Chapter Nineteen
The gryphons flew us back to the library roof.
I scratched their heads again and thanked them for the ride, and then Balder and Brono sailed up, up, up, and away into the night sky. It was late, and we had classes in a few hours, so Ian and I went our separate ways for the rest of the night. He headed to his dorm, while I walked home to the cottage.
Aunt Rachel was already in bed, but she’d left me a note on the kitchen table saying that a lasagna was warming in the oven. My stomach rumbled, reminding me how long it had been since I’d eaten. So I used some oven mitts to grab the lasagna and dished myself up a generous serving, along with a couple of garlic breadsticks and a garden salad with homemade Italian dressing.
Everything Aunt Rachel cooked was wonderful, and the lasagna was no exception. Layers of pasta sheets, melted mozzarella, rich tomato sauce, and crumbled bits of spicy Italian sausage. The breadsticks had just the right amount of tangy garlic butter slathered on them, while the salad was full of crisp, crunchy vegetables. Best of all, Aunt Rachel had made dark-chocolate fudge with dried cherries for dessert. The rich, decadent treat was the perfect way to finish off my meal.
By the time I’d cleaned up the kitchen and taken a shower, it was after two in the morning, and I was more than ready to go to sleep. I crawled into bed and started to pull the covers up to my chin, but my charm bracelet snagged on the sheets, and I had to stop and work it free.
The moonlight streaming in through my bedroom window made the delicate links gleam like a ring of snow around my wrist, with the locket glimmering like an icy heart in the center of the chain. My fingers stroked over the locket, but for the first time since I had thrown it down on my parents’ graves, the sight of the silver charm didn’t fill me with anger.
Ian was right. At least my mom and dad had tried to leave the Reapers. I might never know the answers to my questions about my parents, but in the end, they had wanted out of the evil group. That had to count for something. That did count for something. Even if I had been too angry, upset, and stubborn to realize it until tonight.
Still thinking of my parents, I put my head down on my pillow, curled my fingers around the heart locket, and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
My alarm went off way too early, given how late I’d gone to bed, but I got up, got dressed, and trudged to my classes. And just like usual, none of the other kids talked to me as I walked across the quad. They were all too busy gossiping about Lance’s party last night.
“It was great!”
“I had, like, so much fun!”
“Yeah, it was terrific! Except for the part where I puked my guts out.”
And the conversations went on and on, although another concern quickly crept into the gossip.
“Hey, where’s Lance?”
“I haven’t seen him this morning.”
“Do you think the Protectorate arrested him because we brought a keg to his party?”
So the Protectorate guards hadn’t told the other kids what had really happened last night. No surprise there, since Linus Quinn wanted to keep everyone in the dark about the new group of Reapers.
I wondered how long it would take the other students to realize that Lance wasn’t coming back to Mythos Academy—ever. One week? Two weeks? Or maybe he would end up like Amanda, here one day, then gone the next, with no one batting an eye at his sudden, unexplained disappearance. It would serve Lance right if no one remembered him, since he’d ordered those chimeras to murder Amanda in the library—and me too last night at the mansion. He was going to pay for that—all of it—and so were Drake and the mysterious Sisyphus.
But the good thing about Lance’s party was that everyone was too busy talking about it to hassle me. I actually got through the morning without one single person giving me a dirty look.
By the time lunch rolled around, I was actually in a good mood. We might have lost Lance, Drake, and the chimera scepter last night, but Takeda would use his Protectorate resources to find them again. Once we figured out where they were hiding, we would get the scepter and put them in prison, where they belonged, along with Sisyphus and all the other Reapers.
In the lunch line, I grabbed a burrito stuffed with spicy grilled chicken, black beans, rice, cheese, sour cream, and pico de gallo, along with a couple of chocolate chip cookies, then went over to the corner table where Ian, Zoe, and Mateo were already sitting.
Ian looked up at me and smiled. My heart did a funny little flutter, and I smiled back at him. Then he realized that Zoe was staring at us, and he quickly scowled at me like usual.
