Logan set Nyx down, and the wolf pup trotted over, put her front paws up on my desk, and curiously sniffed the winterbloom. After a moment, she drew back, shook her head, and let out a squeaky sneeze. I laughed and rubbed her ears.
Linus and Logan sat down on one side of the briefing table, along with Mateo and Ian. Zoe and I slid into chairs on the opposite side, and I propped up Babs in the seat next to mine. Nyx hopped up into the same chair with Babs, leaned forward, and licked the sword’s metal cheek.
“Ugh!” Babs said. “Why does she have to lick everything? She’s almost as bad as Brono.”
Brono was one of the Eir gryphons I was friends with, along with Balder, his dad. Brono was young, just like Nyx, although he was already much larger than the Fenrir wolf pup. The baby gryphon loved to run around with Babs clutched in his beak, as though the two of them were playing a game, much to the sword’s consternation. Babs always complained that Brono slobbered all over her, but I thought that deep down, she secretly loved the attention.
Nyx whined at Babs’s cranky tone, then leaned forward and cautiously licked the sword’s cheek again, as if trying to make everything better. Then she sat back and wagged her tail, staring at Babs.
The sword sighed. “I can’t possibly stay mad when you look at me with those big, innocent puppy eyes. You’re just lucky you’re so cute and cuddly.”
Knowing that all was forgiven, even slobber, Nyx let out a happy bark and licked the sword again. Babs tried to give the pup a stern look, but her lips curved up into a smile.
Takeda took his seat at the head of the briefing table, and we all quieted down and focused on him.
“Covington and Drake have been stealing artifacts, so tonight we kicked up our training a notch and pretended that we had to protect an artifact and capture the Reapers at the same time. A big thanks to our special guests for playing the parts of the Reapers.” Takeda nodded at Linus and Logan. “Mateo, please call up the footage of tonight’s mission.”
Mateo hit some buttons on his laptop, and images appeared on the wall monitors, showing both the outside and the inside of the Library of Antiquities. Mateo really had disabled the alarms and security cameras, just to make sure that he could, but he had also turned them right back on again so that they would record our mission.
We watched everything unspool as it had in real life. Ian, Zoe, and I climbing up to the second level and sneaking into the library. The two of them going down to the first floor and finding the artifact case while I kept watch from above. Linus and Logan slipping out of their hiding places inside the enormous fireplace. The fight where we had all ended up mock-killing one another, including Nyx, who had bested me in the end.
And we got to see something new as well. Takeda sneaking past everyone while we were all busy fighting, disabling Zoe’s electrolock, opening the case, and stealing the artifact.
“As you can see, things didn’t go according to Team Midgard’s plan,” Takeda said when the footage ended.
Zoe drummed her fingers on the table, causing blue sparks of magic to shoot out everywhere. “Why? Because we all failed spectacularly?”
“We didn’t fail,” Mateo protested. “Not exactly. We broke into the library without any problems.”
Zoe snorted. “Yeah, and then you, Ian, Rory, and I all ended up dead. I’d say that’s failing.”
“But you guys killed all the Reapers in return,” Mateo protested again.
Takeda pointedly cleared his throat.
“Well, all the Reapers except Takeda,” Mateo corrected.
“Rory killed the Reapers,” Ian said. “She was the one who took down Linus and Logan.”
“And then I got taken down by a wolf pup.” I shook my head. “I thought there was some creature in the library. I should have known that you guys would have some tricks up your fake Reaper sleeves.”
“It’s the things you don’t see coming that will kill you,” Logan said in a soft voice.
He raised his hand and rubbed his throat, digging his fingers into his skin as if he was trying to tear something off his neck, even though nothing was there. A while back, Agrona Quinn, Logan’s former stepmother, had revealed herself to be a Reaper and had snapped a gold collar studded with Apate jewels around Logan’s neck so that she could control him. Thanks to Agrona’s evil commands, Logan had almost killed Gwen before she had used her psychometry magic to break through the jewels’ sinister influence and save him.
