Killer Frost (Mythos Academy #6)(76)

Still, every second I kept Vivian talking and distracted was another one that the gryphons had to evacuate everyone who was injured. Finally, after about two minutes, just when I was starting to get a headache from the saw’s whine, Vivian came back onto the line.

“We accept your deal,” she said. “Get ready to die, Gwen.”

“You do the same.”

“Oh, and don’t bother opening the doors for us,” Vivian said. “We’re almost through them anyway. See you in a few.”

She hung up on me. I let out a breath and slid the phone into my pocket. I looked at the others.

“They’re going for it,” I said. “Let’s get into position.”





Chapter 28


I stood in the middle of the library and waited for Vivian to come and kill me.

That noise from the saw, or whatever it was, grew louder and louder, until it reverberated through my head like a drill. I grimaced.

I glanced around, searching for my friends. Oliver and Alexei were crouched behind Raven’s coffee cart, with Rory peeking out at me from the other side, a dagger clutched in her hand. Sergei, Inari, Coach Ajax, and the other Protectorate guards were hidden in the stacks and behind the marble statues of the gods and goddesses that ringed the second-floor balcony. Daphne was up there too, crouching next to Sigyn’s statue, holding the bow that had supposedly once belonged to the goddess. Carson was with her, still clutching the Horn of Roland, although I didn’t know what else he might be able to do with the artifact, if anything.

Linus stood beside me, as the head of the Protectorate, with Logan on my other side. Metis was still in the back, healing as many of the wounded as she could while Rachel, Nickamedes, Raven, and Grandma Frost helped them climb to the upper floors so that the gryphons could fly them away to safety.

“Are you sure you can do this, Miss Frost?” Linus

asked in the kindest voice he’d ever used with me. “You need to draw the fight out as long as possible. It won’t be easy, given what a skilled warrior Vivian is.”

I shrugged. “I don’t really have a choice, now, do I?” “No, I suppose not,” he murmured.

The whining of the saw grew even louder, making me wince again. But as quickly as the noise had started, it faded away altogether. Silence. Then—

Bang.

Bang. Bang. BANG!

A great crash sounded, and I knew the Reapers had breached the outer library doors. I drew in a breath and held up Vic.

“Are you ready for this?”

The sword fixed his purplish eye on me. “I’m ready, and you are too, Gwen. Trust me. Nike believes in you, and so do I.”

My gaze drifted up to the goddess’s statue on the second floor. Her face was as neutral as before, although her eyes seemed to be fixed on mine. I wondered what she thought of the battle so far, the choices I’d made, and the fact that it was all going to end here in the library. Although I supposed that was rather fitting, since this was the place where it had all started, the night I’d grabbed Vic out of his artifact case.

I hope you’re proud of me, I thought, still staring at the goddess. I’ve done the best I could to save everyone.

The goddess tipped her head at me, but that was her only response.

The doors flew open, and Vivian and Agrona came striding into the main part of the library. Loki stepped inside after them, flanked by Reapers on all sides. My heart sank as I realized exactly how many Reapers were left. They still outnumbered us three-to-one, if not more. “So,” Agrona purred, stopping a few feet away and looking at Linus. “It’s finally come down to this. Your final, ultimate defeat, and here you are, hiding behind a teenage girl, no less. I’m rather disappointed in you, Linus. I would have thought that you would have managed to hold out for at least a little while longer.”

Linus straightened up to his full height. His eyes were full of hate as he stared back at his former wife. “Well, not all of us have a god on our side,” he snapped back. “Or plot and scheme for years to put his soul into an innocent boy’s body.”

I frowned. Everyone knew that Agrona had tried to put Loki’s soul into Logan’s body. That was old news. Still, something about Linus’s words resonated in my mind in a strange way. Something about Loki wanting a new body, a mortal body . . .

Agrona arched a blond eyebrow. “Still angry about that, dear husband? Tsk. Tsk. You’re setting a bad example for your innocent boy there, holding such a grudge.”

Logan stepped forward, his hand tightening around his sword. “He’s not the only one. One of the happiest moments in my life is going to be the one when I finally kill you for everything you’ve done to my family.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not the deal we made,” Agrona said. “Vivian and Gwen will do the fighting. And then we’ll see what happens to the rest of you.”

She smirked at her former stepson. Logan took another step forward, but Linus grabbed his arm and shook his head.

“Let it play out,” Linus said in a soft voice that only we could hear. “Remember, every second counts.”

Logan didn’t like it, but he reluctantly nodded his head and stepped back.

“Well, then,” Agrona said. “I say we let the battle begin. My lord?”

She turned to Loki, who nodded his head at her. Then, the god’s gaze flicked over to Vivian.