Her voice sounded soft, small, and depressingly sad, and I could tell she didn’t believe me. Truth be told, I didn’t believe myself either. I could take down Reapers with ease, but I had no idea how to fight a curse.
But it was my choice, and I was going to see this thing through—even if tonight might be the end of me.
Chapter Twenty-One
I snapped Babs’s black leather scabbard onto my belt and left my bedroom. Aunt Rachel and Zoe were hanging out in the kitchen, and the three of us left the cottage and walked across campus to the parking lot behind the gym where Takeda, Mateo, and Ian were waiting.
Takeda was dressed like the Samurai he was, in a long red robe topped by a black armored breastplate, and a katana hung from the black belt around his lean waist. He looked quite handsome, something Aunt Rachel noticed as well, given the way she stopped and blinked at him. Takeda eyed her poofy blue fairy godmother costume, and his lips twitched up into a small smile.
Mateo wore a pirate costume, with a white shirt and a black leather vest patterned with tiny white skulls and crossbones. A red bandanna hid most of his dark brown hair from sight, and black leather pants and boots finished off his outfit. Instead of the traditional cutlass, a large crossbow dangled from his belt, and the weapon’s metal bolts glimmered in slots all around the black leather.
Mateo saw me eyeing his costume, grinned, and patted his crossbow. “Wearing this seemed like the best and easiest way to bring my crossbow into the ball. Besides, I always wanted to be a pirate. Yargh!”
I grinned back at him, then turned my attention to Ian. Like Takeda and me, he had dressed up as the warrior he was, a Viking.
He wore a black leather shirt, pants, and boots, and a silver chain-mail vest covered his muscled chest. His Viking battle ax dangled from his black leather belt, along with several small daggers. His dark honey-blond hair had been slicked back, and his gray eyes gleamed with anticipation. He was looking forward to taking down the Reapers. Me too.
“No horned helmet?” I asked, deciding to make a joke instead of telling him how great he looked.
Ian rolled his eyes, but a smile crept over his face. “Are you kidding? I would look ridiculous in one of those things. Besides, Vikings didn’t really wear that kind of helmet.”
Takeda cleared his throat. “Now that we’re all here, we need to get to the museum. I want to make sure that we’re all set up on comms and that the Protectorate guards are in place. So let’s move out.”
He gestured at the waiting van, and we all headed in that direction.
Somehow I found myself walking side by side with Ian at the back of our pack of friends. I could see him staring at me out of the corner of my eye, because I was doing the exact same thing to him.
Ian leaned down. “You look nice, Rory,” he murmured in my ear, before straightening up and getting into the van with the others.
I ducked my head so no one would see the pleased blush staining my cheeks and climbed into the vehicle after him.
*
Thirty minutes later, Takeda steered the van up to the side of the Cormac Museum. Through the windshield, I could see a long line of limos crawling up the hill and dropping off kids at the main entrance.
We got out of the van and walked over to the side door. Two Protectorate guards dressed like medieval knights in suits of shiny armor were stationed by the entrance, and they both snapped to attention at the sight of Takeda striding toward them.
“Any sign of the Reapers yet?” Takeda asked.
The guards shook their heads.
“No, sir,” one of them said. “We have costumed guards posted at all the entrances, as well as patrolling inside the museum, but so far, there are no signs of anyone or anything suspicious.”
Takeda nodded and led us inside. We walked down a long hallway and stopped at a wide archway that opened up into an enormous rotunda in the center of the museum. The floor and walls were made of a beautiful white marble streaked with pale blue, while the ceiling was a round dome that featured white, blue, and black panels of stained glass fitted together to form several giant stars. Four sets of stairs were spaced around the room, all of which led up to a second-floor balcony that wrapped around the entire rotunda. On both floors, hallways led from the main space to other rooms, where the artifacts were on display.
The Fall Costume Ball didn’t officially start until eight o’clock, fifteen minutes from now, but Mythos students had already packed into the museum. Guys and girls streamed into the rotunda, all of them dressed in fancy costumes that represented everything from princesses to superheroes to zombies. I even spotted a couple of guys wearing giant wolf heads, as though they were real Fenrir wolves.
Music thumped through the air, and dozens of couples had already started grooving on the wooden dance floor set up on one side the rotunda. Still more couples were hitting the buffet tables, nibbling on gourmet snacks and dipping strawberries, marshmallows, and other goodies into the white-, milk-, and dark-chocolate fountains lined up along one wall.
“We need to split up so we can cover more ground, but I want everyone to stay in teams of two,” Takeda said. “Rory and Ian, Zoe and Mateo. You guys spread out and search the rotunda for Lance and Drake. Rachel and I will start checking the hallways and exhibit rooms on this level. Got it?”
We all nodded at him.
“Keep your eyes open, and stay in contact on comms,” Takeda said. “If you see anything suspicious—anything at all—let everyone know. And watch each other’s backs. We don’t know how many Reapers might be here tonight or what kind of costumes they might be wearing as disguises.”
We all nodded again. Takeda and Aunt Rachel headed for the nearest hallway. Zoe hooked her arm through Mateo’s, and the two of them wandered over to the dance floor.
“You ready for this?” Ian asked.
I stroked my fingers over Babs’s hilt. Now that I was here, I wasn’t feeling nearly as confident as I had earlier. I still hadn’t told anyone about the curse and Babs’s prediction that I would die tonight, and it was too late to bring it up now. It would just be one more thing for everyone to worry about, so I decided to keep the information to myself.
I dropped my hand from the sword. “Yeah, I’m ready. Are you?”
“Let’s do this.” He looked at me. “For Amanda.”
“For Amanda,” I echoed. “And for us too.”
Ian held his arm out to me, and I slipped mine through his. We stared at each other, and I saw the same determination shining in the Viking’s eyes that I felt deep down in my own heart. Curse or not, we were in this thing together, and there was no turning back now. Ian nodded at me, and I nodded back. Together we left the archway behind and stepped out into the rotunda.
It was time to find Lance, Drake, and the mysterious Sisyphus and end this.
*