Logan realized that I was watching him rub his neck. He grimaced and dropped his hand down to the table, although his fingers curled into a tight fist. I wasn’t the only one who had horrible memories thanks to the Reapers.
“Yes, Miss Forseti, we did our best to trick you, but everyone makes mistakes,” Linus said. “No matter how much you plan and prepare, things always happen that you don’t expect. It’s how you react and adapt to those surprises that determines whether you succeed or fail.”
He paused. “Like a Spartan girl leaping off a balcony and wrapping a rope around your throat. That was most definitely a surprise and particularly well done.”
Appreciation warmed his blue eyes, and I grinned back at him, accepting the compliment.
“But I was also a Reaper, and in the end, I was the one who ended up with the artifact,” Takeda said. “I was the one who would have left the library with Aphrodite’s Cuff.”
He leaned forward and placed the artifact in the center of the table. The cuff was about two inches wide and featured a large, heart-shaped diamond set in the middle of the gleaming gold. The piece was a bit gaudy and ostentatious for my tastes, but it was still a powerful artifact. Aphrodite’s Cuff had supposedly belonged to the Greek goddess of love and was rumored to protect its wearer from being influenced by other people’s magic and artifacts.
Just as Freya’s Bracelet protected me.
My left hand crept over to the silver bracelet on my right wrist. Three charms dangled from the simple, delicate links: a silver heart locket containing a photo of my parents and me, a tiny silver whistle, and a silver winterbloom with an emerald-green heart in the center.
My parents had given me Freya’s Bracelet for my sixteenth birthday last year, although I had only recently discovered that it was an artifact. Everyone else, including Linus and Takeda, thought the real bracelet was sitting on a shelf with the rest of the artifacts in the back of the briefing room. I hadn’t told anyone the truth, that I had the genuine bracelet and that my parents had stolen it some time ago.
Still fiddling with the links, I looked up to find Logan staring at me, just like I had been staring at him when he had been rubbing his neck. Now it was my turn to grimace, let go of my bracelet, and drop my hand down to the table.
“But regardless of who won and lost and who lived and died, let’s review everything again and see how we could have done things better,” Takeda said. “Because we all know that the Reapers won’t give us a second chance to get things right.”
A tense, heavy silence fell over the table, and we all shifted in our seats, thinking about the terrible things that might have happened if we had been fighting real enemies tonight.
Takeda was absolutely correct. Covington, Drake, and the rest of the Reapers wouldn’t give us a second chance to get things right.
No, they would kill us all without a second thought.
Chapter Three
We reviewed the security-camera footage for the next hour. After we had dissected the mission from every angle and had come up with some strategies to correct our mistakes, Takeda finally told Mateo to shut off the monitors.
Linus glanced at Logan. “Time for us to head to our hotel. We both have early flights in the morning.”
Logan nodded, then looked at Nyx, who was still perched in that chair with Babs. “What do you say, girl? Are you ready to go home to Gwen and Vic?”
Nyx let out an enthusiastic bark.
Linus had been taking care of other Protectorate business in the area, and Logan had only flown in
for the weekend to help with our training mission, but I was still sad to see them go. It was always hard to say good-bye to friends. But Linus had Protectorate business to take care of at the New York academy, and Logan was eager to get back to Gwen in North Carolina.
“Let me secure Aphrodite’s Cuff, and I’ll drive you guys to your hotel,” Takeda said.
“I’ll put it away,” I volunteered. “I saw that case you had set up for it earlier. I’ll drop the artifact inside, lock the lid, and meet you guys at the elevator.”
Takeda nodded, accepting my offer, and everyone got to their feet and started gathering up their things. I grabbed the cuff from the table, along with my messenger bag from my desk, then headed to the shelves in the back of the briefing room.