“Hey.” Ian ducked his head and concentrated on his food.
“Hey,” I replied, trying to play it cool.
Mateo had a candy bar in one hand and his phone in the other, so he didn’t notice the sudden awkward silence between Ian and me. But Zoe did. She waggled her eyebrows and gave me a knowing look, which I did my best to ignore. I set my tray on the table, plopped down in a chair, and started eating.
Slowly, the awkward silence faded away, and the four of us started talking about our classes, our professors, and more. Even Mateo put down his phone and joined in the conversation. It was all so…normal.
After being alone at school for so long, it was nice to hang out with other people. To sit and eat and laugh and talk and not worry about my parents being Reapers or the other kids whispering about me or all the other drama that made up my life.
It was nice having friends again.
I had missed it more than I’d realized, more than I’d thought possible—and I would soon miss it again. When this was all over, Ian, Zoe, and Mateo would go back to the New York academy like they’d planned, and I would be all alone again, except for Aunt Rachel and the gryphons.
The thought jarred me out of my happy bubble. My hands froze, and I stopped breaking apart the last cookie on my plate.
“Rory?” Mateo asked. “Are you okay? You look like you’re about to be sick.”
I put the cookie down and pushed my tray away. “I’m fine. Just full, I guess.”
I tried to make my tone light and breezy, but it didn’t quite come out that way. Ian glanced at me, then at the uneaten cookie, and back again. His gray eyes narrowed. He’d only known me for a few days, but he could still tell that something was wrong, especially since I hadn’t finished my dessert. But he didn’t say anything, and I was glad for that.
Eventually, the four of us bent our heads together and started talking about what had happened last night, keeping our voices soft so that we wouldn’t be overheard.
“As far as I can tell, no one on campus has seen Lance this morning,” Ian said.
Mateo held up his phone. “None of the security cameras has caught him coming or going either. Not at his dorm or any of the other buildings. He’s definitely not at the academy. I even plugged Lance’s picture into the Protectorate facial-recognition database this morning, but he hasn’t been spotted on any cameras anywhere in Snowline Ridge or the surrounding area.”
“Wouldn’t you be hiding out if a bunch of Protectorate spies crashed your party and tried to arrest you last night?” Zoe snarked. “I certainly would.”
“Sure,” I chimed in. “And I would tell the rest of my Reaper friends who were still at the academy to keep an eye on those spies and let me know what they were up to.”
Ian frowned. “You think that Lance told his friends to watch us?”
I shrugged. “I would have. Besides, that’s how Reapers work. They never come right out and attack you head-on. Not until they absolutely have to. No, they stay in the shadows and play games and keep their true selves hidden until they’re ready to strike.”
Ian noticed the bitter tone in my voice. He stared at me, and I knew he was thinking about our talk last night and all the feelings we’d shared about our Reaper relatives. But I didn’t want to think about that right now. I’d already obsessed about my parents’ betrayal long enough. So I looked out over the dining hall. Ian, Zoe, and Mateo all did the same thing, staring at first one student, then another.
All around us, the other kids laughed and talked and wolfed down their food, since lunch was almost over. No one pointed at our table, no one whispered about us, and no one snuck a sly glance at us and then started texting on their phone. Everything seemed normal, but at Mythos Academy, that was usually when things got the most dangerous.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you need to be careful who you trust,” I said. “Lance has a lot of friends. He tried to recruit me to become a Reaper, so maybe he did the same thing to some of the other kids. Everyone needs to watch their backs. At least until we know where Lance is and what he and Drake are planning. We might think Lance is gone, but he could always come back to the academy and surprise us.”
Ian nodded. “Rory’s right. Everyone needs to be careful. Takeda wants us all down in the Bunker after classes today. Maybe by then, he’ll have found out something about Lance and Drake and where they are. See you guys later.”
