Jennifer Estep: Killer Frost

Logan stepped aside, and Linus approached me. “Miss Frost,” Linus said, holding out his hand. “It’s

good to see you again.”

A month ago, he would have been lying through his teeth. For a while, Linus had thought that I was a Reaper, that I was Loki’s Champion, that I was responsible for all the horrible things Vivian Holler had done. Needless to say, he hadn’t wanted me to have anything to do with his son back then, and he’d even gone so far as to put me on trial for my life. But the truth about Vivian and Agrona had come out, and Linus had apologized for his behavior toward me. He’d never be my favorite person in the world, but I would be nice to him—for Logan’s sake.

“Mr. Quinn,” I said.

I hesitated, staring at his outstretched hand. Linus knew all about my touch magic, but he still held his hand out to me. I wondered if it was some sort of test, although I had no idea why he would do such a thing. But I stepped up and took his hand in mine.

His memories and emotions hit me a second later. I got quick flickers and flashes of Linus over the years, fighting Reapers, talking with Sergei and Inari, and leading the other members of the Protectorate into battle. But mostly, what I saw was him sitting in a large kitchen, hunched over a table that was covered with photos and fat files of information, pouring over every single document, and trying to figure out what the Reapers were up to and where they would strike next.

His memories of Logan growing up also crowded into my mind, along with all of Linus’s deep, quiet love for his son and his unending pride in the fierce Spartan Logan had become.

And over all of that was sharp, agonizing worry— worry that Linus wasn’t going to be able to stop the Reapers from murdering even more members of the Pantheon, including Logan. It was the same sort of constant, nagging worry that I experienced on a daily basis— that I wasn’t going to be able to find a way to kill Loki. That the evil god of chaos would win in the end. That he would hurt, torture, and enslave everyone that I loved just to inflict as much pain on me as he possibly could before he finally killed me . . .

Linus dropped his hand from mine, breaking our connection. I blinked a few times, trying to clear the last of his memories and feelings from my mind.

“Are you okay, Miss Frost?” Linus asked.

“Fine,” I said, forcing myself to smile at him. “Just fine.”

“Logan, my boy!” Sergei said in a loud, booming voice, finally jumping into the conversation. “So good to see you and your friends again!”

The boisterous Bogatyr warrior clapped Logan on the shoulder, making him stagger back a few steps.

“You too, Sergei.” Logan grinned at the older man, then nodded his head. “And you as well, Inari.”

The Ninja tipped his head, acknowledging the greeting, although he didn’t say anything in return.

Logan looked at me, then turned back to his dad. “So what’s going on? Why are you guys here?”

Linus smiled. “Can’t a father come see his son?” Logan kept staring at his dad, and the smile slowly

slipped from Linus’s face.

He cleared his throat. “Well, I do have something to talk about with Metis, Nickamedes, and Ajax. But I saw you and your friends walking toward the academy, and I thought I would stop and say hello.”

Logan nodded. “Okay. I get it. So what’s going on?” Linus hesitated. “Perhaps it would be better if you

and your friends met me in the library in a few minutes. Metis is already on her way over there. So is Alexei, Miss Frost.”

This time, I nodded. Alexei Sokolov, Sergei’s son, was the Bogatyr warrior who served as my guard. Normally, Alexei went almost everywhere with me. Today, he’d taken the afternoon off to spend some time with his boyfriend, Oliver Hector, since I was having my double date with Logan, Carson, and Daphne.

“Okay,” Logan said. “We’ll see you there.”

Linus put his arm around his son’s shoulder and hugged him close again. Then, he cleared his throat, nodded at Logan, and got back into the SUV. Sergei and Inari took their seats again, and Linus cranked the engine and steered the vehicle away from the curb, heading to the secondary entrance and the parking lot behind the gym. The other two SUVs followed the first vehicle.

“Well, that was totally cryptic,” Daphne sniped when the cars had disappeared from sight.

Carson nodded his agreement.

Logan shrugged. “That’s my dad for you.”

I looked past my friends and over at the stone wall that ringed the campus. The iron gate was open, so the students could leave the academy and spend some time over in the Cypress Mountain shops today, but I looked up at the top of the wall, where two stone sphinxes perched on either side of the gate. Normally, the sphinxes would be watching me with their open, lidless eyes, tracking my movements, just like the rest of the statues on campus always did. But today, the sphinxes didn’t seem to be staring at me at all. Instead, their expressions were blank and neutral. They didn’t look angry, upset, or worried. They both stared straight ahead at each other, as if they were resigned to whatever was about to happen. My own dread kicked up another notch.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get over to the library. I

want to know what’s going on.”

“Just because Mr. Quinn is here doesn’t mean that it’s something bad,” Carson said in a faint voice. “Right?”

I gave him a look. Carson winced, but he and the others fell in step behind me as I stepped through the open gate and onto campus.

My friends and I followed the ash-gray cobblestone walkway all the way up the hill to the main quad that was the heart of Mythos Academy. Five buildings stood on the quad, all made out of dark gray stone, and arranged like the points of a star—math-science, English-history, the gym, the dining hall, and the Library of Antiquities.

We headed for the library. At seven stories, it was the largest building on campus and featured a variety of towers, balconies, and statues—lots and lots of statues. Gargoyles, chimeras, dragons, a Minotaur. Mythological creatures covered the structure from the first-floor balcony all the way to the tops of the towers that jutted up into the sky. But my attention was focused on the two gryphons sitting on either side of the main library steps.

Eagle heads, lion bodies, wings tucked in next to their sides, tails curled close to their front paws. The statues looked the same as ever, but I still stopped to study them a bit more closely.

Like the sphinxes by the main gate, the gryphons’ expressions were carefully blank, as though they were playing a game with me and didn’t want to give me any indication of what they were really thinking. The gryphons had always seemed so fierce, so lifelike, but now, they just looked tired—tired and slightly sad.

I shivered. Somehow, I found their flat, noncommittal stares even creepier than if they’d been openly glaring at me and obviously thinking about busting out of their stone shells to attack me, like I always imagined they could.

“Gwen?” Logan touched my arm. “Yeah. I’m coming.”

I dropped my gaze from the gryphons, trooped up the steps, and went into the library with my friends.

Despite its dark and foreboding exterior, the inside of the Library of Antiquities had a light, airy, open feel, thanks to the white marble that rolled out in every direction and the enormous dome that arched over the main space. I glanced up. For months, all I’d been able to see whenever I peered at the ceiling were deep, dark shadows. But a few weeks ago, Nike had shown me what lay underneath the blackness—a fresco of me and my friends engaged in a great battle, each of us holding an artifact or two.