“Oh.
Oh.
” Daphne picked right up on the
dead mom
part, and she didn’t say anything for a moment. “If you’d rather not, I understand—”
“No,” I said quickly. “No, I’m fine. I’d love to help you get ready for your big date with Carson. What time do you want me to come over?”
Daphne and I made plans to meet up later in her room after I worked my shift at the library. The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period, and the two of us went our separate ways. And I realized that today was the very first time that I hadn’t had to eat lunch or dinner by myself since I’d been at Mythos. It was nice to have someone to sit with, to have someone to talk to. I’d forgotten just how much I’d missed that. Well, maybe I hadn’t forgotten. Maybe I just hadn’t wanted to remember because it would have made my loneliness that much more painful.
Unfortunately, my good mood wasn’t contagious, especially not when it came to my professors, and the rest of the day ground by. Finally, though, the last bell of the day rang at the end of my sixth-period myth-history class. I packed up my things as quickly as I could. I wanted to sneak off campus and go see Grandma Frost before I had to report to Nickamedes at the library. Despite the fact that absolutely no one would be doing something as boring as homework tonight, he was still making me work my usual Friday shift before the library closed early because of the dance.
“Are you going to the homecoming dance, Gwen?” Carson asked me as he stuffed his own books into his bag.
“Nah,” I said. “But I am helping Daphne get ready. So you know she’s going to look fabulous for you.”
Carson smiled, and I found myself grinning back at the band geek. Maybe this making friends thing wasn’t so hard after all.
I left the English-history building and walked across the quad. Today, instead of standing around talking and texting, just about everyone was hurrying on their way, off to make sure that they had everything they needed for tonight—dresses, tuxes, kegs, condoms, and all.
No one paid any attention to me, and I was able to stroll down to the main gate undetected. I stopped just inside the black iron bars and stared up at the two sphinxes on either side of the opening. Professor Metis had told me that Nickamedes was going to put extra magic, extra wards or whatever, on the closed gate to keep another Reaper from sneaking onto campus. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like the sphinxes’ features were even sharper and fiercer now than they had been the last time I’d been at the gate. Their eyes were narrowed to slits, and the edges of their claws glinted in the afternoon sun, like they were half a second away from erupting out of the stone and pouncing on whoever tried to slip past them.
For a moment I thought about turning back, but it had been a couple of days since I’d seen Grandma Frost. She’d be expecting me to come by, and I missed her. She was all I had left now, and I wanted to see her. It was worth the risk of tripping whatever magical alarm Nickamedes had put on the entrance. Besides, the sphinxes probably wouldn’t kill me—right?
I tiptoed up to the gate, sucked in my breath, turned sideways, and slipped through the black iron bars.
Nothing happened.
No alarms sounded, and the sphinxes didn’t leap down and rip me to shreds, if they could even do that in the first place. Apparently, Nickamedes had only strengthened the spells to keep Reapers out of the academy—not created a new one to keep students inside. Like everyone else, the librarian thought that the threat was outside the academy walls—not inside. Still, I was happy for his oversight, and I hurried across the street and hopped on the bus. Twenty minutes later, I was walking up the steps to Grandma Frost’s house. I used my key to let myself in.
But for once, Grandma Frost wasn’t busy giving a psychic reading in the other room. Instead, I found her in the kitchen, with its bright, cheery sky blue walls and white tile.
“Mmm. What smells so good?” I asked, throwing my messenger bag onto the table.
Grandma grabbed a dishcloth off the counter, reached into the oven, and pulled out a baking sheet full of homemade almond sugar cookies. I breathed in, the warm smells of melted butter, sticky dough, and crystallized sugar making my mouth water and my stomach rumble. Nobody baked as good as Grandma Frost did. The dessert chefs at Mythos could definitely learn a thing or two from her.
Grandma slid three cookies onto a plate and handed them to me, along with a glass of cold milk. Her usual colorful scarves fluttered around her body, the silver coins on the ends of them chiming together.
My eyes narrowed. “You knew that I was coming over today.”
Grandma smiled her mysterious Gypsy smile, the one that she used on all her clients. “I am psychic, pumpkin. It comes in handy sometimes. Especially when I want to bake my granddaughter some cookies.”
Grandma Frost grabbed a couple of the warm cookies for herself, along with another glass of milk, and the two of us sat down at the kitchen table to eat. We didn’t talk much at first, both of us too busy stuffing our mouths with the sweet treats to bother with conversation. But eventually the cookies and milk disappeared and Grandma stared at me.
“Isn’t there a big dance at the academy tonight?” she asked. “Something fancy and formal?”
I blinked. “How do you know that? Did you have a vision of me in a dress or something?”
“Of course not. I read about it in that electronic newsletter that your Professor Metis sends out every week.” Grandma gave me a sidelong look. “Actually, I got two newsletters this week. The regular one about the dance and the cafeteria menu and all that. The other one was a little more serious—it was all about that poor girl’s murder.”
Uh-oh. I hadn’t planned on telling Grandma Frost about Jasmine Ashton because I didn’t want her to worry, but Grandma was too smart for me. She always was. I’d never been able to figure out if it was because she was psychic or just knew me that well. There was no use lying to her, so I drew in a breath and told her all about that night in the library and everything that I’d discovered about Jasmine since then.
“I know all the professors think that it was just some Reaper bad guy after the Bowl of Tears,” I said, finishing up my story. “But I have this weird feeling there’s something else going on. Something we’re all missing. Something obvious. Mom always told me to trust my feelings, my instincts, but I’m starting to wonder if she was wrong about that.”
