Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy 4)

Logan, Daphne, and Carson all started talking at once, yelling at me that things were going to be all right, but Ajax ignored them and shut the door, cutting off their protests.

For a moment, everything was silent.

Then, Linus shook his head and turned to Nickamedes. "I hoped by sending him to school here that you could keep him out of trouble. But apparently, that hasn't happened."

Nickamedes stiffened at his words. The librarian was Logan's uncle on his mom's side of the family. In fact, Nickamedes looked like an older, more serious version of Logan with his black hair and blue eyes.

Linus kept staring at him. "Larenta would be so disappointed in you for not protecting Logan better than you have."

Anger blazed in the librarian's eyes, his hands clenched into fists, and he took a menacing step forward, like he wanted to punch Linus. I knew the feeling.

"Don't you dare bring Larenta into this," Nickamedes snapped. "I still don't understand what my sister ever saw in you, you pompous, arrogant-"

"Enough." Metis stepped forward and put her hand on Nickamedes's shoulder. "That's enough. From both of you. Arguing amongst ourselves isn't going to solve anything."

"No, it won't," Linus agreed. "Glad to see you still have that level head on your shoulders, Aurora."

Metis grimaced, but she nodded, accepting his faint compliment. Still, unless I missed my guess, she didn't like Linus any more than Nickamedes did. I wondered why, what had happened between all of them, and if it had anything to do with my mom.

"But I still say that you're making an enormous error," Metis said. "Gwen is not working with the Reapers, and she certainly did not free Loki on purpose."

"Yes, it's the on purpose part that troubles me the most," Linus murmured. "That's what I'm here to get to the bottom of."

He started to walk over to me, but Metis planted herself in front of him.

"You march into my office this morning with no warning that you were coming to campus. Then, you tell me that you're here to arrest and put one of our students on trial for conspiring with the Reapers," she said, her hands on her hips. "You don't tell me who the student is, but leave me and the others to find out at the assembly along with everyone else."

"So?" he asked. "All of those things are within my right as head of the Protectorate. You know that, Aurora. As for why I didn't tell you who the student was, it's come to my attention that you've become quite . . . fond of Miss Frost. I didn't want you to do something foolish like warn her and give her a chance to escape justice."

Metis went completely tense and rigid, and it took her a moment to unclench her jaw. "So I want answers," she snapped. "Who made these accusations against Gwen? Why? What proof do they have?"

"You'll find all that out soon enough," Linus said. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to explain things to the girl so that she doesn't cause us any more trouble in the meantime."

Metis opened her mouth as though she was going to keep arguing, but after a moment she pressed her lips together and stepped aside. There was nothing she could do or say that would get him to change his mind. I knew it as well as she did.

Linus headed over to the table, followed by the others. Only Raven remained at her desk by the door, still reading. Every once in a while, she would glance in our direction, apparently wondering if the drama here would be as good as what was in her magazine.

Linus sat in the chair across from me. Sergei, Inari, and Alexei arranged themselves behind him, while Metis, Nickamedes, and Ajax trooped over and stood off to my right on my side of the table. Linus plucked a pair of reading glasses from a pocket on his shirt. He put them on, then reached into the folds of his gray robe. This time, he drew out a piece of white parchment, which he unrolled and spread out on the table between us.

"Gwendolyn Cassandra Frost," he said, reading from the parchment. "You are hereby charged with crimes against the Pantheon, including, but not limited to, conspiring with other Reapers of Chaos to kill your fellow students at the Crius Coliseum, stealing artifacts from the coliseum, absconding from the academy with the Helheim Dagger, and most serious of all, using the dagger to release Loki from Helheim. How do you plead to these charges?"

For a moment, I simply couldn't speak. It was like I'd been sucker punched in the stomach by a Valkyrie, and all the air had been driven out of my lungs. My mouth opened and closed, and opened and closed again, but no words came out. I couldn't utter so much as a freaking syllable. I hadn't done any of those terrible things-not a single one of them.

