Midnight Frost (Mythos Academy #5)(55)
Author: Jennifer Estep

Oliver saw me watching him and winced. I thought of all the times he’d been texting on his phone the past few days. I’d thought he’d been talking to Kenzie back at the academy, but now, I knew better.

I narrowed my eyes. "You were texting with Logan this whole time. That’s why you were so certain he hadn’t been captured by Reapers. You knew he was here."

A guilty flush crept up Oliver’s neck, but he didn’t say anything.

"Um, hello. Totally lost right now. Who is this guy?" Rory asked, jerking her thumb at Logan. "And why are you all looking at him like you’ve just seen a ghost?"

Logan winced, but he stared at her. "I’m Logan Quinn."

Rory’s brow furrowed in confusion, but after a moment, her face brightened. "Oh. You’re the guy who went all Reaper on Gwen and tried to kill her. Right?"

"Yeah," Logan muttered. "That’s me."

Rory opened her mouth, but Daphne elbowed the other girl in the side and shot her a warning look. Rory glared at her and took a step forward, like she was going to shove Daphne, but Rachel stepped between them.

"That’s enough," she said, her eyes darting around the ruins as if she expected more Reapers to appear at any second. "We need to get out of here – right now."

Oliver gestured at the Reapers’ bodies. "But what about them? Don’t you want us to check them? They might be able to give us a clue as to where Vivian and Agrona went."

Ajax shook his head. "There’s no time. Vivian and Agrona could come back with reinforcements, not to mention the snow that’s going to start coming down soon. We need to get off the mountain and back to the academy as quickly as possible. So let’s move."

We all hurried to grab our backpacks and other gear from where they had fallen. Five minutes later, we walked out of the ruins, leaving nothing behind but dead Reapers, dead rocs, and a courtyard full of crushed, broken, blood-covered flowers.

Chapter 28

We headed toward the rope bridge at the edge of the ruins, weapons drawn, still keeping an eye out in case the Reapers had planned a second ambush. Despite the danger, I fell in step beside Logan at the back of the group.

He was carrying a curved, bloody sword that he’d gotten from one of the dead Reapers. Seeing him with the weapon made me think about how he’d stabbed me with a similar blade at the Aoide Auditorium, but I shoved the memory away. Logan was here now, and I had so many things I wanted to ask him – and so many things I wanted to tell him too.

"I think we can walk and talk at the same time," I said. "Don’t you?"

For a moment, I thought he might rush on past me, but he finally sighed and nodded. The two of us walked a few feet behind the others.

"So," I said. "You’re here."

"Yep. I’m here."

"You want to tell me about it?"

Logan sighed again. "Metis called my dad the night that Nickamedes was poisoned and let us know what was going on. I couldn’t sit around and do nothing, especially when Oliver told me you were coming out here to look for a cure – and that it was most likely a Reaper trap. So I got on one of the Protectorate’s private planes and flew out here. I arrived a couple of hours before you guys did."

"And what did your dad think of that?"

Logan shrugged. "He didn’t like it, but he let me come. Mainly because I told him that if he didn’t, I’d go to the nearest airport and buy a ticket to fly out here on my own."

"So what? You’ve been following us this whole time?"

He nodded. "I was already at the train station when you guys showed up. I even had a seat in your car, but I got up and moved to another one before you could spot me. My dad arranged for me to room in one of the guest dorms at the academy and then for a car to take me up to the park entrance. There’s another trail that runs parallel to the ones you guys used, so it was easy for me to follow you. I camped on the other side of the bridge last night, in case the Reapers decided to attack from that direction. I was packing up my gear to leave when I heard the rocs. So I raced across the bridge to come help you guys."

I thought of all the times over the past few days when it seemed like someone was watching me. "So you were at the train station, and it was you I saw in the stacks in the library. And you were watching me through the trees as we hiked up here yesterday."

"Guilty as charged."

I reached over and punched him in the shoulder. "Well, you scared the crap out of me. I thought you were some Reaper spy. Why would you do that? Why not let everyone know that you were here? And that you wanted to help? Why not let me know?"

Logan stared at me, a troubled, haunted look in his eyes. "Because I still don’t trust myself. Especially not when it comes to you, Gypsy girl."

Guilt filled his face, and he dropped his gaze from mine. I’d been so focused on my own nightmares, on my own anger, on my own pain, that I hadn’t stopped to think that Logan might have had the same kinds of feelings. That he might have spent the last few weeks reliving how Loki had infected his mind and forced him to attack me, just as I’d seen it dozens of times in my dreams.

"Didn’t you get my letter?" I asked in a soft voice. "None of it was your fault. It was all Vivian and Agrona. There was nothing you could have done against them. And I flashed on the letter you sent me. I saw how hard you fought against Loki himself – how hard you fought to keep from hurting me."

Logan let out a bitter laugh. "But I did hurt you. Sure, I fought – I fought Loki with all my might, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to keep me from stabbing you. I almost killed you. And who’s to say I won’t do that again? Maybe next time, you won’t be able to use your touch magic to get through to me. Maybe next time, Daphne and Metis won’t be there to heal you. Maybe next time, you’ll just be dead."

His voice cracked on the last word. More than anything else, I wanted to hug him and tell him it was okay, that everything was going to be okay, but he’d just sidestep me again before I could get too close to him. Even now, when we were walking, Logan made sure he was out of arm’s – and sword’s reach – of me.

"You won’t attack me again," I protested. "You’re free of Loki now. I saw that too. And I see it in your eyes now."

He gave me a grim smile. "Only because you used your psychometry on me. But you’re not always going to be around. What if he comes back? What if I go all Reaper again? What if I hurt someone else? I can’t take that chance – especially not with you."

His words broke my heart all over again, especially since I could see how much he was hurting. He could barely look at me, and even when he did, guilt twisted his features.