“Wait a second. What are you saying?” My eyes narrowed. “You’ve decided to join the Midgard too. Haven’t you?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m joining, exactly, but someone needs to watch your back.” She winked at me. “Besides, I’m a Spartan too, remember?”
I got up from my seat, walked around the table, and hugged her tight. “Yes, yes, you are.”
Aunt Rachel laughed and hugged me back. Then she picked up her fork and stabbed it at my plate. “Now, sit down and eat your eggs. I imagine that spying is hard work, and you’ll need a good breakfast to help you get through the day.”
I sat back down, picked up my own fork, and saluted her with it. “Yes, ma’am.”
*
I wolfed down the scrambled eggs, along with some country-fried ham and whole-wheat toast slathered with Aunt Rachel’s sweet, delicious homemade strawberry preserves. Then I grabbed my messenger bag, left the cottage, and walked across campus to the main quad.
Once again, all the kids turned to stare at me the second I stepped onto the quad, but I ignored them. Aunt Rachel was right. My parents’ mistakes were their mistakes, not mine, and if the other kids couldn’t understand that and accept me for who I was, then that was their problem, not mine.
At least, that’s what I told myself. But it got harder and harder to ignore the mocking stares and snarky whispers that chased me across the quad, and I was grinding my teeth by the time I reached the English-history building for my first class. I was about to go up the steps when someone called out my name.
“Rory! Hey, Rory! Wait up!”
I froze, wondering if I’d imagined the sound. No one ever spoke to me on the quad, much less called out my name like they wanted to talk to me. But I stopped and turned around, and Lance Fuller jogged up to me.
Lance’s black hair gleamed in the early-morning sun, which also brought out his amazing blue eyes. He wore a black leather jacket over his polo shirt and jeans, and a black backpack dangled off his shoulder.
Despite his friendly wave, my stomach still clenched with worry. Linus Quinn and Takeda thought that Lance had stolen Typhon’s Scepter and summoned those chimeras in the library last night. I didn’t know if they were right about Lance secretly being a Reaper, but I couldn’t take a chance that they were wrong either.
So I casually dropped my hand to Babs’s hilt, since I was wearing the sword again today. I didn’t think Lance would be stupid enough to attack me, especially not in the middle of the quad, but stranger things had happened at Mythos Academy. I also glanced around, but I didn’t see any sign of the Protectorate guards who were supposed to be watching Lance. They must have been keeping to the edges of the quad and staying out of sight so as not to spook him.
Lance flashed me a smile. “Hey! You’re a hard person to catch up to.”
“Hey, yourself,” I said, trying to make my voice sound as normal as possible. “What’s up, Lance?”
He grinned and stepped a little closer to me. “Can’t a guy just come over and say hi?”
I snorted. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly popular these days. Not ever, actually.”
He glanced around at the other kids, who were staring at him and glaring at me. “Ah, don’t mind them. They’re just jealous of how cute you are.”
A hot blush flooded my cheeks. No guy had ever told me I was cute, especially not someone as handsome as Lance.
He stepped even closer to me and glanced around again, as though he wanted to be sure that no one was eavesdropping on us. “Listen,” he said in a low voice. “I heard that some girl got attacked in the Library of Antiquities last night.”
And just like that, my brief spark of happiness was snuffed out.
According to Linus, the only people who should even know about the chimera attack were the members of the Protectorate. Of course, some kid sneaking around campus last night could have seen the Protectorate guards coming out of the library or maybe even overheard them talking about the attack. But Lance was the one asking me about it—the alleged Reaper who might be responsible for everything, including Amanda’s death. Was this just a bizarre coincidence? Or something much, much worse?
“You didn’t get attacked, did you, Rory?” Lance asked, his blue gaze steady on mine. “I mean, you look fine, you look great, but I wanted to make sure that you were okay. I know you spend a lot of time in the library, especially given…everything that happened last year.”
“You mean everyone finding out that my parents were Reaper assassins,” I said in a cold, flat voice.
He winced. “Well…yeah.”
I studied him, but his face was a perfect mask of concern and sympathy. If Linus and Takeda hadn’t told me their suspicions, I would have totally believed that Lance was worried about me. More than that, I would have been absolutely thrilled that he was talking to me, that he had braved everyone else’s scorn to come over and check on me, and my crush on him would have grown to epic proportions. But now…now I wasn’t sure what to believe about Lance. My judgment when it came to detecting Reapers and their lies wasn’t exactly great—more like nonexistent.
“So, the library,” Lance continued. “Do you know what happened? I heard that some serious monsters just appeared out of thin air. How freaky is that?”
My mind raced, trying to figure out how to respond. He was obviously fishing for information, but I couldn’t tell if he wanted some juicy gossip to spread around campus or if he really was the Reaper who’d stolen the chimera scepter and wanted to see how much I knew. Either way, I decided to play dumb. At least until I could figure out whose side he was really on.
I shook my head. “I was in the library studying last night, but I left right before closing. I didn’t see anything, and I haven’t heard anything about any monsters. Sorry, Lance.”
Disappointment flashed in his eyes, but he smiled at me again. “No worries. It was probably just a crazy rumor. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
He hesitated, then reached out and gently squeezed my shoulder, as if he were truly concerned about me. All around us, I could hear the collective gasps of the other students, followed by a sudden surge of whispers. Lance talking to me was noteworthy enough, but actually touching my shoulder? In front of everyone? That would send the rumor mill into a frenzy. I didn’t have to glance around to know that the other girls were shooting daggers at me with their eyes, especially Kylie, who was no doubt wondering why Lance was paying so much attention to me instead of her.
I looked at Lance, but I wasn’t really seeing him anymore. Instead, the image of Amanda’s bloody body crumpled on the library floor filled my mind. My hand curled around Babs’s hilt, and I thought about pulling the sword, pointing it at Lance, and demanding that he tell me if he was the Reaper who was responsible for Amanda’s death.