Chapter Twenty-One
I snapped Babs’s black leather scabbard onto my belt and left my bedroom. Aunt Rachel and Zoe were hanging out in the kitchen, and the three of us left the cottage and walked across campus to the parking lot behind the gym where Takeda, Mateo, and Ian were waiting.
Takeda was dressed like the Samurai he was, in a long red robe topped by a black armored breastplate, and a katana hung from the black belt around his lean waist. He looked quite handsome, something Aunt Rachel noticed as well, given the way she stopped and blinked at him. Takeda eyed her poofy blue fairy godmother costume, and his lips twitched up into a small smile.
Mateo wore a pirate costume, with a white shirt and a black leather vest patterned with tiny white skulls and crossbones. A red bandanna hid most of his dark brown hair from sight, and black leather pants and boots finished off his outfit. Instead of the traditional cutlass, a large crossbow dangled from his belt, and the weapon’s metal bolts glimmered in slots all around the black leather.
Mateo saw me eyeing his costume, grinned, and patted his crossbow. “Wearing this seemed like the best and easiest way to bring my crossbow into the ball. Besides, I always wanted to be a pirate. Yargh!”
I grinned back at him, then turned my attention to Ian. Like Takeda and me, he had dressed up as the warrior he was, a Viking.
He wore a black leather shirt, pants, and boots, and a silver chain-mail vest covered his muscled chest. His Viking battle ax dangled from his black leather belt, along with several small daggers. His dark honey-blond hair had been slicked back, and his gray eyes gleamed with anticipation. He was looking forward to taking down the Reapers. Me too.
“No horned helmet?” I asked, deciding to make a joke instead of telling him how great he looked.
Ian rolled his eyes, but a smile crept over his face. “Are you kidding? I would look ridiculous in one of those things. Besides, Vikings didn’t really wear that kind of helmet.”
Takeda cleared his throat. “Now that we’re all here, we need to get to the museum. I want to make sure that we’re all set up on comms and that the Protectorate guards are in place. So let’s move out.”
He gestured at the waiting van, and we all headed in that direction.
Somehow I found myself walking side by side with Ian at the back of our pack of friends. I could see him staring at me out of the corner of my eye, because I was doing the exact same thing to him.
Ian leaned down. “You look nice, Rory,” he murmured in my ear, before straightening up and getting into the van with the others.
I ducked my head so no one would see the pleased blush staining my cheeks and climbed into the vehicle after him.
* * *
Thirty minutes later, Takeda steered the van up to the side of the Cormac Museum. Through the windshield, I could see a long line of limos crawling up the hill and dropping off kids at the main entrance.
We got out of the van and walked over to the side door. Two Protectorate guards dressed like medieval knights in suits of shiny armor were stationed by the entrance, and they both snapped to attention at the sight of Takeda striding toward them.
“Any sign of the Reapers yet?” Takeda asked.
The guards shook their heads.
“No, sir,” one of them said. “We have costumed guards posted at all the entrances, as well as patrolling inside the museum, but so far, there are no signs of anyone or anything suspicious.”
Takeda nodded and led us inside. We walked down a long hallway and stopped at a wide archway that opened up into an enormous rotunda in the center of the museum. The floor and walls were made of a beautiful white marble streaked with pale blue, while the ceiling was a round dome that featured white, blue, and black panels of stained glass fitted together to form several giant stars. Four sets of stairs were spaced around the room, all of which led up to a second-floor balcony that wrapped around the entire rotunda. On both floors, hallways led from the main space to other rooms, where the artifacts were on display.
The Fall Costume Ball didn’t officially start until eight o’clock, fifteen minutes from now, but Mythos students had already packed into the museum. Guys and girls streamed into the rotunda, all of them dressed in fancy costumes that represented everything from princesses to superheroes to zombies. I even spotted a couple of guys wearing giant wolf heads, as though they were real Fenrir wolves.
Music thumped through the air, and dozens of couples had already started grooving on the wooden dance floor set up on one side the rotunda. Still more couples were hitting the buffet tables, nibbling on gourmet snacks and dipping strawberries, marshmallows, and other goodies into the white-, milk-, and dark-chocolate fountains lined up along one wall.
“We need to split up so we can cover more ground, but I want everyone to stay in teams of two,” Takeda said. “Rory and Ian, Zoe and Mateo. You guys spread out and search the rotunda for Lance and Drake. Rachel and I will start checking the hallways and exhibit rooms on this level. Got it?”
We all nodded at him.
“Keep your eyes open, and stay in contact on comms,” Takeda said. “If you see anything suspicious—anything at all—let everyone know. And watch each other’s backs. We don’t know how many Reapers might be here tonight or what kind of costumes they might be wearing as disguises.”
We all nodded again. Takeda and Aunt Rachel headed for the nearest hallway. Zoe hooked her arm through Mateo’s, and the two of them wandered over to the dance floor.
