Dark Frost (20 page)

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Authors: Jennifer Estep

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Action & Adventure, #Survival Stories, #Paranormal, #General

BOOK: Dark Frost
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“We’ll talk later,” I said. “There’s something I need to take care of right now, okay? Call me later.”
He gave me a crooked smile. “You got it, Gypsy girl.”
Logan winked at me and walked away, but instead of leaving the library, he stopped at Daphne and Carson’s table and started talking to them. The Valkyrie spoke to Logan, but she kept staring at me, waiting to see if I’d touch Vivian and freak out when I realized that she was really the Reaper girl. Only one way to find out.
“I got your message,” Vivian said, stepping up to take Logan’s place. “You said you found my ring?”
I pulled the plastic bag with the ring in it out of my bag and showed it to her.
Vivian’s whole face lit up at the sight of the ring, like it was the most important thing in the world to her. Maybe it was, given the attachment she had to it. I didn’t believe she could be the Reaper girl, no matter what Daphne thought. I just didn’t see how Vivian could fake that level of shy niceness. Plus, her voice was so soft and sweet. It didn’t sound anything like the Reaper girl’s low, harsh tone. Then again, neither did Savannah’s voice.
Vivian put the other hundred bucks she owed me on the counter. I touched the money and concentrated, but I only got the familiar, faint vibe off it, the feeling of the bill going from one hand to another until it had wound up in mine. No clue there, so I tucked the money into my jeans pocket.
“So where was it?” Vivian asked. “Where did you find the ring?”
“I found it in Savannah’s room,” I said in a neutral tone.
This was always the hardest part, telling someone her friend had taken what rightfully belonged to her—and not by accident.
I watched her closely, but all the usual emotions flickered across Vivian’s face. Surprise. Confusion. And finally, cold knowledge as she realized what my finding the ring in Savannah’s room really meant.
“Oh,” she said, her face paling. “Oh.”
That was all a lot of people could say when they found out something like that about their supposed best friends. I waited for Vivian to do or say something else, but she just stood there, a miserable expression on her face and tears shining in her eyes. After a second, she snapped out of her daze and held out her hand to me.
I handed over the bag with the ring in it, accidentally-on-purpose letting my fingers touch her hand so I could flash on Vivian and see if she was really the Reaper girl.
Various images of Vivian filled my mind. Her sitting in class this morning, eating lunch in the dining hall, walking over to the library. But mainly what I felt was a sense of hurt and confusion over Savannah’s betrayal. Apparently, it had affected Vivian more than she was letting on because the emotion blocked out everything else.
There was no hint she was a Reaper, and I didn’t sense any sort of hate or malice in her at all. That was a little strange. Even the nicest girl could be a total bitch sometimes. If I’d just found out that my best friend had stolen something from me, well, I’d be royally upset about it. But all Vivian felt was sad, disappointed confusion. She was a far better person than I was. By this point, I would have dug my fingers into Savannah’s red hair and started pulling out clumps of it until she confessed to stealing the ring.
Before I could get any more vibes off her, Vivian pulled back, breaking the connection between our fingers.
“Well, thanks for finding it,” she said in a tight voice.
“Sure. Anytime.”
Vivian turned and walked back to the table where she was sitting with Savannah and Talia. Savannah asked Vivian something, but Vivian gave her a strange look and turned away from the other girl.
Across the library, Daphne looked at me, her eyebrows raised in a silent question. I shook my head, telling her I hadn’t gotten any flashes off Vivian that told me she was the Reaper girl. The Valkyrie shrugged back at me.
But I wasn’t done yet. I grabbed some books to shelve and wandered over to the table where Vivian, Talia, and Savannah were still sitting. Talia and Savannah were talking about something, but Vivian just sat there, keeping quiet and staring at the ring she’d slipped onto her finger.
I did my accidentally-on-purpose thing again, only this time, I dropped a book onto the table, right into the middle of the three Amazons.
“Whoops! So sorry about that. Let me get that out of the way.”
I reached down and grabbed the book, touching Savannah’s hand along the way. Memories and emotions rushed into my mind, everything from Savannah’s sitting in class to eating lunch in the dining hall to the Amazon’s smiling up at Logan as the Spartan walked her across campus when they’d been going out. A soft, warm, fizzy feeling swept over me then, telling me just how much Savannah had liked Logan—and just how hurt she’d been when he’d broken up with her.
That last feeling made my own stomach tighten with guilt, but I forced myself to keep touching her, to keep concentrating and keep looking for any hint that Savannah was the Reaper girl.
I didn’t find anything.
Oh, Savannah was plenty pissed at me for a lot of things—for taking Logan from her, for the way the Spartan looked at me, even for dropping the book practically in her lap a few seconds ago. The Amazon wouldn’t have minded working out her anger and frustration by sparring with and beating me a few times in the gym, but she didn’t have any cold, dark, murderous rage toward me, and I didn’t sense any of that feeling in the echoes of her heart.
Mystified, I drew back, clutching the book. By this point, all three girls were looking at me like I was a complete freak. Right now, I supposed I was.
“Sorry,” I mumbled again and hurried off to shelve the books like I was supposed to.
The three Amazons watched me the whole time, putting their heads close together and whispering. I gritted my teeth and ignored them, pretending I didn’t see them talking about me. On the way back to the checkout counter, I stopped by the table where Daphne was sitting with Carson and Logan.
“Anything?” the Valkyrie whispered.
I shook my head. “I didn’t get any big vibes off either one of them. Vivian was upset Savannah took her ring, and Savannah was mad at me as usual. If one of them is the Reaper girl, she’s found some way to hide it.”
She tried to confuse me, make me see things that weren’t really there,
Grandma Frost’s voice whispered in my mind.
She had a lot of tricks, and she was strong in her magic. As strong as anyone I’ve ever seen with that kind of mental power
—
“Savannah’s not a Reaper,” Logan said, interrupting my thoughts. His face tightened. “Trust me on that.”
I opened my mouth to ask how he could be so sure, but I realized what his answer would be—because Savannah’s family had been brutally murdered just like his mom and older sister. I bit my lip and kept my mouth shut. Logan and I had just established this new beginning between us. I didn’t want to wreck it with my suspicions. Still, the Spartan gave me a sharp look, like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“Anyway, I think I’ve done enough snooping for one night,” I said. “You guys can leave if you want to. I’ve still got a few more hours left to work.”
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Carson asked, his eyes dark and worried. “What if the Reaper girl is lurking around in here somewhere?”
I started to answer him when I noticed Nickamedes glaring at me from the doorway to the library offices. He stabbed his finger at the kids milling around the checkout counter.
“Gwendolyn!” Nickamedes called out in a sharp voice. “Why are these students still standing in line?”
I grimaced and looked at Carson. “Don’t worry. I think Nickamedes is grouchy enough to keep even the Reaper girl away.”
 
