Midnight Frost (Mythos Academy #5)(70)
Author: Jennifer Estep

What they didn’t realize was that it was all real.

That those in the mythological world were locked in a struggle that had carried over into modern times – and that it was up to warrior whiz kids like me and Daphne to make sure the good guys of the Pantheon won.

That’s right. Me, Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who touched stuff and saw things, was officially responsible for saving the world. Something I wasn’t doing so well at so far, since I’d gotten my ass kicked more times than I cared to remember by some seriously bad guys. But no matter how terrible things got, I kept on fighting. It was the only thing I could do.

I’d come to the coliseum in search of a net that had supposedly belonged to Ran, the Norse goddess of storms. Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, had tasked me, her Champion, with finding such mythological artifacts and protecting them from the Reapers of Chaos. Something else I wasn’t doing so well at.

"Well?" Daphne asked. "What do you have to say for yourself, Gwen?"

I looked at the brochure I’d grabbed from a metal rack by the front door. "That the net is in one of the rooms in the back. So come on."

The Valkyrie kept glaring at me, but I was used to her temper. Daphne’s bark was always worse than her bite – unless you were a Reaper.

I batted my eyelashes at her. "Pretty please?"

"Of course it’s in the back," Daphne muttered, but she fell in step beside me.

It was a cold afternoon in late January, just before closing time. Given the bitter winter chill and snow showers outside, we were the only ones in the coliseum, besides a few staff members wearing long white togas who were taking inventory in the gift shop.

None of the staff gave us a second glance, despite the sparks of magic Daphne was still giving off. Mythos Academy students like us came into the coliseum all the time to look at the exhibits and gather information for reports, essays, and other homework assignments. Most of the staff members were former Mythos students themselves, so they knew all about the mythological world and the Valkyries, Spartans, Amazons, and other warriors who inhabited it.

We walked through the main room of the coliseum, which was filled with glass artifact cases. The silver and bronze swords and spears all glinted with a dull, bloody light, while the jewels in the rings and necklaces winked like evil eyes opening and closing, following my every move. The gauzy silks hovered in midair, as if they were ghosts about to break free of the wires holding them up, burst through the glass, and attack.

I shivered and quickened my steps. Bloody weapons. Winking eyes. Ghostly garments. My Gypsy gift was acting up again.

"Geez, Gwen," Daphne muttered again. "Slow down. It’s not a race."

I bit my lip to keep from telling her that it was a race – us against the Reapers – and forced myself to walk at a more normal pace. We left the main room behind and stepped into a long hallway.

"It’s all the way in the back," I said, pointing up ahead. "In a room next to the library."

Daphne sighed, and another shower of pink sparks streaked out of her fingertips.

"Look," I said. "I know you’re getting tired of chasing after artifacts, but the net I saw on the coliseum’s Web site looked like the one we’re searching for. So I figured we might as well come and check it out. Besides, it’s not like we were doing anything else important."

"Oh no," she sniped. "It’s not like I wanted to spend the afternoon with my boyfriend or anything."

"I asked Carson to come too," I said, referring to her boyfriend, Carson Callahan, "but he had that band meeting about rescheduling the winter concert that the Reapers ruined."

Daphne snorted. "Ruined is a bit of an understatement, don’t you think?"

I grimaced. She was right. Ruined didn’t even come close to describing the horror show the concert had turned into when Reapers had crashed the event, killed members of the ruling Protectorate, and taken others hostage, along with Mythos students. The Reapers had intended to murder everyone at the Aoide Auditorium as a blood sacrifice to the evil Norse god Loki. I’d stopped their plan, but it had cost me – more than I cared to remember.

"Well, at least Gwen decided to look for this artifact during the day," a voice with a cool Russian accent chimed in. "Instead of dragging me over to the Library of Antiquities in the middle of the night like she did last week."

I looked over to my left at Alexei Sokolov. With his dark brown hair, tan skin, and rugged features, Alexei was as handsome as any movie star, but he was also the Bogatyr warrior who served as my bodyguard.

"You’re just grumpy Oliver couldn’t come with us today," I said.

Alexei smiled, and his hazel eyes softened at the thought of Oliver Hector, the Spartan he was involved with. "Maybe."

"And you’re just grumpy Logan’s not here," Daphne sniped again.

Her words surprised me, and I stumbled over my own feet, even as my heart twisted in my chest.

Daphne caught my arm and pulled me upright with her great Valkyrie strength. She winced at the miserable expression on my face.

"I’m sorry, Gwen. I didn’t mean that – "

I held up my hand, cutting her off. "No, it’s fine. We all know it’s true. I am grumpy about Logan."

Another understatement. Spartan Logan Quinn was the best fighter at Mythos Academy. Over the last few months, he’d taught me everything I knew about weapons and how to use them.

He was also the guy I loved – and the one who’d attacked me and then left the academy.

"Gwen?" Alexei asked.

I snapped out of my dark thoughts. "I’m fine. Let’s see if the net is here."

We hurried to the end of the hallway and the last exhibit room in this part of the coliseum. According to a sign on the wall, this area was devoted to gods and goddesses of the sea, the sky, and all the storms that raged between them. I put my messenger bag down in the corner, then went from one case to the next, staring at all of the artifacts. They included everything from splintered planks of the doomed boat that the Greek warrior Odysseus had tried to sail home in to a couple of gold tridents that had supposedly belonged to Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Finally, I spotted a bronze plaque that read Ran’s fishing net, and I stepped over to that case.

A net made out of something that looked like light gray seaweed lay beneath the glass, along with a small white ID card. I’d have to remember to take that with me too. Hopefully, it would tell me what was so important about the net. I leaned even closer to the glass, studying the artifact.

Thanks to my psychometry, I never forgot anything I saw, so I was able to pull up my memories of the drawing that featured the artifacts I was supposed to find for Nike. I compared the net before me to the one in the drawing. It was a perfect match.