Sure, I'd been at the coliseum, but only because I'd been trying to complete an assignment for Metis's myth-history class. Everything else that had followed had been the doing of Vivian Holler, another second-year Mythos student. The Gypsy who was Loki's Champion. The girl who'd murdered my mom.

I didn't know where Vivian was right now, since she'd escaped with Loki the night she'd freed him, but I could almost hear her laughing. Somehow, someway, she had managed to convince the Protectorate that I was to blame for everything she'd done, all the lies she'd told, all the people she'd hurt, all the kids she'd killed. I knew Vivian was a good actress, but this was above and beyond even for her. Bravo, Viv. Another masterful performance.

I started to tell Linus all about Vivian, but Metis beat me to the punch.

"These charges are utter nonsense," she said. "Gwen is not a Reaper. The three of us know it, along with Raven, and you would too, if you'd spent any time with her. If you'd even bothered to ask us, before you decided to stage that ridiculous display in the amphitheater."

Nickamedes and Ajax nodded, backing up Metis. At her desk, Raven waved her hand, seeming to agree as well, although she kept right on reading her magazine.

"And the Protectorate will decide for itself what the girl is and isn't, and what she has and hasn't done," Linus said in his cold, calm voice, the one that infuriated me more and more with every word he spoke. "Obviously, the three of you cannot be objective where she's concerned. And neither can my son."

Nobody responded, although I could almost see the tension and anger hanging like a storm cloud over the table, making everything dark and ugly.

"I didn't do anything wrong," I said, finally finding my voice.

Nickamedes stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't say anything else to him, Gwendolyn. Not one more word. What Linus failed to mention is that anything you say now can be brought up at the trial. And believe me when I tell you that he will use your own words against you. It's something he excels at."

Linus glowered at Nickamedes, but I decided to take the librarian's advice and keep my mouth shut. I didn't want to get into any more trouble than I already was.

Linus rolled the parchment back up, took off his glasses, and looked at me again. "Here's what will happen next . Anytime such serious charges are leveled against someone, the Protectorate is called in, and an investigation is conducted. We will be talking to everyone you know and everyone who might know anything about the charges against you. Your friends, your family, your classmates, your professors, everyone."

Everyone? He was going to talk to everyone who knew me? Well, it would be a pretty short list. Sure, I had a few friends, but most of the kids at Mythos knew me as Gwen Frost, that weird Gypsy girl who touched stuff, saw things, and could find lost items for the right price. I wouldn't exactly win any popularity contests, especially not now, after the assembly. Still, maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

"Evidence will be collected, and you will questioned about the findings, along with your actions. Then, a group of Protectorate members will make a final decision about your guilt or innocence," he continued. "You should know that the charges against you are some of the most serious I've ever seen, especially for a Mythos student. Despite your age, if you are found guilty, the punishment will be dealt out accordingly. At the very least, you will be expelled from the academy."

Okay, so maybe it was going to be that bad after all.

Still, I couldn't keep myself from asking the inevitable question. "And what about the very worst? What's the worst punishment if I'm found guilty?"

Linus looked at me, his eyes cold in his face. "Death."

Chapter 4

Death?

I could be put to death by the Protectorate, by the Pantheon, for something I didn't even do?

"If you are found guilty of all charges, you will be placed in solitary confinement in a Protectorate prison," Linus said. "And you will stay there until you are executed."

For a moment, the world went completely black, as though I was shrouded in darkness, as though I was already cold, dead, and buried in my grave. I blinked, and light blazed around me once more. Everything snapped back into focus, somehow seeming sharper than before. The hard, unyielding stone of the chair pressing against my back. The sinister gleam of the metal chains and handcuffs on top of the table. The faint musty odor that always filled the prison. All that and more assaulted my senses, slamming into my brain one after another, although they were all quickly drowned out by the rapid thump-thump-thump of my heart.

