Midnight Frost (Mythos Academy #5)(35)
Author: Jennifer Estep

"Whatever," he finally muttered. "She’s not worth it anyway. None of the Forsetis are."

He stalked over to his friends, and they all sat down at their table and put their heads together. From the laughter, curses, and jeers, I knew they were talking about us – about my dad.

Suddenly, the dining hall seemed hot, small, and stuffy. I couldn’t breathe, and what air I did manage to draw in came right back out in a series of choked gasps. I reached down, fumbled for my messenger bag, and straightened up.

"Gwen?" Daphne asked, her black eyes full of concern.

I shook my head. "I just – I need to be alone for a few minutes. Okay?"

Alexei started to come with me, whether I wanted him to or not, but Oliver put a hand on his arm.

"It’s okay," Oliver said. "Let her go."

I hurried out of the dining hall without another word.

I wound up in the Library of Antiquities, just like I usually did back home whenever something was on my mind. Some new torture the Reapers had put me through, some horrible new secret I’d learned, some new way my heart had been broken once more.

I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going, so I was halfway down the main aisle before I spotted Ajax and Covington standing behind the checkout counter, talking. I didn’t want them to see me and wave me over, so I slipped into the stacks and headed up to the second level to Nike’s statue. I threw my messenger bag down and curled up in a ball on the floor at her feet.

Vic was sticking out of the top of the bag, and he opened his purplish eye and regarded me with a serious, pitying expression.

"I take it you heard all that in the dining hall?" I asked.

"I did. I’m sorry, Gwen."

"Did you know? About my dad?"

Vic winced, telling me what I already suspected. He’d known this whole time that my dad had been a Reaper, and he’d never said a word to me – not one word. I wondered what else he knew that I didn’t, how many other secrets he’d been keeping to himself.

He opened his mouth. "But it’s not as bad as you think – "

"Shut up, Vic," I muttered. "I don’t want to hear it right now."

Vic stared at me a moment longer, then slowly closed his eye.

I didn’t bother raising my head and speaking to Nike. She wouldn’t answer me. Not now, not here. Besides, I didn’t want to talk about things. Not yet. Just when I thought I knew all there was to know about my family, something else like this popped up. I wondered how many more secrets I could take before I started screaming and never stopped –

A shoe scuffed on the floor behind me.

My head snapped around, and I stretched my hand out toward Vic, ready to draw the sword and defend myself against the Reaper that was no doubt sneaking up on me.

Even as I reached for the sword, I cursed myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Gwen! Ajax had told us to stick together, but I’d rushed off in a snit like a complete idiot, just like I always did, and some Reaper had seen this as an opportunity to try to kill me, probably the mysterious figure I’d noticed in the stacks earlier . . .

I blinked and stopped my hasty scramble, my arm stretched out in midair – because the balcony was empty. My gaze zoomed left and right, and up and down, but the scene didn’t change, and no Reapers erupted out of the shadows. I slowly lowered my hand. I kept looking around, peering at all of the logs, rocks, and statues, but no one was there. Still, I felt someone was watching me – a real, live someone and not just all the statues that had their heads turned in my direction.

I scooted around so that my back was pressed up against Nike’s feet and made sure Vic was within easy reach, just in case any Reapers appeared. Then, I went back to my brooding.

I hadn’t been sitting by the statue long, maybe five minutes, when boots scuffed on the floor again. I tensed, but this person wasn’t trying to hide her approach. She rounded the corner and stepped into view. She hesitated a moment before squaring her shoulders, walking over, and plopping down beside me.

"I thought I might find you here," Rory said.

"Yay for you, Nancy Drew," I muttered.

"Your goddess, huh?" she said, twisting her neck so she could look up at the statue.

"Yeah."

We didn’t speak for a few moments. Right now, I never wanted to speak to her again. But once more, the questions bubbled up in my mind, and I couldn’t keep myself from wanting to know the answers, from wanting to know every last part and ugly truth of this deep, dark, dirty family secret that had been shoved out into the light for everyone to see – including me.

"You could have just told me," I finally said, my voice cracking a little on the words.

She grimaced. "I know. I’m sorry about that. It’s just . . . it hurts, you know? It hurts so much."

I did know, but it still took me a moment to gather the courage to ask my questions. "What happened?"

She shrugged. "I don’t know. Not really. One day, I’m just a girl, going through my first semester at Mythos Academy, dealing with classes and professors and stuff. The next day, my parents are dead. Then, it comes out that my parents were Reapers, had always been Reapers, and that they were trying to steal a bunch of artifacts from the library when Covington caught them. But instead of surrendering, they tried to fight their way free and killed some kids before Covington managed to take them out."

So that was why she didn’t like the librarian – he’d killed her parents. Yeah, they’d been Reapers, but he was still responsible for their deaths.

Rory sucked in a breath and finished her story. "And if all that’s not bad enough, I also find out that my parents had been secret Reaper assassins for years. The rest . . . well, you saw the rest in the dining hall."

"I’m sorry," I said. "That’s awful."

She shrugged again, trying to pretend she didn’t care, trying to pretend it didn’t matter, trying to pretend it didn’t hurt. "The funny thing is that my parents were always talking about how important it was for me to learn how to fight. To be a good Spartan so I could protect other people from Reapers. And then, they turn out to be Reapers themselves. And not just any Reapers – but some of the worst of the worst."

"I’m sorry," I repeated. I didn’t know what else to say. No words would make it better. Not for her – and not for me either.

Rory let out a bitter laugh. "And you know what the really twisted thing is? I still love them. They were my parents, and they were Reapers, but I still love them anyway. I still wish they were here with me instead of being dead. What kind of person does that make me?"

"Just a girl," I said. "Just a girl."