Read Online Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jennifer Estep
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more times than she could count and that she owed it to my mom to look out for me while I was here.
My eyes flicked to my desk, and I crawled over to it and grabbed a framed photo off the top. Two girls grinned up at me from underneath the glass, their arms around each other. My mom and Professor Metis, back when they’d been about my age.
Not too long ago, Metis had given me this photo of them as teenagers. Every time I slipped the picture out from behind the glass and ran my fingers over the slick paper, I felt all the love that my mom and Metis had had for each other. They’d been more like sisters than friends. Knowing someone else had cared about my mom as much as I did made me feel a little less alone and made my grief and guilt over her death a little easier to bear.
“What am I going to tell Metis?” I said, putting the photo back on the desk. “That somebody tried to run me over near my grandma’s house and then took a shot at me in the library? I don’t have any proof that either one actually happened. I didn’t get a look at the license plate on the car, and I don’t have the arrow. She might just think I was being paranoid.”
“I don’t think so,” Daphne said, drumming her fingers on top of her keyboard and making pink sparks flicker in the air. “Metis is more understanding than most of the profs are. I think she’d believe you.”
I shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. You should have seen the look that Nickamedes gave me—like I’d just escaped from Ashland Asylum or something. Who knows? Maybe I have.”
I tried to smile at my own stupid joke, but I couldn’t quite make my lips turn up all the way. Knowing that someone was trying to kill me didn’t put me in a smiling mood.
Daphne shook her head, her blond hair spilling over her shoulders. “I don’t think you’re crazy. If you think there’s a Reaper after you, then there probably is. They pretty much live to kill us, you know, just like we do them.”
“Great. Way to make me feel better.”
Daphne rolled her black eyes. “Oh, suck it up, Gwen. It’s not the end of the world. We’re all here learning how to fight Reapers. You’re just getting a crash course in it, that’s all. Some of the kids would actually be jealous of you. The Spartans certainly would. Sometimes I think Logan and his friends would go off hunting Reapers if Coach Ajax and the other profs would let them.”
In addition to being the best fighters at Mythos, the Spartans also had a reputation for being the most bloodthirsty. They actually liked to be in the thick of battle and killing things—it was part of their DNA or something. I guess that’s just what happened when you could pick up normal, everyday objects—the cookies Daphne was noshing on, the stapler on my desk, the small replica of Nike next to it—and automatically know how to kill people with them. Logan, Kenzie, and Oliver could grab any one of those things, kill me with it, and not think twice doing it. Seriously. That’s the kind of freaky stuff they instinctively knew how to do.
“Well, it’s a course I’m going to flunk,” I groused. “Maybe I’ll just hide up here in my room until Christmas break. Sooner or later, the Reaper will have to lose interest in me.”
“Reapers never lose interest. Once you’re on their hit list, they won’t stop coming until you’re dead—or they are.” Daphne shook her head again. “And you can’t stay here, especially not this weekend. Everyone’s going to the Winter Carnival, even the professors and the academy staff. You’d be on campus all by yourself. If there is a Reaper out there gunning for you, you’d just give him an early Christmas present. You know what a total joke the dorm security is.”
I sighed. “So what do you think I should do?”
“Talk to Metis,” Daphne said. “Tell her what’s going on and ask her if she’s heard anything about Jasmine’s family. If they’re still in hiding or if the Pantheon has caught up
My eyes flicked to my desk, and I crawled over to it and grabbed a framed photo off the top. Two girls grinned up at me from underneath the glass, their arms around each other. My mom and Professor Metis, back when they’d been about my age.
Not too long ago, Metis had given me this photo of them as teenagers. Every time I slipped the picture out from behind the glass and ran my fingers over the slick paper, I felt all the love that my mom and Metis had had for each other. They’d been more like sisters than friends. Knowing someone else had cared about my mom as much as I did made me feel a little less alone and made my grief and guilt over her death a little easier to bear.
“What am I going to tell Metis?” I said, putting the photo back on the desk. “That somebody tried to run me over near my grandma’s house and then took a shot at me in the library? I don’t have any proof that either one actually happened. I didn’t get a look at the license plate on the car, and I don’t have the arrow. She might just think I was being paranoid.”
“I don’t think so,” Daphne said, drumming her fingers on top of her keyboard and making pink sparks flicker in the air. “Metis is more understanding than most of the profs are. I think she’d believe you.”
I shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. You should have seen the look that Nickamedes gave me—like I’d just escaped from Ashland Asylum or something. Who knows? Maybe I have.”
I tried to smile at my own stupid joke, but I couldn’t quite make my lips turn up all the way. Knowing that someone was trying to kill me didn’t put me in a smiling mood.
Daphne shook her head, her blond hair spilling over her shoulders. “I don’t think you’re crazy. If you think there’s a Reaper after you, then there probably is. They pretty much live to kill us, you know, just like we do them.”
“Great. Way to make me feel better.”
Daphne rolled her black eyes. “Oh, suck it up, Gwen. It’s not the end of the world. We’re all here learning how to fight Reapers. You’re just getting a crash course in it, that’s all. Some of the kids would actually be jealous of you. The Spartans certainly would. Sometimes I think Logan and his friends would go off hunting Reapers if Coach Ajax and the other profs would let them.”
In addition to being the best fighters at Mythos, the Spartans also had a reputation for being the most bloodthirsty. They actually liked to be in the thick of battle and killing things—it was part of their DNA or something. I guess that’s just what happened when you could pick up normal, everyday objects—the cookies Daphne was noshing on, the stapler on my desk, the small replica of Nike next to it—and automatically know how to kill people with them. Logan, Kenzie, and Oliver could grab any one of those things, kill me with it, and not think twice doing it. Seriously. That’s the kind of freaky stuff they instinctively knew how to do.
“Well, it’s a course I’m going to flunk,” I groused. “Maybe I’ll just hide up here in my room until Christmas break. Sooner or later, the Reaper will have to lose interest in me.”
“Reapers never lose interest. Once you’re on their hit list, they won’t stop coming until you’re dead—or they are.” Daphne shook her head again. “And you can’t stay here, especially not this weekend. Everyone’s going to the Winter Carnival, even the professors and the academy staff. You’d be on campus all by yourself. If there is a Reaper out there gunning for you, you’d just give him an early Christmas present. You know what a total joke the dorm security is.”
I sighed. “So what do you think I should do?”
“Talk to Metis,” Daphne said. “Tell her what’s going on and ask her if she’s heard anything about Jasmine’s family. If they’re still in hiding or if the Pantheon has caught up
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