“You ready for this?” Ian asked.
I stroked my fingers over Babs’s hilt. Now that I was here, I wasn’t feeling nearly as confident as I had earlier. I still hadn’t told anyone about the curse and Babs’s prediction that I would die tonight, and it was too late to bring it up now. It would just be one more thing for everyone to worry about, so I decided to keep the information to myself.
I dropped my hand from the sword. “Yeah, I’m ready. Are you?”
“Let’s do this.” He looked at me. “For Amanda.”
“For Amanda,” I echoed. “And for us too.”
Ian held his arm out to me, and I slipped mine through his. We stared at each other, and I saw the same determination shining in the Viking’s eyes that I felt deep down in my own heart. Curse or not, we were in this thing together, and there was no turning back now. Ian nodded at me, and I nodded back. Together we left the archway behind and stepped out into the rotunda.
It was time to find Lance, Drake, and the mysterious Sisyphus and end this.
* * *
Ian and I moved around the perimeter of the ballroom, skirting around one group of students after another.
I’d thought the costumes had looked fancy from a distance, but up close, they were positively stunning, gleaming with gold, silver, and sparkling jewels. The Mythos kids had embraced the costume theme, and they’d spared no expense to bring their favorite characters to life.
Still, I noticed a weird pattern to many of the costumes, at least among the girls. Several of them wore long, flowing, togalike gowns in various shades of purple, with enormous silver wings attached to their backs. They also carried swords and had crowns of spray-painted silver laurels on their heads. Some of them were also wearing snowflake necklaces. But the strangest thing of all was that each of them sported a pair of contact lenses that turned their eyes a bright, eerie purple.
Ian frowned, also noticing the similar costumes. “Who are they supposed to be? Some goddess?”
I studied the girl closest to me. She was cradling her sword in the crook of her elbow, and I realized that she’d used a black marker to draw a crude face on the hilt. Purple gowns, purple contacts, swords with faces. Suddenly, I knew exactly who that girl and all the other similarly dressed ones were supposed to be.
Gwen Frost.
More than three dozen girls had dressed up like Gwen—or at least how they thought she would dress. I knew that Gwen preferred her sneakers, jeans, hoodies, and T-shirts to glittering gowns and sparkly wings, but of course there was no telling the other girls that. They wouldn’t have listened to me anyway.
“They’re supposed to be Gwen,” I said.
Ian looked at the other girls, then back at me. “Does that make you jealous? That they’re dressed like her?”
“You mean that they all think she’s this wonderful hero, while I’m Reaper trash?”
He winced. “I didn’t mean it like that. Not at all.”
“I know you didn’t.” I shrugged. “And yeah, maybe I am a little jealous. I was at the battle too. But Gwen went through a lot, and she was the one who figured out how to defeat Loki. She’s the one who trapped him forever. She’s definitely earned the hero title. Plus, she’s too nice not to like.”
“Kind of like her cousin Rory, huh?” Ian winked at me, and I smiled back at him.
We made it over to the buffet tables, walked past the chocolate fountains, and moved around the rest of the rotunda, but I didn’t see any sign of Lance, Drake, or anyone else who looked like they might be a Reaper. All the kids were focused on eating, laughing, dancing, and gossiping, and it seemed like everyone was here to have a good time.
“You guys got anything?” Ian asked, talking to Mateo and Zoe through our earbuds.
The two of them were in the middle of the dance floor, grooving to the music, although they kept glancing at the kids around them.
Mateo’s voice crackled in my ear a second later. “Nothing. We’re going to finish this dance and then help Takeda and Rachel search the exhibit rooms on this floor.”
“Roger that,” Ian said. “Rory and I will check out the exhibit rooms upstairs.”
Ian led me over to a set of stairs, and we climbed up to the second floor. Some of the kids had migrated up here, talking, leaning against the balcony railing, and staring down at the rotunda below. More than a few couples had already retreated to the darkest corners they could find, eager to kiss the night away. The music shifted into a slow song, and everyone on this floor started coupling up to dance, mirroring the kids downstairs.
Ian cleared his throat. “Maybe when this is all over and we find the Reapers, we can come back and enjoy the rest of the ball. Maybe even…dance?”
I stared at him, but he shifted on his feet and stared down at the floor instead of looking at me. Was he actually nervous? About asking me to dance? My heart did that funny little flutter.
“I’d like that,” I said in a soft voice. “I’d like that a lot.”
Ian nodded, still not looking at me, and moved away from the railing. I followed him.
The main rotunda was only one part of the Cormac Museum, and we walked down a long hallway and into another wing where the exhibit rooms were located. The music, conversations, and laughter faded away, and the only sounds were our footsteps on the floor, but I didn’t mind the quiet.
