Crimson Frost (Mythos Academy 4)

Alexei was there too, watching and following me all day. He didn't talk much, but every once in a while he would nod his head at me. He seemed to have thawed a little bit toward me.

But my friends couldn't be with me in my classes, and all the other students pulled their desks away from mine once again. Finally, it was time for gym. Yesterday, I'd stood by myself at the edge of the mats all period long, watching everyone else fight. Today, I was wondering if it would be even more humiliating-or dangerous. I'd thought that some of the students might decide to come after me with their weapons, but to my surprise a few folks stood up for me.

"I'll be sparring with Gwen today," Morgan McDougall announced in a loud voice before Coach Ajax could randomly assign us partners like he sometimes did. The Valkyrie twirled a staff around and around in her hands, green sparks of magic shooting out of her fingertips.

"Me too," Talia Pizarro chimed in. The Amazon stood next to Morgan, slashing her sword through the air.

The girls were issuing a clear warning to the others, and I gave them grateful smiles. Morgan winked at me, her hazel eyes warm.

"Hey," she said. "Us school sluts have to stick together, right?"

I knew that Morgan meant the word slut as a sort of in-joke between us, and my smile widened a little. "You'd better believe it."

Carson also stuck up for me again in myth-history, leaving his desk right in front of mine and grinning at me before burying his nose in a stack of sheet music and staying that way until Metis started class. Carson was obviously stressing about the winter concert tomorrow, so I left him alone. Besides, I had other things on my mind too-my impending trial, for one.

With the other students taunting me and the Reaper attack, I hadn't had a chance to think too much about the trial, but Linus had said that it would start after classes today. All day long, I'd kept gazing at the clocks on the walls, watching the hours and minutes tick away until I was all out of time.

The last bell of the day rang, signaling the end of myth-history. I sat in my seat and waited until all the other students had filed out before getting to my feet. Once again, I kept my face calm, but my movements were slow and stiff, and I felt like there were a pair of hands deep inside my chest, tying my insides into tighter and tighter knots. Alexei stood in the corner, watching me, just like he had all day long.

Metis tucked her papers in her briefcase and turned to face me. "It's time," she said. "Please follow me."

I nodded, not sure what else to do, not sure what else I could do without opening my mouth and insisting once again that the Protectorate had it all wrong, that I wasn't a Reaper.

I slung my messenger bag over my shoulder. It felt light, empty almost, without Vic in it. I'd taken the sword back to my room after gym class. I didn't want him to pipe up and say the wrong thing at my trial and risk the Protectorate taking him away from me. Naturally, Vic had grumbled about being left behind-

"Gwen?" Metis asked. "Are you okay?"

"Sure," I said. "Just terrific. Let's go get this over with."

I followed Metis out of the classroom, to the end of the hallway, and then outside. Alexei trailed along behind me, and Sergei and Inari were waiting at the bottom of the steps of the English-history building, I supposed to keep me from bolting.

The two men fell in step on either side of me, with Metis leading the way and Alexei bringing up the rear. We crossed the quad in silence, although stares and whispers sprang up in our wake.

Daphne, Carson, Logan, and Oliver were out on the quad too, right outside the math-science building. My friends stared at me, their faces tight with concern. They weren't allowed at my trial, so this was the only support they could give me. I looked at my friends and smiled, as though everything was going to be okay, but I didn't stop to talk to them. If I did that, I didn't know if I'd be able to get through this.

I trudged up the steps to the math-science building and went inside with the others. Then, down, down, down, we went, with Metis punching in codes on keypads and chanting a bit of magic mumbo jumbo when necessary.

All too soon, though, we were on the bottom level in front of the door that led into the academy prison. I eyed the sphinxes carved into the stone, but once again the creatures stared at their feet instead of me.

Metis used her skeleton key to open the door, and I felt Sergei's hand on my arm a moment, gently guiding me forward. I swallowed and stepped through the opening to the other side.

