Part 25 (1/2)

MIDNIGHT FROST,.

available in August.

Chapter 1.

”Do you really think the artifact is here?”

I shrugged. ”I don't know.”

Daphne Cruz, my best friend, stopped in the middle of the room, put her hands on her hips, and glared at me. Princess pink sparks of magic streamed out of the Valkyrie's fingertips, telling me that she wasn't exactly happy with me right now. Daphne always gave off more magic when she was angry or upset-or aggravated, in this case.

”Well, if you don't know, then what are we doing here?” she asked.

Here was the Crius Coliseum, a museum on the outskirts of Asheville, North Carolina. The coliseum was devoted to all things mythological and featured exhibits of armor, weapons, jewelry, and clothing that the G.o.ds, G.o.ddesses, and the creatures and warriors who served them had worn and used over the centuries. Most folks who visited the coliseum thought it was an interesting look back at ancient mythology, with its rooms ill.u.s.trating Greek, Norse, Russian, Roman, j.a.panese, and all the other cultures of the world.

What they didn't realize was that it was all real.

That those in the mythological world were locked in a struggle that had carried over into modern times-and that it was up to warrior whiz kids like me and Daphne to make sure the good guys of the Pantheon won.

That's right. Me. Gwen Frost, the Gypsy girl who touched stuff and saw things, was officially responsible for saving the world. Something I wasn't doing too well at so far, since I'd gotten my a.s.s kicked more times than I cared to remember by the Reapers of Chaos. But no matter how terrible things got, I kept on fighting. It was the only thing I could do.

Today, I'd come to the coliseum in search of a net that had supposedly belonged to Ran, the Norse G.o.ddess of storms. Finding powerful mythological artifacts and keeping them safe from Reapers was the latest mission that Nike, the Greek G.o.ddess of victory, had given me.

I looked at the brochure I'd grabbed from a metal rack by the front door. ”Come on. According to this, the net is in one of the rooms in the back.”

”Of course it's in the back,” Daphne muttered, but she fell into step beside me.

It was a Sunday afternoon in late January, just before closing time. Because of the bitter winter chill and steady snow showers outside, we were the only ones in the coliseum, besides a few staff members wearing long white togas who were taking inventory in the gift shop.

None of the staff gave us a second glance, despite the sparks of magic that Daphne was still giving off. Students like us from Mythos Academy came into the coliseum all the time to look at the exhibits and gather information for reports, essays, and other homework a.s.signments. Most of the staff members were former Mythos students themselves, so they knew all about the mythological world and the Valkyries, Spartans, Amazons, and other warriors who inhabited it.

We walked through the main room of the coliseum, which was filled with gla.s.s artifact cases. The metal of the swords and spears glinted with a dull, b.l.o.o.d.y light, while the jewels in the rings and necklaces winked like evil eyes opening and closing and following my every move. The gauzy silks hovered in midair like ghosts, as if they were about to break free of the wires holding them up, burst through the gla.s.s, and attack. But the weirdest thing was that the walls, ceiling, and even the white marble columns seemed to creep closer the farther I went into the coliseum, like they were all slowly moving in on me, getting ready to surge forward and crush me in their cold stone embrace.

I s.h.i.+vered and quickened my steps. Winking eyes. Ghostly garments. Sliding walls. My Gypsy gift was acting up again.

Most of the time, I had to touch something before my psychometry magic kicked in and let me know, see, and feel an object's history. But sometimes, I didn't have to touch an object to get a vibe, especially if there were a lot of emotions already attached to it. There were a lot of artifacts here with a lot of good, bad, and b.l.o.o.d.y memories radiating from them, so it was no wonder I was seeing things that weren't really there. Or maybe my unease was because I'd been to the coliseum twice before-and both visits had ended with me fighting for my life against Reapers.

”Geez, Gwen,” Daphne muttered again. ”Slow down. It's not a race.”

I bit my lip and forced myself to walk at a more normal pace. We left the main room behind and stepped into a hallway.

”It's all the way in the back,” I said, pointing up ahead. ”In a room next to the library.”

Daphne sighed, and another shower of pink sparks streaked out of her fingertips.

”Look,” I said. ”I know you're getting tired of chasing after artifacts, but the net I saw on the coliseum's Web site looked like the one in my drawing. So I figured we might as well come and check it out. Besides, it's not like we were doing anything else important.”

”Oh no,” she sniped. ”It's not like I wanted to spend the afternoon with my boyfriend or anything.”

”I asked Carson to come too,” I said, referring to her boyfriend, Carson Callahan, ”but he had that band meeting about rescheduling the winter concert that the Reapers ruined.”

Daphne snorted. ”Ruined is a bit of an understatement, don't you think?”

I grimaced. She was right. Ruined didn't even come close to describing the horror show the concert had turned into. Reapers had planned to murder everyone at the Aoide Auditorium as a blood sacrifice to their leader, the Norse G.o.d Loki. I'd stopped their evil plan, but it had cost me-more than I cared to remember.

”Well, at least Gwen decided to look for this artifact during the day,” a voice with a cool Russian accent chimed in. ”Instead of dragging me over to the Library of Antiquities in the middle of the night like she did last week.”

I looked over to my left at Alexei Sokolov, the Bogatyr warrior who now served as my bodyguard.

”You're just grumpy that Oliver couldn't come with us today,” I said.

Alexei smiled, and his hazel eyes softened at the thought of Oliver Hector, the Spartan he was involved with. ”Maybe.”

”And you're just grumpy that Logan's not here,” Daphne sniped again.

Her words surprised me, and I stumbled over my own feet, even as my heart twisted in my chest.

Daphne caught my arm and pulled me upright with her great Valkyrie strength. She winced at the miserable expression on my face.

”I'm sorry, Gwen. I didn't mean that-”

I held up my hand, cutting her off. ”No, it's fine. I am grumpy about Logan.”

Another understatement. Logan Quinn was the guy I loved-the one whose absence seemed to hurt me more every day.

”Gwen?” Alexei asked.

I snapped out of my dark thoughts. ”I'm fine. Let's see if the net is here. This place is starting to give me the creeps.”

”Just starting to?” Daphne muttered.

We hurried to the end of the hallway and the last exhibit room in this part of the coliseum. According to a sign on the wall, this area was devoted to G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses of the sea, the sky, and all the storms that raged between them. I went from one case to the next, looking at the artifacts, which included everything from splintered planks of the doomed boat the Greek warrior Odysseus had sailed home on to a couple of tridents that had supposedly belonged to Poseidon, the Greek G.o.d of the sea.