Chapter Eighteen
“This is a bad idea,” Ian said. “A really, really bad idea.”
“Why, Viking, I had no idea that you were afraid of heights,” I said, a teasing note creeping into my voice.
“I’m not afraid of heights,” he protested. “Just of falling off them.”
I turned away so he wouldn’t see my smile.
Fifteen minutes ago, we’d snuck out of the Bunker and ridden the secret elevator back up to the second floor. Then I had used a paper clip to open the door to the stairs that led all the way up to the library roof, where we were now standing.
The roof was an enormous square, just like the library tower itself. A gray stone walkway wrapped around the area, while a matching stone balcony cordoned off the roof from the open air and a five-story drop below.
Golden light from inside the library streamed up through the stained-glass mosaic in the center of the roof, making it glimmer like a carpet of sparkling jewels. The glass was probably thick and strong enough to hold my weight, but I’d never walked across it. I hadn’t wanted my boots to dirty the colorful patterns. Looking down at the gleaming glass from this angle made me feel like I was standing in one of the wildflower fields at the Eir Ruins, and I didn’t want to do anything to spoil that illusion.
It was almost midnight, and the moon hung big and bright in the sky, surrounded by thousands of silver stars. Down below, lights burned in the other buildings on the quad, as well as in the student dorms in the distance, but no one moved or stirred, and the campus was still and quiet. A cool, crisp breeze gusted over the roof, and I drew in a deep breath, letting the fresh mountain air sweep away all the horrible things that had happened tonight.
I had discovered the library roof last year, on a day when I’d been particularly desperate to escape from everyone and everything that was bothering me. From what I could tell, nobody ever came up here but me, and it had quickly become my secret hiding spot, the one place where I could always find a little peace and quiet, no matter how bad things got. Up here, the memory of finding my parents’ bodies didn’t bother me quite as much as it did when I was down in the main part of the library. Plus, I liked looking down through the stained glass and catching glimpses of the various library levels below. I imagined that was what the gods did, up on Mount Olympus or wherever they were.
Well, except for Sigyn, of course. She seemed to be the rare goddess who walked among us mortals. I had looked for her—as Raven—on campus today, but I hadn’t spotted her anywhere. Maybe she had already gone back to the North Carolina academy. Or maybe Sigyn could be in two places at once. She was a goddess, after all.
Ian glanced over the stone balcony and down at the quad. He blanched a little and stepped back from the ledge. “Tell me again what we’re doing up here in the middle of the night?”
“Well, right now, we’re enjoying the peace and quiet. But if we’re lucky, we might get to go for a ride.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
Instead of answering him, I moved over to a corner of the roof. Over the past year, I had spent a lot of time here, and I had decided to make myself as comfortable as possible. So I’d snuck some supplies up here, including a couple of lawn chairs, a cooler full of bottled water and snacks, and, most important, three lanterns.
I dragged the lanterns out from the corner, arranged them in a tight circle, and turned them on. Together, they formed a bright beam of light that shot up into the night sky. It was my version of a superhero beacon, but what it summoned was much, much cooler than any costumed crusader.
“What are you doing?” Ian asked. “What’s that for?”
“You’ll see.”
I went over and rested my elbows on the balcony railing. Ian glanced at the lanterns again, still wondering what they were for, then came over and joined me. We stood there, side by side, soaking up the silence. I was perfectly content to stare out over the silent, empty quad below, but Ian kept tapping his fingers on the railing, shifting on his feet, and sneaking glances at me. This went on for about five minutes before he finally opened his mouth to say something—
Two shadows suddenly fell over us, blocking out the moon and starlight. Gusts of air whistled down from the sky, tangling my hair. Ian’s head snapped up. He gasped and staggered back, and I hid another grin.
The gryphons always loved making a dramatic entrance.
Two Eir gryphons hovered above the library roof. Each one had the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, and strong, powerful wings were attached to their backs. Their fur and wings were both a beautiful bronze that gleamed in the lantern light, as though the creatures were made of polished metal instead of flesh and blood. Their eyes were also a warm, burnished bronze, while their beaks and claws were as black and shiny as ebony. In many ways, the gryphons were a lot like the chimeras, but I thought their combination of bronze fur and wings made the gryphons uniquely beautiful, unlike the chimeras with their grotesque black prowler heads, ram’s horns, and scorpion-stinger tails.
