Killer Frost

Chapter 9

Despite my worries, another hour passed, and before I knew it, it was time for me, Nyx, Alexei, and Vic to head back to the academy, since Nickamedes still expected me to work my usual shift. Truth be told, I wanted to be at the library so I could keep an eye on the candle. Oh, I knew that Linus had guards posted in and around the library, as well as throughout the rest of campus, but I’d feel better if I could see the artifact for myself—and try to stop Vivian and Agrona when they finally tried to steal it.

Grandma Frost packed the extra cookies into a tin, also shaped like a chocolate chip cookie, which I tucked into my gray messenger bag.

“You make sure to give your other friends some of these before Daphne eats them all,” she warned me.

“I’ll try, but you know how Daphne is,” I said, laughing.

She smiled back at me. “That I do. I love you, pumpkin.”

“I love you too, Grandma.”

I hugged her good-bye, and she did the same thing to

Alexei, making a faint blush bloom in his face. She’d just let him go after pinching his cheek when a car horn sounded outside.

“That must be my dad,” Alexei said, leaving the kitchen. “I’ll go tell him that you’ll be out in a minute.” “Yes, pumpkin, you need to scoot if you want to make it back to the library on time,” Grandma Frost

said. “Besides, I’ve got dishes to wash.”

“All right,” I said, sliding Vic back into the scabbard belted around my waist and taking hold of Nyx’s leash. “I’ll call you if anything happens.”

She nodded. “You do that, pumpkin.”

Grandma Frost went over to the sink, stopped up the drain, and turned on the hot water, humming a soft tune. I stared at her a moment longer, feeling so grateful that she was in my life and wondering what I would ever do without her, before leaving the kitchen and walking down the hallway. I put my hand on the front doorknob and turned it, ready to step outside and go back to the academy—

Nyx let out a low growl. Surprised, I looked down and realized that the pup was turned back toward the kitchen. She let out another low growl, as though she wanted to tear into something with her baby teeth. A cold finger of unease crawled up my spine.

“What’s wrong, girl—”

CRASH!

I jumped at the sharp, sudden bang from the kitchen. A muffled sound followed a second later, along with a soft, but steady scrape-scrape-scrape—almost like someone’s feet being dragged across the tile floor.

I froze, wondering if I was hearing what I thought

I was. “Mmph!”

A muffled voice sounded from the kitchen, and I knew that Grandma was in danger.

I dropped my messenger bag and Nyx’s leash and threw the door open, surprising Alexei and Aiko, who were talking on the porch. They stared at me with wide, startled eyes.

“Reapers!” I screamed, yanking Vic out of his scabbard.

Then, I turned and ran into the back of the house as fast as I could.

“Grandma? Grandma!” I yelled as I raced down the hallway and into the kitchen.

I couldn’t hear anything over the rapid drum of my own heart, so I raised Vic high and burst into the kitchen, ready to cut into any Reapers who might have broken into the house.

But no one was there.

My head snapped left and right, but Grandma Frost wasn’t in front of the sink, washing dishes like she should have been. Instead, one of the metal sheet trays she’d baked the cookies on rested on the floor. That must have been the cause of the crash I’d heard. It looked like someone had interrupted her, since the water was still running in the full sink, overflowing down the sides and spattering onto the floor. It took me a moment to realize that the back door was cracked open. I tightened my grip on Vic, threw open the door, and took a step forward—

A sword whistled toward my head.

I ducked and brought Vic up into a defensive position.

Clang!

My sword met the one of the Reaper who’d been lurking out of sight beside the back door. He raised his weapon for another strike, but I twirled Vic up, around, and down, and stabbed him in the chest with the sword. The Reaper screamed and fell to the ground.

“That’s it, Gwen!” Vic shouted, his mouth moving underneath my palm. “On to the next one!”

Next one? What next one?

It took me another few crucial seconds to realize that the warrior wasn’t alone. Half a dozen Reapers stood in the backyard, all with their curved swords up, ready to attack me. One of them, a woman, stood on a smooth patch of dirt to one side of the yard, her black boots trampling the purple and gray forget-me-nots that I’d planted there on Nott’s grave. Anger surged through me at the sight, but I looked past the Reapers, searching for Grandma Frost.

But she wasn’t here.

She wasn’t here.

The Reapers grinned, twirled their swords in their hands, and charged at me. I tightened my grip on Vic and stepped up to meet them, even though I didn’t know how I would manage to take on all of them at once—

Two figures moved between me and the Reapers— Alexei and Aiko. The two warriors drew their own weapons and rushed forward to meet the charging Reapers. Frantic, I scanned the yard again, searching for any sign of Grandma Frost. Where had the Reapers taken her? What had they done with her? How had they kidnapped her so quickly?

A sharp, high yip-yip-yip sounded, and I realized that Nyx had darted outside as well and was standing next to the fence at the edge of the backyard, trying to hurdle it with her short legs. If anyone could find Grandma Frost, it was Nyx. After all, her mom, Nott, had tracked me to the academy from a ski resort miles away. I just had to hope that Nyx had the same nose and instincts that her mom had had.

Nyx howled, and I raced in her direction, rushing past Alexei, Aiko, and the Reapers they were battling.

