Part 4 (2/2)

Grandma walked over to my desk and picked up a metal tin shaped like a giant chocolate chip cookie. ”How about something to eat?” she asked. ”I'd just finished making some oatmeal raisin cookies for you when Metis called.”

Grandma Frost loved to bake, and she was always making some sweet, delicious treat for me to bring back to the academy and share with my friends.

”I also stopped and got you a sandwich,” she added.

She pointed to a white paper bag on my desk, and I knew she was talking about the Pork Pit, one of my favorite restaurants. But I didn't feel like eating anything tonight, not even cookies.

Still, I made myself smile at her. ”Maybe later.”

Grandma stayed with me the rest of the evening, while I called Daphne and filled her in. I called Logan too, but he didn't answer his phone. He was probably still arguing with his dad, so I left him a voice mail, saying that I was going to bed and that I'd see him tomorrow morning at weapons training.

Finally, just before the ten o'clock curfew, Grandma got to her feet and said that she'd better go before the dorms locked down for the night. I was on the floor playing with Nyx, and I gathered the wolf pup up in my arms once more and got to my feet. A tear leaked out of the corner of my eye at what I had to do now.

”I think you should take Nyx home with you,” I said in a sad voice. ”I don't want the Protectorate to find her here and take her away.”

”Yes, do please send the fuzzball away,” Vic said in a snarky tone. ”All that fur is terrible on my allergies. Terrible, I tell you!”

The sword sniffed as if to prove his point, but I could see the gleam of a tear in his eye. In his own way, he loved Nyx just as much as I did.

Grandma nodded. ”That's probably for the best, pumpkin. There's a lot going on right now. Better not to take the chance.”

I pa.s.sed Nyx over to Grandma Frost. She tucked the Fenrir wolf pup inside her coat so Nyx would stay warm on the walk across campus to her car. I petted Nyx a final time, whispering that I'd come see her just as soon as I could. I hugged Grandma tight, and they left.

My room seemed so quiet, so still, so terribly empty, without them, especially without Nyx bounding from corner to corner, sniffing, growling, and exploring the room like she hadn't been living here all her short life. I'd never realized how sad and suffocating the quiet could seem until now.

I wiped away a few more tears and got ready for bed. Taking a shower, putting on my pajamas, getting my books together for my morning cla.s.ses. Nothing too difficult, but by the time I finished, I was exhausted.

I crawled into bed and snuggled down under my purple and gray plaid comforter. Normally, I would have left Vic on his spot on the wall, but tonight, I laid the sword and his scabbard on top of the bed, right next to me. I'd already lost Nyx-I didn't want to lose him too.

”Don't worry, Gwen,” Vic said. ”You'll find out who's behind all this, and when you do, I'll be right there to help you deal with the Reaper sc.u.m. Why, we'll slice them to b.l.o.o.d.y ribbons! We'll wear their guts for garters! We'll . . .”

And on and on he went, each fantasy a little bloodier and more violent than the last. Despite the situation, I couldn't help but smile. So many things had changed in my life since I'd come to Mythos, but Vic was one of the constants. I could always count on the sword to be exactly who and what he was. Something that comforted me tonight more than ever.

”Good night, Vic,” I said when he finally wound down. ”We'll talk more in the morning.”

”Good night, Gwen.”

The sword yawned, his half of a jaw popping in the darkness. His eye snapped shut, and a few minutes later he started snoring.

I reached over and rested my hand on top of the sword, and I didn't let go of him, not even when I finally drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 6.

To my surprise, I fell into a dark, dreamless sleep until my alarm startled me awake the next morning.

I got ready for the day and peeked out the window at the lawn, but Inari wasn't in sight. I guess the Ninja had pulled the night s.h.i.+ft, and now it was time for someone else to take over the horrible duty of guarding me. Well, I had things to do, and I wasn't going to wait around for the Protectorate to show up.

I didn't have to. When I opened the door to my room, I found Alexei waiting outside in the hallway. The Russian warrior was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his lean, muscled chest. A black backpack lay at his feet, and I could see the hilts of two swords sticking out of the top of it.

”So you get to follow me around all day. Yippee-skippee,” I grumbled, looping the strap of my gray messenger bag over my head and chest.

Alexei didn't say anything, but his mouth twitched up into something that almost looked like a smile. Well, at least someone was amused by my suffering.

I locked the door behind me, brushed past Alexei, and headed down the stairs. He fell into step right behind me, as close to me as my own shadow. Once again, he didn't make any noise as he walked, not a single sound, not even when he went over the squeaky step at the bottom of the staircase. His eerie, watchful silence made me feel like there was a ghost haunting me. The only difference was that I could actually see Alexei when I turned around.