We all murmured our good-byes. Ian and Mateo got to their feet, grabbed their trays, and walked away from the table, leaving me alone with Zoe. She sat back in her chair, crossed her arms over her chest, and gave me another one of those knowing looks.
“So you and Ian, huh?” she asked.
I stiffened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ri-i-ight.” She drawled out the word. “You go off and talk to him last night, and now the two of you are being totally awkward and adorable with each other.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I repeated, although I could feel the hot, guilty blush staining my cheeks.
Zoe laughed and waggled her fingers, shooting blue bursts of magic all over the table. “Oh, please. You guys are giving off more sparks than I do.”
My face kept getting hotter and hotter, and I started fidgeting in my seat. Zoe kept smirking at me, and I knew she wouldn’t stop until I spilled my guts to her. At least, some of them.
I sighed. “Okay, so maybe Ian isn’t a complete jackass like I thought he was. But that doesn’t mean the two of us are going steady or anything. We just hate each other slightly less than before.”
“Ri-i-ight,” Zoe drawled again. “Keep telling yourself that.”
I sighed again and slumped down in my seat. “Even if I did…like Ian, or whatever, it wouldn’t matter anyway. As soon as we find and arrest Lance, Drake, and Sisyphus, you guys will go back to the New York academy and get ready for your next mission.”
Zoe picked up her phone from the table and waggled it at me the same way she had waggled her fingers. “Guess what? There are these things called phones. And there’s this other thing called the internet. You might not be familiar with them, but they are both perfect for long-distance relationships.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. It still doesn’t matter, because Ian and I are not having any relationship, much less a long-distance one.”
“We’ll see about that. But I’ll tell you one thing.”
“What?”
Zoe’s face turned serious, and she leaned forward and stabbed her finger at me, causing blue sparks of magic to shoot out all over the table again. “Ian’s a good guy, and he’s been through a lot. I might not be a great fighter, but if you hurt him, then I will run you through with your own sword. Got it?”
I held up my hands in mock surrender. “Got it. I know what it’s like to be hurt by the people you care about. I’m not going to do that to Ian. I promise.”
Zoe stared at me, but whatever she saw in my face must have satisfied her, because she dropped her hand and sat back in her chair. “Good. Then we won’t have a problem, Spartan.”
“No, we won’t, Valkyrie.”
We stared at each other, our expressions serious, but we couldn’t stay that way for long. Zoe’s lips started twitching, and so did mine. A second later, we were both smiling and laughing, knowing we’d just cemented our new friendship.
* * *
I made it through my afternoon classes, then went to the library, snuck through the secret bookcase entrance, and rode the elevator down to the Bunker. The others were already here, and I stood in the doorway watching them.
Takeda sat at the head of the briefing table, flipping through stacks of papers and photos, while Ian was over at his desk, sharpening his Viking battle ax and other weapons. Mateo pounded away on his laptop, while Zoe was soldering bits of metal onto a broken shield, repairing it.
Nobody was talking, although Takeda’s classical music was playing in the background. Everyone was focused on their own projects, and the mood was far less tense than it had been last night. Team Midgard might have had a setback in losing Lance, Drake, and the chimera scepter, but we weren’t defeated. Not yet. Not by a long shot.
Takeda sensed my presence and looked up from his reports. “Ah, Rory. There you are. Please come in, and we’ll get started.”
Takeda picked up the remote and turned off the music. I pulled out a chair at the briefing table and sat down. Ian and Mateo took the seats across from me, while Zoe plopped down in the chair next to mine. Once we were all settled at the table, Takeda got to his feet.
“As you all know, our mission last night was not a success.” His voice was as calm as ever, as though he were talking about the weather instead of the fact that the Reapers had gotten away. “While we did take some of the Reapers into custody, Lance and Drake escaped with the chimera scepter. Mateo, where are we in tracking them down?”
Mateo shook his head. “Nowhere. I’ve double-checked all the security footage from campus today, and Lance and Drake haven’t shown up on any of the cameras. I’ve also checked the footage from the shops in Snowline Ridge. There’s no trace of them anywhere near the academy. Lance also turned off his phone, so I can’t track him that way.”
