"The Helheim Dagger," I said in a quiet voice. "That's what they were after, that's what the Reaper girl told the others to search for. It was her, Loki's Champion. She came into the weapons room looking for the dagger. She's the one I fought."
Metis stared at me. "Are you sure it was her? And that she was after the dagger?"
I nodded. Metis knew all about the dagger and the fact that my mom had hidden it from the Reapers. She and my mom had been best friends years ago when they'd gone to Mythos Academy.
"Well, that would certainly explain the full-frontal assault," Nickamedes said in a dark tone. "The Reapers will do anything to get their hands on that dagger."
Nobody said anything. We all knew the dagger was the last remaining seal on Loki's mythological prison. If the Reapers ever found the dagger, they could use it to free the god and set him loose in the mortal realm once more. I was kind of fuzzy on exactly how they were supposed to use the dagger to do that, but I knew people would die if Loki ever got free-so many people.
So many people had died already today.
"I wonder why they thought the dagger was here?" Metis asked. "The Crius Coliseum isn't known for its artifacts collection. Its pottery and art, certainly, but not high-end, magically powerful artifacts and especially not weapons."
"Maybe this will help." I used the edge of my hoodie sleeve to pull the white square of paper out of my jeans pocket. "The Reaper girl dropped this while we were fighting. I haven't touched it yet so I don't know what kind of vibes might be attached to it. After-after what happened today, I don't know that I want to touch it."
Metis, Ajax, and Nickamedes looked at each other, then Metis stepped forward and took the paper from me. Carson got to his feet, and she spread it out on the desk where he'd been sitting. We all gathered around and stared at the paper.
It had been folded several times and almost covered the entire desk by the time Metis finished spreading it out and smoothing down the edges. The paper featured a detailed map of-of something. I couldn't tell what, exactly. Something with a dome, judging by the round shape in the top left corner of the map. Small Xs had been drawn all over the paper in what looked like random positions. There was no pattern to the marks that I could see. All put together, it looked like squiggly gibberish. What was so important about this that the Reaper girl had almost let me take her head off rather than leave it behind?
Ajax let out a curse and turned away from the paper. Metis sighed and rubbed her head, as though it was suddenly aching. Nickamedes stayed where he was, though, still staring down at the paper, a thoughtful look on his face.
"What is it?" I asked. "What's wrong?"
"It's a map," Nickamedes said.
I rolled my eyes. Well, yeah, I could see that. But a map of what? Where? And why was it so important?
As if hearing my snide thoughts, the librarian looked up at me. "It's a map of the Library of Antiquities."
I frowned. "The library? Why would the Reaper girl have a map of the library?"
Nickamedes kept staring at me, and the answer popped into my head.
"The library," I whispered. "The Reapers think the Helheim Dagger is hidden somewhere in the Library of Antiquities."
"Apparently so."
I looked at Nickamedes. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Well, is it hidden somewhere in there?" I demanded. "Have you known where it was this whole time?"
My voice got louder and sharper with every word. Logan walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, telling me to take it easy, but too many awful things had happened today for me to do that.
Nickamedes stiffened, then straightened up to his full height and peered down his nose at me. "I assure you that the dagger is not in the library. I know every inch of the place, and I would have discovered it long ago."
"Really? Like you knew that Jasmine Ashton was hiding in a storage room on the fourth floor with the Bowl of Tears last semester?" I sniped. "If I remember right, you thought some anonymous Reaper bad guy had stolen the bowl and smuggled it out of the library. But things didn't turn out that way, did they?"
Nickamedes's cheeks flushed an angry red, and he opened his mouth, ready to argue with me some more. Metis stepped in front of him, putting her hand on his chest.
"Enough," she said. "That's enough, both of you. Bickering among ourselves isn't going to solve anything. I'm sure Nickamedes is right and that the dagger isn't hidden in the library. Otherwise, someone would have stumbled across it years ago."
"But that's why the Reapers were here today, isn't it?" Coach Ajax rumbled in his deep voice. "Because most of the weapons and artifacts on display were on loan from the library. For whatever reason, the Reapers think the dagger is hidden in the library. They must have thought that Nickamedes didn't recognize it, that maybe it was labeled as something else and he packed it up and brought it to the coliseum to be displayed. At the very least, the Reapers knew they'd have an easier time breaking in here than they would the library."
"Well, who knows what the great mind of Grace Frost came up with," Nickamedes muttered in a snide tone. "Or where she hid the dagger to start with. I never understood some of the choices she made. Grace was a fool, if you ask me, about a great many things."
Anger exploded like fireworks in my chest at his harsh words. "And what would you know about my mom?" I snapped, my hands curling into fists. "She's dead, remember? Murdered by the Reapers because she was trying to keep the dagger safe from them. So don't you dare say another word about her!"
Nickamedes eyed me, his blue gaze dark. Logan tightened his grip on my shoulder, his fingers pressing into my skin through the fabric of my clothes. The librarian looked at me another second before his gaze skipped over to his nephew. Nickamedes's lips pulled down into another frown.
"The dagger isn't in the library," he insisted once more. "I don't even know why we're bothering to discuss this. I'm going to see if the parents of the injured students have arrived yet."
The librarian grabbed the office door and slammed it behind him as he stalked out of the room and down the hallway.
"What is with him and his bad attitude?" I muttered.
Metis shook her head. "It's a long story."
The professor stared at the map again, looking at all the Xs marked on it. Now that I knew it was a map of the library, I recognized some of the spots covered by the Xs. The checkout counter where I worked, the spot where the Bowl of Tears had once stood, the coffee cart set up to provide snacks to the students. Strange. Hundreds of kids tromped by those places every single day. I would have thought the Reapers would have marked more out-of-the-way spots, places more likely for my mom to have hidden the dagger and for it to have stayed safe all these years.