Aunt Rachel whirled back around to Takeda. “Where is my niece?”
I winced at her sharp, demanding tone, the one that always told me I was in serious trouble. Aunt Rachel was about to blow. I had to stop her before she did something she might regret, so I stepped out from behind the shelves and walked forward where everyone could see me.
“I’m right here,” I called out.
Startled, everyone turned in my direction. Aunt Rachel ran over and swallowed me up in a tight hug, which I returned with one that was equally fierce.
“I was so worried about you,” she whispered in my ear. “I got your text and rushed over to the library, but when I got there, the place was surrounded by the Protectorate, and they wouldn’t let me inside. I tried texting you again, but you didn’t answer me, and I thought—I thought—” Her voice choked off, and her arms tightened around me, telling me how worried she had been.
Guilt rippled through me. With everything that had been going on, I hadn’t even thought to check my phone after I’d woken up in the infirmary.
“I’m fine,” I whispered back. “They healed me, and I’m fine. Despite the chimeras.”
Aunt Rachel drew back, her green eyes wide. “Chimeras? What chimeras? I thought you were going to stay on the balcony, where it was safe!”
“I did stay on the balcony. At least until the chimeras showed up. They attacked me and killed Amanda, another girl, one of them.” I waved my hand at the others.
Aunt Rachel stared at me a second longer, then whirled around to Takeda again. “Chimeras? Typhon chimeras? In the Library of Antiquities? You told me that Rory had been attacked by a Nemean prowler.”
Takeda shrugged. “Well, chimeras are part prowler. I didn’t want to worry you any more than necessary. And as you can see, Rory is perfectly fine.” He paused. “In fact, I was just discussing her future with the rest of my team.”
Ian started shaking his head no-no-no, still not wanting me to be part of this mysterious group. Mateo looked from Takeda to Aunt Rachel and back again, his fingers tapping out a nervous, uneven pattern on his keyboard. Zoe leaned back in her chair and grinned, entertained by all the drama.
Aunt Rachel stabbed her finger at Takeda. “If you think for one second that my niece is going to be part of—of—of whatever this is, then you have another think coming, mister. Rory is coming home with me where she belongs.”
“We all know that there is only one place where Spartans truly belong: on the battlefield,” another voice cut into the conversation.
For the third time, footsteps sounded, and a shadowy figure appeared in the hallway. The shadow grew closer and closer, morphing into a tall, thin man wearing a gray cloak with a symbol stitched on it in white thread, a hand holding a set of balanced scales.
Blond hair, blue eyes, a sword belted to his waist. I recognized him. I had fought side by side with him during the Battle of Mythos Academy.
Linus Quinn, the head of the Protectorate.
Chapter Seven
Linus Quinn strode into the middle of the room, his gray cloak swirling around his body.
He shook hands with Takeda, eyed Ian and the other kids, and nodded to Aunt Rachel. Then he turned and studied me from head to toe. Linus’s blue eyes lingered on the sword hooked to my belt, but after a moment, he nodded to me as well.
“Hello, Miss Forseti,” he said. “You’re looking well. All things considered.”
“Mr. Quinn.” I nodded back at him, then crossed my arms over my chest. “You mean the fact that a chimera killed a girl and almost clawed me to death? Yeah, that was a great surprise for the first day of school. I thought the Library of Antiquities was supposed to be a safe place now, but I see that it’s just as dangerous as ever.”
Linus winced a bit at my snarky tone, but he couldn’t deny the truth of my words.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Where are we? Who are these people? And what does everyone want with me?”
Linus’s lips curved up into a small smile. “I see that you have the same sarcastic attitude as your cousin Gwen.”
I shrugged. “It must run in the Forseti and Frost families.”
Zoe leaned forward, her face creasing in confusion. “Wait a second. Gwen? As in Gwen Frost? She’s related to Gwen Frost?”
“Yeah,” I said. “So what?”
The Valkyrie’s hazel eyes lit up with admiration. “So Gwen Frost is a hero. Like the greatest hero ever.”
I sighed. Zoe wasn’t the first person to have this sort of reaction when she found out that I was related to Gwen. I loved my cousin, really, I did, but I wouldn’t have minded if she had been just a little less heroic. It was a lot to live up to. Since, you know, Gwen had basically saved the entire world.
Mateo stared at me with a similarly incredulous hero-worship expression, but Ian snorted. Seemed he wasn’t a Gwen Frost fan. His loss.
“Rory is a hero in her own right,” Linus said. “She and her aunt were both instrumental in helping Miss Frost and the Protectorate defeat Loki and his Reapers. They helped save us all, and you should treat them with the proper amount of respect.”
He gave Ian a pointed look, and the Viking actually winced a bit.
Linus stared at Ian a moment longer, making sure that the Viking got his point, then gestured at the table in the center of the room. “Let’s all have a seat, and I’ll bring Miss Forseti and Ms. Maddox up to speed.”
Aunt Rachel glared at Takeda one more time, but she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. I took the chair next to her, with Ian sitting across from me. Zoe and Mateo left their desks, moved over, and plopped down beside Ian. Takeda took the seat at the head of the table, but Linus remained standing.
Mateo grabbed what looked like a TV remote from the center of the table and handed it to Linus, who hit a series of buttons on the device. A second later, photos began appearing on the monitors on the wall.
Images of the Battle of Mythos Academy.
My heart clenched as shot after shot of the North Carolina academy popped up on the screens. The grounds, the main quad, the inside of the Library of Antiquities. All littered with dented weapons, shattered statues, and bloody bodies.
So many bodies.