I kept walking, passing more benches and more statues, but what surprised me was the fact that several more gates were set into the stone wall that circled the academy. So far, I’d only been through the main gate and the secondary one at the end of the parking lot behind the gym, but iron bars were spaced into the wall every few hundred feet. A pair of stone sphinxes perched above them all, looming over either side of the open spaces. I supposed there were so many gates in case the students ever needed to leave campus in a hurry—like if the Reapers ever attacked the academy in a group the way they had the coliseum. The thought made my stomach knot up.
Despite my brisk pace, the winter chill continued to creep through my clothes and seep into my bones. I’d just turned around to head back to my warm dorm room when a low growl sounded.
I froze, suddenly colder than ever before, wondering if I’d only imagined the sound—and really, really hoping I had. In my experience, growls were never, ever good. Growls usually meant that large, scary creatures like Nemean prowlers were lurking around and intent on tearing into me with their teeth and claws. I was
so
not fond of the oversize, black panther-like creatures— especially since the Reapers trained them to be deadly, kitty-cat assassins.
The growl rippled through the air again, shattering any hope I’d had of it just being my imagination or my Gypsy gift gone wild. I slowly turned my head to the right—and saw the Fenrir wolf.
Chapter 9
The Fenrir wolf was hunkered down in a pile of leaves on the other side of the gate I was standing in front of. The creature was even longer than I was tall, with a thick, powerful body and razor-sharp teeth and claws to match. Its fur wasn’t quite black, but more like the dark, deep, smoky color of ashes. The shaggy coat helped it blend in with the shadows cast by the towering trees. The last time I’d seen a Fenrir wolf, I’d noticed that its fur had crimson strands glistening in it, but I didn’t see any in this creature’s coat. Its eyes were a rusty red, although the color was far dimmer than I remembered it being and without the creepy burning glow that had told me just how much the wolf had wanted to gobble me up.
My gaze roamed over the creature, and my eyes caught on its ear. A small V was grooved into the wolf’s right ear, and I knew it was my wolf after all. The one I’d met at the ski resort, the one that had kept me from freezing to death after we’d both been caught in the avalanche Preston had set off. The wolf had gotten the V-shaped scar that day.
“Um, puppy?” I asked in a tentative voice, since that was all I’d ever called the wolf. “Is that really you?”
At the sound of my voice, the Fenrir wolf sprang to its feet, and its muzzle creased back into what looked like a—a
smile
. Okay, that was a little creepy. Usually, mythological creatures weren’t any happier to see me than I was to notice them stalking me and licking their chops at the thought of sinking their teeth into my body. But the wolf actually seemed glad I’d noticed it, like—like it had been waiting here for me to walk by.
The wolf let out a soft whine and crept closer to the gate, making the leaves crackle underneath its enormous body. I walked over to the iron bars. I hesitated, then stretched my hand out through one of the gaps. The wolf paced back and forth for a few seconds before heading toward me and shoving its head underneath my hand.
As soon as my fingers brushed its fur, images of the wolf began to fill my mind. Flashes of the crushing avalanche that had almost buried us both, then one of the branch that had pierced the creature’s leg and of me shoving the sharp wood out so the wolf could walk again, even a memory of me facing down Preston and the wolf spoiling the Reaper’s aim when Preston had tried to kill me with a crossbow.
More images zipped through my mind, of snow and trees and the wolf running through the forest, along with the creature’s feelings. There was only one emotion, really—happiness. Pure, fierce, intense happiness that it was finally free of the Reapers who had caged it, hurt it, tortured it for so long. Tears burned my eyes at the intensity and depth of the wolf’s elation.
Then, the image of another wolf popped into my head, a second Fenrir wolf, although this one didn’t have the Reaper red tint to its gaze or fur. It must be one of the wild Fenrir wolves that Metis had told me about, the ones who lived deep in the mountains and were rarely seen by members of the Pantheon. At first, my wolf was cautious around this other creature, but soon, the two of them were hunting through the snow together. Playing, mock fighting, even snuggling together.
For the first time, I realized my wolf was actually a she, and I also got the sense that it—no,
she
—wanted me to help her.
“I don’t understand,” I murmured, opening my eyes and staring at the wolf. “Why are you here? Why did you leave your mate? You were so happy with him. What could you possibly want here with me?”
The wolf let out a little snort, like she couldn’t believe I was so dense. Kind of sad when a mythological creature thought it was smarter than you. The wolf pulled away and walked back and forth in front of the gate, almost like she was parading around for me. I stared at the creature, wondering what she was doing, what she was trying to show me.
