Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1)(55)
Author: Jennifer Estep

The prowler dug its claws into the wood, ripping it apart like it was made of toothpicks. I crawled out from underneath the collapsing table, scrambled to my feet, and ran toward the open double doors. But the prowler was quicker than I was. With a mighty leap, it flew through the air over my head and landed in front of me, putting itself between me and my escape.

I immediately backed up. The prowler growled and started stalking me again, enjoying the game of big, big cat, little, little mouse.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasmine turn away from Morgan to stare at me.

"You won’t get away from it again," she said. "This one isn’t an illusion, and this time, the Spartan’s not around to save you."

"That’s where you’re wrong," another voice called out.

Logan Quinn stood in the doorway of the library. He still wore his tuxedo, but he’d stopped to pick up two other accessories along the way-a shield and a spear. The silver shield was strapped to his left arm, while he held the spear in his free hand. Somehow, he looked right with them, like they belonged to him and him alone. I thought about what Daphne had said about why the other kids were here. Logan knew his destiny as a Spartan, as a warrior. I just hoped that I wouldn’t be the death of him tonight.

The prowler hissed again as soon as it saw Logan, recognizing him as the real threat. The Spartan tightened his grip on his shield, and a sort of cold calm filled his face. He wasn’t going to run away from the prowler-he was going to fight it to the death just like he had before. Only this time, the creature wasn’t an illusion. Somehow, I knew that made it even bigger, stronger, and deadlier than before.

After a moment, Logan’s icy eyes flicked to me. "Gwen, go! Get help-"

That was all Logan got out before the prowler threw itself at him.

Instead of doing as he asked, I picked up the book that I’d thrown at the prowler before and ran back to the middle of the library, where Jasmine still stood over Morgan, the dagger glinting in her hand. While I would have loved nothing more than to run away, find Professor Metis, and tell her every twisted thing that was going on, I knew that if I did, Jasmine would kill Morgan and finish whatever bizarre ritual she’d started. My mom had never run from a fight when she’d been a detective, and I wasn’t going to now.

Jasmine saw me coming and stepped away from Morgan, pointing her dagger in my direction. Not good. But I was too committed to back down now. For all I knew, the second I turned my back Jasmine would throw the dagger and kill me that way. She could do it. She was a warrior, too, and had been training to be one for years.

"You should have just let it go, Gypsy," Jasmine murmured, stepping up to meet me. "You should have just not paid any attention to my death the way that the others did."

I skidded to a stop in front of her. "Tell me one thing: Why didn’t you kill me that night in the library when you had the chance? The night you hit me on the head, I assume with that stupid dagger you’re holding, and knocked me out. Why didn’t you just slit my throat then?"

She shrugged. "Because you were nobody. I didn’t even know your name. You didn’t have any real power, nothing that I could take or use, so what was the point in killing you?"

My fingers tightened around the book, and for a moment I thought about Paige Forrest. She hadn’t had any power either. According to my mom, Paige’s stepdad had told her that if she didn’t do what he said, if she didn’t let him touch her, then he’d go down the hall to her little sister’s room. That’s why Paige hadn’t told anyone what was going on. So she had done the only thing that she could-she’d given me her hairbrush to touch.

Because she knew what I could do. Paige knew that I had power, that I had magic, even if she didn’t understand it. Even if I didn’t understand it.

"I’m not a nobody." I ground out the words.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You’re still going to die."

She threw herself at me. The dagger slashed through the air with an evil hiss that matched the prowler’s. Acting on pure instinct, I brought up the book, putting it between me and the dagger. The weapon sank into the pages, its sharp tip piercing all the way through to the other side-and only stopping an inch away from my eye. Yeah, I totally screamed at that.

Jasmine let out a loud curse and tried to pull the dagger back out of the book, but I tightened my grip and twisted it away from her, ripping the hilt of the weapon out of her hands. Then, I threw the book with the dagger still embedded in it as far as I could. It hit the slick marble floor and rolled across it, turning end over end, before finally stopping on the other side of the library underneath one of the tables.

"Bitch," Jasmine said. "That was my favorite dagger."

She had a favorite dagger? Seriously? And she thought that I was a freak.

Before I could move away from Jasmine, she slapped me across the face, then punched me in the stomach, using her Valkyrie strength to her full advantage. The pain of her blows was bad enough, but her skin touched mine, and I felt all of her pent-up rage and anger at Morgan, Samson, and everyone else at school who’d ignored her fake death. It burned through me like acid. I fell to my knees, gasping for air and trying not to vomit.

Jasmine stared down at me, shook her head, and walked back toward Morgan, who was still lying on the table and staring up at the ceiling at nothing in particular.

The Bowl of Tears rested on Morgan’s chest, and the blood inside it began to bubble up. Even across the library, I could feel some sort of power emanating from it. If I’d thought the Bowl had been evil before, it radiated the ugliest sort of black hate now.

Jasmine reached down and pulled a long sword out from underneath the table. Where the hell had that come from? Jasmine turned and headed back in my direction, slicing the sword through the air like she just couldn’t wait to cut into me with it.

I was dimly aware of Logan fighting the prowler in the back of the library near the doorway. The prowler’s relentless hisses filled the room, as did the clang of its claws on Logan’s shield as it tried to rip away the barrier so it could tear into the Spartan once and for all. I even thought that I heard Logan call out my name, telling me to turn around and run, that Jasmine would cut me to pieces with the sword. I rolled my eyes. Like I didn’t already know that. I might suck at gym class, but I wasn’t completely stupid.

So I got to my feet, turned around, and ran toward the nearest door-the side door I’d used to slip into the library. But just before I reached it, the door slammed shut. Behind me, Jasmine laughed.

"Stupid Gypsy. Everything in here is under my control, including the doors. You can’t get out, so why don’t you just be a good girl and come here so I can kill you?"