Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy #4)(53)
Author: Jennifer Estep

"Quiet!" Agrona Quinn hissed at the girl. "Do you want the guards to hear-"

I was so surprised that the rest of the memory slipped away, even though I could still hear Agrona muttering at Vivian. After a moment, even that vanished.

I drew in a shaky breath, opened my eyes, and glanced down at the book. The leather cover seemed to burn my fingers, but I knew that was just my shock at what I’d discovered.

Logan’s stepmom was really a Reaper of Chaos? I didn’t want to believe it. She’d seemed so calm, so nice, so good to the Spartan, helping Logan and smoothing things over with Linus whenever the two of them were arguing. Logan would be so hurt when he found out that she’d been lying to him and his dad this whole time.

Then, another thought occurred to me. Maybe-maybe Vivian had tampered with the book, planted some false memories in it, just like she’d done before when she was trying to keep me from figuring out that she was Loki’s Champion. Vivian’s telepathy let her do that sort of thing, made people see and feel things that weren’t really there-even me. For the first time, I really hoped that the Reaper girl was messing with me again.

I reached out with my psychometry, going back through all the images and memories, but I saw exactly what I had before. Vivian and Agrona talking about the book and finding a new body for Loki. The memories were all sharp and clear, and I didn’t get the sense they’d been tampered with in any way. Before, when I’d touched Vivian’s Janus ring, the one she’d planted the fake images on, it had felt like there was something slightly off about all the memories associated with the ring. But I didn’t get that sort of vibe from the book-not at all. No, the memories attached to it were genuine.

I’d been prepared to see Inari’s face, or Sergei’s, or even Linus’s. After all, I’d thought the Reaper was a man, because of the low voice I’d heard in the library, but Agrona must have found some way to disguise her voice. How, though? How could she do that-

And that’s when I remembered her gold necklace, the one I’d seen her fiddling with more than once-the one that was set with two rubies and two emeralds.

. . . the emeralds are believed to have a hypnotizing effect, while the topaz can cause hallucinations. However, the rubies are thought to be the most powerful and have a variety of magic attached to them, everything from letting people deceive others to even overcoming a person’s mind and compelling him or her to act against his or her own free will . . .

That’s what the card had said about the Apate jewels, and I was willing to bet that changing your voice would be easy to do with them. I frowned. But I’d seen Agrona wearing her necklace before the jewels had been stolen. Were there more gems out there with magical properties? I didn’t know, but it wasn’t really important right now.

Because the fact was that Agrona Quinn was a Reaper-which meant Logan and the rest of my friends were in big, big trouble.

"Well?" Alexei said. "What did you see?"

"Yeah, Gwen," Morgan chimed in. "Spill."

I shook my head. "Nothing good. I think-I think the Reapers are planning some kind of ritual, some way that they can transfer Loki’s soul or whatever into a new body. Is that even possible?"

Alexei’s face darkened at my words. "I’ve heard stories of such things from my father and other members of the Protectorate, but that’s all I thought they were-stories. So did my father. The fact that Loki is injured and weak from his imprisonment is all that gives us a chance of defeating him and the Reapers. If what you say is true, and this is what the Reapers are planning, if they manage to find a new body for him . . ." His voice trailed off. "Then Loki will be returned to his full strength-and no one will be able to stop him. Not even the gods themselves."

"In other words," Morgan said, "we’ll all be royally screwed."

"You don’t know the half of it," I replied.

I told them everything I’d seen and heard-including the fact that Agrona was really a Reaper.

Alexei’s eyes widened at the news, but then he frowned, thinking about it. "Agrona had access to Vivian," he finally said. "In fact, she was assigned to guard Vivian most of the time. It would have been easy for her to slip Vivian some of the Apate jewels to put on her ring."

"We have to warn Metis and the others," I said. "Right now, before it’s too late-"

"You aren’t going to be warning anyone about anything, Gypsy," a familiar, mocking voice called out.

Alexei, Morgan, and I all froze and looked toward the doorway. A figure stood there, blocking the exit. She was wearing a black robe, although the hood was down, and her face was visible. She wasn’t bothering to hide her real identity with a rubber Loki mask this time. She didn’t need to, not anymore.

Vivian Holler grinned at me.

Chapter 23

The Reaper girl stepped into the library. I immediately shoved the book at Alexei, lunged forward, reached into my messenger bag, and drew Vic out of his scabbard. Vivian also held a sword in her hand, one with a woman’s face inlaid in the hilt, and the bulging red eye snapped open and glared at me and Vic.

"Lucretia," Vic growled.

"So we meet again, Vic," the other sword answered in a low, feminine voice. "But you won’t make it through this fight."

"I’ll shut you up for good this time, you psychotic piece of steel!" Vic crowed.

Vivian clucked her tongue. "Temper, temper, little blade. Looks like your sword is just as bloodthirsty as mine is, Gwen. He’ll make a fine weapon for one of my Reaper friends when I take him out of your cold, dead hands."

"Dream on," I snarled. "I know what you’re up to, and I’m going to stop you, Vivian. You and Agrona and whoever else is involved."

She frowned. "How did you know about Agrona . . ." She looked at the book in Alexei’s hand. "The book. I forgot to use my magic on the book and muddle the memories so you couldn’t look at them with your stupid psychometry."

"Well, you have been a little busy, murdering people, framing me for your crimes, and whatnot," I said. "Hard to keep track of everything."

Vivian shrugged.

"How did you get away from the Protectorate? And why are you here now? Shouldn’t you be out helping your Reaper friends with the transformation? Getting ready to put Loki’s soul into one of his minions?"

"I got away from the Protectorate because I killed the three people who were guarding me," Vivian said. "They never saw it coming."

Alexei hissed in anger. Vivian smirked and gave him a saucy wink.

"Don’t worry, Bogatyr," she said. "You won’t have time to miss your precious Protectorate friends."