Kiss of Frost (Mythos Academy #2)(37)
Author: Jennifer Estep

The Valkyrie had once told me that the color of her magic was tied to her aura and personality. I wondered if Daphne would have the same healing power that Metis did when the Valkyrie’s magic final y quickened.

"So what happened?" I asked. "Up on the mountain?"

"What do you remember?" Metis asked, her voice much softer and kinder than Nickamedes’s was.

I thought back. "Wel , the chair lift was on the fritz, and I was slogging down the slope to the hotel when I heard some kind of explosion. I looked up, and there were flames dancing al over the top of the mountain. Then, a few seconds later, the avalanche started, and al the snow began sliding down the mountain, coming right at me." I shuddered and hugged my arms around myself, as if that would somehow banish the horrible memory from my mind. I wouldn’t need my Gypsy gift to recal the avalanche.

No matter how many other bad things happened to me, I’d remember the roar of the snow for the rest of my life. The shadow of it blocking out everything else, and the cold, cruel force of it trying to pul me under and bury me-forever.

Across from me, I noticed the statue of Skadi was now smiling, as if the stone figure could somehow hear what I was thinking. Creepy.

Then another awful thought fil ed my mind. "No one else was hurt, were they? By the avalanche?"

"No," Metis said. "Al the other students were either at the carnival or at the hotel. You were the only one walking down the slope at the time."

I sighed with relief. No one else had gotten hurt. Good.

That was good.

Metis and Nickamedes looked at each other. The librarian raised his black eyebrows, like he was asking the professor a question. Metis shook her head the tiniest bit, tel ing the librarian no to whatever it was he wanted.

"What?" I asked. "What’s going on? The two of you aren’t tel ing me something. Teachers and parents always have that guilty look when they’re holding something back." Metis drew in a breath. "You’re right, Gwen. I real y don’t know how to say this, but there is some … evidence that the avalanche wasn’t an accident."

I frowned. "What are you talking about? Sure, I saw the flames and heard the explosion or whatever, but there has to be some kind of explanation right? The chair lift catching on fire or something?"

Nickamedes stared at me, his eyes as cold and hard as chips of ice. "Oh, there’s an explanation, al right, Gwendolyn. Mainly, that someone caused the avalanche-on purpose."

Chapter 15

Despite all the craziness that had been going on the past few days, Nickamedes’s words stil stunned me.

"You think it was-it was deliberate? " I asked, cold dread pooling in the bottom of my stomach. "Why?" Nickamedes stared down his nose at me. "Mountains do not blow themselves up, Gwendolyn. After we got you down here safely to the infirmary, Ajax and I went back up the mountain. We found some burn marks and other things that indicate that someone deliberately set off an explosion at the top of the mountain, which was what caused the avalanche."

The Reaper. I knew it was the mysterious Reaper who was trying to kil me. First, the SUV outside my Grandma Frost’s house, then the arrow in the library, and now, the Fenrir wolf and the avalanche. Somehow, the Reaper had seen me leave the carnival and start down the mountain. I didn’t know if he’d planned the explosion and the avalanche in advance or not, but he’d seen an opportunity to kil me, and he’d taken it.

And he’d almost succeeded. If I’d hadn’t run for the pine trees, if I’d been just a second or two slower in getting there, if I hadn’t tied myself to the tree …

If, if, if.

If any of those things had gone wrong, the avalanche would have swept me away-forever.

What was even worse was the fact that this time the Reaper hadn’t cared who else he might have hurt. If there had been anyone else going down the mountain the same time I had been, if Daphne and Carson had decided to have lunch with Preston and me … My stomach twisted, and I thought I was going to be sick.

The door to the infirmary banged open, and Daphne barged inside, pink sparks of magic flashing around her, like a thousand tiny fireflies winking on and off.

"Sorry, Aurora," Coach Ajax said, sticking his head into the room. "I couldn’t keep her out any longer."

"Gwen!" Daphne said, rushing over to me.

She bumped Nickamedes out of the way, her Valkyrie strength pushing the librarian back several steps. He gave her a sour look, and his mouth pinched down into a frown.

Daphne grabbed my hand, and her concern for me flooded my body. It was a nice feeling-in a panicked, anxious kind of way.

"I’m fine," I said, squeezing her hand tight. "Real y, I’m fine."

Her face relaxed a little bit. "You’d damn wel better be.

You’re my best friend."

"And you’re mine," I whispered back, hot tears stinging my eyes. "You’re my best friend, too."

Daphne gripped my hand even tighter, her Valkyrie strength crunching my bones together, but I didn’t pul away.

I knew I’d have bruises tomorrow, but I didn’t care. Right now, I was happy to let her warm, happy relief flood my body. We stayed like that for a few seconds, before the Valkyrie’s gaze flicked around the room.

"What’s going on?" she asked. "What’s with the big professor powwow?"

Metis smoothed a stray piece of her black hair back into her bun. "Nickamedes and I were just fil ing Gwen in on what happened during the avalanche and what we think might have caused it."

"You mean the explosion, " Daphne corrected her.

"Somebody total y set a bomb off on top of the mountain, didn’t they? I mean, the flames were just shooting up and up into the air like they were never going to stop." Nickamedes and Metis exchanged another look, obviously debating how much they wanted to tel Daphne- and whether they thought the Valkyrie would spread the gossip around to al the other students. But they decided to trust her or just realized that I would tel her later anyway, because Nickamedes final y nodded.

"Yes, we do believe it was some kind of deliberate explosion meant to specifical y cause the avalanche," the librarian said.

Daphne rol ed her eyes. "Wel , of course, it was. When Reapers try to kil people, they always bring out the big guns."

Busted. I was total y, completely busted.

I knew the second the words came out of Daphne’s mouth that there was no taking them back-or wiggling my way out of an explanation.

"Reapers?" Nickamedes asked in a sharp tone. "What Reapers?"

Daphne frowned, a puzzled expression on her pretty face.

"The Reaper. The one who’s trying to kil Gwen. The one who almost ran her over with a car and then took a shot at her in the Library of Antiquities the other night …" The Valkyrie’s voice drifted off as she realized just how intently Nickamedes and Metis were staring at her. She looked at them a second before turning her gaze to me.