After a few seconds, I realized the wolf was much fatter than I remembered her being before—especially around the middle. I reached out and put my hand on the creature’s stomach. It took a second, but another little flicker filled my mind, another little spark that told me the wolf wasn’t exactly by herself anymore.
“Oh,” I said. “
Oh
. You’re going to have a baby puppy ... or whatever.”
I didn’t know how much of my words the wolf understood, but she almost seemed to nod her head, like
finally, the silly mortal girl understands what I’m trying to tell her
.
I didn’t know much about animals, but it seemed to me the wolf was much bigger than she should have been, given the fact that I’d only seen her a few weeks ago. Did mythological creatures have their babies faster than regular animals did? Was that why the wolf was so large already? How soon would she have her puppy? I didn’t know the answers to any of the questions swirling in my mind.
“But I still don’t understand. Why come here? How did you even find me in the first place?” I asked.
The wolf made a loud snuffling sound, and her black nose quivered.
“So ... you smelled me out? You somehow ... tracked me all the way back here from the ski resort?”
Again, the wolf nodded. Okay, so the Fenrir wolf had been following me. That was kind of freaky.
My eyes narrowed as another thought occurred to me. “Were you outside my Grandma Frost’s house last night? The big purple house with the gray steps?”
Another nod.
“Why?”
Instead of nodding, this time the wolf made a growling sound in the back of her throat—the sort of low, harsh growl that told me that she’d like to sink her teeth into something and not let go until it was good and dead. I kept my hand on the creature’s stomach, reaching out with my Gypsy gift, trying to figure out what had angered her enough to make that sound, but all I could see and feel was the puppy moving around inside her.
Frustrated, I dropped my hand and crouched down beside the gate. Thinking. Okay, so the Fenrir wolf that I’d helped weeks ago had somehow tracked me down, going over several mountains and a lot of miles to do it. Now, said wolf was here at Mythos Academy, pregnant, and apparently expecting me to take her in, like she was just a cute little corgi, instead of a mythological creature with more teeth than I had brain cells.
I’d seen and done a lot of freaky stuff since I’d come to Mythos, but this was rapidly moving to the top of the list of weird.
The wolf stared at me, almost like she could tell what I was thinking. Her ears drooped, and she let out a sad whine that pierced my heart like a Reaper’s sword. I had to do
something
to help her. Yeah, maybe the creature had originally intended to kill me per Preston’s orders, but the wolf had kept me warm after the avalanche, and she’d kept Preston from putting a crossbow bolt through my chest. I owed her for that.
As for why she’d come to the academy, well, I didn’t know. Maybe she didn’t want to have her puppy in the mountains. Maybe there were Reapers after her. Or maybe there was something else going on that I was completely missing. Either way, the wolf had helped me as best she could. I figured I should return the favor. It was the right thing to do.
First, though, I had to clear it with the Powers That Were—namely, the two sphinxes perched on the stone wall on either side of the iron gate. I’d been so focused on the wolf I hadn’t noticed that the sphinxes seemed to have grown larger and more imposing in the last few minutes, their features becoming sharper and more pronounced, their claws glittering in the weak winter sun, as if whatever was lurking beneath their stone facades was a breath away from leaping down and tearing the wolf to pieces.
Professor Metis had told me the sphinxes were designed to keep things out of the academy—Bad, Bad Things like Reapers, Nemean prowlers, and, well, Fenrir wolves. I didn’t know exactly how well they worked, though, since Jasmine Ashton had said there were other Reapers at Mythos besides her—kids and professors. I suppose the Reapers had some way of hiding their true nature from the sphinxes, some sort of loophole that let them walk by the statues without getting attacked. There were lots of loopholes like that at Mythos, especially when it came to all the magic mumbo jumbo stuff.
But Metis had also claimed the statues wouldn’t hurt me or anyone else who was supposed to be here. I just hoped they’d give a pass to my new furry friend as well.
“The wolf’s with me,” I told the sphinxes. “She doesn’t belong to the Reapers. Not anymore.”
The sphinxes glared down at me, their stone eyes seeming to narrow at my words, as if they were judging whether or not they were true. I waited a few seconds, but nothing happened. The sphinxes didn’t relax their rigid stance, but they didn’t spring to life and attack the wolf either. Instead, they just kept staring at me. Okay, it looked like it was up to me to make the next move.
I stretched my hand out through the bars and gestured at the wolf. “Come on, girl. Come here.”