Takeda had placed an empty artifact case on the shelf that hugged the back wall. A white velvet pillow lay inside the open glass case, along with a small white identification card that told all about the cuff and its supposed magic.
But instead of putting Aphrodite’s Cuff in the case, I set the artifact off to one side of the shelf. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that I was alone, then reached into my bag and drew out a gold cuff with a heart set in the center.
I quickly placed the fake cuff on the pillow inside the case and closed the glass lid over it. Then I stepped back and examined it with a critical eye.
This cuff didn’t gleam nearly as brightly as the real one did, since it was made of gold-colored aluminum foil that I’d wrapped around a piece of curved cardboard, and the jeweled heart was just a white crystal that I’d glued onto the foil. But I thought it looked good enough to fool most people at a first and very brief glance.
As soon as Takeda had told us about the training mission and that we were going to bring the cuff to the Bunker for safekeeping afterward, I had started planning to copy it. I had swiped the foil, the cardboard, and the crystal from the jumble of supplies on Zoe’s desk a couple of days ago. I didn’t have the Valkyrie’s skills when it came to crafting jewelry, but the cuff was simple enough, and it hadn’t taken me long to make a fake. Then I had stuffed my cuff into my bag earlier tonight, hoping I would get the chance to swap it out for the real thing.
And Aphrodite’s Cuff wasn’t the only artifact I had copied over the past few weeks.
Ever since we had learned that Covington wanted to use red narcissus seeds to turn people into Reapers, I had been wandering the aisles, both down here in the Bunker and upstairs in the Library of Antiquities, searching for artifacts that might protect us from the venomous seeds, as well as the Narcissus Heart itself and whatever magic it might possess. One by one, I had been making fakes and swapping them out for the real artifacts, which I had hidden in various places all over Mythos Academy.
Okay, okay, so I hadn’t really hidden the artifacts all over campus. Most of them were at the cottage I shared with my aunt Rachel, but that was one of the safest places I knew.
Covington was extremely smart, and he had already proved that he could get to any artifact anytime and anywhere. Linus and Takeda might think the artifacts were safe in the Bunker, but I had my doubts. Covington had been the head librarian here for years, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he knew all about the Bunker and its shelves full of artifacts. If something horrible happened and Covington ever did break into the Bunker, then I wanted to have some artifacts of my own to use against him.
Even if they were all rather weak and pitiful.
I hadn’t been able to replace any of the swords, daggers, shields, or other weapons and armor. I didn’t have Zoe’s skills to make something that big and complex, and my fakes would have been spotted at once. So I had focused on smaller, simpler artifacts, things that would be easily overlooked.
Like Hermes’s Sandals, which I had replaced with a similar-looking pair of my own shoes. The brown leather sandals had supposedly belonged to the Greek messenger god and would give incredible speed to whoever wore them.
Or Thrud’s Necklace, a long silver chain featuring several blue, teardrop-shaped crystals. The necklace had allegedly belonged to the daughter of Thor, the Norse god, and had protected Thrud from her father’s lightning. I had swiped some blue crystals from Zoe’s desk and hooked them onto my own silver necklace to create my fake artifact.
Or Benzaiten’s Ring, which had supposedly belonged to the Japanese goddess associated with love and luck, among other things. The gold ring was supposed to protect and bring good fortune to the wearer, making that person impossible to defeat in battle. I had substituted it for a plastic ring that I’d painted the same gold color with fingernail polish.
I had also replaced two other artifacts. Hephaestus’s Apron, a garment made of plain gray fabric, had purportedly belonged to the Greek god of fire. The apron was supposed to give its wearer incredible strength, as well as shield them from fire, magic, and more, just as it had protected the god whenever he was working in his blacksmith’s forge. I’d replaced it with one of Aunt Rachel’s kitchen aprons.
