Kiss of Frost

heart hurt any less.

'What am I supposed to do now?' I whispered, feeling like I was coming apart from the inside out.

'These things never stay hidden forever,' Nike said, once again not quite answering my question. 'There's too much power attached to the dagger, and there are too many Reapers looking for it. One of them will eventually find the dagger and use it to free Loki.'

I looked at the goddess. 'You want me to find the dagger first, don't you? And what, hide it somewhere else? What good will that do? Won't the Reapers just keep looking for it?'

Nike nodded again. 'They will. Even now, they are using their blood sacrifices to try to break through the cloaking spell your mother put on the dagger to hide it. Once the spell is gone, they'll be able to divine its general location and start searching for it. You need to find the dagger, hide it somewhere else, and put a new, stronger cloaking spell on it. Your Professor Metis should be able to help you with that, along with the Spartan librarian, Nickamedes.'

Well, that made sense. If there was anyone here at Mythos who could help keep the dagger out of the Reapers' hands, it was Metis. But Nickamedes? Really? And he was a Spartan? My brain rattled around inside my skull a little at that revelation. But then, I thought about seeing Logan and Nickamedes together at the ski resort. If they were related like I suspected, it made sense that Nickamedes was a Spartan, just like Logan was.

'Your mother hid the dagger well, and every day the Reapers don't find it is a small victory for the members of the Pantheon-and the world,' Nike continued. 'But time is running out, and the cloaking spell won't hold much longer. The Pantheon needs more time to prepare for what's coming.'

'And what would that be?'

The goddess stared at me with her twilight eyes. She didn't say anything, but somehow, I knew the answer to my question. Chaos. War. Death. Destruction. Loki breaking free of his prison and trying to take over the world again. Bad, Bad Things all around.

'But how am I supposed to find the dagger?' I asked. 'My mom was smart-the smartest person I knew. If the Reapers haven't been able to find the dagger where she hid it, what makes you think I can?'

Nike smiled. 'Because you're my Champion, Gwendolyn, and I have faith in you, just as I did in your mother before you.'

As much as I appreciated the goddess's confidence, it wasn't exactly the most helpful thing in the world right now. 'But can't you help me at all? Give me a clue or something? Someplace to start at least? What am I supposed todo now?'

It was the same question I'd asked her a minute ago, and for the third time, she didn't exactly answer me.

'I can't tell you that. All I can do is appear to you now and then to advise you, Gwendolyn. Nothing more. That is the agreement the gods made with respect to our Champions. The battle is between you and the Reapers. The rest is up to you. The choices are yours to make. Neither I nor any of the other gods canevermake you do anything you don't want to,' Nike said. 'Every creature, mortal and god alike, has free will. It's what we choose to do with that will that defines us, that makes us who we are, good or bad. Remember that.'

It was the same speech Metis had given a few weeks ago in myth-history class, but it didn't make me feel any better now than it had then. Yeah, free will was great and all, but I didn't see how it would help me defeat a Reaper-or Loki, if the evil god ever got free.

By this point, we'd circled all the way around the balcony. The goddess stepped back up onto the pedestal where her statue stood in the library's pantheon.

'You have served me well so far, Gwendolyn Frost,' Nike said. 'You have used your wits and your magic wisely. I hope you continue to do so-for all our sakes.

The goddess leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. For a moment her power washed over me-that cold, beautiful, terrible power that made her who and what she was. My own blood turned to ice, just like it had the last time she'd kissed me here in the library, and I felt something shift inside myself. Something settling into a new place, bringing new strength, courage, and determination along with it. The feeling didn't frighten me like it had before. Not anymore.

The goddess stepped back. She gave me a final, soft smile before her body started shimmering and melting like early morning twilight being banished by the breaking dawn.

I blinked, and Nike was gone, replaced by her white marble statue once more.

Chapter 27

'Gwen?' a soft voice called out to me. 'Gwen, wake up.'

A hand gently shook my shoulder, snapping me out of- of wherever I'd been. I opened my eyes to find Logan crouching in front of me, his ice blue gaze full of concern.

'Hey, are you okay?' he asked. 'Nickamedes told me what happened with Preston. He and the others were worried about you. They're out looking for you, along with Daphne, Carson, and Oliver.'

I let out a bitter laugh. 'I must have really freaked them out if Nickamedes was worried about me.'

I leaned my head back against the base of Nike's statue. Logan looked at me a second, then sat down on the cold floor beside me.

'You want to tell me what happened? What you saw?' he asked in a quiet voice.

I needed to talk to someone about what I'd seen when I'd touched Preston, when I'd looked into his horrible memories. I couldn't think of anyone better than Logan. After all, I'd seen the Spartan's memories, too, when I'd kissed him-I knew he'd understand.

'Yeah, I'd like to talk about it,' I said. 'But to really understand it, first I have to tell you some other things about me. Things you don't know.'

'Like what?'

I drew in a breath. 'Like the fact that I'm Nike's Champion.'

I sat there and told Logan everything, starting from the first time I saw Nike that night in the library when we'd both been fighting Jasmine and her Nemean prowler. The Spartan didn't say a word while I talked. He just sat there and let me get it all out, let me get all my fears, feelings, and hurts out there in the open. And I told himeverything- about seeing my mom's murder through Preston's eyes, that Metis and my Grandma Frost had known about it the whole time, that they'd kept the truth from me, what Nike had told me about the broken seals on Loki's prison, how my mom had hidden the Helheim Dagger, and that Nike had asked me to find and protect the dagger from the Reapers who were looking for it.

After I was done, Logan sat there for a minute, thinking. Then he grinned at me. 'You really have a talking sword?'

I rolled my eyes. 'Trust you to be a total Spartan weapons geek and focus on Vic.'

I leaned over and lightly punched him in the shoulder. But we both laughed, and I felt just a smidge better.

'I'm sorry about your mom,' Logan said in a quiet tone. 'I know-I know what it's like to lose your family, to lose someone you care about so much.'

The image of him as a boy standing over those two bloody bodies filled my mind, but I didn't say anything. Instead, I looked at Logan, wanting him to tell me what had happened that day, how he'd lost his mother and sister, and why he thought knowing about it would make me think less of him. Would make me think he wasn't the hero I knew him to be.

He didn't say a word.

Logan opened his mouth, like he was going to tell me, but then he shut it again and looked away, a haunted, guilty expression on his face. I stared down at his bare hand, which was just an inch away from mine. I knew if I touched him right now, if I reached over and took his hand in mine, my psychometry would kick in. And then I would see and feel what Logan was remembering right now-and I'd finally discover his secret. Why and how he'd lost his