The wolf paced back and forth a few seconds, eyeing the sphinxes in much the same way they were her. Finally, though, the wolf stepped forward. I dug my hand deep into her shaggy fur and gently tugged her toward the gate, keeping contact with her body the whole time. My theory was that if the sphinxes wouldn’t attack me, then maybe they wouldn’t harm whatever or whomever I was touching either.
The wolf crept forward and stuck her head through the gate. Maybe it was my imagination, but the sphinxes seemed to twitch, and a few chips of stone slid off the top of the wall and banged into the iron bars. The wolf flinched at the harsh, ringing sound, but I kept my hand on her back and looked up at the sphinxes.
“I told you that she’s with me.”
The sphinxes continued to glare at me, but no more stone chips tumbled off the wall.
A few seconds passed. When nothing else happened, I tugged on the wolf, urging her forward before the statues changed their minds. She tentatively slid one of her front paws inside the gate, then the other one.
“That’s it,” I whispered. “They won’t hurt you as long as you’re with me.”
The wolf let out another huff, like she didn’t really believe me, but she kept moving forward. It was a tight squeeze, especially around the middle, but the creature shimmied through the iron bars to the other side, knocking me over in the process.
Then, she plopped down on her butt, her long tail slapping from back and forth, like she’d just done the coolest trick ever. Maybe she had.
I looked up at the sphinxes, who were still glaring at me, their lidless eyes narrowed to slits. “Thanks,” I said. “You know, for not ripping us both to pieces.”
The sphinxes didn’t do or say anything, but for a second, I felt that force stir around them—that ancient force that seemed to hover around all the statues on campus. Then, it faded away, and the sphinxes were just stone once more.
Beside me, the wolf let out another low, threatening growl, like she was showing the sphinxes that she wasn’t
really
afraid of them.
“Come on,” I said, rubbing her ears. “Let’s get you settled in my dorm room before anyone sees you. Scary stone sphinxes are one thing, but professors are another.”
I got to my feet and set off through the trees, with the wolf loping along behind me.
Chapter 10
It wasn’t easy, sneaking the Fenrir wolf across campus to my dorm, but I managed it, mostly by skulking from tree to tree. Really, I was way easier to spot than the wolf. With her dark fur, the wolf was able to almost completely blend in with the shadowy landscape. Me in my purple coat, jeans, and sneakers? Not so much.
Once we got to my dorm, Styx Hall, things got much easier, since my room was the only one on the third floor, stuck in a separate turret that had been tacked onto the rest of the building. A bed, some bookcases, a desk, a small fridge. It looked like your typical dorm room, although I’d added my own personal touches, like the framed photos of my mom that stood on my desk, right next to a small replica statue of Nike.
Vic had said he wanted to take a nap, so I’d brought him back to my room before myth-history class. The sword hung in his black leather scabbard in his usual spot on the wall, right next to my posters of Wonder Woman, Karma Girl, and The Killers. His eye snapped open at the sound of me opening the door and stepping inside.
“Well, it’s about time you got here—”
Vic’s twilight-colored eye widened at the sight of the Fenrir wolf, and his mouth fell open. Actually, I imagined that it would have fallen off completely if, you know, it wasn’t forged together with the rest of his face. I sighed. I knew what was coming now.
“Gwen Frost, have you lost your bloody mind?!” Vic roared.
“Sshh!” I put a finger up to my lips. “Do you want everyone in the whole dorm to hear you?”
“What is that—that
thing
doing here?” Vic snapped, glaring at the wolf.
The wolf’s eyes narrowed, and she let out a low growl, her eyes fixed on the weapon like she wanted to leap up, snatch Vic off the wall, and give him a vicious shake.
“It is not a
thing,
it is a
wolf
. A female wolf, as a matter of fact. One who is going to have a, um, puppy very soon.”
“Well, I can
see
that,” Vic sniffed. “She’s as big around as a bloody cow.”
The wolf’s growl got a little deeper and uglier. I put a hand on her back and started stroking her fur. That seemed to calm her down, although she kept growling at the sword.
“Well, apparently, she’s decided that she wants to stay with me ... or something,” I said. “I found her down by one of the gates, like she was waiting for me to show up.”
Vic’s mouth dropped open again. “So you let her inside the academy grounds? Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t let her inside,” I said in a cross voice. “The sphinxes did ... after I told them that she was with me.”
The sword stared at me.