And finally, I had taken Veritas’s Diary, a small book with a dark purple cover, which had allegedly belonged to the Roman goddess of truth. Supposedly, whoever was holding the diary would see the truth of any situation, as well as being able to tell whether someone was lying just by listening to their words. That artifact had been the easiest to replace, since I had just grabbed a similar-looking book from Ian’s desk.
A pair of sandals, a necklace, a ring, an apron, and a book. They didn’t seem like much, especially compared with some of the swords that could strike down your enemies with one blow, but they were all objects that I could potentially use to protect my friends. And now I had added Aphrodite’s Cuff to my stash.
I probably should have told my friends what I was doing, especially since Zoe had noticed that some supplies were missing from her desk. But I knew they would tell me that I was just being paranoid, that we would defeat Covington and Drake the next time we battled the Reapers, and that as long as we stuck together, there was no reason to worry. I believed all of those things. Truly, I did. But I also knew that Covington was the most dangerous enemy I had ever faced, and I was going to do everything in my power to protect my friends from him.
Even if it meant stealing artifacts just like the Reapers did.
I made sure that the glass lid was locked over the fake cuff. Then I scooted the case a little farther back into the shadows on the shelf. I didn’t know why Takeda or anyone else would come here and look at the fake artifact, but better safe than sorry.
Once that was done, I picked up the real cuff from where I had laid it on the shelf. I admired the gleaming gold, then turned to leave. The training mission might not have gone as planned, but Mateo had been right about one thing. Swapping out the real artifact for a fake had definitely been a piece of cake—
“That’s a nice piece of jewelry you have there,” a voice murmured.
And with that one smug thought, I had totally jinxed myself. My head snapped up, and my eyes widened.
Logan Quinn was standing in front of me.
I froze. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to say. There was nothing I could do or say. He could clearly see the gold cuff in my hand, as well as the fake one sitting on the shelf behind me. What I’d done was so freaking obvious.
Logan leaned his shoulder against the closest shelf and crossed his arms over his chest. My shock quickly wore off, and I lifted my chin, crossed my arms over my own chest, and stared right back at him, the real cuff still clearly visible in my hand. I wasn’t going to apologize for what I’d done. Not to him. Not when I was trying to protect my friends from Covington.
We stared at each other for a long, tense moment. Then Logan did something completely unexpected. He turned away from me and walked over to the far end of the aisle, where a single artifact—a black box—was sitting on a shelf by itself.
My stomach twisted with worry. Why was he going over there? Had he somehow guessed what I’d done to that artifact?
“So this is the black Chloris box that my dad has told me so much about,” he murmured. “It looks pretty simple.”
I hesitated, still wondering if he knew what I’d done to the box, but his tone was friendly, instead of accusatory, so I walked over to him. “It might look simple, especially compared with some of the swords and spears, but that black box is the most dangerous artifact here. Maybe the most dangerous artifact ever.”
“This box contains the Narcissus Heart, right? That creepy ruby that’s some sort of red narcissus seed?”
I nodded. “We saw the Narcissus Heart when we opened the box a few weeks ago. To me, it seems more like a ruby than a seed, but supposedly, it’s the first red narcissus seed that all the other ones came from.”
Logan stared at the box a moment longer, then looked at me. “But judging from how quickly you replaced Aphrodite’s Cuff, I’m guessing that you’ve already done your little switcheroo on this artifact too. This box doesn’t contain the Narcissus Heart.”
He said it as a matter of fact, so I didn’t bother denying it.
“Not anymore.”
A couple of weeks ago, after we had realized what Covington wanted to do with the artifact, I had used my blood to open the black Chloris box and had swapped out the Narcissus Heart for some of Zoe’s red heart-shaped crystals. Then I had taken the Heart and hidden it in one of the secret tunnels that ran underneath the academy. None of my friends had realized what I’d done, and I wanted to keep it that way. But my curiosity got the best of me, and I couldn’t help but ask the inevitable questions.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I did with it? Where I hid the Narcissus Heart and all the other artifacts I’ve stolen?”
Spartan Destiny Page 4