Takeda nodded. “No doubt Lance and Drake are in hiding and planning their next move. I’ve reached out to my Protectorate sources, but so far, no one’s spotted them. Which means that we have to find them ourselves—before they strike again. Lance stole that chimera scepter for a reason, and I want to know what Sisyphus plans to do with it.”
“And how are we supposed to find them?” Zoe asked.
“I don’t know,” Takeda admitted. “But we have to try. Let’s start by reviewing everything from the mansion last night. Maybe Lance, Drake, or one of the other Reapers left behind something that will lead us to them.”
He passed each of us a thick stack of papers and photos, and we all started looking through the files. Much of the information focused on the Reapers from the office fight, who they really were, where they were from, and all their known associates. I didn’t recognize any of their names or mug shots, so I moved past those reports and started studying the photos the Protectorate had taken of the mansion and the surrounding area.
The empty cups, cans, and other trash the kids had left behind in the living room. The library safe Ian and Zoe had tried to break into. The overturned furniture, bloody rugs, and other destruction from the office fight. Several footprints in the mud in the woods outside the mansion. Even a set of tire tracks from where Lance and Drake had peeled away in their getaway car.
The photos tracked the mission from beginning to end, but I found myself going back to the shots that showed the office. One picture of the desk caught my eye, showing all the items Lance had pulled out of the drawer. Pens, pencils, and paper clips were strewn all over the top of the desk, and papers littered the floor all around it. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for Drake’s black Reaper mask, with those large, creepy red diamond shapes over the eyes. But even that was just a simple harlequin mask, the kind you could buy in any costume shop.
Still, something about the photo bothered me, like there was an obvious clue in the jumble of objects that I should be picking up on. I kept scanning the photo, studying every single part of it, just like I would go back and reread certain passages two or three times whenever I was reading a really good mystery and trying to figure out whodunit. But this was far more important than the satisfaction of figuring out who the villain was before the end of a book.
“What is it?” Zoe asked, nudging me with her elbow. “You’ve been staring at that same photo for the last five minutes.”
“I’m not sure. Hey, Mateo. Can you put this up on one of the monitors?”
I slid the photo across the table to him. Mateo glanced at the reference number stamped on the back and hit some keys on his laptop. A second later, the photo popped up on the center wall monitor. I got up, walked around the table, and stopped in front of the screen so I could have an even better look at the photo.
“What do you see, Rory?” Ian asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know yet.”
I stalked back and forth in front of the monitor, examining the photo from top to bottom and side to side. The wooden desk. The pens and pencils strewn across the glossy surface. Drake’s Reaper mask perched next to a wad of paper clips. The long, slender papers lying on the floor beside the desk—
My eyes narrowed, and I stopped in front of that part of the photo. Papers…something about those papers…
I remembered Lance reaching into the drawer, pulling out a handful of papers, and tossing them on top of the desk. The papers had slipped off and landed on the floor, and I’d snuck a glance at them. But they hadn’t been papers at all—they’d been tickets.
And just like that, I knew the clue that solved the mystery.
I stabbed my finger at the monitor. “Those are tickets to the Fall Costume Ball. Lance pulled them out while he was rooting around inside the desk for the chimera scepter.”
Zoe frowned. “So what?”
“So Lance had more than half a dozen tickets. Not just one or two for himself and a date. Why would he have so many tickets printed out? Especially when they get emailed to people’s phones too? Unless…”
“Unless he was going to invite all his Reaper friends to crash the costume ball.” Ian finished my thought.
“Exactly.”
Takeda looked at Mateo. “Where’s the costume ball going to be this year?”
Mateo’s fingers flew across his laptop. “Looks like the ball is being held this weekend at…the Cormac Museum.”
He kept typing, and photos of the museum appeared on the monitors one after another. The more pictures appeared, the more certain I was that Lance, Drake, and Sisyphus were targeting the museum.