The two gryphons flapped their wings a final time and dropped down to the roof. One of them was enormous, a strong, fully grown male more than twice my size. I had named him Balder, after the Norse god of light. The other gryphon, his baby, was much smaller but still a force to be reckoned with. I had dubbed him Brono, after the god Balder’s son. The names felt appropriate to me, and the gryphons seemed to like them.
“Hey, fellas,” I said. “Thanks for coming.”
I looked at Ian, who was standing ramrod straight, shocked into stillness by the sight of the gryphons. I rolled my eyes and turned off the lanterns. Then I went over to the creatures and hugged both their necks. Their bronze fur and wings felt soft and smooth under my fingertips, and they smelled crisp and clean, like the mountain air they soared through with such ease. Brono, the baby, gently head-butted me when I drew back, and I laughed and scratched his head again.
“You’ve gotten even bigger since the last time I saw you a couple of weeks ago,” I said. “Pretty soon you’re going to be as strong as your dad.”
Brono lifted his head and twitched his wings with pride. So did Balder.
I petted both gryphons a final time, then turned to Ian. “Want to go for a ride?”
He shook his head and opened his mouth like he was going to say no. So I raised my eyebrows and crossed my arms over my chest in an obvious silent challenge.
Ian scowled, realizing that I would never let him live it down if he chickened out. “Sure. Sounds like fun,” he muttered, although his tone indicated that he thought it was going to be anything but fun.
Balder hunkered down, and I climbed up onto the gryphon’s broad back and held my hand out to Ian. He stared at me, then at the gryphon. I thought he was going to back out, but he swallowed, stepped forward, took my hand, and climbed up behind me.
“What do I do with my hands?” Ian asked.
“If I were you, I would hold on to me.”
He sighed, his warm breath kissing the back of my neck, but he placed his hands on my waist. I dug my own hands and legs into the gryphon’s fur and body, getting a good grip on the creature so we wouldn’t fall off. Behind me, Ian did the same with his legs. When I was sure we were both firmly anchored in place, I stroked Balder’s head, telling him we were ready.
“And away we go,” I whispered, although I doubted that Ian heard me.
Whoosh!
We left the ground in a rush of air and wings. Behind me, Ian sucked in a surprised breath, and his hands tightened around my waist. Balder had also felt the Viking’s shock. The gryphon glanced over his shoulder at me, and I could see the laughter shining in his bronze eyes. Balder would never let us fall. Ian would figure that out sooner or later.
Balder and Brono climbed higher and higher, their wings pumping faster and faster, streaking up through the sky like rockets. In seconds, it seemed we were close enough to touch the moon and stars themselves. I laughed, but the wind tore away the happy sound.
“Isn’t this great?” I yelled.
I didn’t know if Ian heard me, but he tightened his grip on my waist. I was going to take that as a yes. Either way, it was too late for him to get off now.
We soared through the night sky. A few lights glimmered far, far below in the town of Snowline Ridge, but we quickly zoomed past them and climbed up the mountain. The evergreen forests and rocky crevices passed by in a blur, although the sharp, tangy scent of the pine trees tickled my nose, even at this height.
I closed my eyes and focused on the wind whistling in my ears, the cool, crisp air tangling my hair, the brush of Balder’s powerful wings rising and falling against my body, making me feel as light and weightless as a feather. Riding on the gryphons always gave me a sense of peace, of freedom, that I had never experienced anywhere else.
Our ride ended all too soon.
In minutes, the gryphons had flown us all the way from the academy up the mountain to the Eir Ruins. Balder and Brono landed in the main courtyard, which was full of wildflowers, herbs, and even a few small trees. The moon and starlight bathed the plants and surrounding stones in a soft silver sheen, making the area look even lovelier than it had when I’d been here in my dream—or whatever that had been—with Sigyn last night.
I swung my legs over the side of Balder’s back and slid down off the gryphon. Ian did the same, at a much slower speed, and he wobbled when his boots hit the ground. I laughed, and he scowled at me, but his expression quickly melted into a sheepish smile, and I could tell that he’d enjoyed the ride as much as I had.
Ian hesitated, then gave Balder’s side a soft pat. The gryphon snorted his amusement, then wandered away and started snatching up wildflowers with his beak and eating the delicate petals and stems.
Ian glanced from one side of the courtyard to the other. “Are these the Eir Ruins? After Takeda told us that we were coming to the Colorado academy, I read up on them, but they’re even more beautiful than the pictures in my history books.”
“I love them,” I said in a soft voice. “And the gryphons too.”
