Ian and I moved around the perimeter of the ballroom, skirting around one group of students after another.
I’d thought the costumes had looked fancy from a distance, but up close, they were positively stunning, gleaming with gold, silver, and sparkling jewels. The Mythos kids had embraced the costume theme, and they’d spared no expense to bring their favorite characters to life.
Still, I noticed a weird pattern to many of the costumes, at least among the girls. Several of them wore long, flowing, togalike gowns in various shades of purple, with enormous silver wings attached to their backs. They also carried swords and had crowns of spray-painted silver laurels on their heads. Some of them were also wearing snowflake necklaces. But the strangest thing of all was that each of them sported a pair of contact lenses that turned their eyes a bright, eerie purple.
Ian frowned, also noticing the similar costumes. “Who are they supposed to be? Some goddess?”
I studied the girl closest to me. She was cradling her sword in the crook of her elbow, and I realized that she’d used a black marker to draw a crude face on the hilt. Purple gowns, purple contacts, swords with faces. Suddenly, I knew exactly who that girl and all the other similarly dressed ones were supposed to be.
Gwen Frost.
More than three dozen girls had dressed up like Gwen—or at least how they thought she would dress. I knew that Gwen preferred her sneakers, jeans, hoodies, and T-shirts to glittering gowns and sparkly wings, but of course there was no telling the other girls that. They wouldn’t have listened to me anyway.
“They’re supposed to be Gwen,” I said.
Ian looked at the other girls, then back at me. “Does that make you jealous? That they’re dressed like her?”
“You mean that they all think she’s this wonderful hero, while I’m Reaper trash?”
He winced. “I didn’t mean it like that. Not at all.”
“I know you didn’t.” I shrugged. “And yeah, maybe I am a little jealous. I was at the battle too. But Gwen went through a lot, and she was the one who figured out how to defeat Loki. She’s the one who trapped him forever. She’s definitely earned the hero title. Plus, she’s too nice not to like.”
“Kind of like her cousin Rory, huh?” Ian winked at me, and I smiled back at him.
We made it over to the buffet tables, walked past the chocolate fountains, and moved around the rest of the rotunda, but I didn’t see any sign of Lance, Drake, or anyone else who looked like they might be a Reaper. All the kids were focused on eating, laughing, dancing, and gossiping, and it seemed like everyone was here to have a good time.
“You guys got anything?” Ian asked, talking to Mateo and Zoe through our earbuds.
The two of them were in the middle of the dance floor, grooving to the music, although they kept glancing at the kids around them.
Mateo’s voice crackled in my ear a second later. “Nothing. We’re going to finish this dance and then help Takeda and Rachel search the exhibit rooms on this floor.”
“Roger that,” Ian said. “Rory and I will check out the exhibit rooms upstairs.”
Ian led me over to a set of stairs, and we climbed up to the second floor. Some of the kids had migrated up here, talking, leaning against the balcony railing, and staring down at the rotunda below. More than a few couples had already retreated to the darkest corners they could find, eager to kiss the night away. The music shifted into a slow song, and everyone on this floor started coupling up to dance, mirroring the kids downstairs.
Ian cleared his throat. “Maybe when this is all over and we find the Reapers, we can come back and enjoy the rest of the ball. Maybe even…dance?”
I stared at him, but he shifted on his feet and stared down at the floor instead of looking at me. Was he actually nervous? About asking me to dance? My heart did that funny little flutter.
“I’d like that,” I said in a soft voice. “I’d like that a lot.”
Ian nodded, still not looking at me, and moved away from the railing. I followed him.
The main rotunda was only one part of the Cormac Museum, and we walked down a long hallway and into another wing where the exhibit rooms were located. The music, conversations, and laughter faded away, and the only sounds were our footsteps on the floor, but I didn’t mind the quiet.
Ian and I moved from room to room, staring at the weapons, armor, clothing, and other objects on display. All the items were housed in protective glass cases, and every single case was plugged into the museum’s security system, according to what Takeda had told us during our briefings. If Lance, Drake, or any other Reaper so much as scratched the glass on one of the cases, alarms would start blaring in the museum’s security office, and the Protectorate guards would come running. But everything remained quiet, so Ian and I walked on.
I didn’t mind strolling from room to room and checking on things. This was way more fun than the dance downstairs, especially since Ian was with me and seemed to enjoy studying the artifacts as much as I did.
“Hey, Rory,” he said. “Come check this out. It’s really cool.”
He was standing in front of a glass case. A tiny silver whistle lay inside, so small that it looked like a toy or a charm that would go on my bracelet instead of something you could actually use.
“Pan’s Whistle.” Ian read the identification card inside the case. “This whistle can be used to summon mythological creatures, including Nemean prowlers, Fenrir wolves, and more. It can be used over great distances, especially if you know the particular creature or creatures that you wish to summon. As its name suggests, the whistle was used by Pan, the Greek god of music, the wild, and more.”
He looked at me, excitement shining in his eyes. “I bet you could use that to summon your gryphons. All you would have to do is think about them, blow on the whistle, and bam! They would fly right to you. No more turning on lanterns on the library roof and hoping the gryphons see them and show up.”
I smiled back at him. “Probably. Although I doubt Takeda would appreciate me swiping an artifact when we’re supposed to stop the Reapers from stealing them.”
Ian laughed. “You’re probably right about that. Let’s keep looking. Maybe we can at least figure out which artifact the Reapers are after.”
He gave the whistle one more longing glance, and then we both moved on.
Ian and I went from case to case. Everything was interesting and cool in its own right, but I didn’t see anything that seemed powerful enough to appeal to the Reapers. They could get weapons and armor at other museums that weren’t crawling with Mythos students and Protectorate guards. So what was here that was so special?
And even more worrisome, what were the Reapers planning to do with the artifact once they had it?
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out.