I scurried back to the counter. Under Nickamedes’s watchful eyes, I spent the next hour checking out books, shelving, and helping the other students with whatever they needed. Daphne and Carson hung around for a few more minutes before grabbing their stuff and leaving.
Logan sat at their table a little while longer, his face troubled as he looked back and forth between Savannah and me. Finally, the Spartan got to his feet. He stared at me, his expression blank, before turning and walking out of the library. I sighed, wishing things could be different between us, wishing things could just be
easy
. Just for once. I cared about Logan, and he cared about me, too. So why was it so difficult for us to be together?
One by one, the rest of the students packed up and headed out. Everyone must have decided to call it an early night because I was the only one left in the library by eight o’clock, except for Nickamedes, who’d gone back into his office to do whatever he did when he wasn’t busy yelling at me.
With the library empty, I thought about once again using the Reaper girl’s map to try to find the Helheim Dagger, but what was the point? I could spend years searching the library and never figure out exactly where the dagger was. Although, I supposed if I couldn’t find the dagger, then neither could the Reaper girl. That thought didn’t cheer me up, though.
After I finished shelving the books, there was nothing left to do but sit behind the counter and wait until my shift was over. Since I was totally bored, I opened the architecture book again so I could work on my essay. Once more, I turned to the pages that featured the gryphon statues. Height, weight, type of stone used. The information was the same as before, but I couldn’t quit staring at the photographs of the statues. I couldn’t get rid of this nagging feeling that something was wrong with the photos or maybe even the statistics on the page.
I glanced down and noticed my mom’s diary peeking out of the top of my bag. She’d drawn the statues when she’d been a student. Maybe her diary could help me figure out why I was so obsessed with them now. I grabbed the diary, flipped over to the right pages, and compared my mom’s drawings of the gryphons to the photos in the architecture book.
For the first time, I noticed an arrow pointing to the base of one of the statues.
The arrow was on my mom’s drawing. It was so tiny that I hadn’t noticed it before but just thought it was part of the rest of the random doodles and squiggles on the page. But the more I looked at the arrow, the faster and harder my heart started to pound. Why would my mom draw an arrow there? Why in that particular spot? What was so special that she’d felt the need to mark it that way? My eyes flicked back and forth between her drawing and the photographs in the architecture book.
It took me a few seconds to realize that only one of the statues had a base.
The right statue, the one I’d seen my mom stare at when I’d first touched the diary and flashed on the image of her sitting on the library steps. That gryphon sat on a square slab of stone that was maybe three inches high, while the other statue looked like it had just been plopped down beside the steps with no slab to support its heavy weight.
My heart picked up speed, racing as fast as my thoughts. What if—maybe—just maybe—my mom hadn’t hidden the dagger inside the Library of Antiquities after all? What if she’d hidden it
outside
instead? What if she’d tucked it away in the base of the gryphon statue so it would be safe?
No, I thought. That was stupid. The answer couldn’t be that simple. Hundreds of kids walked by that statue every single day. Surely, someone would have found the dagger by now if it had really been hidden there. My imagination was working overtime, and it was another false lead, just like all the Xs on the Reaper girl’s map of the library.
I closed the diary and the architecture book and stuffed them back in my bag, but I couldn’t stop fidgeting and thinking about that arrow—that one tiny arrow pointing at the gryphon. The more I tried to fight the urge to go outside and look at the statue, the more the feeling welled up inside me that I absolutely had to—that I
needed
to right this very second.
I bolted off the stool.
I ran around the library counter, down the long, main aisle, through the double doors, out into the hallway, and then finally outside. The night was cold, so cold that the air burned my lungs, and a dark frost had already coated the entire quad, painting everything a sinister, shadowy silver. The area was deserted, and I was all alone except for the frost, the darkness, and the statues. Even now, I felt like they were watching me from the shadows, tracking my movements.
But I only had eyes for the gryphon statue, the one sitting on the right side of the steps. I bent closer to peer at the statue, comparing it to the left one. Just like in the photographs and my mom’s diary, the right statue stood on a base while the left statue didn’t.
I stood there a second, staring at the statue, wondering if I was right and if I should really do this. I’d always felt there was a force lurking beneath the stone of the statues, especially the gryphons outside the library. What if I touched it and the statue sprang to life? No one was on the quad, so no one would hear me scream. Even if by some miracle Nickamedes did hear the sound from inside the library and came to investigate, well, there wouldn’t be much left of me by the time he arrived.

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