I stood there and watched Grandma Frost bustle around the kitchen. I wasn't psychic, not like she was. I couldn't see things without touching them, and I never got a glimpse of the future or anything.
But for some reason, a shiver crawled up my spine all the same.
Chapter 4
By the time I rode the bus back up to Cypress Mountain, avoided looking at the silent, staring sphinxes, slipped through the iron gate, and walked to the library, it was almost six and twilight had started to fall over campus. Soft shades of purple and gray streaked the sky, even as black shadows crept up the sides of the buildings, looking like blood sliding up the stone. I shook my head to banish the weird thought and walked on.
The Library of Antiquities was the largest structure at Mythos Academy and sat at the top of the cluster of the five main buildings that formed the loose points of the star. Supposedly, the library was only seven stories tall, but it always seemed to me like its towers just kept reaching up and up and up, until they finally pierced the sky with their sharp, swordlike points.
But what made the library supercreepy were the stone statues that covered it. Gryphons, gargoyles, dragons, even something that looked like a giant Minotaur. The figures were everywhere you looked, from the wide, flat steps that led up to the front entrance to the crenellated balcony on the fourth floor to the corners of the sloping roof. And they were all so detailed and lifelike that it seemed like they'd actually been real at one time-real monsters crawling all over the building until something or someone had frozen them in place.
I eyed the gryphons perched on either side of the gray stone steps. The statues loomed over me, and both gryphons sat at attention, eagle heads high, their wings folded behind them, and their thick lions' tails curled around the sharp, curved claws on their front paws.
Maybe it was my Gypsy gift, my psychometry, but I always felt like the two gryphons were watching me, tracking my movements with their lidless eyes. That all I had to do was touch them and they'd come to life, spring out of the stone, and tear me apart. It was the same feeling I had whenever I had to walk by the sphinxes down at the front gate and all the other statues on campus. I shivered again, tucked my hands into the pockets on my hoodie, hurried up the steps, and headed inside the library.
I walked through a hallway and a pair of open double doors that led into the main space. Like everything else at Mythos, the Library of Antiquities was old, stuffy, and pretentious. But even I had to admit that it was something to see.
The main part of the library was shaped like an enormous dome, and the curved ceiling was cut out all the way to the top. Supposedly, frescoes adorned the top arch of the dome, paintings of mythological battles accented with gold, silver, and sparkling jewels. But I'd never been able to spy any of them through the perpetual darkness that shrouded the upper levels.
What I could see were all the gods and goddesses. They ringed the second floor of the library like sentinels watching over the students studying below. The statues stood at the edge of the curved balcony, separated by slender, fluted columns. There were Greek gods like Nike, Athena, and Zeus. Norse gods like Odin and Thor. Native American deities like the Coyote Trickster and Rabbit. All thirty feet tall and carved out of thick white marble. If you climbed up the stairs to the second floor, you could walk in a circle past them all, something that I'd never wanted to do. Like the gryphons outside, the statues seemed a little too lifelike to me.
My eyes roamed over the gods and goddesses, staring at them one by one, until I reached the lone empty spot in the circular Pantheon-the place where Loki should have stood. There was no statue of Loki in the library or anywhere else at Mythos. I imagined it had something to do with him being such a bad guy and trying to destroy the world with his Reapers of Chaos. Not exactly the kind of god you wanted to build a shrine to.
I pulled my eyes away from the empty spot and walked on.
Bookshelves lined either side of the main aisle before it opened up into an area filled with long tables. A freestanding cart off to the right sold coffee, energy drinks, muffins, and other snacks so students wouldn't have to leave the library to get something to eat while they were studying. The rich, roasted smell of coffee filled the air, overpowering the dry, musty odor of the thousands of books.
I didn't stop walking until I reached the long checkout counter that stood in the center of the library. Several glassed-in offices lay behind the counter, separating one half of the domed room from the other. I stepped around behind the counter, plopped down on the stool next to the checkout computer, and slung my bag off my shoulder. I didn't even have time to pull out my myth-history book and start on my report before a door in the glass wall behind me squeaked open and Nickamedes stepped outside.
Nickamedes was the head guy at the Library of Antiquities. A tall, thin man with black hair, piercing blue eyes, and long, pale fingers. He wasn't that old, maybe forty or so, but he was one giant pain in my ass. Nickamedes loved the library and all the books inside, loved them with a passion that bordered on serial killer creepy. What he didn't really care for were all the students who tromped through his little kingdom on a daily basis-especially me. For whatever reason, the librarian had disliked me on sight, and his attitude hadn't improved during the two months that I'd been working here.
"Well," Nickamedes huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's about time you got here, Gwendolyn."
I rolled my eyes. The uptight librarian was the only one who called me by my full name, something that I'd asked him not to do, with zero success so far. I think he did it just to annoy me.
"You're ten minutes late for your shift-again," Nickamedes said. "That's the third time it's happened in the last two weeks. Where were you?"
I couldn't exactly tell him that I'd slipped off the academy grounds to go see Grandma Frost, since, you know, students weren't supposed to leave campus during the week. It was one of the Big Rules, after all. I didn't want to get Grandma in trouble-or worse, not be able to go see her anymore. I'd already learned that it was better to sneak around Nickamedes and the other Powers That Were at Mythos than it was to confront them head-on. So I just shrugged.
"Sorry," I said. "I was busy doing stuff."
Nickamedes's blue eyes narrowed at my vague, smart-ass answer, and his lips pressed into a thin line. "Well, let me tell you about the newest piece that I pulled out of storage this morning. Several classes have been assigned to study it this semester, so I'm sure you'll be getting a lot of questions about it."
The library was full of glass cases filled with dusty pieces of junk that had supposedly belonged to some god, goddess, mythological hero, or even monster. You couldn't walk down the aisles without tripping over them. Every other week, Nickamedes pulled something else out of storage and put it on display. Part of my job was to know enough about whatever it was to help the other kids find reference books and more information on it.