Midnight Frost (Mythos Academy #5)(41)
Author: Jennifer Estep

I looked at my friends. They all nodded their heads in agreement.

Daphne cracked her knuckles, causing pink sparks of magic to hiss in the air around her. "Gwen’s right. The Reapers will bring it – and so will we."

Ajax stared at us all in turn. Whatever he saw in our eyes seemed to satisfy him because he finally nodded. "All right," he said. "Let’s do this."

We got out of the van. It seemed even colder now than it had yesterday, or maybe that was because I knew there wouldn’t be a hot shower and a warm bed waiting for me at the end of this day. Instead, we’d find someplace to camp in the ruins, which meant a fire, some tents, and a sleeping bag spread over the snowy, rocky ground – and that was if the Reapers didn’t attack us first.

Rachel led us through the parking lot and over to a trailhead, which was marked with a small sign. The wind had worn most of the paint off the wood, but I could still make out the figure of the goddess Eir on the marker, her finger pointing up, as though she was personally directing us to the ruins. I shivered, shouldered my backpack, and fell in step with the others.

Rachel took the lead, followed by Rory, then Covington. Daphne and Carson followed the librarian, with Oliver and Alexei behind them. I was in the back with Ajax trailing along behind me. We walked in silence.

I wasn’t really an outdoors sort of girl, preferring to curl up in my room and read comic books and graphic novels, but even I had to admit this was a pretty place to hike. There was more snow on the mountain than down at the academy, several inches in some of the higher drifts. Snow-crusted pine trees lined either side of the trail, while needles that were longer than my fingers and pinecones bigger than my fist stuck up out of the white powder here and there. The sharp tang of the trees’ sap permeated the air, mixing with the crisp scent of the snow. A few birds fluttered back and forth in the branches, softly chirping to each other.

Every once in a while, a dark shadow would zoom over the trail and across the forest, causing the other birds to scream and take flight from their warm roosts. The third time it happened, I looked up, trying to figure out what was causing the birds to freak out.

Ajax touched my shoulder. "Gryphons," he explained. "Don’t worry. They rarely attack humans, especially a group as large as ours."

Well, that didn’t exactly make me feel better, but I nodded and walked on. There was nothing else I could do.

But the farther up the mountain we trudged, the more I became convinced that someone was following us.

I don’t know exactly when I noticed it, but I sensed a shadow on my left, moving parallel to me through the forest. This vague shape I could almost see out of the corner of my eye. If I sped up, the shadow sped up. If I slowed down, it did too. Several times I looked straight ahead before snapping my head to the left, trying to get a better look at whatever it was. But I only saw trees and more trees. If Ajax thought my behavior was strange, he didn’t comment on it. Then again, it wasn’t the weirdest thing I’d ever done.

Finally, I got fed up with trying to spot the mysterious shadow and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. If there was a Reaper or someone or something else out there, it seemed content to follow alongside us and not attack. I guessed I’d have to be happy with that – for now.

We’d been hiking for about an hour when Rachel called a halt near a stream. The water running between the two banks was sluggish, since a thin layer of ice covered most of it. But it was a nice spot, and we sat down on the flat rocks along the bank and dug some snacks out of our backpacks.

"Everybody take a breather for a few minutes," Rachel said. "We still have at least another hour to go before we make it to the ruins at the top."

We’d grabbed some trail mix from the dining hall this morning, and I tore into my packet. Dried mango and apricots mixed with tart cherries, big chunks of dark chocolate, slivered almonds, and honey-toasted oats. The flavors exploded on my tongue, a perfect mix of sweet and salty, with a great crunch and a hint of sour from the cherries. Yum. So good.

After we finished our snack and chugged down some water, Daphne, Rory, and I headed into the woods to answer the call of nature, so to speak. All the while, though, I kept scanning the trees for that mysterious shadow I’d spotted earlier. But I didn’t see or hear anything, and I didn’t get the sense that I was still being watched. Maybe it had just been some animal following us. That’s what I told myself anyway, even if I didn’t really believe it.

The three of us started to head back to the others when a soft whine sounded.

I froze, wondering if I was only imagining things, but the whine came again. That sounded like . . . Nyx.

I frowned. But there was no way the wolf pup could be here. She was back at the academy, safe and sound with Grandma Frost. But the small, plaintive wail came again, indicating that some sort of critter was in trouble. So instead of following the others back toward the trail, I veered off into the trees.

"Gwen?" Daphne asked, finally noticing I wasn’t following along behind her and Rory. "Where are you going?"

"Don’t you hear that? It’s coming from this direction."

She sighed and put her hands on her hips. "And of course you’re going to go see what it is, despite the fact that the woods are probably crawling with Reapers. Sometimes, Gwen, I think you’re going to be the death of me."

I paused long enough to stick my tongue out at her, then headed deeper into the woods. After a moment, Daphne and Rory followed me. I stopped every few feet, looking and listening. I also drew Vic out of the scabbard belted to my waist.

The sword yawned and slowly opened his eye. "What’s going on? Are we at the ruins already? Are there Reapers for me to kill?"

"I’m not sure," I whispered. "Stand by."

I kept going into the woods, with Daphne and Rory behind me. The Valkyrie had nocked an arrow in her bow, but the Spartan girl wasn’t carrying any weapons. Then again, she didn’t need them. Rory could pick up a twig and stab someone to death with it or slice open a Reaper’s throat with the edge of a frozen leaf.

"You know there are bears out here, right?" Rory said. "Great big grizzlies. Believe me when I tell you that you do not want to come face-to-face with one of them."

"They can’t be any worse than Reapers, can they?" I quipped.

Rory muttered something under her breath about me being flat-out crazy. I grinned and walked on.

The cries grew louder and more plaintive the farther we went, almost as if whatever was out there could hear us approaching and knew that it couldn’t escape before we found it. Finally, we crouched down behind a tree several feet away from whatever was making the noise. Even though it sounded like a wounded animal, I wasn’t going to rush toward it. Daphne was right when she said the forest was probably full of Reapers, and this could easily be one of their traps.