But Rory had noticed that something was going on, and she gave my grandma a suspicious look. Then again, Rory was almost always suspicious about everything, and with good reason, since her parents had been Reapers and had hidden that truth from her for years.
“Gwen!” A faint voice drifted over to me. “Gwen!”
I whirled around. To my surprise, Carson was running toward me as fast as he could, his boots slapping against the cobblestone path and his arms pumping in time with his long strides. He’d barely come into view when I realized that several other people were running along behind them—and that most of them were wearing gray Protectorate robes.
I sighed. They’d gotten here sooner than I’d thought they would.
I turned to the leader of the gryphons. “You might want to leave now. This isn’t going to be pleasant for me. Or you either, if you stick around.”
The gryphon bowed his head. He let out a fierce screech, and he and the other two creatures flapped their wings and soared up into the air. But they didn’t go far, perching in the tops of the trees above our heads, watching over us as best they could.
“Gwen! Gwen!” Carson kept shouting at me.
I sighed again and turned to face the music. “Whatever happens, I’m so grateful to you for rescu-
ing me, pumpkin,” Grandma Frost murmured, reaching over and giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Me too,” Vic piped up from his spot in his scabbard. “And I’m sure the fuzzball will be as well.”
I looked at Grandma. “No matter what happens to me, make sure Nyx is taken care of. Please?”
She squeezed my hand again. “Consider it done.” Carson finally sputtered to a stop in front of us. His
brown eyes were wide behind his black glasses, and he bent down and put his hands on his knees as he tried to suck down some much-needed oxygen.
“Daphne . . . and . . . Oliver . . .” he rasped, panting for breath. “Just . . . texted me. They’re almost back . . . to the academy.”
The last tight knot of worry loosened in my chest. I hadn’t been able to text my friends while we’d been flying back, and I was so glad that they were okay, that they’d gotten away from the Reapers who’d gone into the woods after them.
“Good. Tell them thanks for everything they did,” I said. “For everything you all did. I couldn’t have done it without you, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.”
Carson managed to grin in between sucking down more giant gulps of air.
I stepped in front of the others, making sure they were behind me. This had been my idea, not theirs, and I was going to be the one to take full responsibility for it—along with the brunt of the punishment.
So I lifted my chin and waited.
Linus Quinn came striding down the path toward me, his gray Protectorate robe snapping around his legs, as though it was trying to show me exactly how angry he was with me. In fact, I thought I could see a vein throbbing in his temple from here.
Linus finally reached me, and his eyes locked with mine. Oh yeah. I could definitely see that vein throbbing in his temple now. His cold blue gaze met mine for a moment before he looked past me at the others. He carefully examined Grandma Frost, Rory, Rachel, and the gryphons in turn before he stared at me again.
But Carson, Linus, and the Protectorate guards weren’t the only ones who’d shown up. Logan and Alexei had come down to the gate too, flanked by Sergei and Inari.
I looked at Logan, who stared back at me. His face was carefully neutral, and his eyes devoid of any obvious emotion. I couldn’t tell whether he was angry at me for what I’d done or relieved that I was okay. Probably a little bit of both. Okay, okay, probably a lot of both.
Alexei’s face was as stoic as ever, and even Sergei and Inari had somber expressions, telling me exactly how much trouble I was in. It seemed I’d gone from one bad situation to the next over the past few days, and no doubt more trouble was on the way. But at least I’d saved my grandma, at least I’d gotten that much right. So I lifted my chin once more and prepared to take my punishment.
“Gwendolyn Cassandra Frost,” Linus Quinn boomed in the loudest voice I’d ever heard him use. “You’re under arrest.”
I flashed back to the first time he’d said those words to me in Kaldi Coffee. His accusations hadn’t been true then, but I couldn’t deny the charges now.
So I nodded my head. “Okay.”
Linus blinked, as if he were shocked that I was going to go along with him so easily. But his surprise quickly vanished, replaced once more by the anger that made his blue eyes burn almost as bright as Loki’s red eye did.
“Take her away,” he ordered.
Chapter 21
Linus didn’t waste any time ordering the Protectorate guards to escort me down to the prison in the bottom of the math-science building, and fifteen minutes later, I found myself in a familiar position—shackled to a stone table in the middle of the room.
My gaze moved from one side of the prison to the other, but there was nothing new to see. Glass cells stacked up three stories high around the circular room, with the interrogation table sitting in the center of the area. I craned my neck back so I could look up at the domed ceiling and the carving that was embedded in the stone directly above my head—a hand holding a set of scales. The scales had started out being perfectly balanced, but as soon as I sat down at the table, they shifted to one side, the way they always seemed to. I wondered if it was my side or the Reapers’, but I had no way of knowing. Still, it made me shiver all the same.
But I wasn’t alone at the table. Vic lay in his scabbard off to one side, along with all of the artifacts I’d used over the past few hours. Janus’s key. Morpheus’s dreambox. Ran’s net. The only thing that wasn’t here was Sol’s candle, which I’d handed over to Linus before the guards had led me away. My mistletoe bracelet with its lone remaining laurel leaf was still wrapped around my wrist, only because no one could figure out how to get it off me.
A key screeched in the door, and I straightened up in my seat. After Inari and Sergei had shackled me to the table, they’d both left, leaving me alone with Raven, who was sitting at her usual desk, her black combat boots propped up on the wooden surface as she flipped through another one of her celebrity gossip magazines.
The door opened, and I thought Linus would come striding in and immediately put me on trial for everything I’d done.