Page 4 of Spider and Frost

Adding to my worries was the fact that these artifacts were much more dangerous than most, which is why we’d split them up. Earlier this morning, Nickamedes, Metis, and Ajax had overseen the packing of some of the smaller artifacts into wooden crates, which had been loaded onto the train to be whisked from Pine Crest over to Cypress Mountain, where the academy was located. I’d stayed behind here at the station to keep an eye out for Reapers, while everyone else had returned to the cabin to load the rest of the larger, heavier artifacts into several SUVs.

The plan had been for Nickamedes, Metis, and Ajax to drive those vehicles back to the train station and drop off Logan and Daphne, along with Carson Callahan, Oliver Hector, and Alexei Sokolov, some other Mythos students. Together, my friends and I were going to pretend we were just on the train for the Lunch and Look tour and guard the artifacts until we reached the Cypress Mountain station, where Nickamedes, Metis, and Ajax would meet us. But of course, the rockslide had derailed our careful plotting, and now here I was, stuck at the train station all by myself, except for Vic—and the other artifact in my messenger bag.

I reached down and patted the side of my bag, just as I’d done a dozen times in the last ten minutes. My fingers traced over the shape of a long, slender box, although I couldn’t feel the artifact nestled inside—Minerva’s Dagger.

Supposedly, the dagger granted the wisdom of Minerva, the Roman war goddess, to whoever held it. On the surface, it didn’t sound like a big deal, but often, the most innocent-sounding artifacts were the most dangerous. Besides, wisdom could be used in a variety of ways, from solving a crossword puzzle to winning a fight to figuring out how to steal even more artifacts from other museums. Either way, the dagger was simply too powerful and valuable to store with the other crated artifacts in the train’s baggage car, so Metis had given me the weapon, and I’d slipped it into my bag to transport it back to the academy.

From Logan’s text, it sounded like the rockslide was a natural occurrence and not some clever, devious Reaper trap, but that knowledge didn’t make me feel any better, only more anxious.

“Attention, passengers. Now boarding . . .” The announcer’s voice boomed through the speakers attached to the walls.

I gnawed on my lower lip. “Do you think I should get on the train like we planned? Or wait here for Logan and the others?”

“And stay here at the station all alone? With no one else around?” Vic’s hilt quivered, as though he was shaking his half of a head. “No. At least there will be plenty of people on board the train. Surely the Reapers won’t be daring enough to attack you out in the open like that.”

I huffed. “Do you not remember the last time we were on a train? When we went to the academy in Snowline Ridge, Colorado? Because I distinctly remember several Reapers attacking us right in the middle of the ride in broad daylight.”

Vic rolled his eye again. “Okay, so maybe the Reapers won’t be daring enough to attack us this time.”

“We both know that Reapers don’t care who they hurt, only that they get what they want.”

Vic’s hilt quivered again, as though he was trying to nod his half of a head in agreement.

“Besides, I think I spotted one of them already,” I said. “Did you see the way that one woman was staring at me earlier?”

“The woman in the black fleece jacket?” Vic replied. “Yeah, I noticed her too. But just because she was staring at you, that doesn’t mean anything. Maybe she thought you were someone else. And we both saw her glancing around the train station, like she was looking for someone.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Maybe she was looking for me, and especially Minerva’s Dagger.”

My hand curled a little more tightly around the strap of my messenger bag. I didn’t see the mysterious woman anymore, so I moved away from the corner and headed toward the front doors. I didn’t know who that woman was, but she seemed dangerous, and I didn’t want to get on the same train as her. I hated leaving the other artifacts in the train’s baggage car, but protecting the dagger was the most important thing right now.

As I neared the exits, I tried to remember where the closest coffee shop was. I’d walk down the street, hole up in the first one I came to, and drink hot chocolate until Logan and the others arrived.

I had reached out to push one of the glass doors open when a black SUV zipped up to the curb outside the station and screeched to a stop. I froze, my hand still stretched out in front of me.

One of the SUV doors opened, and a guy got out of the back of the vehicle. He was about my age, eighteen or so, and wearing a long black overcoat over a black T-shirt, jeans, and boots. With his blond hair, brown eyes, and tan skin, he was super cute, and the sight of him made my heart pound and my breath catch in my throat, but not in a good way.

The guy’s name was Brayden Vitales, and he was a Reaper.

Brayden was a Roman warrior, which meant that he was gifted with supernatural speed, just like Amazons were. According to the information that Daphne had dug up in the last few weeks, Brayden was the head of the Dolos Crew, named after the Greek god of trickery, treachery, deception, and more. The group of thieves also included Valkyries and Vikings, all of whom were exceptionally strong.

Together, Brayden and the rest of the Dolos Crew specialized in stealing artifacts from museums, libraries, and even secure Protectorate storage facilities, although the recent heist at the Crius Coliseum was their biggest, splashiest, and most daring so far.

On all their previous jobs, the Dolos Crew had vanished without a trace—until they popped up somewhere new and stole some more artifacts. Reapers were usually so careful, so I found it really weird that Brayden and his friends would risk partying someplace like a casino, which had dozens of security cameras that could potentially be used to identify and track them down. But I supposed even the smartest criminal slipped up on occasion.

Two older, thirty-something adult men and a woman also got out of the SUV. Brayden looked at his phone, then gestured with his hand, pointing up and down the street, and the adults peeled off, as if they were searching for someone—me, most likely.

So much for our plan to split up the artifacts. Somehow the Reapers had tracked the objects here anyway, which meant that I was once again in serious, serious danger.

I muttered a soft curse and moved away from the doors before Brayden spotted me. I glanced around, but everyone was heading toward the back of the lobby, and there was only one place for me to go: on board the train.

“You have to get on the train, Gwen,” Vic said, echoing my thoughts. “The Reapers will see you if you try to leave.”

He was right. I couldn’t slip away from the station without Brayden and the other Reapers outside potentially spotting me, and I couldn’t stay here in the empty waiting area either. Maybe the train would be marginally safer, even if that mysterious woman was on board.

Either way, it was the only choice I had, so I pulled up my ticket on my phone and got in line with everyone else.

I showed my phone to the female conductor, stepped outside, and boarded the train.

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