"Shut up, Vic," I said, but there was a smile on my face.
I moved around my dorm room, stuffing clothes and comic books into my duffel bags. One of the last things I picked up to take with me was the smAll statue of Nike I kept on my desk. The winged figure of the goddess looked exactly the same as her statue in the library. Maybe it was sil y, but the cheap replica made me feel a little closer to her, made me feel like I could somehow find the Helheim Dagger and keep it safe from the Reapers.
"Have a good Christmas, goddess," I told the statue, then stuffed it into my bag.
FinAll y, there were only two more things left to pack-the photos of my mom. I slid the one of her and Metis into my bag. I picked up the second glass frame and stared at the picture of my mom by herself, taken a few months before her murder. Brown hair, violet eyes, beautiful face. She peered up at me, a smAll smile curving her lips.
This would be my first Christmas without her, I realized with a jolt. The first Christmas she wouldn't be there to open presents with me and Grandma Frost. The first Christmas she wouldn't be around to laugh and talk and joke with the two of us. My chest ached in a familiar, bitter way, but I pushed the feeling aside and focused on my anger-the anger that had grown and grown like a poisonous flower blooming inside my heart, ever since I'd found out what had reAll y happened to my mom.
I didn't know how, I didn't know when, but I was going to find Loki's Champion, the Reaper girl who'd kil ed my mom
-and I was going to shove a sword through her heart.
Logan had told Oliver that I was totAll y kick-ass. I figured it was time for me to live up to the Spartan's words.
But first there would be Christmas with Grandma Frost and Vic. I put the photo of my mom into my bag, nestled right next to the statue of Nike. Then I rummaged through my desk, grabbed the miniature red Santa hat I'd bought for Vic, and stuck it on the hilt of the talking sword.
"You ready to go get that Christmas ham and pie?" I asked.
"Grandma Frost cAll ed me this morning. She's been baking cookies All day just for the two of us."
" I suppose that a brief holiday wouldn't hurt," Vic grumbled.
"Although you're going to practice with me every day, Gwen.
You're finAll y starting to get the hang of me, and I won't have you backsliding and forgetting what little you've learned, just because school's out. We've got Reapers to kil , you know."
"Don't you worry," I said. "We're going to kil Reapers until we're both bathed in their blood and hungry for more." Vic arced his one eyebrow. "That's my line."
"Yeah," I said. "And it's a good one. Now come on, we've got a bus to catch."
I slung my bags over my shoulder and grabbed Vic. I took one more glance in the mirror at the snowflake necklace Logan had given me. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the diamonds seemed to sparkle with an inner fire, blazing as bright as my feelings for the Spartan did-and would over the long winter break. The pure, hopeful light made me smile as I left my dorm room and headed home to Grandma Frost for the holidays.