Killer Frost (Mythos Academy #6)(28)

“You make sure to give your other friends some of these before Daphne eats them all,” she warned me.

“I’ll try, but you know how Daphne is,” I said, laughing.

She smiled back at me. “That I do. I love you, pumpkin.”

“I love you too, Grandma.”

I hugged her good-bye, and she did the same thing to

Alexei, making a faint blush bloom in his face. She’d just let him go after pinching his cheek when a car horn sounded outside.

“That must be my dad,” Alexei said, leaving the kitchen. “I’ll go tell him that you’ll be out in a minute.” “Yes, pumpkin, you need to scoot if you want to make it back to the library on time,” Grandma Frost

said. “Besides, I’ve got dishes to wash.”

“All right,” I said, sliding Vic back into the scabbard belted around my waist and taking hold of Nyx’s leash. “I’ll call you if anything happens.”

She nodded. “You do that, pumpkin.”

Grandma Frost went over to the sink, stopped up the drain, and turned on the hot water, humming a soft tune. I stared at her a moment longer, feeling so grateful that she was in my life and wondering what I would ever do without her, before leaving the kitchen and walking down the hallway. I put my hand on the front doorknob and turned it, ready to step outside and go back to the academy—

Nyx let out a low growl. Surprised, I looked down and realized that the pup was turned back toward the kitchen. She let out another low growl, as though she wanted to tear into something with her baby teeth. A cold finger of unease crawled up my spine.

“What’s wrong, girl—”

CRASH!

I jumped at the sharp, sudden bang from the kitchen. A muffled sound followed a second later, along with a soft, but steady scrape-scrape-scrape—almost like someone’s feet being dragged across the tile floor.

I froze, wondering if I was hearing what I thought

I was. “Mmph!”

A muffled voice sounded from the kitchen, and I knew that Grandma was in danger.

I dropped my messenger bag and Nyx’s leash and threw the door open, surprising Alexei and Aiko, who were talking on the porch. They stared at me with wide, startled eyes.

“Reapers!” I screamed, yanking Vic out of his scabbard.

Then, I turned and ran into the back of the house as fast as I could.




“Grandma? Grandma!” I yelled as I raced down the hallway and into the kitchen.

I couldn’t hear anything over the rapid drum of my own heart, so I raised Vic high and burst into the kitchen, ready to cut into any Reapers who might have broken into the house.

But no one was there.

My head snapped left and right, but Grandma Frost wasn’t in front of the sink, washing dishes like she should have been. Instead, one of the metal sheet trays she’d baked the cookies on rested on the floor. That must have been the cause of the crash I’d heard. It looked like someone had interrupted her, since the water was still running in the full sink, overflowing down the sides and spattering onto the floor. It took me a moment to realize that the back door was cracked open. I tightened my grip on Vic, threw open the door, and took a step forward—

A sword whistled toward my head.

I ducked and brought Vic up into a defensive position.

Clang!

My sword met the one of the Reaper who’d been lurking out of sight beside the back door. He raised his weapon for another strike, but I twirled Vic up, around, and down, and stabbed him in the chest with the sword. The Reaper screamed and fell to the ground.

“That’s it, Gwen!” Vic shouted, his mouth moving underneath my palm. “On to the next one!”

Next one? What next one?

It took me another few crucial seconds to realize that the warrior wasn’t alone. Half a dozen Reapers stood in the backyard, all with their curved swords up, ready to attack me. One of them, a woman, stood on a smooth patch of dirt to one side of the yard, her black boots trampling the purple and gray forget-me-nots that I’d planted there on Nott’s grave. Anger surged through me at the sight, but I looked past the Reapers, searching for Grandma Frost.

But she wasn’t here.

She wasn’t here.

The Reapers grinned, twirled their swords in their hands, and charged at me. I tightened my grip on Vic and stepped up to meet them, even though I didn’t know how I would manage to take on all of them at once—

Two figures moved between me and the Reapers— Alexei and Aiko. The two warriors drew their own weapons and rushed forward to meet the charging Reapers. Frantic, I scanned the yard again, searching for any sign of Grandma Frost. Where had the Reapers taken her? What had they done with her? How had they kidnapped her so quickly?

A sharp, high yip-yip-yip sounded, and I realized that Nyx had darted outside as well and was standing next to the fence at the edge of the backyard, trying to hurdle it with her short legs. If anyone could find Grandma Frost, it was Nyx. After all, her mom, Nott, had tracked me to the academy from a ski resort miles away. I just had to hope that Nyx had the same nose and instincts that her mom had had.

Nyx howled, and I raced in her direction, rushing past Alexei, Aiko, and the Reapers they were battling.

“Gwen!” Alexei yelled. “Gwen! Wait!”

But I didn’t have time to stop and explain what I was doing—and that I was saving my grandma no matter what.