Killer Frost (Mythos Academy #6)(74)

“Maybe the statues being destroyed was what was always supposed to happen,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

I shrugged. I didn’t really know, but it was something Nike had said to me more than once. I’d hoped that Carson would find some comfort in the words, but his face seemed as troubled as before. I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t know what to say to anyone right now.

“Come on,” I said. “We should help the others and find Daphne and my grandma.”

He nodded, and we headed toward the checkout counter. Logan, Oliver, and Alexei stayed behind with Linus and the guards.

I noticed Morgan McDougall trying to hop around on a bum ankle, so I went over and put my arm under her shoulder. The Valkyrie leaned on me, a few sparks of green magic hissing out of her fingertips.

“You okay?”

“Never better,” Morgan quipped. “You know, for being in the middle of the most epic fight ever.”

I grinned at her black humor and helped her to the back of the library.

Nickamedes was already there, along with Metis, who was healing the most seriously injured. She went from one warrior to the next, the golden glow of her magic bathing the wounded in its soft, warm light. Nickamedes followed her, hobbling around on his cane and helping her as best he could. Metis finished with a particularly nasty wound in a guard’s stomach and staggered back from the table, but Nickamedes was there to catch and steady her. Metis looked at him a moment, then hurried on to the next person who was injured. Nickamedes followed her again. Raven was there, too, trailing both of them, carrying rolls of bandages that were the same ghostly white as her dress.

My eyes swept over the study tables, and I finally spotted a splash of pink among all the blood. Daphne had come down from the second-floor library balcony and was holding hands with Savannah, who had an ugly cut over her right eye. A rosy golden glow moved from Daphne’s body into Savannah’s, and I watched while the gash over the Amazon’s eye seamlessly healed.

“You good?” Daphne asked.

Savannah nodded, and Daphne got up and started to move to the next person. But she caught sight of Carson trailing along beside me and Morgan, and stalked over to us.

“What were you doing?” she hissed at him. “What were you thinking, strolling out into the middle of the quad like that? You could have been killed, you idiot!”

Carson gave her a sheepish grin and held up his artifact. “Um, the horn made me do it?”

Daphne grabbed the front of Carson’s robe, drew him forward, and pressed her lips to his. A cascade of sparks erupted all around them, bathing them in a soft, princesspink shimmer.

“Wow,” Morgan drawled. “Maybe you guys should get a room.”

Daphne wrapped her arms around Carson’s neck and kissed him even harder.

I helped Morgan over to one of the empty chairs so she could sit down and take her weight off her ankle. Then, I went over to my grandma, who was holding the hand of a Protectorate guard who’d been laid out flat on one of the study tables.

“Is he going to be all right?” I asked. “No,” she said.

And I realized that the guard was staring at the ceiling, his gaze glassy with death. Grandma sighed, then leaned forward, and gently closed his eyes. She turned to me and opened her arms. I let out a choked sob and stepped forward into her embrace. We stood like that for a long time, rocking back and forth, drawing what strength we could from each other.

“I have to go,” I finally whispered. “And see what the plan is now.”

She nodded, and we both drew back. Grandma cupped my face in her hands. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my bloody forehead before moving over to help Metis and Nickamedes.

I returned to the front of the library. By this point, all of the injured had been taken to the back, and all of the warriors that were more or less in one piece were milling around the study tables.

There weren’t many of us left.

Maybe thirty warriors were at the tables, clustered around Linus, Sergei, Inari, and Ajax. Thirty warriors to try to defeat Vivian, Agrona, Loki, and the rest of the Reapers out on the quad. It wasn’t enough.

We weren’t going to be enough.

My heart sank, but I forced myself to look up at the second floor, where Nike’s statue was. The goddess’s face was neutral, although her lips were turned down, almost as if she felt the same weary, aching sadness that I did. And I couldn’t help but wonder if Loki would wave his hand and destroy her statue as easily as he had the ones outside. My stomach clenched at the thought, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Because I still didn’t know how to kill Loki.

But I shook off my worry and hurried over to where Linus was standing with Logan, Oliver, and Alexei. Linus noticed that we were listening to him, and he stared at me a moment before turning to address the rest of the guards.

“We all know what we’re up against,” he said in a low voice. “We all know that there is no escape. Not for us.”

The Protectorate guards nodded their heads in grim agreement. We’d all hoped we would win the battle, but we had prepared for this too—including me.

“I’m afraid all we can do at this point is try to hold them off long enough to get the wounded to safety.”

Linus looked at Rory and Rachel, who had come down from the balcony with the other archers and were now standing with the rest of the warriors. I’d lost track of them during the fight outside, and I was glad to see they were both okay.