The prison looked the same as always-Raven's desk in the corner, glass cells stacked on top of each other, the hand-and-scales carving on the domed ceiling. But there were two new additions. A stone interrogation table stood in the same place as before, directly below the carving, although it was twice as big as the one where Preston had always sat. But what really caught my attention was a second table that had been erected on the far side. Together, the two tables created a loose T shape, with the second table forming the top part of the letter. The second table had also been set on a stone dais, raising it up several feet off the ground, and seven chairs were arranged behind it. That's where my jury would sit, I thought bitterly. Looking down on and judging me from above.

A hand touched my shoulder, and a faint, familiar jingle-jingle-jingling sounded. I turned, and Grandma Frost was there. She wore a black pantsuit with her usual black shoes, and she'd tied a violet scarf around her throat and another one in her hair. The silver coins on the ends glimmered in the light.

"Grandma!" I said and hugged her tight.

She smoothed down my hair. "Don't you worry, pumpkin. I'm right here with you. We'll set these yahoos straight."

"And so am I," another voice cut in.

I let go of Grandma to see Nickamedes standing behind her. "I don't understand."

The librarian straightened up to his full height. "I'm to represent you in your defense and see that your rights are not violated."

"You would do that for me? Even though I wrecked the library again last night?"

He grimaced a little, but his eyes remained kind in his face. "Even though."

"If the pleasantries are over with," Linus Quinn said, striding into the prison, along with Agrona, Ajax, and Raven, "let us begin."

The door clanged shut, sealing us all in the prison. The sound seemed to echo through the whole chamber over and over again, until the force of it rattled my teeth.

I swallowed my growing dread and followed Nickamedes over to the interrogation table. I took a seat in the middle, with the librarian on my right and Grandma Frost on my left. Grandma took my hand in hers, but the warmth of her fingers and the feel of her love wasn't enough to drive away the cold that had seeped into my bones and the fear that quickened my heart.

Alexei moved to stand behind me and off to my right. The others climbed the steps to the dais and took their seats behind the table there. Linus sat in the middle, with Agrona, Inari, Sergei, Raven, Metis, and Coach Ajax taking the other chairs . Metis gave me an encouraging smile, but I knew the odds were stacked against me. There were seven people on the jury, which meant that I needed at least four to get a majority vote. Metis and Ajax would be on my side, but I doubted any of the others would be, except maybe for Raven.

I looked at the old woman, and she stared back at me. For an instant, her features flickered, as though they weren't her true face, as though there was another person lurking underneath the wrinkles and liver spots. The same thing had happened a few weeks ago at the Crius Coliseum. I blinked, and Raven was just Raven again. Strange, but then again everything about her was strange, including the fact that she already looked bored. Well, I didn't care if she was bored or if she slept through the whole freaking trial, as long as she sided with Metis and Ajax in the end.

But even if she did, I'd still need at least one more member of the jury to vote for me, and I didn't know who it might be. Certainly not Linus, who'd made his feelings about me so clear already. I doubted Agrona would vote against her husband, so that left Inari and Sergei. I looked at them, and they both stared back at me with smooth expressions, telling me nothing of what they might be thinking or what they'd uncovered about me while they'd been on campus.

When everyone was seated, Linus picked up a small gavel and rapped it against the table. "We will now come to order."

Everyone quieted down, and I drew in a breath-my trial was about to begin.

Chapter 16

Linus shuffled some papers around on the table, while the others did the same. Everyone except for Raven, who seemed to be reading another one of her celebrity gossip magazines. At least, I thought I saw a bright, glossy cover hidden in among the stacks of papers in front of her. She noticed me watching her and gave a little shrug. Good to know she was taking this so seriously.

