Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy #4)(45)
Author: Jennifer Estep

All of my friends came over and hugged me in turn. Oliver, Carson, Daphne, and finally Logan, who held me close and didn’t let me go.

"How was it?" he asked, his blue eyes searching mine.

"Awful," I said. "But the worst part was that Vivian was there."

"What?!" Daphne said, her voice rising to almost a scream, and pink sparks exploding in the air around her. "What was she doing at your trial?"

"Blaming me for everything she’s done," I said.

We weren’t the only kids on the quad, and Daphne’s shout made the others turn to look at us. I stared back at the other students, once again feeling their anger wash over me, but this time, I also wondered which of them might be Reapers-and plotting against us. Vivian hadn’t been the only Reaper student at Mythos, and I had no idea how many other kids she had spying on me and my friends. Yeah, maybe I was being paranoid, but I didn’t want to talk about my trial out here in the open where just anyone could walk by and hear.

"Come on," I told my friends. "Let’s get inside out of the cold, and I’ll tell you all about it."

We ended up squeezing into my dorm room. Once again, Alexei had trailed me across campus. He stopped in the hallway outside my room and leaned against the wall as usual. His face was smooth, but his shoulders sagged just the slightest bit, and I could tell he was tired, just like I was.

I stood in the doorway. "Would you like to come inside?"

He shook his head. "I don’t think that would be a good idea."

I nodded. I knew he was still smarting from the talking-to Linus had given him last night, and I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to get on the Protectorate leader’s bad side. Still, I felt I owed him something. The Bogatyr had fought alongside my friends in the library, and he’d helped us survive. He wasn’t a bad guy, just caught in an awkward situation. If things had been different, we might have even become friends.

"Well, if you change your mind, just open the door and come on in," I said.

A smile flickered across Alexei’s face, but it quickly vanished. "I will be just fine out here."

I nodded, went into my room, and closed the door behind me.

The others had already settled in. Daphne and Carson were sitting cross-legged on the floor, while Oliver slouched in my desk chair. Vic was hanging in his scabbard on the wall above Oliver’s head, and the sword’s eye snapped open as I walked across the room to him.

"Well, it’s about time you got back," Vic said. "Do you know how bloody boring it is being stuck here wondering what’s going on? Why, I didn’t even have the fuzzball to keep me company this afternoon."

My gaze went to Nyx’s empty basket, and a hollow ache filled my chest. "I miss her too," I told the sword. "And I missed having you with me today."

I gave Vic a pat on the head, which seemed to mollify him. Then, I went over and plopped down on the bed next to Logan.

"You know, this is the first time I’ve been in your room. I like it, although I didn’t think we’d have an audience when we were in here," the Spartan whispered to me.

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help the smile that stretched across my face. Only Logan could crack a joke and make me feel better at a time like this.

"All right, Gwen," Daphne said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You’ve kept us waiting long enough. Spill it."

I told them everything that had happened in the academy prison, from the Protectorate’s questions to the Maat asp to Vivian claiming that she was really Nike’s Champion.

Oliver let out a low whistle when I was finished. "Vivian’s even more diabolical than I thought."

"You’re telling me," I said. "No wonder she was in the drama club. She really is a great actress. She was so convincing that even I might have believed her, if I didn’t know what really happened. And I couldn’t do a thing to stop her. Not then, anyway."

"Uh-oh," Daphne muttered. "I know that look. What are you up to, Gwen?"

"What makes you think I’m up to something?"

The Valkyrie snorted. "You’re breathing, aren’t you?"

I glared at my friend.

Carson pushed his glasses up his nose. "Daphne has a point, Gwen. You do tend to . . . take matters into your own hands, especially when it comes to Reapers."

I turned my glare to the band geek, who winced and ducked his head.

"Come on, Gypsy girl," Logan said. "You might as well tell us what you’re thinking. We’re your friends. We’re here because we want to help you."

"The boy’s right," Vic chimed in. "Help you, kill Reapers, it’s really all the same."

I looked at them-Daphne, Carson, Oliver, Vic, and finally Logan. When I’d first started going to Mythos back in the fall, I hadn’t had a single friend-not one. Now, I had them, and they’d stood by me again and again, even when all I did was put them in danger. But I could see the determination in their faces, and I knew they wouldn’t leave until I told them everything. Hot tears of love and gratitude pricked my eyes, and it took me a few seconds to blink them away.

"All right," I said, letting out a breath. "So I may be thinking about finding out what Vivian and the Reapers are really up to, but there’s just one problem-I don’t know how to do it. Supposedly, the Protectorate has Vivian under guard somewhere, at least until they decide what to do with the two of us. So it’s not like I can go and question her-and she wouldn’t tell me the truth anyway. Even if I could find out where she is, the Reaper inside the Protectorate would stop me from getting to her."

"What?!" Daphne yelled. "What do you mean, the Reaper inside the Protectorate?"

That’s when I told them my suspicions about the ruby chips on Vivian’s ring and how I thought one of the Protectorate members had to be working with her.

"Who do you think it is?" Logan asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe Inari? The Reaper leader had the same sort of slender build that he does. But who knows? Vivian found a way to fool me, so this Reaper might have too. Inari, Sergei, Agrona, Linus. It could be any one of them."

He stared at me. "My dad is not a Reaper, and I don’t think any of the others are either. I’ve known Inari and Sergei for years. They helped train me. And Agrona is my stepmom."

I hesitated. I didn’t want to believe it either, but Vivian couldn’t have planned all this by herself, and I’d seen her look at someone on the dais during the trial.

"I don’t want to believe it’s your dad," I finally said. "But we all know that anything’s possible when it comes to Reapers."

Logan kept staring at me, his face pinched with hurt, but I didn’t say anything else. Nobody spoke for a minute. Finally, Oliver cleared his throat.