Dark Frost (Mythos Academy #3)(51)
Author: Jennifer Estep

But I had to do this. According to Nike, finding the dagger and moving it to another, safer location was the key to keeping Loki locked away in his prison. Protecting the dagger was what would prevent the evil god from gathering his army of Reapers together and trying to take over the world again.

I’d already seen people die this week, students I went to school with, kids my own age who hadn’t deserved to have their lives cut short. I’d seen the tears and fear of the other students and everyone else on campus, and I could only imagine what the families of the murdered kids were going through, the grief eating away at their hearts. I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt; I didn’t want anyone else to go through that kind of pain ever again.

I thought of my mom and how clever and brave she’d been hiding the dagger to start with. Even though she was gone, I still wanted to make her proud of me. Her and Grandma Frost and all my other ancestors who’d served Nike over the centuries. I wanted to be worthy of the magic the goddess had gifted me with, and protecting the dagger from the Reapers was one way I could do that.

But first, I had to find the dagger, and this was my best lead so far-and maybe my last chance. All I had to do was lean forward and touch the stone, and I’d get the answers to my questions-one way or another.

Heart hammering, I drew in a shaky breath, brushed my fingers against the cold stone, and waited for my magic to come to life-and maybe the gryphon along with it.

Chapter 21

The images and memories immediately slammed into my mind, like a tidal wave washing away everything else.

I got the sense that the gryphon was old, ancient even, in the same way that Vic was. And like Vic, there was a-a spark in the statue, some sort of force or spirit that I could feel staring at me from deep, deep inside the stone. The force reminded me of the burning red eyes-Loki’s eyes-that were always watching me whenever I used my psychometry to slip into Preston’s mind. But the statue didn’t radiate the same malevolence the Reaper and the crimson eyes did. Instead, what I felt was more of a … watchful presence. Like the gryphon was guarding not only the library but all the kids who passed by it on a daily basis and even the academy at large, just like Metis had said. It filled me with a sense of peace, safety, and comfort.

I stood there, eyes closed, my hand pressed against the cold stone, trying to make sense of all the images flashing through my mind. There were thousands of them, stretching back and back and back in time. Seasons came and went in the blink of an eye. Snow melted into spring, the summer sun beat down, fall leaves swirled by, and then the snow came again. All through the seasons, all through the long years, kids leaned on the statue and walked past it and a few even stuck used pieces of gum on it. Yucko.

After a few seconds, the first, overwhelming rush of memories and feelings faded away, slowing to a steady stream, and I was able to start sorting through the images, looking for a specific one attached to a very specific person. I ignored the flashes of guys touching, leaning against, or sitting on the statue, instead focusing on the ones of all the girls who’d been close to the gryphon over the years. Not her or her or even her … but her!

The memory almost slid by before I could grab hold of it, but I managed to catch it before it disappeared into the dark of my mind. I ignored the other images still slipping by and brought the one I wanted into focus.

The memory took place on a cold night much like this one. A girl my own age stood in front of the gryphon statue. Brown hair, violet eyes, pale skin dotted with freckles. Her face was as familiar to me as my own was, although I would never be as beautiful as she’d been.

"Mom," I whispered, even though she couldn’t hear me, even though it was just a memory.

My mom looked out across the empty quad, scanning the shadows. Violet eyes are smiling eyes. That’s what my mom had always jokingly said, but she wasn’t smiling tonight. Instead, her lips were clamped down into a tight, thin line, and her whole body was rigid with tension and fear-fear that the Reapers searching for her would find her before she could complete her mission for Nike. My mom felt she was running out of time, but she was still going to stop a moment and look around. She was still going to be as careful as she could.

When she was sure she was alone and that no one was watching her, my mom pulled a piece of black cloth out of her backpack. She set the cloth down on the library steps, and something sticking out of the edge of it scraped against the stone. My mom froze, her eyes darting around, as if that one small noise would somehow draw the Reapers immediately to her.

But no one erupted out of the shadows, and after a minute, my mom relaxed and turned back to the statue. She ran her hands over the gryphon this way and that, like she was looking for something. Finally, she found what she was searching for. My mom reached forward and twisted the very end of the gryphon’s tail. A second later, the base of the statue slid forward like a door hinging open, revealing a secret, hollow space inside.

My mom paused and glanced around, once again making sure no one was watching her. Then, she picked up the black cloth, pulled the edges together, slid it inside the hidden compartment, and twisted the gryphon’s tail back the other way. The base of the statue closed, hiding the cloth from sight.

My mom sighed, and her body relaxed. It was done-her mission was complete. She took one more look around before she drew up the hood of her jacket, tucked her hands into her pockets, and hurried away from the library, melting into the shadows… .

I dropped my hand from the gryphon and opened my eyes. I let out a breath and was surprised to feel how weak my knees were. I had to sit down on the steps until the shaky feeling faded away. Then, I got back on my feet and approached the gryphon statue once more.

My eyes flicked to the creature’s lion tail, and I bent down to study it. It looked like just another part of the statue, just another piece carved out of a single hunk of dark gray stone. If I hadn’t seen my mom twist the end of the tail, I never would have thought to do such a thing-or that there was a hidden compartment underneath it.

I wondered how my mom had found it in the first place. If she’d listened to the same sort of myth-history lecture I had, if maybe that was how she’d discovered the statue’s secret. It didn’t really matter in the end, though. All that was important was finding the dagger and taking it somewhere safe-somewhere the Reapers could never get to it.

"You protected it well all these years," I murmured, talking to that spark of awareness I’d sensed deep inside the stone. "But the Reapers are closing in on the dagger’s location, and now, I have to move it somewhere else. I hope you understand. I’ll do my very best to protect it-I promise you that."