Spartan Promise

by Jennifer Estep

  I was hoping the basilisk wouldn’t be any different.

  “Okay, here’s the plan,” I whispered to Ian. “When it attacks me, you let out a loud yell and charge at it from the side. The basilisk will get distracted and turn in your direction, letting me come in low and stab it in the stomach.”

  “Will that be enough to kill it?” Ian whispered back.

  “We’re going to find out.”

  I slowly tilted Babs to the side, moving the sword into position. Over at the windows, Ian shifted on his feet, also getting ready. Above us, the basilisk hunkered down on the chandelier and spread its wings out wide.

  “On three,” I whispered. “One, two, three—”

  Before Ian and I could move, the doors at the other end of the library burst open, and Kylie Midas stormed inside.

  Just as Ian and I had done, Kylie marched forward without realizing that the basilisk was sitting on the crystal chandelier above her head. She hurried across the library and pointed her finger at me, making gold sparks of magic spew everywhere.

  “Rory Forseti! I knew you were up to something!” she snarled. “I knew it! What are you doing? Stealing artifacts like your Reaper parents did?”

  I winced, but not because of her harsh words. Loud noises, sudden movements, shiny things. Check, check, check. No, I winced because Kylie had just done everything possible to attract the basilisk’s attention.

  The monster’s head snapped to the side, and its crimson eyes widened as it focused on this new target. With a loud, excited caw!, the monster launched itself off the chandelier and dove at Kylie, its talons outstretched as if she were a fish that it was going to pluck out of a stream, carry off, and gobble down for lunch.

  She glanced around. “What is making that awful noise?”

  There was no time to explain, and she probably wouldn’t have believed me anyway, so I didn’t bother shouting a warning. Instead, I dropped Babs, spread my arms out wide, and leaped forward.

  For a moment, I didn’t know if I was going to be fast enough, but my Spartan instincts let me get a split-second head start on the basilisk, as well as calculate how low it was going to swoop. My body slammed into Kylie’s, and I tackled her and knocked us both down to the floor and out of the way of the basilisk’s diving strike.

  Well, mostly out of the way.

  Kylie screamed and clutched her right arm, as though the basilisk had scratched her with its talons, but I didn’t have time to see how badly she was injured. Not if I wanted to save us both.

  I scrambled away from her and came up in a low crouch. The basilisk had landed in front of the fireplace, and it whipped around, spread its wings, and launched itself into the air again. The creature shot up to the ceiling, then wheeled around and dove straight back down at me.

  At the last instant, I threw myself to the side and ducked behind one of the artifact cases.

  Crash!

  The basilisk’s talons raked across the case, punching through and shattering the glass. I yelped and threw my arm up, trying to protect myself, but shards of glass still sliced into my skin. For a moment, I felt each and every one of those hot stings, but an instant later, a cool, soothing sensation flowed through my body, washing away the burn of the wounds. My healing magic was kicking in and repairing my skin.

  Good. That was good. What wasn’t so good was that the basilisk was already turning in my direction again.

  I got to my feet and lurched away, trying to put some distance between me and the basilisk, but I wasn’t fast enough this time, and the creature’s wing slammed into my chest and threw me ten feet across the library.

  I smacked into one of the bookcases that lined the wall, bounced off, and landed on the floor. Several books slipped off their shelves and piled on top of me, adding injury to injury. Pain exploded in my back, and I felt like a rag doll that a child had thrown down in a fit of anger and then stomped on for good measure.

  I groaned, but once again, that cooling sensation flooded my body as my healing magic repaired all the damage. My magic froze out the worst of the pain, letting me shake off the mountain of books on my back and stagger up and onto my feet.

  Caw! Caw-caw! Caw!

  My head snapped up. The basilisk was standing right in front of me, and I couldn’t avoid it this time. It drew its head back, then snapped it forward, ready to stab me in the chest with its beak—

  Thunk!

  The basilisk screamed and lurched away from me. The coppery stench of blood filled the air, and several scarlet drops spattered onto the floor and started burning the rugs like acid. Something shiny was now buried in one of the creature’s black wings. Ian had thrown his ax at the monster in order to save me.

  I grinned at him, and he grinned back at me.

  Then Ian hurried forward, yanked Kylie to her feet, and pushed her toward the open window. “Go! Get out of here!”

  Kylie grabbed at him, like she wanted him to come with her, but Ian avoided her and ran over to the nearest artifact case, one that contained a spear. He smashed his elbow through the glass so he could grab the weapon, but the spear was long and awkward, and the tip got snagged on something inside the case. Ian growled and yanked on it, but it was going to take him several seconds to free the weapon.

  The basilisk was whipping around and around, trying to shake Ian’s ax out of its wing and spraying blood everywhere. A few drops spattered onto the bookcase beside me and started eating through the wood.

  I had to kill the monster before it attacked us again, but to do that, I needed a weapon, something a lot sharper and stronger than the books that littered the floor.

  “Rory! Rory!” Babs called out. “Over here!”

  The sword was lying in the corner where I had dropped her when I tackled Kylie.

  With another loud, angry caw!, the basilisk shook its wing a final time and dislodged Ian’s ax, which flew across the room and stuck in one of the bookcases. The monster turned in his direction. Ian cursed, still struggling to free the spear, and I decided to give the basilisk someone else to focus on.

  Me.

  I snatched up one of the books from the floor, reared my arm back, and threw it as hard as I could. The thick, heavy volume zipped through the air and beaned the basilisk in its injured wing. Bull’s-eye.

  The monster shrieked and fixed its murderous crimson gaze on me.

