I froze again, my knuckles cracking as my hands tightened around the cart's handle. Because hookups or not, pranks or not, Mythos students did not wear black robes-Reapers of Chaos did.
Heart pounding, I grabbed Vic off the top of the cart and hurried after the figure.
"What are you doing?" the sword asked in a slightly muffled voice, since his mouth was underneath my hand. "Why are you leaving the cart behind? You've got to take it back to the counter too."
"Shut up, Vic," I murmured. "I think there's someone else in the library."
But the sword didn't listen to me. "Of course there's someone in the library. Your friends are here, remember?"
"Yeah," I replied. "But none of them is wearing a black robe."
Vic's purplish eye widened, and I felt his mouth curve into a smile beneath my palm. "Bloody Reapers," he said with obvious relish. "Let's kill them all!"
I resisted the urge to tell him to shut up again and raced forward. We were on the back side of the library, behind the glass office complex, and once again voices murmured up ahead. I eased up to the edge of one of the bookcases and peered around the corner.
Oliver and Alexei stood about thirty feet away from me, almost in the same spot where Nickamedes and Linus had argued earlier tonight. I'd thought perhaps the two of them had slipped back here to hook up, but then I noticed that they were glaring at each other. Had something gone wrong between them already?
"You should distance yourself from Gwen," Alexei said. "From what I hear, things are not going to go well for her tomorrow. At the very least, she'll be expelled from the academy. I don't have to tell you what the maximum punishment is for those convicted of being Reapers."
Oliver chewed on his lip. Apparently, he knew that the Protectorate could execute me if I was found guilty. I wondered if the others knew too. Probably. My friends had grown up in the mythological world. They knew the rules-and the consequences of breaking them-a lot better than I did.
"Please," Alexei said, holding out his hand. "Can't we just go back to the way things were over the holidays?"
For a moment, Oliver's face softened with memories. Longing filled his eyes, and he stared at Alexei's hand, obviously wanting to take it. But he slowly shook his head.
"Gwen's my friend," Oliver said. "And I'm not going to abandon her just because she's in trouble, especially since she didn't do the things the Protectorate said she did. She almost died trying to find the Helheim Dagger and keep it safe from the Reapers. You should have seen her that night we found her in the forest by that Garm gate. She was devastated by everything that had happened."
Alexei sighed and slowly dropped his hand to his side. "Maybe she was, but that won't be enough to save her. Not from the Protectorate. She'll be found guilty, and so will anyone who aligns themselves with her."
The two guys stood there, shifting on their feet and not quite looking at each other. Guilt twisted my heart. Oliver finally had a chance at happiness, and he was pushing it aside because of me. I don't know that I would have done the same, if our positions had been reversed, if Logan had been standing in front of me, pleading with me with like that. Oliver was a far better friend than I was-
Once again, I spotted a flicker of movement in the stacks. My head snapped in that direction, and I tightened my grip on Vic.
"Come on," I whispered. "Show yourself."
A second later, a Reaper stepped into view.
The Reaper wore a black robe with the hood pulled up, black leather gloves, and a garish rubber mask-one that resembled the melted half of Loki's face.The same twisted, melted, ruined face I saw whenever I closed my eyes. I shuddered. Somehow, the mask looked even more hideous on the Reaper, maybe because I knew there was a real person under there, someone who'd pledged to serve Loki, someone who happily did all the terrible things that the evil god commanded his Reapers to do. Like lying to their friends. Sacrificing people. Killing warriors. Murdering kids like me.
Still, I forced myself to look at the Reaper to see if I could get any clue as to who was really underneath that horrible rubber mask. Despite the billowing folds of the robe, the figure seemed slender, but it still could have been a man or woman, old or young. I didn't think it was Vivian Holler, though. Vivian was about my size, and this Reaper was several inches taller than I was. Besides, Vivian had no reason to hide her identity with a mask since everyone knew that she was Loki's Champion.
"Reaper," Vic snarled in a soft voice. "Let's go kill it, Gwen."
I nodded at the sword and started forward when I spotted another figure moving through the stacks. I stopped and blinked, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me-but they weren't.
Because this figure was wearing a black robe too- and it wasn't alone. Two more figures crept through the stacks behind it, then several more after that, so many I lost count. My blood turned to ice at the horrible sight.
Reapers-Reapers had somehow gotten inside the Library of Antiquities.
And they were about to kill Oliver and Alexei.
Chapter 12
The first Reaper that I'd spotted held up a fist, and the others stopped. The leader made a hand signal, and the others slowly began to spread out, forming a semicircle around Oliver and Alexei. The two guys had started arguing again, so they didn't even notice the Reapers creeping up on them.
My head snapped to the left, as I looked for Logan and Daphne, but I didn't see my friends. Had the Reapers-had the Reapers gotten to them already? Killed them already? The terrible thought made me want to scream, but I forced myself to take a breath and focus on what I had to do now-save Oliver and Alexei. I turned and darted deeper into the stacks.
"Where are you going?" Vic demanded. "Why are you running away? The Reapers are back that way!"
"I know!" I hissed at the sword. "Just trust me!"
I raced back to where I'd left the metal cart, grabbed it with my free hand, turned around, and headed back in the direction that I'd come, pushing the cart in front of me. When I reached the crossway, I veered to the right, then took a left three bookcases up.
A Reaper, a man from the size of him, stood at the far end of the aisle. A curved sword glinted in his hand, and he swung it back and forth a few times as he prepared to spring out of his hiding place and attack Oliver and Alexei. I picked up my pace, forcing myself to run faster. The Reaper must have heard the sound of my footsteps smacking into the marble floor or maybe the faint creak-creak-creak of the cart's wheels because his head turned in my direction-but it was too late.