A faint tap-tap-tapping sounded, one that made my heart squeeze tight with guilt. A man slowly hobbled into view, leaning on a cane for support. He wore black pants and a blue sweater vest over a white button-up shirt. The colors set off his ink-black hair and ice-blue eyes, the ones that always reminded me so much of his nephew. Not only was Nickamedes the head librarian, but he was also Logan’s uncle.
Nickamedes stopped in front of me. My gaze flicked down to his cane, and that wave of guilt surged through me again. A couple of weeks ago, Nickamedes had accidentally ingested some poison that had been meant for me, and he’d been using that cane ever since. I was the reason he was hurting, I was the reason his legs had been damaged, but he still smiled at me. I don’t know that I would have been as forgiving, if our positions had been reversed.
“Really, Gwendolyn,” Nickamedes said, a faint teasing tone in his voice. “I would have thought that it was quite obvious.”
I dramatically rolled my eyes, playing along with him. “Well, you know me. I never seem to get the obvious.”
Nickamedes chuckled, and his face brightened. I was on my best behavior around the librarian these days, trying to do everything I could to make him laugh whenever I could. It wasn’t much, but I hoped that it helped him in some small way.
At least, until I figured out how to use the silver laurel leaves to fix his legs. Eir, the Norse goddess of healing and mercy, had given me the leaves and told me that they had an unusual property—the ability to heal or destroy, based on the will and intent of the person using them. I didn’t know how many of the leaves it would take to kill Loki, but I was saving at least one of them for Nickamedes. He deserved to be whole again, after everything he’d suffered—all because of me.
“Come along then,” he said. “I still have chores to do when our meeting is finished.”
Nickamedes led us past the stacks and into the center of the room, where a long conference table stood. The table sat in the same spot that the checkout counter did on the main floor above our heads, adding to my sense of déjà vu.
In addition to Sergei and Inari, two guys my own age were also sitting at the table. One had sandy blond hair, green eyes, and a sly grin, while the other looked like a younger, leaner version of Sergei with brown hair, hazel eyes, and tan skin—Oliver Hector and Alexei Sokolov, two more of my friends.
“It’s about time you guys got here,” Oliver quipped. “Alexei and I were starting to think you’d gotten lost.” Daphne sniffed. “Please. We weren’t lost. We were
shopping.”
“That doesn’t make it any better,” Oliver retorted. “In fact, I’d say that makes it worse.”
She glared at him, which only made Oliver’s grin widen. He loved teasing everyone.
Daphne slapped her hands on her hips. “Let me tell
you something, Spartan . . .”
I tuned out their bickering and went to the far end of the table, where a man and woman stood. The man was tall, with a big, solid frame and onyx skin, hair, and eyes. Coach Ajax, who was responsible for teaching all the kids at Mythos how to use weapons. The woman was much shorter, with black hair that was pulled back into a tight bun and green eyes that were warm and kind behind her silver glasses. Professor Aurora Metis, my mentor.
“What’s this about?” I asked Metis. “What’s wrong?” She shook her head. “Nothing’s wrong, Gwen.”
She didn’t say the word yet, but I got the impression that was what she was thinking. Or perhaps that was my own worry peeking through again.
Metis’s gaze flicked past me, and she moved over to Nickamedes, who was having trouble holding on to his cane and pulling out a chair that was wedged up tight against the table at the same time. Metis moved the chair away from the table, and he sank down onto it with a grateful sigh.
“Thank you, Aurora.” “You’re welcome.”
She was standing behind him, so Nickamedes didn’t see her hand hover over his shoulder, as though she wanted to reach out and touch him. A few weeks ago, when Nickamedes had been poisoned, I’d flashed on Metis with my psychometry, and realized that she was in love with him. But Nickamedes didn’t seem to have any clue about how she felt. I’d been meaning to nose around and ask him if he was dating anyone, but it was such a weird topic that I hadn’t quite figured out how to bring it up yet. Especially since Nickamedes had been in love with my mom back when they’d both been students at Mythos.
Maybe that was why Metis hadn’t told him how she felt. Maybe the professor was still feeling loyal to Grace Frost, her best friend, even though my mom had been murdered last year by Vivian—
“Since we’re all here now, please have a seat, and we’ll get started,” Linus said.
We all shuffled forward and took a seat at the table. When we were settled, Linus strode to the head of the table and turned to face us. He might not be my favorite person, but I had to admit that he cut an impressive figure with his gray Protectorate robe billowing out around him and a long sword strapped to his thick, black leather belt. If there was anyone who could fight Agrona and the other Reapers and win, surely it was Linus Quinn. “What’s up, Dad?” Logan asked. “What couldn’t you
tell us before?”
“Yeah, or at least upstairs where it’s warmer.” Daphne shivered and crossed her arms over her chest.
Linus paused, as if he was searching for the right words. He let out a long breath. “There’s a shipment of artifacts coming into the Cypress Mountain airport tomorrow,” he said. “The items that we recovered from the ski resort that the Reapers were using as their hideout up in New York.”
Logan nodded. He’d been with his dad, Sergei, and Inari when they’d found the hideout and battled the Reapers who’d been inside the resort. Logan had told me about the artifacts he’d discovered in a study there, weapons mostly, although there were some more unusual items in the mix.
“We decided to move everything here to the Library of Antiquities for safekeeping,” Linus said.
I couldn’t help but snort. In my experience, the library was the most dangerous place on campus—not the safest. Not by a long shot.
“The library is the safest place for the artifacts right now,” Linus said, hearing my derisive snort. “Despite your obvious opinion to the contrary, Miss Frost.”
He arched an eyebrow at me, but I shrugged in response. Reapers had been able to waltz into the library and steal artifacts before, and I couldn’t imagine what would be different this time around. No doubt, they would try again as soon as they realized that the artifacts were being sent here. I thought of the three guys at the coffeehouse and how they’d bet that the Reapers would ruin the Valentine’s Day dance. Maybe I should get in on the action and try to win a few bucks. Because the dance would be the perfect time for the Reapers to break into the library again.