Kiss of Frost

'I'm not a fool,' my mom said, raising her head. Despite her injuries, pride blazed in her violet eyes. 'I was a Champion in my time, and I've served my goddess well. There is comfort in that, even now, at the end.'

Nike. My mom was talking about Nike. She must have hidden the mystery dagger-or whatever it was-on the goddess's orders. But why? And why did the Reapers want to get their hands on it so badly?

'So am I,' the girl snapped. 'I'm Loki's Champion, and he's decided it's time for you to die. Tell me where the dagger is, and I'll make it quick. Otherwise…'

She swung her sword in a menacing arc, and raindrops hissed against the blade.

'I'm dying anyway,' my mom said, coughing up a mouthful of blood. 'So do your worst, Reaper. Because in a few minutes, I'll be beyond your reach.'

'But your precious daughter won't be, and you won't be able to protect her from me,' the girl said. 'What's her name again?'

'Gwen,' my mom whispered. 'My lovely, lovely Gwen. There was so much I wanted to tell you, so much I wanted to teach you… '

Her voice trailed off, and tears streamed down her face, mixing with the cold, cold rain. My mom started mumbling then, about all the things she'd wished she'd said to me. I was so shocked by what I was seeing that I couldn't quite focus on what she was saying. Her voice grew raspier, and her words more incoherent, until the only thing she muttered was 'Gwen, Gwen, I love you, Gwen… '

'She's not going to talk,' Preston said. 'Finish her, and let's go before another car comes along.'

'Oh, very well,' the girl huffed.

She gripped her sword and raised it over her head. She turned toward Preston, and I saw a smile curve her lips despite the shadows that cloaked her face. Then she brought the weapon down with a vicious slash. I shoved the memory away the second before the sword plunged into my mom's heart.

My mom hadn't been killed by some anonymous drunk driver like I'd thought. No, she'd beenmurdered- murdered by Preston and the Reaper girl.

I opened my eyes, wrenched my hand away from his, and sprang up out of my chair, stumbling away until my back was pressed up against one of the glass walls of the cells. I was only about a foot away from Raven and her desk.

'I told you that you wouldn't like what you saw, Gypsy,' Preston sneered. 'Tell me, how did it feel to see your own mother murdered right before your very eyes?'

Everyone froze for a second, then they all turned to look at me. Metis shocked, Coach Ajax angry and disgusted, Nickamedes with a pitying expression on his face. Even Raven looked up from her gossip magazine, a haunted look in her eyes.

'Just wait,' Preston sneered. 'Because I'll be doing the same thing to you real soon, Gypsy.'

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I couldn't speak, I couldn't scream, I couldn't even breathe. Everything justhurt. Every cell, every nerve, every broken, bloody bit of my shattered heart.

Desperate, I turned to Metis, searching for some kind of comfort, some kind of reassurance. Instead, what I saw was guilt. Sometimes if a memory was vivid enough, if an emotion was strong enough, I didn't have to touch an object or person to get a vibe off them. Guilt filled the professor's green eyes, and her whole body radiated with it, like heat boiling off the sun, burning me to the bone.

'You knew my mom was murdered,' I whispered. 'This whole time, youknew.'

'Gwen-' Metis started, stepping toward me.

I turned and ran from the prison, but I didn't even make it to the door before Preston's mocking laughter started ringing in my ears.

Chapter 26

I sprinted out of the prison and back up the many flights of stairs. Somehow all the doors opened at my touch, despite the fact that I didn't know the codes or the magic mumbo jumbo. Or maybe Metis just hadn't locked them behind her. Either way, I stumbled out of the math-science building and into the cold. And then I justran,desperate to get as far away from Preston and the awful thing I'd seen, the awful thing he'd helped the Reaper girl to do my mom.

They'd followed her home from work that night. They'd caused the car accident. They'd murdered her. They'd taken her away from me. Not a drunk driver. The casket at her funeral had been closed because the Reaper girl had murdered her, and Grandma Frost hadn't wanted me to see my mom like that.

Grandma. She had to have known about my mom's murder, just like Metis. When I'd first come to the academy, I'd asked Grandma over and over again why I had to go to school at Mythos. I'd thought it had been because I'd had a freak-out with my magic. Now I knew the real reason why: Reapers had murdered my mom, and Metis and Grandma Frost had been afraid they'd do the same thing to me. So they'd shipped me off to Mythos, so Metis could keep an eye on me, thinking I'd be safe on campus, that the magic protecting the grounds would protect me as well. They just hadn't realized how dangerous the academy would turn out to be for me.

But as hard as I tried, as fast as my legs pumped, I couldn't outrun the memories-because they were mine now, too. I couldn't unsee them, and I couldn't forget them- ever. My psychometry wouldn't let me.

For the very first time, I thought of my Gypsy gift as a curse.

I don't remember exactly how, but I wound up in the Library of Antiquities. Students and staff crowded into the first floor of the library, clustered around the study tables and checkout counter. I kept to the back wall and raced past the bookshelves and glass cases full of artifacts. For once, I was glad the other kids never paid any attention to me. I didn't want anyone to see me like this, much less start gossiping and texting about it on their stupid cell phones.

I didn't stop running until I sprinted up the stairs and reached the second floor, where all the statues of the gods and goddesses were arranged in an enormous circle on the balcony. Nobody else was up here, and the silence pressed against my face like a blanket, smothering me. Or maybe that was because I was out of breath from my frantic run.

My footsteps finally slowed, then stopped, in front of Nike's statue. The Greek goddess of victory towered thirty feet tall, like all the other statues, her feathery wings just peeking out from behind her back, her proud gaze