Grandma stared at me, a strange light flashing in her violet eyes. It wasn’t the look that she always got when she was seeing a vision of the future. No, this was something else. Like I’d said something to upset her. I supposed that she was just freaked out about Jasmine’s murder. I mean, who would want her only granddaughter to go to school where a student had gotten her throat cut?
“Are you okay, Grandma?”
She shook her head, and the light in her eyes vanished. “I’m fine. Just worried about you is all. I hate that you have to go to that school in the first place.”
I hesitated. “Why
do
I have to go to Mythos? I’ve asked you before, but you’ve never really explained it to me.”
Grandma sighed. “Because it’s finally time for you to learn how to use your Gypsy gift, Gwen. Something that you’ll do by going to Mythos.”
“But I know how to use my psychometry magic already. I always have. I don’t see how going to Mythos changes anything.”
She shook her head. “It may not make sense now, but it will someday. Trust me, pumpkin, okay?”
I did trust her, more than anything, but I also wanted answers—answers about why my life had had to change so much. Why everyone at Mythos believed in things that I didn’t. And most especially, why Professor Metis and Grandma Frost thought that I belonged there in the first place.
I thought about pressing my grandma for answers, but she looked so old in that moment, so sad and tired, like she’d used up all the life that was inside her and was nothing more than a hollow shell. And I just couldn’t do it—not now. Or maybe it was because part of me was scared of what the answers might be. Knowing other people’s secrets made me feel smart. Realizing there might be secrets that involved me made me nervous. Yeah, I could be a total hypocrite sometimes.
I didn’t know why Grandma was keeping secrets from me, but she loved me and I loved her. It had always just been me, my mom, and Grandma Frost. My dad had died before I could even start to remember him, and we didn’t have any other family that I knew of. With my mom gone, Grandma was all that I had. I didn’t want to fight with Grandma—ever. Especially not over something as stupid as Mythos Academy.
“Anyway, I don’t think you should be worried,” I said, changing the subject and trying to reassure her at the same time. “Professor Metis and the others increased the magical security on campus. Besides, whoever killed Jasmine is probably long gone, despite what I think. Nobody else has gotten hurt, as far as I know, and nothing else has been stolen from the library.”
I didn’t mention what had happened outside the library last night. It wasn’t like the falling statue had been directed at
me
or anything. Even if maybe I couldn’t say the same thing about the Nemean prowler. But it was dead, vanished in a puff of smoke, and I wasn’t, and that was all that really mattered.
Grandma Frost looked like she wanted to say something else, but then she shook her head and the moment passed. “I’m sure you’re right, pumpkin.”
“And they put more security on the dorms, too,” I said, still hoping to ease her mind. “Which is where I’ll be spending the night.”
“You’re not going to the dance then? It sounded like a big deal in the newsletter.”
I shrugged. “It’s just the homecoming dance. They’re going to crown a king and queen in every class, and there’ll be music and dancing and stuff. Just like at my old school.”
I didn’t say anything about the ritual that I’d heard the other kids talk about, the harvest blessing or whatever it really was.
“So why aren’t you going?” Grandma asked. “You used to love getting dressed up for things like that before—”
She cut off her words, but we both knew what she’d been about to say.
Before your mom died.
I shrugged again. “For one thing, I don’t have a date. No one invited me. I don’t want to go by myself and look like a total loser.”
“Why not?” Grandma Frost asked. “You do lots of things by yourself. You always have.”
“Yeah, but nothing like this,” I said. “Nothing—”
This time, I bit off my words, but I didn’t fool Grandma. She knew exactly what I’d been about to say.
“Nothing fun,” she finished in a quiet voice.
Grandma Frost looked at me, her violet eyes soft and sad in her face. “It’s okay for you to have fun again, Gwen. Your mom wouldn’t want you to sit at home every night crying over her. She’d want you to go to the dance and have a good time, even if you didn’t have a date. She’d want you to have as much fun as you could, as often as you could. Before—”
She cut off her words, and for a moment her whole body tensed. Her rings scraped together as her hands tightened into fists, and the coins on the edges of her scarves jangled together in harsh discord. Then, Grandma Frost realized that I was staring at her, and she forced herself to relax. Her hands unclenched, and the coins took on a sweeter, tinkling note.
“Before, well, before you’re all grown up,” she finished. “That’s what your mom would have wanted. For you to go to the dance and have a wonderful time.”
I knew that she would. Grace Frost would have wanted me to do exactly that. I bit my lip and looked away from Grandma’s knowing gaze.
“It just doesn’t feel . . . right,” I said. “That I’m alive, and she’s not. That she’ll never do anything fun again. That I’ll never see her smile or hear her laugh again.”
Grandma reached over and took my hand. I felt the soft warmth of her love envelop me, the way that it always did. But this time, I felt her sadness, too, an ache so sharp and deep and fierce that it seemed like a sword slicing my heart in two. Sometimes, I forgot that Grandma had lost someone, too. My mom’s death had hurt her just as much as it had me.
“I know it doesn’t feel right, pumpkin. But your mom’s death wasn’t your fault. Life has gone on, whether you’ve wanted it to or not. I think that it’s about time that you actually started enjoying it again, don’t you? Even if it’s just a little bit?”
I sighed, all the energy draining out of my body. “I guess. But it’s just so hard, you know? I’ve been so . . . angry, and going to Mythos . . . I just don’t fit in there. I don’t know why I can’t just switch back to my old school. I’m just not special like the other kids are.”
“You’re at that academy for a reason,” Grandma Frost replied, an ominous note creeping back into her voice. “You’ll find your own place there sooner or later. As for your mom, she’s gone, but she wouldn’t want you to mope around. She’d want you to get out and live and do everything that teenagers are supposed to do.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Like come home drunk and high on pot after I have unprotected sex with my boyfriend behind the bleachers at the homecoming dance?”