Killer Frost (Mythos Academy #6)(59)

was answer enough.

I sighed. “Look, what’s done is done. I did what I thought I had to in order to save my grandma. And it worked, and she’s safe now. I know that doesn’t make up for lying to you—for shutting you out. I know you’re angry and upset and disappointed with me right now, so all I can say is that I’m sorry I lied to you, and that I hope you can forgive me someday.”

He didn’t say anything. And cold dread began to build in my own heart that I had lost him for good. But the worst part was that it wasn’t because of anything the Reapers had done this time. No, if I lost Logan, it was because of my own decisions, my own actions, my own free will. For the first time, I began to understand why Nike and Metis were always talking about that and how powerful it could truly be.

Finally, Logan sighed, then reached over and took my hand in his. All of his emotions washed over me, even stronger than before—relief, hurt, disbelief, worry—along with more than a little anger.

But most of all, I felt his love for me.

This great, wonderful, amazing, powerful love. It was like a fire burning steadily in his heart. One that had already weathered so many storms. One that would never, ever die. One that I finally realized could survive anything—even this.

I twined my fingers through his and concentrated, sending my own emotions back to him, that warm, soft, fizzy, dizzying rush of feeling that tightened my chest every time he laughed or smiled or teased me. Every time I saw him. Every time I heard his voice. Every time I thought about him.

Every time I realized just how much I loved him.

I’m sorry. I didn’t say the words this time, but I thought them, over and over again, trying to tell him that I really meant what I’d said and that I hoped this wouldn’t come between us the way so many other things had.

Logan’s fingers slowly curled into mine.

I don’t know how long we sat at the table, holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes, my psychometry letting us say so much to each other without whispering a single word. Perhaps that was the real power of my touch magic.

But eventually, I heard the scrape and turn of the key in the lock again. Logan stared at me, then slowly pulled his hand away from mine. I touched my fingers to my palm, as if that would let me hold on to the warmth of his love.

“Whatever happens, we’re in this together from now on, okay, Gypsy girl?” Logan said. “Promise me that.”

I looked him square in the eye. “I promise. No more secrets, no more lies, no more crazy plans.” I grinned. “At least not without involving you in them.”

He grinned back at me, then nodded and got up from the table.

Linus came striding into the prison, his gray Protectorate robe swirling around him. If anything, he seemed even angrier than before. His gaze flicked to Logan standing by my side, and his mouth turned down that much more.

But Linus wasn’t the only one who entered the room. Sergei and Inari trailed along behind him, along with Metis and Ajax. Nickamedes appeared a moment later, trying to keep up with the others, even though using his cane slowed him down. To my surprise, Raven got up and gave him her chair, and Nickamedes sat down in it behind her desk.

Linus took the seat across from me at the interrogation table. His blue eyes met mine, giving me an upclose view of the anger still simmering in his gaze, along with something else. I thought it might have been a tiny bit of grudging respect, but whatever the emotion was, the anger quickly swallowed it up.

“Well,” he said, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. “What do you have to say for yourself, Miss Frost?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really think there is anything to say. Do you?”

Yeah, I was being a total smartass, but I couldn’t help it. It was better than letting him see how worried I was about what he and the rest of the Protectorate might do to me.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead, as though it was suddenly aching. I grinned a little. Yeah, I figured I had that effect on him.

“Tell me everything that happened,” he finally said. “And everything you did. I want to hear it all, from how you stole the candle out of the library to where the Reapers were hiding, to how you, your grandma, and Ms. Maddox and her niece escaped from them.”

“You’re just asking me?” I sniped. “Really? Aren’t you going to get a Maat asp to bite me so that I have to tell the truth?”

That’s what Linus had done before, when I’d been on trial for Vivian’s crimes. The asp’s venom was a sort of truth serum, one that forced you to be honest, or suffer the painful, deadly consequences.

He gave me a chilly look. “Unfortunately, a Maat asp is not readily available at this time or one would already be wrapped around your wrist. But rest assured that I can get one, Miss Frost, should I feel you are not being forthcoming with me.”

I didn’t feel like being bitten, so I did as he asked and told him everything that had happened over the past few days. Well, almost everything. I didn’t exactly tell him the truth about certain things, a fact that Linus quickly picked up on when he interrupted me halfway through my story.

“What about the artifacts?” he asked, gesturing to the items on the table. “How did you get them out of the library without setting off any alarms?”

“Janus’s key was actually in one of the librarian’s offices since it was due for a cleaning,” I lied in a smooth voice. “So I snatched it when the offices were empty. Once I had the key, it was easy for me to open the case with Morpheus’s dreambox in it, and then, the one with Sol’s candle after that.”