He nodded. “I can see why.”
“C’mon. I’ll show you around.”
On an impulse, I reached out and grabbed Ian’s hand. He jerked back, as startled by the motion as I was, but he didn’t let go.
And neither did I.
We stood there, frozen in place, staring into each other’s eyes. Like the ruins, Ian was even more handsome in the moonlight, his face looking as though it had been carved out of marble, and his gray eyes seeming to be the exact color of the silver tint that coated everything around us—
Brono head-butted me again, jealous that I wasn’t paying any attention to him, and my hand slipped free of Ian’s. I laughed, but it was a high, nervous sound, and I quickly turned to the baby gryphon and started petting him to hide how much I had enjoyed the feel of Ian’s warm hand in mine, his strong body close to mine, his soft breath kissing my cheeks.
Ian cleared his throat, as determined to ignore the moment as I was. “You said something about a tour?”
“Yep. This way.”
I petted Brono a final time, and the gryphon joined his father. While the gryphons grazed, I led Ian all around the ruins, pointing out the different types of wildflowers and herbs, the gurgling stream, the fountain in the center of the courtyard, and the animal carvings that covered many of the broken, crumbling stones.
We ended up sitting on a pair of round, smooth boulders at the edge of the ruins, which offered an incredible view. The rocky ruins ended in a wide canyon that was so deep I couldn’t see the bottom of it this late at night. On the far side, the forest took over and rolled like a dark carpet all the way down to the valley below. In the distance, the lights of Snowline Ridge burned bright and steady, along with those of the academy.
Ian peered down at the steep drop below and scooted a little farther back on his rock. “What is it with you and heights? I’m starting to think you’re dragging me around to all these high places just to torture me.” His words might be grumpy, but his tone was light and teasing, and he seemed more relaxed than at any other time since I’d met him.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Aunt Rachel isn’t crazy about heights either. So you’re not the only scaredy-cat around here.”
Ian straightened up. “I am a Viking. I am most certainly not a scaredy-cat.”
I gave him a look.
He winced. “Except when it comes to heights.”
“Glad to know that’s the only chink in your armor.”
He shrugged, but his face crinkled into a smile.
We sat there, enjoying the view. The gryphons moved back and forth in the courtyard, still eating wildflowers. The wind whistled around us, and I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, hugging myself into a tight ball to help keep warm. The motion made my jacket sleeve ride up, and my silver charm bracelet and heart locket glimmered in the moonlight.
“That’s pretty,” Ian said. “Did your aunt give that to you?”
I grimaced. “Sort of. Aunt Rachel gave it back to me. It was originally a gift from my parents on my birthday last year. I used to wear it all the time. Until, well, you know.”
Ian looked at me. “How did it feel? To realize that they were Reapers?”
“You mean that they were the bad guys and they’d been lying to me my whole life about who and what they really were?”
He nodded.
I let out a harsh, bitter laugh that echoed out from this side of the canyon, hit the far side of the rocks, and bounced right back to me, like a slap in the face. “It was the worst moment of my life.”
“What happened?” Ian asked in a soft, sympathetic voice.
I fiddled with my bracelet and locket instead of looking at him. “I was in class, and everybody started getting these text alerts on their phones. The next thing I knew, everyone was staring at me and whispering about me. Then a couple of the academy administrators showed up, took me out of class, and told me what was going on. They tried to be nice and vague about it, saying that my parents had been in an accident, but I didn’t believe them. I ran off and went straight to the library. People tried to stop me, but I shoved past them. That’s when I saw my parents lying on the library floor, dead and bloody, with their black Reaper robes billowing out all around them.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “That’s when I realized what they really were.”
“I’m sorry,” Ian said. “I know what that’s like. I couldn’t believe it when Drake turned his sword on me. When he told me that he was a Reaper, that he had been a Reaper for years, and that I was going to join him—or else.”
I nodded, and we both fell silent again, lost in our own thoughts, memories, and heartache. But these feelings bubbled up inside me, shaping themselves into words—words that I’d never told anyone before, words that I couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Do you know what the worst part is?” I said.
“What?”
I let out another bitter laugh. “I was actually happy that they were gone. At least, at first. Once all the other kids learned that my parents were Reaper assassins, everything in my life imploded. The few friends I had pretended they didn’t know me anymore, and all the other kids treated me like I had the plague, like they were going to catch being a Reaper just by sitting next to me at lunch. Everybody gossiped about me, but no one would actually talk to me. I blamed my parents for that—for all of that—and for a long time, I was happy that they were dead. I was so angry at them for so many things. For being Reapers, for never telling me, for making me the most hated person at the academy.”
