, I agree with Linus," the third, thin man said. "We have a schedule to keep."

"Bah," Sergei said, waving his hand. "We should be able to make our own schedules, don’t you think, Inari?"

Inari shrugged his slender shoulders. "We go where we’re told, just like we always do."

"Sergei," Linus said, a clear warning in his voice.

He sighed. "Very well."

Sergei stepped forward and held out his hand, reaching for me. I tightened my grip on the napkin holder and edged away from him that much more, backing myself into the corner. I wasn’t going anywhere with these men without a fight-

"Dad? What are you doing here?" a familiar voice called out.

Logan let the bathroom door close behind him and moved over to stand next to Linus, the leader.

"Sergei? Inari?" Logan asked, echoing the men’s names. "What’s going on?"

The Spartan looked surprised to see the three men, but unlike the other people in the shop, he didn’t seem frightened by them. Then again, Logan wasn’t scared of anything. Not Nemean prowlers, not murderous Reapers, not even my magic and the fact that I’d killed another guy with it. Nothing ever rattled the Spartan, not even the sudden appearance of three mystery men wearing creepy robes.

Logan obviously knew the men, knew exactly who they were, but that didn’t ease my mind. Not at all. If anything, it only added to my tension, especially since he’d called one of them Dad.

And the men knew Logan too, enough to greet him. Sergei gave him a hearty slap on the back, while Inari respectfully nodded his head. Linus nodded his head as well, although his posture was still stiff, and his face remained cold. If anything, I could feel his dislike for me increase, as he looked back and forth between me and the Spartan.

"Logan?" I asked. "Who are these men?"

"Sergei Sokolov, Inari Sato, and my dad, Linus Quinn."

A sinking feeling filled my stomach. Why, oh why, couldn’t Sergei have been Logan’s dad instead? He at least seemed somewhat friendly. Linus, not so much. Not at all, in fact.

"And what do they want with me?" I asked. "Why are they here to arrest me?"

Logan frowned. "They’re members of the Protectorate, which is basically the police force for the mythological world. But why would they want to arrest you? There must be some mistake."

"There’s no mistake," Linus said. "Unless there’s some other girl I don’t know about who helped Loki escape."

Shocked gasps rippled through the coffee shop, and everyone looked at me. After a few seconds, the surprised stares shifted to horrified looks that quickly melted into harsh, accusing, angry glares. Now, all the kids had pulled out their phones and were taking photos of me and texting them as fast as they could. The news would be all over the academy in minutes.

Sergei stepped to one side and gestured with his hand. I hadn’t noticed him before, but a guy about my own age had followed the three men into the shop. He looked like a younger, taller, leaner version of Sergei, with the same hazel eyes, dark brown hair, and tan skin.

"Alexei, my boy, watch her," Sergei said.

Alexei moved over to stand next to me. He wasn’t wearing a robe like the men were, but I could tell by the easy, confident way he moved that he was a fighter, a warrior whiz kid just like I was. Maybe a Roman, maybe a Viking, maybe something else. I had no way of knowing, and this wasn’t exactly the right time to ask.

"Alexei Sokolov?" Logan asked, more confusion creeping into his voice.

Alexei tipped his head at the Spartan, but he never took his eyes off me. "Hello, Logan." He had the same Russian accent his dad did.

Logan looked at Alexei, then Sergei and Inari in their gray robes. Finally, he whirled around to Linus.

"What’s going on, Dad? Why are you here? And why are you arresting Gwen?"

Linus put his arm around his son’s shoulders. "Because it’s my job as the head of the Protectorate. You know that."

Logan shook his head. "It’s your job to protect the members of the Pantheon, to hunt down Reapers and put them in prison where they belong, not show up out of the blue and harass my friend for no reason."

Linus’s face tightened until it looked as hard as the stone fireplace behind me. "This-this girl is no friend of yours." He spat out the words. "She’s the reason that Loki is free, and she’s going to stand trial and be punished for it-all of it."

Trial? Punished? Me? Every word he said made my fear and dread grow that much more. Despite the heat of the fire, I felt cold and numb. Oh yeah, I was in serious trouble, only this time it wasn’t from Reapers who wanted to kill me-it was from the Protectorate, a group I’d never even heard of until five minutes ago.

"Get the handcuffs on her, and let’s go," Linus said. "We’ll continue this discussion later, Logan, and you can tell me exactly what you were doing here with this . . . girl."

Inari pushed back his robe, reached into his pants pocket, and came up with a pair of silver handcuffs. He held them out, but I kept my body plastered against the fireplace wall, wishing I could press myself through the stone and out the other side. I didn’t always have to touch something to get a vibe off it, especially if an object had a lot of strong feelings and memories attached to it. Inari’s handcuffs radiated with fear, rage, and desperation-all twisted and gnarled together like invisible strands of barbed wire stabbing into me.

I didn’t want those handcuffs anywhere near me, much less touching my skin and forcing me to see, feel, and experience everything that all the people who’d worn the cuffs had. None of the memories, none of the feelings, would be good. Not with all those ugly emotions already emanating from the metal. I shivered and dropped my gaze. It made me sick to my stomach just to look at them.

"No," Logan said, noticing my reaction. He knew what would happen if they put the handcuffs on me. "No handcuffs. Gwen doesn’t deserve them. She doesn’t deserve any of this. You’re making a huge mistake."

"There’s no mistake," Linus said, his voice hardening. "Except that it seems you have the same foolish fondness for Frost women that your uncle did."

Anger stained Logan’s cheeks. He’d told me once that his father didn’t get along with his uncle, Nickamedes, the head librarian at the academy, but it looked like there was more bad blood between them than Logan had let on-and that it somehow involved my mom, Grace Frost.