Ian and I moved from room to room, staring at the weapons, armor, clothing, and other objects on display. All the items were housed in protective glass cases, and every single case was plugged into the museum’s security system, according to what Takeda had told us during our briefings. If Lance, Drake, or any other Reaper so much as scratched the glass on one of the cases, alarms would start blaring in the museum’s security office, and the Protectorate guards would come running. But everything remained quiet, so Ian and I walked on.
I didn’t mind strolling from room to room and checking on things. This was way more fun than the dance downstairs, especially since Ian was with me and seemed to enjoy studying the artifacts as much as I did.
“Hey, Rory,” he said. “Come check this out. It’s really cool.”
He was standing in front of a glass case. A tiny silver whistle lay inside, so small that it looked like a toy or a charm that would go on my bracelet instead of something you could actually use.
“Pan’s Whistle.” Ian read the identification card inside the case. “This whistle can be used to summon mythological creatures, including Nemean prowlers, Fenrir wolves, and more. It can be used over great distances, especially if you know the particular creature or creatures that you wish to summon. As its name suggests, the whistle was used by Pan, the Greek god of music, the wild, and more.”
He looked at me, excitement shining in his eyes. “I bet you could use that to summon your gryphons. All you would have to do is think about them, blow on the whistle, and bam! They would fly right to you. No more turning on lanterns on the library roof and hoping the gryphons see them and show up.”
I smiled back at him. “Probably. Although I doubt Takeda would appreciate me swiping an artifact when we’re supposed to stop the Reapers from stealing them.”
Ian laughed. “You’re probably right about that. Let’s keep looking. Maybe we can at least figure out which artifact the Reapers are after.”
He gave the whistle one more longing glance, and then we both moved on.
Ian and I went from case to case. Everything was interesting and cool in its own right, but I didn’t see anything that seemed powerful enough to appeal to the Reapers. They could get weapons and armor at other museums that weren’t crawling with Mythos students and Protectorate guards. So what was here that was so special?
And even more worrisome, what were the Reapers planning to do with the artifact once they had it?
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out.
We were running out of time and options. Ian and I were down to the final set of rooms on the second floor, and we stepped into another large rotunda.
This part of the museum had been fashioned after a medieval dungeon, and heavy iron gates with sharp metal spikes hung in the two archways that marked the entrance and exit. Both gates were held up by thick, heavy ropes tied off to iron posts embedded in the walls, and the light fixtures were shaped like torches that continuously flickered. I glanced up, expecting the ceiling to be made of some dark stone, but clear glass panes glimmered overhead.
“Nothing,” Ian growled. “There’s absolutely nothing in here that the Reapers would want. You got anything, Rory?”
I shook my head. “Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that seems superpowerful.”
Ian lifted his hand and adjusted his earbud. “What about you guys? Mateo, Zoe, you got anything downstairs?”
A second later, Mateo’s voice crackled in my ear. “Nope. We checked all the exhibit rooms down here, but they’re all full of kids dancing and partying.”
“There’s no sign of Lance, Drake, or any Reapers,” Zoe added. “We’re at the front of the museum, but we’ll work our way back to the main rotunda, then come upstairs and help you guys look through the artifacts on the second floor. Maybe we’ll see something you missed.”
“Roger that,” Ian said.
We continued our search. I scanned all the display cases on my side of the rotunda again, but everything was the same as before, and nothing stuck out to me. I was about to walk over to Ian when a gleam of red caught my eye.
Curious, I headed toward a display case I hadn’t noticed before. I glanced around the rotunda, comparing where the case was with what I remembered from the surveillance photos, but this case hadn’t been in any of the pictures. Maybe it was part of the new exhibit Takeda had said the museum was going to open after the costume ball. We had found a few cases like that in the other rooms, but why the case was in here wasn’t important right now, only what it contained.
A box.
The case held a long rectangular box made of polished jet. Silver vines curled across the top of the box, wrapping around glittering rubies that formed small flowers. If I had to guess, I would say it was a jewelry box, although it was large enough to hold a dagger or some other weapon.
I’d seen a lot of artifacts, but something about this box made me shiver. Maybe it was the way the midnight-black stone absorbed the light instead of reflecting it back. Or how the silver vines looked more like thorns, pinning the rubies in place like they were bloody hearts. Either way, this box radiated power.
I looked inside the glass case, searching for the identification card that would tell me who the box had belonged to and what magic it supposedly had. But it didn’t have a card, and I didn’t see one lying on the floor anywhere around the case. A sinking feeling filled my stomach. An unidentified artifact that gave me the creeps? This had to be what the Reapers were after.
“Ian!” I called out. “Come look at this!”
He hurried over to me. “Did you find something?”
I pointed at the case, and he leaned forward and studied the box.
Ian frowned. “What would Reapers want with a jewelry box? Or whatever that really is?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, but this is what they’re after. I’m sure of it.”
“And you’re absolutely right, Rory,” a familiar voice sneered behind us. “How nice to see that you have brains as well as Spartan brawn.”
Ian and I whirled around.
Lance stood behind us, along with Drake and half a dozen Reapers.