From the passage he’d shown me, it sounded like the laurels just had to touch someone in order for their magic to kick in, and I was hoping they would work the same way if the leaves were touching—or even embedded in—an artifact that someone was trying to use.
So I drew in a breath and reached for one of the laurels. I’d never seen a way to take the leaves off the bracelet before, or even get the chain off my wrist, since there wasn’t any sort of clasp on it. But to my surprise, the leaf came off quite easily, as though I’d reached up and plucked it from a tree.
I stared at the leaf in the palm of my hand and concentrated, but I got the same cool, calm vibe off it that I always did. The goddess Eir had said the leaves could be used to heal or destroy, depending on the will of the person using them. So I closed my hand around the leaf, so tight that I felt one of the sharp edges cut into my palm and draw a drop of blood.
Kill, I thought. Kill, kill, kill Loki.
Then, I opened my palm and stared down. The leaf looked the same as before, and I had no way of knowing if my silent plea had had any effect on it at all. Only one way to find out.
So I took the leaf and pressed it into the candle, still careful not to touch the wax with my bare fingers. To my surprise, it melted into the wax seamlessly, until it looked like it had been a part of the artifact all along. In fact, the leaf had sunk so deeply into the candle that you could barely see the silver outline of it against the white wax. It gave me a little more hope that this might actually work.
“What are you doing?” Daphne asked, twisting around in the seat so she could see me.
“Hopefully, giving Loki exactly what he deserves,” I murmured back, plucking another laurel off my bracelet and pressing it into the wax.
I repeated the process over and over again, until the entire surface of the candle was covered with the laurels. I didn’t know how many leaves it would take to hurt Loki, much less kill him outright, but I was guessing it was more than just one, given how strong he still was.
I used all of the leaves on the bracelet except for one. I’d made a promise to myself to try to heal Nickamedes with the last one, and that’s what I was going to do.
I’d just finished putting the final laurel on the candle when Oliver slowed and stopped the SUV.
“What?” I asked, tensing up. “What’s wrong? Why did we stop?”
I looked through the windshield. Oliver had parked the SUV outside the entrance to a fancy subdivision, the sort of place where each house took up three acres and was then surrounded by five more acres of lawn and woods. Even from here, I could see the walls and gates that fronted each house in the neighborhood. Some of them even had small wooden guard shacks sitting by the gates, although the structures were all empty.
“I stopped because I know this place,” Oliver said, staring out the window.
“Oh yeah,” Daphne chimed in. “Although it looks a little different in the daylight than it did at night.”
“You guys have been here before?” I asked. “When?” They both glanced at each other, then at me. “Actually, we’re not the only ones who have been
here before,” Oliver said. “You have too.”
I frowned. “When? I’ve never been here before. Trust me. I would know. Magic memory, remember?” I tapped my finger against the side of my head.
Oliver and Daphne looked at each other again. This time, she answered me.
“You were here before when Vivian kidnapped you,” she said. “When she used your blood at the Garm gate to free Loki from Helheim.”
“This . . . this is where Vivian’s house is?” I asked. “The one with that room full of creepy Black roc figurines?”
I hadn’t seen the outside of the house, since I’d been unconscious at the time, but I remembered the inside all too well. I’d woken up in an opulent living room, one that was full of paintings, statues, and carvings of the birds, not to mention Vivian’s own personal roc, which had been peeking in through the balcony doors at me, as if the creature wanted to rip me to shreds with its sharp beak. A shudder rippled through my body at the thought of going back to that awful room. But if that’s where Grandma Frost was, then that’s where I had to go.
“Are you sure this is the right address?” I asked, even though I knew it was.
“Yeah,” Daphne said, handing my phone back to me. “This is where the directions said to go. This is the right place.”
“What do you think will happen once you go inside?” Oliver asked in a worried voice. “Do you think they’ll take the candle away from you immediately? And how are we even supposed to get inside? They’re sure to have a ton of guards.”
I shook my head. “You won’t have to get inside.” He looked at me. “Why do you say that?”
“Because,” I said. “They’ll take me out to the Garm gate, just like they did before.”
“How do you know that?” Daphne asked. “I just do.”
It was true. I did know it, deep down in my bones. Somehow, I could feel it. Besides, it had a certain sort of sick symmetry to it. The gate was where Loki had gotten free, and that’s where he would want to be healed as well. Perhaps the gate still had some magical properties left, some way that it might add to the power already burning inside Sol’s candle. I wondered if it would be enough to counteract the laurel leaves I’d embedded in the wax, but it was too late to back out now.
“You guys stash the car somewhere and hike through the woods and over to the Garm gate,” I said. “That’s where they’ll take me sooner or later. But whatever happens, don’t approach the Reapers.”
“Why not?” Daphne asked. “How do you think you’re going to get away from them?”
I grinned. “Because you guys weren’t the only ones who came up with a plan.”
I told them whom I’d contacted and what I’d asked that person to do. Oliver and Daphne were silent for several seconds.
“Well, it’s not half bad,” Daphne said in a grudging tone.
“Not bad?” Oliver said. “It’s brilliant, in a completely twisted sort of way.”
“Well, I’m glad the two of you think so,” I sniped. We all glared at each other, none of us wanting to
give in. Finally, I let out a breath, leaned forward, and took their hands in mine. I reached for my magic, and I tried to show them how much it meant, their coming with me, helping me, standing by me through this. I tried to show them how much their friendship had meant to me over the past several months, how they had given me a sense of peace, happiness, and belonging I’d thought I would never find at Mythos Academy. Their wonder washed over me in return, along with their own feelings of love and friendship. After several moments, I slowly pulled my feelings, memories, and emotions back into myself and drew my hands away from theirs.
“No matter what happens, promise me you guys won’t approach the Reapers,” I said. “I may be willing to risk myself, but I don’t want you guys to get hurt too. More important than that, if things go wrong, someone needs to go back to the academy to tell Linus, Metis, and the others what happened. Logan too.”
Oliver and Daphne stared at me, and they both slowly nodded their heads. I gave them both a bright, brittle smile.
“All right then,” I said. “Let’s go get my grandma back.”
Chapter 17
I left my messenger bag in the backseat and slid Sol’s candle into my jeans pocket. Then, I got out of the SUV and started walking into the neighborhood. Oliver cranked the engine again, and he and Daphne drove away, leaving me alone. I pulled out my phone and sent out a quick text message, telling the other person I’d contacted my suspicions about the Garm gate. My phone beeped a few seconds later.