“Like the fact that my grandma is still alive. So why don’t you put her on the phone right now before I decide to hang up?”
“You do that, and your grandmother dies,” Vivian hissed.
“You kill her, and you die,” I hissed back. “And even worse for you, you won’t get the candle. I imagine that Loki wouldn’t be too happy about his Champion failing to get her hands on the one thing that can finally heal him. But if you want to take that chance, go ahead, Viv. Hurt my grandma. Because it will be the last thing you ever do—one way or the other.”
Silence. The seconds ticked by and turned into a minute. Worry flooded my body, and I started to wonder if I’d finally pushed Vivian too far.
“Fine,” she muttered. “But only because you asked so nicely.”
More silence. My fingers gripped the phone even tighter, wondering if Vivian was stalling or bluffing or simply messing with me. If maybe my Grandma Frost was already dead—
“Pumpkin?”
Grandma’s voice flooded the line, and I slumped over the counter in relief.
“Grandma? Is that really you?” I whispered.
“It’s really me, pumpkin,” she said, her voice a little stronger.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just want to say that I love you.” “I love you too.”
“Good,” Grandma Frost said. “Then you need to forget about me. You can’t give them what they want, pumpkin. You can’t give them the candle. Promise me that you won’t—”
“Shut up,” I heard Vivian growl.
A sharp smack sounded, like someone getting slapped across the face. A low groan echoed through the phone. I closed my eyes. That was my grandma’s voice, her groan. But I couldn’t do or say anything to help her—not one thing. All I could do was sit there and try to pretend I wasn’t hearing the sound of someone I loved being hurt by my enemies—all because of me.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Vivian came back on the line.
“You have until noon tomorrow,” she said. “Bring the candle to the address that I’ll text you and come alone—or your grandma dies.”
She ended the call before I could say anything else. A moment later, the phone beeped again, and an address appeared on the screen, one that wasn’t too far from the academy. I’d search for the directions to it later. Right now, I was too angry to do anything but sit and glare down at the phone, wishing I could crush it with my bare hand—along with Vivian’s smug face.
“Who are you talking to?” a voice cut in.
I was so startled I almost dropped the phone. But the worst part was who it was that was asking the question.
I looked up to find Logan standing in front of the counter.
Chapter 14
“Gypsy girl?” Logan asked again. “Who are you talking to?”
I slid the phone back into my jeans pocket. “Nobody. It was one of those stupid spam texts, telling me I’d won some giveaway. You know how it is.”
I let out a laugh, but my voice sounded strained and hollow to my own ears. Hopefully, Logan wouldn’t notice. I hated lying to him, but this was the only way to save my grandma. Besides, if it had been his dad, Logan would have done the same thing. At least, that’s what I told myself. That’s what I had to tell myself to get through this.
He stared at me like he wanted to ask about the phone again, but instead, he jerked his head back at the stacks.
“Can we go somewhere a little more private and talk?” he asked.
“Sure.”
I glanced over at the coffee cart where Alexei was still waiting in line. He saw me with Logan and waved, telling us to go ahead. So I slid off my stool, walked around the counter, and followed Logan back into the stacks.
He moved from one aisle to the next, like a Nemean prowler stalking through the library in search of some sort of prey. Every time I thought he was about to stop, he would keep walking, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to say when we faced each other.
Finally, though, he stopped in a remote corner of the stacks, an area that I knew particularly well, since this was the spot where Vic’s case had once stood. I glanced up. Nike’s statue loomed above us on the second-floor balcony, but the goddess’s face was still completely neutral. She wouldn’t appear to me until she was good and ready. Of course not. Because that would make things way too easy for me.
“Can we sit?” Logan asked in a soft voice.
I nodded, and he plopped down on one side of the aisle, while I sat on the other, facing him. We stared at each other for several long seconds before Logan finally sighed.
“I’ve spent all afternoon trying to convince my dad to change his mind about the candle,” he said. “But he’s not going to.”
I nodded. It didn’t surprise me, although I was touched that he had tried to help.
“I’m sorry, Gwen,” Logan said. “So sorry. How is it that things are always such a mess around here? Even if we’re good, it always seems like there’s something else that gets in the way of us.”
“I know,” I replied. “And I hate it too.”
“I know you feel like my dad is against you, like he’s leaving your grandmother to the Reapers, but he’s doing everything in his power to find her,” Logan said. “Most of the day, he’s been out following down all the leads the other guards have gotten about where the Reapers might have taken her, about where they might be holding her.”
I thought about the address Vivian had texted me. I wondered what would happen if I gave the information to Logan. I could picture it all in my mind. No doubt he’d tell his dad, Linus would get a group of Protectorate guards together, and they’d storm into whatever buildings they found at the address. But Vivian was too smart to give me Grandma Frost’s location in advance. My grandma wouldn’t be there until I’d shown up alone with the candle, and it was too late for me to get any help from my friends or the Protectorate. No, if I gave the address to Logan or Linus, I’d probably get my grandma executed that much faster. I had to do what Vivian wanted me to, or my grandma was dead.
Logan looked at me, waiting for some sort of response.
I sighed. “Look, I appreciate what your dad is trying to do, that he and the other members of the Protectorate are out searching for my grandma. But we both know they’re not going to find her in time. If Linus doesn’t give the Reapers the candle, they’ll kill her. And that will only be the beginning of it.”