The thin, flimsy poles wouldn't do me much good against the wolf, but they were better than nothing. I knew better than to try to run. I wouldn't get two steps, not with the skis strapped to my feet, before the creature pounced on me and ripped me to shreds with its teeth and claws. Given the way it was licking its lips with its long, red tongue and staring at me with its bright, glowing eyes, the wolf would definitely enjoy that sort of thing.
This was the third time I'd been face-to-face with a mythological monster, and the only reason I'd survived the first two encounters was because Logan had stepped in to save me. But Logan wasn't here now, and I was al alone-
"Hey, guys! Over here! This lift isn't so crowded!" A group of Mythos students zoomed into view, gliding over the snow and heading toward the ski lift. The wolf's gaze cut over to them, and it let out another low, ominous growl. While it was distracted, I took a step back, then another one, then another one, putting as much distance as possible between myself and the monster.
The wolf got to its feet and started stalking back and forth inside the thicket of trees. The other kids never even saw it as they stopped at the base of the lift and waited for the chairs to come down the mountain. The monster's gaze moved from them and then back to me, its eyes growing redder and angrier with each passing second, until it seemed like hungry flames flashed in the sockets were its eyes should be.
The wolf realized that I was moving away from it, but there was nothing the monster could do to stop me-not without showing itself. I didn't know how intel igent Fenrir wolves were, but this one must have instinctively known that it would be a bad idea to leap out into the middle of a group of kids. I might not be able to kil it, but the other Mythos students were warriors, trained to fight monsters. I had no doubt they could use their ski poles like spears to take down the creature.
Step by step, I backed up until I was standing on the edge of the group waiting for the chair lift. The other kids ignored me, of course, the way they always did. I kept watching the wolf the whole time, poles up and at the ready, just in case.
I thought about shouting out a warning to the others, but like running, I didn't think I'd even get to scream once before the wolf bounded out of the trees and tore open my throat with its claws.
The Mythos kids might be warriors, but I didn't think they'd be fast enough to save me from the monster. I didn't even know if Logan was that good. Either way I wasn't about to bet my life on it-not now.
I didn't have to. The Fenrir wolf let out one final growl, then slid farther back into the trees and disappeared.
The chairs final y circled back around, and the other kids scrambled onto them. Legs shaking, I managed to slip-slide over and sit down on the final chair before it took off up the mountain.
I leaned over the side and peered down into the trees, but I didn't spot the wolf anywhere beneath the thick tangles of snowy branches. It had vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.
But this wouldn't be the last time I saw it. The wolf would come for me sooner or later, lurking and hiding on the mountain until it got another shot at me, another chance to tear into me with its teeth and drag my body back to its Reaper master. I knew that, but I stil couldn't stop the questions from fil ing my mind.
How was I going to kil it?
And who had sent it after me in the first place?
I was a little calmer by the time the chair lift reached the top of the slope. At least, I told myself that I was, even if my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest, and my palms were cold and clammy with sweat inside my puffy purple gloves.
Daphne and Carson were waiting for me. They sat at a wooden table that had been painted a bright, candy-apple red, and the glossy boards looked like blood resting on top of the snow. Or maybe it just seemed that way because I was stil freaked out from seeing the Fenrir wolf.
My friends both clasped oversize mugs in their hands and slowly sipped the hot chocolate they'd bought from a guy in a concessions shack off to one side of the slope.
Steam wisped up out of the mugs, the thin ribbons bringing the smel s of warm milk, sweet cinnamon, and just a hint of tangy peppermint along with them. Normal y, the rich aromas would have made me thirsty for my own mug of hot chocolate. Now, they just turned my stomach.
"Geez, Gwen. What took you so long?" Daphne said.
"Yeah, we thought maybe you'd fal en into a snowdrift or something," Carson joked.
"No," I said in a quiet voice. "But I saw a Fenrir wolf in the trees."
Instead of being scared by my confession, Daphne perked up.
"Real y? Cool! What did it look like? Was it real y as big as a Nemean prowler? Did it have massive teeth?"
"Cool?" I asked, confused. "Why is that cool?" Daphne and Carson exchanged a look, like they were in on some secret that I wasn't.
"Remember what Metis told us in class about how some of the Fenrir wolves stil run around free in the wild?" Carson asked.
"Yeah... ."
"Wel , the mountains around the ski resort are one of the places they live. A couple of kids saw some of the wolves last year, hanging around the resort. The kids tried to get close to the wolves, but they just disappeared into the trees."
"And it's not just wolves," Daphne added. "There are tons of wild animals around here. Sometimes we see bears or mountain lions or elk, right at the edges of the slopes." My friends started talking about al the animals they'd seen last year and some of the cel phone videos and photos the other students had taken.
"But-"
I opened my mouth to tel them it wasn't just some wild Fenrir wolf that I'd seen, that it wasn't more scared of me than I was of it, that it had red eyes and had seemed to want to kil me more than anything else. But at the last second I changed my mind. Daphne and Carson looked so happy cozied up next to each other. I didn't want to ruin their day by going on and on about just how big, bad, and evil the wolf had seemed, especial y when they weren't real y concerned about me seeing the creature in the first place. I didn't want to be a total wimp-or worse, have my friends look at me like they didn't believe me. Besides, there was a smal chance I was wrong about the wolf being here to kil me. Wild or not, the wolf was stil a monster. Maybe they al had red eyes.
Okay, okay, so I didn't real y believe that, but it made me feel a smidge better.
Anyway, my friends had come here to have fun. If word got out there was a wolf with red eyes roaming around the mountain, the Powers That Were might cancel the whole Winter Carnival.
Maybe it was selfish of me, but I didn't want to be known as Gwen Frost, that Gypsy girl who ruined everything. That would definitely make me more of a misfit freak than I already was.