Finally, Agrona reached down and managed to wrench the candle out of Loki’s hands. It must have burned her too because she hissed and tossed it aside. The candle skittered across the broken black marble, landing a few feet away from me and Vivian.
The silver spark and flames had vanished, as though the laurel leaves and all the magic they had contained had been used up, although a bit of silver smoke continued to puff up from the wick. Other than that, the candle was simply a candle once more, and I didn’t see any trace of the leaves remaining in the wax.
But there was still about a quarter of the candle left. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I wasn’t about to let the Reapers get their hands on it.
Vivian saw me looking at the candle, and we both lunged for it at the same time. My hand closed around the wax, and I braced myself, waiting for the awful memories of Loki’s pain to fill my mind. But all I got from the candle was that feeling of intense heat, and I realized there was still some magic left in it after all— more than enough magic to heal Loki, despite what I’d done to him.
Vivian threw herself on top of me, and we rolled over and over across the stone, with her trying to tear the candle out of my grasp, and me tightening my death grip on the smooth piece of wax. I couldn’t let her get her hands on the candle now. Not when I only had one laurel leaf left on my bracelet and no time to press it into the wax.
“Give it up, Gwen!” Vivian hissed. “I’m stronger than you are. Any second, you’re going to let go of that candle, and then you’ll lose—just like you’ve lost to me every single time before now.”
“Dream on,” I hissed back.
Then, I punched her in the face. I was still holding on to Vic’s hilt, and I slammed my fist and the sword into her features as hard as I could. I felt her nose crunch under the metal, and blood sprayed through the air, spattering onto both of us.
Vivian shrieked and rolled away from me. I scrambled to my feet, still holding Vic and the candle, which I stuffed into my jacket pocket and zipped up tight so I wouldn’t lose it. Grandma Frost raced over to my side. We turned to run into the woods but found our path blocked by a group of Reapers. We whirled around the other way, but there were more of them coming up on that side too.
Grandma and I stood back-to-back near the middle of the Garm gate, watching the Reapers slowly approach us. More golden and wooden arrows zipped out of the woods, and a few of the Reapers split off to go after Daphne and Oliver. I hoped my friends could avoid them and that they wouldn’t be foolish enough to try to get close to me and Grandma with so many of our enemies clustered around us. Besides, I still had one trick left, one that I hoped was enough to save us.
“Kill them!” Loki howled, still rocking back and forth on the stone. “Kill them both! Now!”
The Reapers raised their swords and surged toward us, and I snapped up Vic, ready to fight them for as long as I could—
SCREECH!
A wild, fierce cry boomed through the clearing, making me wince at its volume. But a smile tugged up my lips all the same because I knew exactly what had made the noise.
The high-pitched screech came again, even louder than before, and more than a few of the Reapers paused, looking up toward the treetops, no doubt expecting to see their Black rocs roosting on the sturdier branches. But it wasn’t a roc making that noise.
Not even close.
A second later, two male Eir gryphons landed in the middle of the broken stone. One of the gryphons was large, easily as large as the Black rocs the Reapers always used, but the other one was smaller, although he had grown quite a bit since the last time I’d seen him and was now almost as big as his dad. Both gryphons were beautiful, with bronze fur and wings, black beaks and talons, and bright, shimmering eyes that burned like warm, bronze lanterns.
But the gryphons weren’t alone.
A pretty girl with black hair and green eyes was perched on top of the baby gryphon. She wore black jeans, a green sweater, and a green leather jacket that gave her a tough-girl vibe. A woman with similar features and clothes rode the adult gryphon. My cousin, Rory Forseti, and her aunt, Rachel Maddox. The other friends I’d called for help, along with the gryphons.
“Hey, Gwen.” Rory grinned at me, shoving her hair back out of her eyes. “How was our grand entrance?”
“Perfect!” I yelled back at her. “Just perfect!” Grandma Frost ran toward the gryphons, while I cov-
ered her, holding off all the Reapers that tried to get past me to attack her. Rachel jumped off the adult gryphon, and the creature leaped into the middle of the fray, swiping his claws into every Reaper that came near him. In a moment, the gryphon had taken out three of the Reapers, and even Vivian and Agrona were looking at him with surprise—and more than a little fear.
I used their distraction to reach into my other jeans pocket and pull out a wad of material that I’d looped over and over itself, making it resemble a small belt. I snapped the material open, and a length of gnarled, knotted, light gray seaweed unspooled in my hand. The net of Ran, the Norse goddess of storms, which had the unusual property of making whatever it was holding much lighter. I’d used it before to ride the gryphons, and I was going to use it now to get us out of here.
“Hurry, Gwen!” Vic urged. “They’re regrouping!” Sure enough, the Reapers were creeping toward the
adult gryphon again, but a couple of arrows from Daphne and Oliver in the woods took care of that. Grandma Frost and I raced over to the adult gryphon, and I threw the net over his back, looped it around his neck, and tied the whole thing together. Then, Grandma and I scrambled onto his broad back, both of us hooking our hands through the net so we wouldn’t fall off the creature.
“Get us out of here!” I yelled.
The adult gryphon let out another loud screech, pumped his wings once, and shot up into the air. So did the baby gryphon that was carrying Rory; a third gryphon had appeared to fly Rachel away as well. I knew that Daphne and Oliver would find their own way out of the woods and back to Oliver’s car and would meet up with us later at the academy. That was the plan we’d worked out before, and my friends should have no problem getting away from the Reapers and back to Oliver’s SUV.
Still, as the gryphon flew higher and higher, I leaned over the side of the creature’s back and stared down into the clearing below. Agrona was still hovering over Loki and screaming at the other Reapers, most of whom were staring up at the gryphons, their mouths open wide in utter shock.
And then there was Vivian.
For the first time ever, I had the supreme satisfaction of staring down at my nemesis and seeing the rage and frustration on her face as the gryphons carried me, Grandma Frost, Rory, and Rachel to safety.
Chapter 20
I couldn’t help but laugh as the gryphons flew higher and higher and faster and faster.
All sorts of emotions surged through me, but the main one was relief—relief that I’d actually been able to pull off my plan and save my grandma and the candle from the Reapers.
But that emotion was quickly tempered by another, darker realization—Loki was injured, but not dead.
And I still had no idea how to kill him.
I’d used up all the laurels but one. Sure, the leaves had hurt him and probably made his body even more twisted and broken than before, but they hadn’t killed him.
And I didn’t know what would.
But one thing was for certain—this wasn’t over. Because I still had Sol’s candle, and the Reapers still wanted it. Loki still wanted it. Because there was enough of it left to heal at least one more person, and I couldn’t let Loki get his hands on it, or we’d be right back where we’d started.