Midnight Frost (Mythos Academy #5)(24)
Author: Jennifer Estep

"Hey!" Oliver snapped. "I’m sleeping here!"

"What the – " Alexei muttered.

I didn’t bother yelling about how I was getting attacked by yet another Reaper. The guys would figure that out soon enough. Looked like Ajax’s plan to travel on the down low hadn’t worked quite as well as he and Metis had thought it would.

While the girl scrambled up off Oliver’s lap, I reached over and grabbed Vic.

"Look," I said, slipping out from behind the bench so that I was standing in the middle of the aisle. "A Reaper. Do you forgive me now?"

The sword eyed the girl, who was once again raising her sword and charging at me. "I’ll let you know after we kill her."

I didn’t have time to respond before the Reaper was on me.

Clash-clash-clang!

Up and down the aisle we fought, each one of us trying to drive her sword into the other. I ducked under the Reaper girl’s swing and shoved past her, putting myself between her and my friends. I glanced over my shoulder. Behind me, I could see Oliver trying to crawl over the benches in order to get behind the Reaper girl, while Alexei was struggling to pull his two swords out of his black backpack. I knew my friends wanted to help me, but there wasn’t time. Besides, I wanted to fight the Reaper, wanted to take my pain, anger, worry, and fear out on her. So I stepped up and focused on my enemy.

The girl was unbelievably quick, like all Amazons are, but the constant lurching of the train was messing with her balance more than it was mine. It made all of her attacks miss the mark by just that much. Through the windows, I could see a large curve coming up ahead, and I knew the train would lurch to the left. So I parried the girl’s blows and waited for the right moment.

A minute later, the train screeched around the curve just as the girl raised her sword over her head. Her vicious strike, along with the train’s rocking, put her even that much more off balance, and she almost fell onto one of the benches before she managed to right herself.

I leaned into the curve and let the train’s momentum carry me forward into the girl – and help me bury Vic’s sharp point in her stomach.

She sucked in a breath that was equal parts pain and surprise. The train swayed the other way, and I pulled the blade free.

The girl’s sword fell to the floor, and she pressed her hands to her stomach, her breath coming in short, painful gasps. She looked down in disbelief at all the blood gushing out of her wound, then back up at me. For a moment, a spark of Reaper red fire shimmered in her eyes. Then, it was abruptly snuffed out, like a light that had been turned off. The girl pitched forward onto one of the tables, her head cracking against the window, even as her legs went out from under her. She didn’t move after that.

Breathing hard, I stared down at the dead Reaper. I didn’t know her, had never seen her before, but the thing that struck me the most was that she appeared to be about the same age as Jason Anderson. Just a kid. Just like me. And now she was dead like he was – all because of me.

"Gwen?" Oliver slid free of the bench he’d been trying to crawl over, stepped forward, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I’m okay," I said. "She didn’t hurt me."

Not on the outside anyway, even though killing her had caused another little painful crack to zigzag across my heart. I wondered how many more cracks it could take before it crumbled completely.

Naturally, the fight had attracted the attention of the other passengers, and they scrambled to their feet and turned around to see what had caused all the commotion.

I let out a breath and raised Vic. "So do you forgive me now?"

"I might," the sword said. "If you live through the rest of the fight."

I frowned. "Rest of the fight? What are you talking about?"

Vic rolled his eye forward.

I looked in that direction and got my answer a second later. Because the folks in the front of the car weren’t getting up because they were concerned about the battle. Oh no. They were getting to their feet because they were all wearing long, black coats, just like the Reaper girl.

And because they all held sharp, curved swords, just like hers – and because every single person’s eyes were glowing that bright, eerie Reaper red.

Chapter 12

Oliver and Alexei realized what was happening the same time I did. Oliver cursed, while Alexei finally pulled his twin swords out of his backpack. Oliver grabbed my shoulder and shoved me behind him, so that I was standing in between him and Alexei.

"We need to get out of here," Alexei said.

The Bogatyr turned toward the back of the car. He hadn’t taken two steps in that direction before the door hissed open, and more people entered from that side, also wearing long, black coats and carrying swords. The fiery red glow from the Reapers’ eyes seemed to darken the inside of the train, despite the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

Alexei stopped short, and I almost rammed into him from behind.

"Trapped," he said in a voice loud enough for Oliver to hear. "Exit’s blocked."

"Same on my side," Oliver said, reaching down and grabbing a magazine from the slot on the back of one of the benches.

"Well, then," Alexei said, twirling his swords. "Let’s clear a path."

"My pleasure," Oliver replied, rolling the magazine into a long, thin, tight tube.

The two guys rushed forward to meet our enemies.

Clash-clash-clang!

Alexei’s twin swords smashed against the blade of the Reaper in front of him. Even though he could only maneuver from one side of the aisle to the other, Alexei never stopped moving, never stopped fighting, never stopped attacking. Bogatyrs had incredible endurance that way.

On his side of the car, Oliver ducked under a Reaper’s wide swing. The Spartan might not have had a traditional weapon, but he didn’t need one. He whipped the rolled-up magazine this way and that, slamming it into his opponent’s chest, throat, and face.

Thwack-thwack-thwack.

The Reaper choked and sputtered, trying to suck air back down into his lungs. While he was distracted, Oliver plucked the Reaper’s sword out of the other guy’s hand, flipped it around, and then stabbed the Reaper in the chest with his own weapon. I couldn’t see Oliver’s face, but he was probably grinning.

Logan would have been.

But as soon as that Reaper toppled to the floor, another stepped up to take his place – and all I could do was stand in the middle and watch my friends fight another battle for me.

I turned first one way, then the other, but the aisle wasn’t quite wide enough for me to get to the Reapers from where I was standing. At least, not without me pushing past Oliver or Alexei, and I couldn’t risk doing that for fear of spoiling their concentration. But I was determined to help my friends, so I hopped up onto the bench on my left and started crawling over it toward the back of the car, where the majority of the Reapers seemed to be coming from.