Because it was filled with artifacts.
Weapons, armor, jewelry, clothing, paintings, statues, and more flashed by on the screens, almost too fast for me to follow. I waved my hand at the monitors.
“That’s what makes this place so special,” I said. “Lance and Drake must be planning to use the costume ball as a cover so they can sneak into the museum and steal whatever artifact Sisyphus wants. Maybe even multiple artifacts, given how many are there.”
“And the chimera scepter?” Mateo asked. “What are the Reapers planning to do with that?”
Takeda stared at the monitors. “The same thing they did at Lance Fuller’s mansion: use it to cover their escape. The Reapers were probably hoping they could slip into the museum during the ball, steal the artifacts, and vanish before anyone realized what was happening, just like they did during the battle at the North Carolina academy. But Sisyphus is smart. He knew the Protectorate might figure out what he was up to, so that’s why he had Lance steal the chimera scepter—as insurance. So Lance can summon more monsters and stop anyone who tries to get in the Reapers’ way.”
I thought of how easily Lance had waved the scepter and made those chimeras appear in the office last night. Facing down those monsters would be a tall task for anyone, even Protectorate guards, making it that much easier for the Reapers to escape in the chaos and confusion.
“Do you think Sisyphus will be there?” Zoe asked.
“He’ll be there,” I said. “He’s gone to a lot of trouble to set things up. Working with Drake, having Lance steal the chimera scepter from the library, trying to kill us at the mansion last night. He won’t want to miss the grand finale of his evil plan.”
I couldn’t explain how I knew the Reaper leader would be there, but I did. I could feel it deep down in my bones.
“Rory’s right,” Takeda said. “Sisyphus will most likely be there to oversee the operation, which means that this is our chance to finally take him down. Now that we know what the Reapers are up to, let’s see if we can figure out which artifacts they might be after.”
Mateo hacked into the Cormac Museum’s computer system and printed out a master list of all the artifacts on display, along with photos and the location of each object. He split the list and the photos into five stacks, and we all sat at the table and studied the information.
The museum housed dozens of swords, daggers, spears, axes, and other weapons, along with a fair share of armor, everything from helmets to breastplates to gauntlets. Still, I couldn’t help but feel those items were way too obvious. Swords and armor could be found at myth-history museums all across the country, places the Reapers could break into at any time. So what artifact was so special, so powerful, so one-of-a-kind that Sisyphus was willing to risk being caught by the Protectorate to get his greedy hands on it? And what did he plan to do with the artifact once he had it? Those were the most important questions, but try as I might, I couldn’t puzzle out the answers.
And neither could the others. An hour passed, then two, and none of us could pinpoint which artifacts the Reapers might want or why.
“All right,” Takeda finally said, scrubbing his hands over his face. “That’s enough for tonight. We’ll come back at this tomorrow with fresh eyes.”
We gathered up our things and left the Bunker. The others headed back to their dorm rooms for the night, but I was too restless to go home, so I stayed behind in the library, and I wound up at Sigyn’s statue on the second floor.
I sat on the floor across from the statue and stared at the goddess, but her stone face remained still and frozen. Ever since she’d first appeared to me in that dream realm at the Eir Ruins, I had been on the lookout for Sigyn, expecting the goddess to be lurking somewhere in the library, either as herself or as the old woman Raven, but the only glimpse of Sigyn that I’d seen had been her statue. I wondered if I was doing what the goddess wanted by joining the Midgard and hunting down Lance, Drake, and Sisyphus or if she had some other job in mind for me, some task that I hadn’t even considered yet. No way to know for sure.
“What are you thinking about, Rory?” A familiar voice cut into my thoughts.
I looked over at Babs, whom I’d propped up against the wall beside me. Once again, the sword had been quiet all day, as if she’d been utterly exhausted by the fight with the Reapers and chimeras last night. She hadn’t said a single word during my classes, lunch, or even the briefing. But now her green eye was open and fixed on mine.
