It was awful.
"Now that's what I'm talking about," Vic crowed in a chipper voice.
"Shut up, Vic," I whispered.
I picked up the sword, got to my feet, and turned around.
Logan Quinn stood behind me.
Deep ugly red lines slashed down his cheek from where the Nemean prowler had clawed him, and his black tuxedo jacket and white shirt hung in tatters on his body. More claw marks covered his chest, and I could see blood dripping out of the wounds. The Spartan's metal shield was still strapped to his arm, although it had been torn into two separate pieces by the prowler. Still, despite his injuries, pride filled Logan's ice blue eyes, warming them.
In that moment, he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
I ran over to him and held out my arms. I wanted to hug him, kiss him, touch him-and then I remembered that I couldn't. That my Gypsy gift, my psychometry, wouldn't let me. Not without flashing on him. Not without seeing what had just happened between him and the prowler. Not without me learning all of Logan's secrets. And I didn't want to do that. Not now, not like this.
I stood there a moment, my arms outstretched. Then, I slowly dropped them to my sides.
"Are you okay?" I whispered. "Where's the prowler?"
"Dead. Its body is back in the stacks. It didn't evaporate since it was the real deal this time and not just an illusion." Logan put his fingers up to the bloody wounds on his face and winced. "Well, since I'm alive and Jasmine and the prowler aren't, I'd say that qualifies as okay. You?"
I shrugged. There was no way to tell him all the crazy things that had happened in the library tonight and all the things that I was feeling, especially when I stared into his eyes.
"Thank you," I said in a quiet voice. "I don't know how you found me or why, but thank you. Jasmine and her prowler would have killed me, if it hadn't been for you."
He gave me a crooked smile that made my heart speed up. "I couldn't let you just walk out of the dance all pissed off, now could I?"
"But ... but why come after me at all?" I asked, my eyes never leaving his.
Logan stared at me. After a moment, he drew in a breath. "Because I-"
"What is going on in here?" a sharp voice called out.
Startled, I raised my sword up even as my head snapped around to the double doors at the back of the library. To my surprise, they were open once more and three people crowded into the doorway-Professor Metis, Coach Ajax, and Nickamedes. I spotted Daphne and Carson lurking behind them, trying to see what was going on inside.
Nickamedes stepped into the library and walked toward me, his face even paler than usual and his mouth wide open in shock. The librarian had a right to be stunned. It looked like a bomb had gone off in here. Thousands of books littered the marble floor, dozens of shelves had been knocked over, tables and chairs had been upended and sliced to ribbons by the Nemean prowler-and that was just the damage I could see from where I was standing.
And then, there was the biggie-Jasmine Ashton slumped against one of the tables, her sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling, Logan's spear through her chest, her blood coating the floor around her. Right above her, Morgan McDougall was still stretched out on top of the table, like some comatose fairy princess waiting for her handsome prince to come and wake her up with a kiss.
I winced. This was so not going to be fun.
Sure enough, Nickamedes rounded on me and stabbed his finger in my direction. "What have you done to my library, Gwendolyn?"
There was a lot of explaining to do after that. A lot of explaining. I told Professor Metis and the others about everything that I'd found out about Jasmine's plot to use the Bowl of Tears to control Morgan. How Jasmine had wanted to get revenge on her slutty best friend for sleeping with Samson. How Jasmine had claimed that she and her whole family were Reapers who served Loki.
I didn't tell them about seeing Nike, though, and that the goddess had told me that I was her Champion. I still wasn't sure how I felt about all that-or if it had even been real to start with and not something that I'd just imagined.
Sometime in the middle of it all, Morgan woke up from whatever kind of zombie trance Jasmine had put her in. The Valkyrie blinked, sat up, looked at all of us, and demanded to know what was going on-and exactly who had stolen her homecoming tiara, ruined her designer dress, and scratched up her face. Coach Ajax took her aside and tried to explain things to her. The Valkyrie still looked confused, though. Just like I felt.
While everyone was busy with Morgan, I showed Professor Metis the sword I'd grabbed out of The Case in the back of the library. The one that Nike had given back to me during my dream, vision, or whatever that had been. Sometime during the commotion, Vic had closed his eye, and he wouldn't open it back up or talk no matter what I did or said or how I pleaded with him to show Metis that he was in fact kind of alive.
"It's okay, Gwen," Professor Metis said, staring at the sword with a strange look on her face. "I believe you about the sword."
I glared down at the spot where Vic's closed eye was. "So what do you want to do about it? Do you want to take it and stick it back in one of the artifact cases?"
Metis shook her head. "No, I think you should hang on to the sword, Gwen. At least for now. We've got a lot to do tonight, and it would just get lost in the mess anyway. We'll talk about it later, okay?"
I shrugged. I supposed I could hang on to Vic. Even if the fact that the sword could look at and talk to me was kind of bizarre.
"I think you were very brave tonight, Gwen," Metis said, her green eyes soft and kind in her face. "Trying to help Morgan. Your mother would be very proud of you."
I frowned, wondering once again at the familiar tone in Metis's voice when she'd talked about my mom. But then I thought of how I'd seen my mom's face when I'd first picked up the sword, of how she had seemed to smile at me. Emotion clogged my throat, and I just nodded. I thought my mom would be proud of me, too. And that made me happier than anything else had in a long time.
Metis smiled at me, then walked over to Ajax and the still-stunned Nickamedes. The three of them huddled together, talking about who they needed to call, how long it would take to clean up the mess in the library, and what to do with Jasmine's body-the real one-this time. I wondered if they would put it in cold storage in the morgue, like Jasmine had claimed they'd done to her other body, the illusion she'd created to fool us all.
Thirty minutes later, I stood off to one side and watched while a couple of men dressed in dark coveralls loaded Jasmine into a black body bag and zipped it shut. Despite the fact that she'd tried to kill me, I still felt sorry for the Valkyrie.