“If I had a hand, I would slap it to my forehead in disbelief,” Vic grumbled. “No, actually, I’d use it to slap some sense into
you,
Gwen. That is a bloody
Fenrir wolf,
not a puppy with sad eyes that you spotted at the pound and just had to bring home. In case you’ve forgotten, that is the same wolf that would have been more than happy to make mincemeat out of you at the ski resort.”
I sighed. “I know all that. I also know the wolf kept me from freezing to death during the avalanche, and she kept Preston from killing me with his crossbow. Surely you remember
that,
since you were there.”
Vic sniffed again. “I recall no such thing. Except that I was brilliant in battle, as always.”
“Anyway,” I said through clenched teeth. “If the wolf wants to stay here with me for a while, then I’m going to let her. At least until I can figure out what she really wants. She’s gone through a lot since she escaped from Preston, and I don’t exactly speak wolf.”
Vic huffed and snapped his eye shut. Discussion over. I sighed again. Now the sword was in one of his
moods,
and he probably wouldn’t speak to me again until I coaxed him to—or bribed him by turning the television to some action-movie marathon. Maybe it was his bloodthirsty nature, but Vic absolutely loved watching bad guys getting beaten, bloodied, and blown up. The James Bond marathons were his favorites.
But the good thing about Vic’s not speaking to me was he couldn’t back talk me, or worse, tell me what a colossal mistake I was making, trusting a creature the Reapers had trained to kill warriors like me. But I knew the wolf wasn’t like that anymore. My Gypsy gift had shown me what was in her heart—relief at finally being free of the Reapers. She wouldn’t hurt me now.
I went into the bathroom, filled a bowl with water, and put it at the foot of my bed so the wolf could get a drink if she wanted to. Then, I hunkered down on the floor beside her.
“You stay here. I have to go out for a few hours, but I’ll get you something to eat and bring it back, okay?”
The wolf let out a little grumble of pleasure as I rubbed her ears.
“You know, I really need to think of a name for you if you’re going to be hanging around for a while,” I said. “Would you like that? A name?”
Her ear, the one with the ragged V in it, twitched. I took that as a yes. I stared at the wolf, wondering exactly what kind of name you gave to a mythological creature. Somehow I didn’t think Fido or Fluffy would cut it.
“How about Nott?” I finally said, remembering a name from one of my myth-history books. “She’s the Norse goddess of the night, and your fur makes you look all dark, shadowy, and mysterious.”
The wolf sat there a second, then her face split into a happy grin, and her tongue lolled out of the side of her mouth. It was the same rusty red as her eyes were, instead of the bright crimson I remembered it being.
“Nott, it is,” I said.
The wolf leaned forward and licked me on the cheek. I laughed and playfully pushed her head away, before getting to my feet and heading out.
The first thing I did was go over to the dining hall, grab a tray, and pile it high with every single meat dish on the dinner menu. Tonight’s offerings included seared lamb chops, grilled filet mignon, and mounds of spaghetti topped with spicy veal meatballs. I know, I know, you aren’t supposed to give animals people food. But Nott was a mythological creature, one that could actually eat
people
. So I figured the meat would be okay. Besides, it was the best I could do tonight.
The chef who packed my food into a brown paper bag looked at me a little strangely, apparently wondering how much I thought I could eat at one time, but I gave him a bland smile. I just hoped Nott liked veal better than I did. Yucko.
I’d been so busy with the wolf that I’d lost track of time, and I had to hustle to make it over to the Library of Antiquities for my shift. The library sat at the head of the upper quad, the top point in the star formation, and dwarfed all the other buildings. It just had the most of everything—the most windows, the most balconies, the most towers.
The most statues.
According to Metis’s lecture, more statues could be found on the library than on any other building on campus. Mythological creatures covered the structure, from the bottom, open-air balcony that wrapped all the way around the building to the spear-like points on the towers on the seventh and topmost floor. My steps slowed, and I stopped at the bottom of the library stairs, staring at the two gryphons perched on either side.
The statues looked the same as they did in my myth-history book. Eagle heads, lion bodies, killer claws, curved beaks. They loomed over me, their outlines sharp and crisp against the gray, gloomy, winter sky, their lidless eyes locked onto me, tracking my steps.
I flashed back to the image of my mom that I’d seen when I’d picked up her diary, of how she’d been sitting on the library steps in between the two gryphons. I wondered what my mom had thought of the statues—and if she’d been as creeped out by them as I was. Even more than the sphinxes who guarded the gates, it always seemed to me that the gryphons were seconds away from coming to life, shaking off their stone shells, and ripping me into bloody pieces.