I made it to the bottom of the steps, walked down a hallway, and stared out the front door of the dorm. The morning was ice-cold, and the frosted gra.s.s glinted like thousands of tiny silver daggers, stretching out as far as the eye could see. The sun had barely come up, but the faint rays had already given the frost a b.l.o.o.d.y, crimson tint. What was the old saying? Something about a red sky in morning being a warning. Yeah, I had a feeling it was going to be that kind of day.

I reached into my coat pockets and pulled out my dark gray gloves, scarf, and toboggan, all patterned with glittery silver snowflakes. When I was all bundled up, I went outside, shoved my hands into my coat pockets, and stepped onto one of the cobblestone paths that wound up the hill to the main quad. Since it was so early, Alexei and I were the only ones outside.

We walked in silence for about two minutes before I looked over my shoulder at Alexei.

”So what's your deal?” I asked.

”My deal?”

I shrugged. ”Your deal. You know, where you're from, what kind of warrior you are, why the Protectorate would a.s.sign a kid my own age to guard me.”

Alexei studied me, as if he couldn't decide whether or not this was some kind of trick to get supersecret Protectorate information out of him. Heh. If I wanted to do that, all I would have to do was touch him. Unlike me, Alexei wasn't wearing gloves. His hands hung bare by his sides, instead of being tucked into his coat pockets like they should have been on such a chilly morning. Maybe the cold didn't bother him. Some of the Mythos kids had magic that made them immune to extreme temperatures.

Even though I'd decided awhile back not to use my magic to pull secrets out of people unless it was absolutely necessary, I couldn't help eyeing his hands and wondering if I could yank off my gloves, touch him, and flash on him with my psychometry before he realized what I was up to. Probably not without an Amazon's quickness.

Still, the temptation to try was so strong. I wanted to know what Alexei, and more important, the Protectorate, knew about me. I especially wanted to know what they knew about my touch magic-and if they'd realized that I'd killed Preston with it.

I s.h.i.+vered, but it wasn't because of the chill in the air. A guy's face filled my mind. Once, it had been a handsome face, but now it was twisted with pain, and his blue eyes were cold, dead, and empty-all because of me. Metis and Grandma Frost had always told me that my magic would keep growing, that I'd be able to do other things with it besides just touch objects and see memories, but I never thought I could actually kill someone with it. But that's what I'd done to Preston. I'd used my psychometry to kill him so that I could live. That was bad enough, but the worst part was that I knew I could do the same thing again-to anyone, at any time. I could feel the magic, the power, the knowledge deep inside me, a dark whisper that rasped along in time to the beat of my heart. Use me, use me, use me . . .

”I'm from Saint Petersburg, Russia,” Alexei finally said. He must have decided that my questions were harmless after all. ”However, I attend the London academy since that's where my dad spends most of his time with the Protectorate these days. I'm a Bogatyr warrior, and I'm not your age. I'm eighteen, a third-year student.”

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, yeah. I knew that all the academies all over the world had the same structure, with first-year students who were sixteen or so all the way up to the sixth-years, who were around twenty-one. Second-year, third-year, it wasn't that big a difference.

”I'm here to guard you because my father is a senior member of the Protectorate, and I'm training to be a member too someday. And also because I'm . . . familiar with some of your cla.s.smates.”

I raised an eyebrow. ”Familiar how? And what's a Bogatyr?”

”We're going to your weapons training now, yes?”

I nodded.

”You'll see.”

And that was all he said. He didn't explain anything else about himself, who he was, or why he was here. Okay, okay, so he wanted to be all dark, brooding, and mysterious, something that his cool Russian accent definitely helped him with. Whatever.

We walked the rest of the way to the gym in silence. I pushed through the double doors that led into the main s.p.a.ce and headed for the bleachers on the far side, but Alexei stopped a moment to look around. I didn't see what was so interesting. Bright banners dangling from the ceiling, polished wooden bleachers jutting out from the walls, thick mats covering the floor. The gym looked like any other-except for the racks of weapons.

Since Mythos was a school for the descendants of ancient warriors, gym cla.s.s was a little more strenuous than just running laps and shooting hoops. Here, gym was really weapons training, where Coach Ajax and the rest of his staff taught us kids how to use everything from swords to staffs to daggers to bows. All those weapons and more were lined up in neat rows, their sharp points glinting underneath the lights, just waiting for the students to come and grab them.

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