I wanted nothing more than to bolt from my chair, race over to the prison door, yank it open, and run and run and run until my legs buckled and my lungs exploded from the strain. But I couldn't do that, not without making everything that much worse. So I forced myself to sit still and just breathe-in and out, in and out-just like my mom had taught me, just like she'd always told me to do whenever I was scared, upset, or worried. Right now, I was closer to panic-okay, sheer terror-than anything else, but I made myself keep breathing.

The panic slowly passed, although worry and fear still gnawed at my heart like rats chewing on a block of cheese. I finally looked at the others. Metis had a sick, stricken expression on her face, while anger made Nickamedes's cheeks burn. Ajax simply looked furious with his stiff shoulders and clenched fists, his onyx skin gleaming underneath the lights. Even Sergei, Inari, and Alexei were giving me sympathetic glances at this point. Only Linus remained calm and emotionless, his blank face giving nothing away of his true feelings.

"I didn't do anything wrong," I said again in a much fainter tone. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"That remains to be decided," Linus said. "Rest assured that we will conduct a thorough investigation and that you will receive a fair and balanced trial."

"Yeah," I said, sarcasm creeping back into my voice. "Because hauling me up there on stage at the amphitheater and announcing my supposed crimes to the whole freaking academy was such a fair and balanced thing to do."

Nickamedes's hand tightened on my shoulder, reminding me that I should keep my mouth shut, but the fear, shock, and panic were quickly simmering away, leaving nothing behind but anger. I embraced the anger, gathered up every single scrap of it and let the emotion sizzle around my heart until it had burned away everything else. As long as I was angry, I couldn't think about how serious the situation was or how close I was to losing everything that had become important to me these past few months at Mythos-including my life.

Linus's eyes narrowed at my words, but his face remained smooth. "Although I am personally against it, the academy bylaws state that you may remain at Mythos and continue with your classes and other school activities until the investigation and trial are complete and a decision is reached regarding your guilt or innocence."

Some of the tightness in my chest eased. At least I would still be at the academy with Logan, Daphne, and my other friends, not to mention Metis, Ajax, and Nickamedes. Together, we would find a way to get me out of this. I knew we would. We'd survived everything the Reapers had thrown at us so far. We'd survive this too.

"But your movements are restricted to campus, and you will be supervised and watched at all times," Linus continued. "In order to minimize the invasion and distraction to the other students, Alexei will be responsible for you during the day. He will accompany you everywhere you go on the academy grounds-your classes, the dining hall, the library, everywhere."

So not only was I to be investigated and put on trial, but I was going to have my own personal shadow too. Actually, I imagined he'd be more like a spy, reporting my every move back to the Protectorate and getting me into even more trouble if I so much as chewed gum in class or cut across the grass on the quad instead of walking on the stone paths. Terrific. Just terrific.

"You will not interfere with Alexei in any way, and any attempts by you to slip away from him will result in your being kept here in the academy prison for the duration of the investigation and trial," Linus said. "Do you understand, Miss Frost?"

"Oh yeah. I understand perfectly," I muttered.

Alexei looked at me. He kept his face blank, but once again, I saw the curiosity in his eyes. I wondered why he'd been chosen for guard duty. Most likely it was because he was Sergei's son. I wondered if being in the Protectorate was a family thing, like being a cop, firefighter, or doctor was in some regular mortal families. I'd have to ask Logan. I'd have to ask the Spartan about a lot of things-and why his dad seemed to hate me when I'd never even met him before today.

"Inari and Sergei will take turns watching your dorm at night," Linus continued. "Just in case there is some truth to Metis's ridiculous idea that the Reapers are targeting you."

I glanced at the professor. We both knew why the Reapers were after me. Because I was Nike's Champion-and I was supposed to find some way to kill Loki. It looked like Metis hadn't told Linus that, though. I wondered what else she hadn't told him.