I pushed that disturbing thought away and headed up the stairs, through a door, and down a hallway before stepping inside a pair of open double doors. An aisle unrolled like a marble carpet down the center of the library, before spreading out into an open space that featured tables where students could sit and study, as well as the glassed-in offices of the librarians.
Instead of going down the aisle to my usual post behind the checkout counter, I turned and walked back into the stacks until I came to a certain spot. Once, a glass case had stood here, the one that I’d grabbed Vic out of during my desperate fight to the death with Jasmine. Of course, the case was long gone, since the evil Valkyrie had smashed it to pieces, but that wasn’t what I was here to see anyway.
No, I was here to visit a goddess.
I tilted my head up and stared at a figure above me. A balcony wrapped all the way around the second floor of the library, and slender columns separated statues of all the gods and goddesses from all the cultures of the world. Greek gods like Psyche and Persephone. Native American deities like Coyote and Badger. Celtic gods like Balor and Branwen. All the members of the Pantheon could be seen, except for a single empty spot. That’s where the statue of Loki would have stood, but there were no statues of the Norse god of chaos anywhere on the Mythos campus. Not hard to figure out why, since the evil god had tried to take over the world and his Reapers of Chaos enjoyed killing warriors more than anything else.
I pulled my eyes away from the empty spot and stared up at the figure directly above me—Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The goddess’s statue looked exactly like she did in real life. Hair falling past her shoulders, a toga-like gown flowing around her body, wings peeking up from behind her back. To me, the goddess was cold, beautiful, strong, and terrible all at the same time. That’s what I felt whenever I was in her presence—the raw power that rolled off her in fierce, frosty waves.
I supposed she seemed that way to me because Nike was the embodiment of victory, something that could be a bitter, bitter thing in the end. That’s how I felt about what had happened at the coliseum. Sure, my friends and I had survived—but other kids had died. I would never, ever forget that.
It had certainly been that way as well for the members of the Pantheon when they’d battled Loki. Sister had turned against sister, warrior against warrior, god against god, until the whole world had been on the brink of destruction. If Loki ever got free, that’s what would take place again—another long, bloody Chaos War. But that wasn’t going to happen, I vowed. Now that I knew where to look, now that I knew the Helheim Dagger was hidden in the library, I was determined to find it—no matter what.
“Well, in case you didn’t notice, it looks like I have a new, um, pet, for lack of a better word,” I said. “You want to give me a clue about why Nott decided to track me down?”
The statue didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t twitch, didn’t do anything to indicate that Nike was in there somewhere—or that the goddess was actually listening to me in the first place. Still, saying hello to Nike and talking to her, even if she didn’t talk back, always made me feel a little better. Like maybe she really was up there on Mount Olympus or wherever the gods hung out these days, looking down and watching over me.
“I know, I know,” I said. “You can’t really tell me anything because of the pact the gods made not to interfere with mortal affairs. Still, if you ever wanted to slip me a clue on the sly, I’d be more than happy to listen.”
The statue didn’t move, but for a moment, it seemed like Nike’s lips curved up into a smile. Well, I supposed there were worse things than amusing a goddess.
I left the statue behind, stepped out of the stacks, and headed for the checkout counter. The main space in the Library of Antiquities was a huge room with a dome-shaped ceiling that arched all the way up to the top of the seventh floor. It always seemed to me like the library was taller than that, though, like it just kept going up and up and up.
I craned my neck back, trying to get a glimpse of the frescoes painted on the curved ceiling, the ones adorned with the millions in gold, silver, and jewels that Metis had mentioned during her myth-history lecture, but all I could see were shadows. Maybe that was for the best. No doubt the frescoes were just as creepy and lifelike as the stone statues that decorated the rest of campus. There was only so much weird I could handle in one day.
The checkout counter stood in the middle of the library in front of the offices that split the domed room in two. Students huddled at the study tables near the counter. Despite the fact that this was only the first day back from the winter break, every single table was packed—and not because we all had so much homework to do already.
The library was one of the main places to Hang Out and Be Seen at Mythos. Kids were here to study, sure, but they were also eyeing everyone who came and went, talking, texting, and gossiping as fast as their fingers and mouths would move. I supposed the library was so crowded tonight because everyone wanted to get caught up with his or her friends about everything that had happened over winter break. Not to mention all the rumors still flying around about the Reaper attack—and my part in it. Once again, more than one kid stared at me before he turned and whispered something to his friends. Great. Just great.