“And now?” Ian asked.
I sighed. “And now I just miss them. More than anything else, I wish I could talk to my parents one final time and ask them why. Why they were Reapers. Why they did the horrible things they did. Why they didn’t tell me what they really were.”
“Maybe they were trying to protect you,” he suggested. “Maybe they didn’t want you to become a Reaper. I read the Protectorate reports. According to what Gwen Frost saw with her psychometry magic, your parents were trying to get out. They were trying to leave the Reapers for good.”
“And Covington killed them for it.” I spat out the words.
Covington had been the head librarian and the person in charge of giving my parents all their Reaper assignments. He was the one who’d told them where to go, what to steal, and whom to kill. When my parents tried to leave the Reapers, Covington stabbed them both in the back and then made it look like my parents had attacked him, killed several students, and tried to steal artifacts from the Library of Antiquities.
Thanks to Gwen, the truth had eventually come out, and she and her friends had helped me capture Covington here at the Eir Ruins. The librarian was in prison now, locked away where he couldn’t hurt anybody else. At least, not physically. But Covington was still hurting me every single day, whether he realized it or not. He had taken my parents away from me, and nothing would ever change that.
“Maybe you’re right about them wanting me to take a different path, to be a good person, a good warrior, a good Spartan.” My voice rasped with emotion. “But I’ll never know for sure, will I? That hurts more than anything else. That I’ll never know what they really wanted for me.”
Ian nodded, and once again, we lapsed into silence for a long time. Another breeze gusted over the rocks, making us both shiver, but we stayed still. Neither one of us wanted to move and break the fragile truce, the tenuous peace, between us.
“At least your parents tried to get out.” Ian’s voice was as rough and raspy as mine had been. “Drake never did that. He never wanted out. He likes being a Reaper. He likes stealing and betraying and killing anyone who stands in his way. He proved that again tonight at Lance’s mansion. He’s the same as he always was.”
“And how was that?”
Ian sighed. “He was the older brother, and he was always so much cooler and stronger and smarter than me. I looked up to him, you know? He was my bloody hero, right up until the moment I found out that he was a Reaper.”
“What about your parents? Where are they? Zoe told me they travel a lot, working for the Protectorate.”
Ian sighed again. “Yeah, they’re always gone, collecting artifacts and fighting Reapers in different parts of the world. They were on a mission when everything happened with Drake. They didn’t even come home for his funeral. They said they couldn’t leave before their mission was finished, but I think they were embarrassed and didn’t want to hear all their Protectorate friends gossiping about how their son had turned out to be a Reaper. How Drake had ruined the Hunter family name and legacy.”
He picked up a jagged rock and started turning it over and over in his hand.
I winced. It sounded like Ian’s parents didn’t care much about him or Drake, if they had stayed away to avoid hearing people gossip about them. My parents might have been Reapers, but at least they had always been there for me, and I knew they had loved me.
“After Drake supposedly died, I was a mess,” Ian confessed. “But Zoe and Mateo helped me through it. The three of us have always been best friends, ever since we were little. Zoe’s parents pretty much took me in, and Zoe was always there, making sure I was eating and sleeping and not wearing myself out training too hard. Mateo too. He was always trying to cheer me up by letting me beat him at soccer or tennis or video games.”
“And what about Takeda? It seems like the two of you are also pretty close.”
Ian nodded. “We are. Takeda was the one who kept Drake and me updated about where our parents were and what they were doing, and he always checked in on us while they were gone. Takeda trained both of us, and he was always there whenever I had a problem or needed to talk to an adult. He’s been more like a father to me than my own dad ever has been.”
“So Takeda’s probably hurting too,” I pointed out. “Over Drake’s betrayal and everything else that’s happened.”
“Yeah,” Ian admitted. “But that didn’t give him the right to lie about Drake still being alive. And it doesn’t change what Drake is now, what he’s always been. Or the fact that I was too blind to see it.”
His hand tightened around the rock, and he reared back his arm and threw it as hard as he could. The rock disappeared into the canyon below, and several seconds passed before I heard it hit bottom. Even then, it was a soft sound, little more than a whisper, but Ian still flinched, as if it were as loud as a clap of thunder roaring out all of his mistakes.
