Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy #4)(5)
Author: Jennifer Estep

"No handcuffs, Dad," Logan repeated.

His body tensed, his hands clenched into fists, and he eyed Inari like he was thinking about tackling the other man and yanking the cuffs away from him.

"It’s okay, Logan," I said, not wanting him to get into trouble.

"No, it’s not okay. Nothing about this is okay."

Linus opened his mouth, probably to order Inari to slap the handcuffs on me anyway, but the anger still burning in Logan’s face made him reconsider. He stared at his son, then back at me.

"Fine," he snapped. "No handcuffs. I assume you won’t be so stupid as to try to escape."

I shook my head. No, I wasn’t that stupid. I knew there was no way I could get away from them. Maybe if I’d had a Valkyrie’s strength or an Amazon’s quickness, I might have had a chance, but not with just my psychometry magic.

"Good. Then let’s go," Linus said.

And with those words, the three members of the Protectorate made me step away from the fireplace and forced me to march out of the coffee shop.

Linus and Logan walked ahead of me, while I was flanked on the other three sides by Sergei, Inari, and Alexei. Together, the six of us left Kaldi’s.

As soon as the door shut behind Inari, I could hear the sharp screech-screech-screech of chairs being pushed back, along with the thump-thump-thump of footsteps. I looked over my shoulder. Everyone inside the shop had their faces and phones pressed up against the windows, trying to see what was going to happen next. I could have told them it wasn’t going to be anything good.

I shivered again, but not entirely from dread this time. It was mid-January, and the air was bitterly cold. Hard pellets of snow gusted on the fierce winter wind, battering against our bodies, and the sky above was dark and gray, as though all the blue had bled out of it, even though it wasn’t even four o’clock yet.

"Ah," Sergei said in a fond voice, turning his face to the howling wind. "It reminds me of Russia in the winter."

We set off down the sidewalk. Kaldi Coffee was located on the main street that ran through Cypress Mountain, and more and more people stuck their heads outside to stare at us as we passed. The ritzy suburb and all its high-end shops were here to see to the needs of everyone at Mythos Academy, so all the business owners and workers knew the score when it came to the mythological world. Most of them were former Mythos students themselves, who’d decided to settle down near the academy. The only folks who didn’t realize what was going on were the few tourists who’d braved the cold to come shopping. They glanced out the windows at me for a moment before going back to their browsing.

"You’re making a big mistake," Logan repeated. "Gwen didn’t free Loki-she tried to stop it from happening. We all did."

"All? By that, I assume you mean you and your new group of friends," Linus said. "Something else we need to discuss. I thought you were finally calming down and learning how to be a real fighter, but it seems like you’ve gotten yourself into even more trouble than usual. Starting with this girl."

I didn’t care if he was Logan’s dad and apparently some big shot within the Pantheon. The way he kept saying this girl like I was the worst of the worst grated on my last nerve.

"I have a name," I snapped. "It’s Gwen, Gwen Frost. Obviously, you know it since you announced it to the whole coffee shop."

Linus looked over his shoulder at me. "Do not test me, girl."

My hands clenched into fists, but there was nothing I could do about his cold words-or the fact that he seemed to hate me on sight. Not exactly how I’d pictured things going if I ever met Logan’s dad. Still, I drew in a breath, trying to push past my anger and fear and get to the bottom of things.

"Well, can you at least tell me where we’re going?" I asked.

"You’ll see," Linus said in a cryptic tone. "It’s not far."

We reached the last shop at the end of the street. I’d thought the Protectorate might shove me into a black SUV, since that’s how these things always seemed to go in the movies, but instead Linus crossed the street, and the other members of the Protectorate forced me to follow him. So they were taking me back to the academy. Good. At least I had friends there, folks like Professor Metis. She’d know what was going on and figure out how to make the Protectorate realize this was all just a big misunderstanding. That I hadn’t freed Loki on purpose, that I’d done everything I could to keep the evil god locked away, even if I’d completely failed at it.

The main, black iron gate to the academy stood open, since the students had been given the afternoon off. No one looked up as we passed the two stone sphinxes perched on the twelve-foot-high walls on either side of the gate-except me.

Like all the statues at the academy, the sphinxes always seemed to be watching me with their open, lidless eyes, like they were just waiting for me to do something stupid so they could come to life, break free of their stone shells, leap down, and rip me to pieces. I wasn’t quite as creeped out by the statues as I used to be, but their fierce expressions still made me pause and glance up at them whenever I walked through the gates.

But today, the sphinxes’ heads were bowed, and their eyes were fixed on their feet, almost as if they were afraid to look up as the members of the Protectorate marched me past them. Weird. Even for Mythos. If there was one thing I could always count on, it was for the statues to be watching me. Now that they weren’t, it almost felt like a pair of friends turning their backs to me in a deliberate snub.

"Keep moving," Inari said.

I dropped my gaze from the sphinxes and stepped forward.

As we walked, Logan kept arguing with his dad, while Sergei and Inari remained silent. Alexei was on my right, and he kept staring at me, curiosity shining in his hazel eyes. Once again, I wondered what kind of warrior he was. I didn’t get the same I-can-kill-you-with-a-stick-of-gum vibe off him that I did from Logan, but I could tell that he was dangerous just like the Spartan was.

We wound our way along the ash-gray cobblestone paths that crisscrossed campus, eventually passing by my dorm, Styx Hall. I looked up at the turret where my room was. I wondered if the Protectorate knew about Nyx, the Fenrir wolf pup that I was taking care of. Worry tightened my stomach. If they knew about Nyx, they would probably take her away from me. Most members of the Pantheon didn’t trust creatures like Fenrir wolves because the Reapers enslaved, poisoned, and trained so many of them to kill warriors.

But I’d promised Nott, Nyx’s mom, that I’d look after the wolf pup, and that’s exactly what I was going to do. I wouldn’t tell Linus and the others about Nyx, I vowed. No matter what they did to me. My mom had been a police detective, so I knew all about having your rights read to you, keeping your mouth shut, and asking for a lawyer. Sure, the Protectorate had said that I was under arrest, that I was going to be put on trial, but I had no illusions that meant the same thing at Mythos as it did in the regular mortal realm. In fact, I was willing to bet that it was going to be a lot, lot worse.