While the Protectorate got ready to start, I stared up at the domed ceiling. Maybe it was a trick of the lights, but the hand holding the set of scales looked particularly prominent today, almost like the hand was straining to punch through the stone above my head. As I watched, a soft creak filled my ears, and the scales began to tilt to one side, as if I'd already been found guilty. It fact, it seemed like the scales were dropping lower and lower, almost as if they might erupt out of the ceiling and crash down on my head, crushing me where I sat-

I blinked, and the carving was just a carving once more, and the scales were perfectly balanced. Sometimes, my Gypsy gift made me see things that weren't really there, like the pictures that always seemed to come to life in my myth-history books, but those tilting scales had been creepy, even for Mythos. I shivered and dropped my eyes from the ceiling. Or maybe I was just especially freaked out because of what was at stake right now-my life.

Finally, all the papers were shuffled, and all eyes turned to me. Grandma Frost tightened her grip on my hand, letting me know that she was there for me no matter what. I gently squeezed her fingers.

Linus banged the gavel once more. "Let us begin," he said. "Bring out the basket."

Basket? What basket?

Raven got to her feet, walked down the dais steps, and headed over to one of the cells. She punched in a code, and the glass whooshed back. The old woman stepped into the cell, bent down, and picked up a small wicker basket that I hadn't noticed before. She turned and carried the basket over to the stone table where I was sitting. Raven glanced over her shoulder at Linus, who nodded at her to go ahead.

The old woman took the top off the basket, stuck her hand inside, and brought out a snake.

I let out a gasp and lurched back in my chair.

"Easy, Gwendolyn," Nickamedes said in a low voice. "This is just part of the process. Don't worry. You have nothing to fear."

"Now," Linus said. "Shackle the girl to the table."

"Shackle me?" I asked. "Why?"

He ignored my question. "Ajax, if you will."

Coach Ajax grabbed something from under the table. He stood up, and I realized that he was holding a set of handcuffs attached to a long chain. Ajax came over to the interrogation table and put the cuffs and chain on top of it. The harsh clink-clink-clank of the metal rattling together made me wince.

"Hold out your hands, Gwen," the coach said. "Please."

I bit my lip and looked at Grandma and Nickamedes. They both nodded, indicating that I had to do this. I reluctantly held out my hands, and Ajax clinked the handcuffs around my wrists, then secured them and the chain to the stone ring in the top of the table.

I drew in a breath and waited for my psychometry to flare up and show me all the awful memories of everyone who'd worn the cuffs before me-but nothing happened. I got an idea of the cuffs being made, and Ajax handling them with a sense of regret, but that was it. No other memories, no other feelings, were associated with either them or the chains. My breath hissed out in relief.

"I made sure they were brand new," Ajax said in a low voice. "And not the ones we used on Preston."

I nodded, grateful for his thoughtfulness. I'd been in Preston's head plenty of times, but I had no desire to feel what he had when he'd been shackled to the interrogation table, to experience all his rage and hatred of me.

Linus gestured to Raven, who stepped forward with the snake. Before I could open my mouth to ask what she was doing, the old woman held the creature out, and the snake sank its fangs into my right wrist.

"Ouch!" I shrieked. "It bit me!"

I yanked my hands away from the snake as far as I could and stared down at my wrist. Two drops of blood trickled out of the puncture marks and spattered onto the table, but the stone soaked up the crimson liquid like a sponge. I expected the wounds to start throbbing, but to my surprise the bite didn't hurt all that much. Instead, it felt more . . . uncomfortable, like a couple of IV needles had been slipped into my skin. I was also aware of a cool sensation flowing through my body, like some sort of medicine had just been injected into my veins.

Raven placed the snake on the table right in front of me. For a moment, I thought it was going to bite me again, but the creature ignored me, as though its job was done. I hadn't noticed it before, but a small circle had been carved into the stone. The snake settled into the groove like the creature was familiar with it, like it belonged there. Its body curled around and around until its head finally came to rest on top of the table-an inch away from my fingers.

"That is a Maat asp," Linus said. "Named after the Egyptian goddess of truth. Over the years, the Pantheon has discovered that the asp's venom has an unusual property. It acts as a sort of truth serum and encourages people to answer honestly-or suffer the consequences."

Well, I guess that explained the cold sensation that continued to spread through my body. "Consequences?" I asked. "What consequences?"