He looked at me, regret filling his face. “I’m sorry that I’ve been such a jackass to you, Rory. It’s just…when Takeda told me that your parents were Reapers, I thought that you might be like Drake. That you might fool me the same way he had. And I couldn’t stand that. Not again. Especially not from you.”
“What’s so special about me? I’m just a Spartan girl, going to Mythos Academy like all the other warrior kids.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re not just another warrior. You’re so much more, so much better than that. I saw how all the other kids treated you when you stepped onto the quad the first day of school. But you walked right through the gauntlet of them anyway. You were—are—so strong, so brave. I was jealous of you.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t have done that. I couldn’t have walked past all those kids. Not without screaming, going crazy, and punching everyone in sight. That’s another reason I joined the Midgard. So I wouldn’t have to go back to school in New York right now and deal with the fact that everyone knows my brother is a Reaper.”
“What are you going to do now that you know Drake is alive?” I asked in a soft voice. “That he’s here in Colorado and working with Sisyphus.”
Ian’s face hardened, and determination blazed in his eyes. “I’m going to stop him—no matter what.” He hesitated. “I’ll even…kill him, if I have to. I don’t want to. But if it comes down to him or me or one of you guys on the team, then I will take him out.”
I gave him a sad smile. “Then that makes you stronger than me. If my parents were still alive, I don’t think I could do the same to them.”
“It doesn’t make me stronger,” Ian replied in a low voice. “It just makes me sadder.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Then again, I supposed we were both pretty sad, caught in the bad choices our loved ones had made, and struggling to make things right, even though we weren’t the ones who’d caused the pain and problems in the first place. Still, I liked sitting here and talking with Ian. Much more than I’d thought I would. I’d brought him up here to clear his head and heart, but he’d helped me clear mine as well.
Ian leaned down and picked a stray wildflower that had somehow managed to bloom in a group of rocks. In the time we’d been sitting here, a pale frost had coated the ground all around us, making everything look encased in ice, including the flower. Still, despite the icy sheen, the delicate white petals gleamed and curled up, protecting a smaller, dark green, heart-shaped blossom in the center of the flower, which glimmered almost like an emerald.
“That’s a winterbloom,” I said, seeing his puzzled look. “They only blossom when the ground is covered with frost or snow. I think they’re some of the prettiest flowers up here.”
Ian studied the wildflower. “Me too. The heart in the center reminds me of your locket. Here. You should have it, Rory.”
He grinned and held the flower out to me. My breath caught in my throat. No one had ever given me a flower before. At least, no one like Ian.
He frowned, as if realizing what he’d done. I thought he might take back his words, make a joke, and toss the flower away. But then he pressed his lips together and looked at me, his gaze steady on mine. I stared into Ian’s eyes and reached for the winterbloom—
Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.
His phone buzzed, startling us both and breaking the spell.
Ian lowered the flower down to his side, pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket, and stared at the message on the screen. “Takeda wants to know where we are. He says it’s hours past curfew.”
I rolled my eyes. “He’s the one who recruited us to be supersecret spies. And now he’s talking about curfew? Kind of ironic, don’t you think? That we’re old enough to fight Reapers and chimeras but not old enough to know when to go to bed?”
Ian grinned. “Yeah. But you were right before. Takeda would never admit it, but he’s hurting over Drake just as much as I am. This is him trying to make peace and watching out for me. I’ll tell him we’re on our way back to the academy.”
Ian texted Takeda, and I let out a soft whistle and waved my hand, summoning the still-grazing gryphons back to our sides. I started to climb onto Balder’s back, but Ian reached out and grabbed my hand.
“Thank you,” he said. “For bringing me up here. For listening. It was really nice of you, especially given how awful I was to you before.”
I smiled and squeezed his hand back. “You’re welcome.”
He stared at me, and I found myself swaying closer to him and falling, falling, falling into his stormy gray eyes…
Ian cleared his throat, dropped my hand, and stepped back. I curled my fingers into a fist, trying to capture the warmth of his skin against mine, but the sensation quickly faded away, although not the light, dizzy feeling in my heart.
I turned away from him and climbed on top of Balder’s back. Ian settled himself behind me, his hands gently curving around my waist. When I was sure he was ready, I scratched the gryphon’s head.
“And away we go,” I whispered.
A second later, we were airborne and flying back to the academy, but all I could think about was the feel of Ian’s body against mine, his warm breath kissing the back of my neck, and how the touch of his hands made my heart soar even higher and faster than the gryphons were flying.