“Go,” Linus said. “Prepare the others. Protocol
Three. Now.”
The man nodded and scurried out of the prison, shutting the door behind him. Inari and Sergei’s faces both darkened at the mention of Protocol Three. Whatever that was, it sounded serious.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “What’s going on?” Linus’s mouth flattened out into a thin line. “It seems
that you were right about the Reapers still wanting the candle, Miss Frost. According to our reports, Vivian, Agrona, and a large contingent of Reapers plan to attack the academy before sunset. And Loki will be leading them. Apparently, the Reapers want the candle badly enough to make this their last stand—or ours. Because Loki is still a god, and we are not. Unless you have any other bright ideas about how to kill him?”
His words filled me with dread, worry, and fear, but I had to shake my head. Unfortunately, that was the one thing I still hadn’t figured out how to do. And as long as Loki was alive, the Reapers would keep fighting and keep trying to topple the Pantheon, one warrior, one battle, one death at a time. Unless someone found a way to stop the evil god.
Unless I found a way to stop him—for good.
“So what happens now?” I asked, my voice sounding weak and small to my own ears. “Now you know that the Reapers are coming here? That this is . . . the end, one way or another?”
Linus sighed. “We have long planned for this, and we will immediately begin to evacuate campus, for starters. I don’t want any students getting caught in the battle with the Reapers.”
“What about the Protectorate? Are you going to stay? Are you going to fight?”
He squared his shoulders. “Of course we’re going to stay and fight. This is the battle that we’ve been waiting for, that we’ve been planning for, that we’ve spent all these long years training for. We might not have thought it would have arrived this soon, but we will do our best, Miss Frost. Rest assured of that.”
I nodded. Well, if there was going to be a fight, then I wanted to be a part of it—I needed to be a part of it. Because, like it or not, I was still the best chance the Pantheon had of stopping Loki and the Reapers once and for all.
“All right then,” I said. “Are you going to leave me down here to rot or are you going to let me go and do something useful?”
Linus narrowed his eyes. “Define useful.”
“You said the Reapers have been going around stealing artifacts, right? And you’ve been finding stockpiles of them at their hideouts?”
He nodded.
“Then they are sure to be carrying them with them. We need to level the playing field. Loki has enough power on his own without adding artifacts to it.”
“What do you suggest?” Linus asked.
I nodded my head at Nickamedes. “Let me go back to the library with Nickamedes. Nobody knows the artifacts there like we do. If we’re going to stay and fight, if this could be our last stand, our final battle, then I want to make sure we do everything we can to win it. Don’t you?”
Linus stared at me for several long seconds that seemed to stretch on . . . and on . . . and on . . .
Finally, he nodded. He pulled a key out of one of the pockets of his robe, leaned forward, and undid the shackles that chained me to the table.
“You’re right,” he said. “Despite your other actions, we’re going to need every single advantage we have if we hope to defeat Loki and the Reapers.”
“Even if that means trusting me?” I asked in a wry voice, rubbing first one wrist, then the other.
The faintest of smiles curved Linus’s lips. “Yes,” he said. “Even if it means that.”
I grinned back at him. In this case, I didn’t mind being the lesser of two evils.
Chapter 22
Linus stepped out into the hallway and started barking out orders, and everyone rushed away to do the tasks they’d been assigned.
Logan nodded at me before he hurried out the door. I returned the gesture, knowing I’d catch up with him later. Right now, we both had work to do.
I stood up and started stuffing all of the artifacts on the table back into my pockets. I might still need them. I also belted Vic and his scabbard around my waist again, which meant the only thing left on the table was Sol’s candle.
“Hey,” I called out to Linus. “What do you want to do with this?”
I pointed at the white wax. Linus stopped his conversation with Ajax, came back into the prison, and walked over to the table. He considered the candle, then me, for several moments.
“Why don’t you hang on to it, Miss Frost?” he finally said. “As much as I hate to admit it, you’ve taken good care of it so far.”
I nodded and slid the candle into my jeans pocket.
Fifteen minutes later, I walked out of the mathscience building.
Linus had already sounded the alarm to evacuate campus, and kids were running in every direction across the quad, yelling to each other, and clutching their bags and weapons. At first, there didn’t seem to be any kind of method to the madness, but after a few seconds, I realized that most of the kids were running from the dorms, up the hill, across the quad, and toward the gym. “Why the gym?” I asked Alexei, who was walking
with me and still acting as my guard.
“That’s where the buses are gathering that will take the students off campus,” he said. “It’s standard operating procedure at all of the academies in case of a largescale Reaper attack.”
“Where will everyone go?”
“To a secure location nearby,” he said. “From there, some will go on home to their families, if they are close by.” He paused. “Depending on what happens here, of course.”
I swallowed. He didn’t say the words, but I knew what he meant. Depending on whether we won—or just died.
But I pushed my unease aside, although I was aware of some of the kids stopping and staring at me before hurrying on their way. And I could feel the desperation and fear rolling off all of them—along with the faintest bit of hope.
Hope that I really was Nike’s Champion. Hope that I could find a way to end this. Hope that I could finally rid everyone at our academy and all the others from the constant threat of Loki and his Reapers.
That hope gave me the determination to swallow down my own fear and get on with things.
Alexei and I hurried across the quad and over to the Library of Antiquities. Perhaps it was my imagination, but the library seemed darker and gloomier than ever before, with the statues, balconies, and towers casting out long shadows that stretched all the way to the opposite side of the quad. Or perhaps it was because I knew death, destruction, and chaos were coming our way—and wondering how we could possibly survive.
Still, despite my rush, and everything that needed to be done before the Reapers arrived, I stopped a moment to talk to the gryphon statues on either side of the library steps.
“Today would be a good time for you guys to actually, you know, move,” I said. “Rip right out of your stone shells and attack any Reaper who dares to set foot on the quad. I’m just saying. It would be really great if you could do that, please. Okay?”
Of course, the gryphons didn’t respond, but I still patted first one statue, then the other, before heading into the library. Alexei followed me.
Nickamedes was already inside and standing behind the checkout counter, talking to Metis. Apparently, he’d already enlisted Daphne to help search through the library’s electronic catalog of artifacts, because she was sitting in my usual spot behind one of the computers, furiously pounding on the keyboard, pink sparks of magic shooting out of her fingertips with every letter she hit.