“Gwen!” Alexei yelled. “Gwen! Wait!”

But I didn’t have time to stop and explain what I was doing—and that I was saving my grandma no matter what.

I reached the part of the fence that Nyx was still trying to hurdle. I grabbed the pup, picked her up, and set her down on the other side. Nyx put her nose to the ground. After a few seconds, she went tearing up the hill behind the house. I hopped over the fence and followed her.

“That’s it, fuzzball!” Vic shouted out his encouragement to her. “You find Geraldine! Track her down!”

Nyx howled again in answer. I scrambled up the bank after her, not caring that I was tearing through a thicket of briars and other bushes that clutched at my clothes and scratched my hands. All that mattered was getting to Grandma Frost.

I finally crested the hill, but the other side was even steeper, and I had to put a hand down to keep my feet from sliding out from under me. Below, the bottom of the slope gave way to a small, grassy park that I used to play in all the time when I was a kid. Two black SUVs sat at the far side of the park, and I could see Grandma Frost struggling with the three Reapers who were trying to force her into the back of one of the vehicles.

“Grandma!” I screamed. “Grandma!”

Below, in the park, Grandma fought with her captors, but I knew she wasn’t going to be able to break free of them. And they weren’t the only Reapers here.

Agrona stood by one of the SUVs, dispassionately watching my grandma’s struggles, while Vivian swung her sword from side to side and headed in my direction. “Gwen! Gwen!” I could hear Alexei yelling again, his

voice getting closer and closer. “Wait for me!”

He and Aiko must have taken care of the Reapers in the backyard and were hurrying in my direction. But I didn’t have time to wait, not if I wanted to save my grandma.

So I sucked in a breath, raced down the hill as fast as I could, and ran straight at Vivian. Nyx charged along with me, heading toward the SUVs, as though she could save Grandma all by herself. Meanwhile, Vivian smiled, and she raised her sword high so that I could see the half of a woman’s face and the burning red eye inlaid into the hilt of her weapon.

“Come on, Vic! You miserable coward!” Lucretia called out in her low, throaty voice. “Come over here, and let me cleave you in two!”

“The only one who’s going to get cleaved in two is you, you overconfident bit of scrap metal!” Vic crowed back at her.

Those were all the insults the two swords were able to exchange before I raised my weapon and brought it down, aiming for Vivian’s head.

CLASH!

Our blades crashed together, sending out a cascade of red and purple sparks. Red sparks of magic also dripped out of Vivian’s fingertips, another sign of her Valkyrie power.

“Give it up, Gwen,” Vivian taunted me. “You’ve already lost this battle.”

“Never!” I snarled back at her.

We broke apart and went right back on the attack, each one of us trying to skewer the other. Still, I couldn’t help but look past Vivian. By this point, the Reapers had forced Grandma Frost into the back of one of the SUVs and closed the door, hiding her from sight. Nyx was closing in on the vehicles, but the wolf pup wasn’t going to get there in time. Agrona gave me a mocking wave with her ruined right hand, then slid into the front passenger’s seat.

The vehicle rumbled to life and drove away a second later.

She was gone.

Grandma Frost was gone.

“No!” I screamed, feeling like my heart had just been ripped out of my chest.

“Ah, Gwen,” Vivian purred. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you scream like that.”

I ignored her taunt and lashed out with Vic. Vivian lurched to one side, and I ran past her, racing after the SUV, even though I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to catch it. Nyx was still chasing after it as well, moving as fast as she could on her short, pup-sized legs.

But Vivian wasn’t about to let me go that easily. She whipped her sword down and out, and I felt the blade bite into my left shin even as I tripped over it.

I landed facedown, my forehead hitting the ground and momentarily stunning me. But I forced the dizziness away and rolled over onto my back to block the attack I knew was coming—

Vivian put the tip of her sword against my throat and planted her black boot on my right wrist—the hand that I was using to hold Vic. I couldn’t move without her breaking my bones, but I tightened my fingers around the sword’s hilt. I wasn’t letting go of my weapon. If she wanted Vic, she’d have to pry him out of my cold dead hand.

“Do it,” I said through gritted teeth. “Go ahead and kill me.”

Vivian stared down at me, that Reaper red spark flickering in her golden eyes. She turned her sword, the point digging into my skin and drawing a bit of blood. Her golden Janus ring glinted on her finger, the ruby chips in the god’s two faces, one looking forward into the future, and one looking back into the past, flashing in the sunlight.

“As much as I would enjoy it, I’m afraid that’s not the plan,” she said. “At least not for today. But there’s nothing to stop me from hurting you—”

“Gwen! Gwen!” I heard Alexei shout again.

Vivian glanced over her shoulder. Alexei and Aiko must have been closer than she would have liked because her mouth turned down into a petulant pout. She whipped around to me again.

“The deal is simple. You either bring us the candle, or your precious grandmother dies,” Vivian hissed. “I’ll call you with the details later, but the choice is yours, Gwen.”

I opened my mouth to say something—I wasn’t quite sure what—but Vivian raised Lucretia high and slammed the hilt of the sword into the side of my head.

The world snapped to black.