“Did you hear us talking in the Bunker?” I asked.
Babs rolled her eye. “Of course I did. Just because my eye’s closed doesn’t mean I’m not listening.”
“Well, I was thinking about the mission and the artifacts the Reapers might be after.”
“But that’s not what’s really bothering you, is it?”
I shook my head. “I keep thinking about everything Lance said last night and how he tried to recruit me to become a Reaper.”
“So?”
“So Lance isn’t the one giving the orders—Sisyphus is. That means that Sisyphus told Lance to recruit me. But why? I’ve never even met this Sisyphus person, so why would he want me to become a Reaper? It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know anything about Sisyphus, but he seems to know everything about me.”
“Maybe Sisyphus has heard what a great warrior you are,” Babs suggested. “Everyone knows that you fought at the Battle of Mythos Academy. You know that Reapers covet power more than anything else. Sisyphus probably thinks he can defeat the Protectorate if he has a strong warrior like you on his side.”
“Maybe. But I still feel like I’m missing something important about this whole situation.”
Sympathy flashed in Babs’s gaze. She opened her mouth, then abruptly closed it again.
“What?” I asked. “What were you going to say?”
“Well, I hate to bring this up, especially since you’re already feeling a little down…”
“Bring what up?”
The sword winced. “Sisyphus isn’t the only thing you need to worry about.”
“What else is there?”
Her wince deepened. “My curse.”
With everything that had happened over the past day, I had forgotten about Babs’s curse and how it affected every warrior who wielded her.
“Last night, when I fought Lance, Drake, and the chimeras, that was my second time using you in battle,” I said.
I hadn’t even thought about the curse, much less not using Babs during the fight. The only things I had been worried about were protecting Ian and Zoe and taking down the Reapers before they hurt anyone else. But I had used Babs in the fight, which made me one step closer to being the next victim of her curse.
“Yes, that was the second battle. That means you only have one battle left before…before you die.” The sword’s voice dropped to an anguished whisper, and a tear gleamed in her eye.
My stomach twisted with dread. And I had just made plans to be part of a third battle by agreeing to take down Lance, Drake, and Sisyphus during the Fall Costume Ball. Even if we managed to corner the Reapers, they wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Maybe it was morbid, but I wondered exactly how the curse would kill me. Would Lance get in a lucky strike with a sword? Would Drake wound me with a poisoned weapon? Or would I fall victim to some weird, random bout of extremely bad luck, like tripping, plunging down a flight of stairs, and breaking my neck seconds after the battle was finished?
More dread swirled through me, along with a touch of fear. I might be a warrior, but I didn’t want to die. Not like this. Not because of some curse that I had no idea how to fight.
“I’m sorry, Rory,” Babs whispered, a tear streaking down her face. “So sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen to you.”
Seeing how upset she was reminded me that I wasn’t the only one affected by the curse. Babs had been through this with other warriors before me, and she had watched them all die just because they had picked her up. Determination surged through me, drowning out my dread. Well, she wasn’t going to suffer through that guilt and heartbreak again. Not if I could help it.
Spartans never, ever gave up.
“Don’t worry,” I said, gently wiping the tear off her blade. “I still have time to figure this out. We’re in the Library of Antiquities, remember? There has to be something here that can help us break your curse.”
“Do you really think so?” Babs’s voice quavered with a faint bit of hope.
“Yes, and we’re going to get started right now.”
I got to my feet, buckled Babs’s scabbard to my belt, and grabbed my messenger bag from the floor. Then I looked at Sigyn’s statue.
Once again, I wondered why the goddess had arranged for my path to cross Babs’s, and I stared at her marble face, hoping she might give me some small clue or sign that I was on the right track, that there was some way to help Babs and myself. But Sigyn’s features remained as still and remote as before. No help there. At least, not right now. So I hoisted my bag onto my shoulder, turned, and left the goddess behind.
I had a curse to break.