  “Hey, bird brain!” I yelled, waving my hands. “Over here! Catch me if you can!”

  I started running. The basilisk cawed again, this time with anger, and darted after me like a rooster chasing a worm through a barnyard. I moved as fast as possible, darting around the artifact cases and other furniture.

  I glanced over my shoulder. Instead of going around or flying over the debris, the basilisk lowered its head and used the spikes on top of its comb like a battering ram to punch through everything in its path. And it was going to do the same thing to me if I didn’t get to Babs in time.

  My head snapped back around, and I ran even faster. My eyes narrowed, and my gaze locked onto Babs lying on the floor. I’d only have one shot at this.

  “Rory!” Ian shouted behind me. “Look out!”

  I could see the basilisk’s shadow on the floor beside me, growing larger and larger with each passing moment. The creature was seconds away from pouncing on and tearing me to shreds with its talons. With a final burst of speed, I threw myself down onto the floor.

  Luckily, no rugs covered this part of the floor, and I slid across the slick stone like a luger zipping down an ice track. A grin stretched across my face. Maybe I should have been panicking at the fact that a monster was seconds away from killing me, but that was one of the freaky things about being a Spartan. It made these sorts of situations almost seem like fun. Almost.

  I kept sliding. My hand stretched out, and I snatched up Babs from the floor.

  “Behind you!” the sword yelled, even though my hand closed over her hilt and muffled her voice. “Behind you!”

  I didn’t bother resp
onding. I knew exactly how close the basilisk was to killing me. In fact, I was counting on it. My slide carried me all the way over to the wall. I hit the bookcase there, quickly rolled out of the way of the falling volumes, and surged back up onto my feet.

  The basilisk was right in front of me. The creature leaned forward, eager to skewer me with its beak, but it didn’t watch where it was going. Big mistake. One of its feet slipped on the books on the floor, and it lost its balance as it lurched toward me.

  I didn’t hesitate. As soon as the basilisk was in range, I ducked under its flapping wing, surged forward, and buried Babs in its stomach.

  The basilisk screamed at the mortal wound. The high, piercing sound made me wince, but I gritted my teeth and shoved the sword even deeper into the basilisk’s stomach. The monster screamed again, then—

  Poof!

  The basilisk disappeared in a cloud of tiny black feathers.

  The monster vanishing threw me off balance, and I staggered forward, right into the black feathers, which immediately stuck to my clothes, my hands, even my face and hair. I waved my hand around, trying to shoo the feathers away, but that made even more of them cling to me like glue. I felt like a hundred soft little fingers were tickling my skin all at once. My nose twitched, and I let out a loud, violent sneeze.

  “Rory!” Ian ran over to me, concern creasing his face. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m—achoo!—fine.”

  And I really was. With every passing second, more and more of that cool, soothing power flooded my body, as my magic healed all my cuts, bumps, and bruises. In a couple of minutes, I would be as good as new.

  Ian’s face softened, and relief filled his eyes. He stepped forward and opened his arms, like he was going to hug me.

  Anticipation surged through my body, and my heart started pounding. This was it. This was the moment when the Viking and I would become something more than teammates. He leaned down, but that ticklish sensation washed over me again, stronger than before.

  “Achoo!” I let out another violent sneeze, making him pull up short. “Sorry about that.”

  I smiled at him, but by this point, my eyes were watering, and I needed a tissue to blow my nose. Ian gave me an amused look, reached out, and patted my shoulder, careful not to get any of the feathers on his hand.

  “No problem,” he said. “I’m just glad that you’re okay—”

  “Achoo!”

  I sneezed again, making Ian drop his hand and step back, officially ruining the moment.

  Just my—achoo!—luck.

  * * *

  A minute later, Takeda and Zoe rushed into the library, along with several Protectorate guards wearing gray cloaks. They were all carrying weapons, which they lowered to their sides when they realized that there was nothing left to fight.

  Zoe hurried over to Ian and me. Her eyes widened at the sight of all the feathers clinging to my body. “What happened to you?”

  I opened my mouth to tell her, but all that came out was—achoo!—another sneeze.

  Zoe took pity on me, and the two of us went into a bathroom down the hallway from the solarium, where she helped me pick off all the stupid feathers.

  “How did you get so many of them on you? And why are they so sticky? They’re more like little leeches than feathers,” Zoe muttered, plucking off another handful and throwing them in the trash can.

  “I don’t know.” I dabbed at my still-watering eyes with a tissue, then blew my nose. “I just wanted to kill the basilisk before it killed me. I had no idea that it was going to give me an allergic reaction too. That makes it doubly evil in my book.”

  “Well, I don’t see what the big deal is,” Babs said from where I had propped her up in a nearby chair. “I didn’t get any feathers on me. Must be all that oil that you used to make me so nice and shiny the other day. Look at my blade. It’s like you just polished me.”

  The sword started humming and admiring her reflection in the antique mirror on the wall. I gave her a sour look and blew my nose again.

  The lights clicked back on, indicating that Mateo had control of the mansion’s power and security system again. Zoe and I got rid of the rest of the clinging feathers, washed our hands, and headed back to the library.

  Mateo was sitting at a table, with Ian and Takeda standing beside him. Zoe and I walked over to them. Mateo smiled at me, then started typing on his laptop.

  “What happened?” I asked. “Who hacked the system?”

  “I don’t know yet, but whoever they are, they have crazy good computer skills,” Mateo replied. “Don’t worry, though. I’m downloading the security footage. I’ll figure it out.”

  I looked at Takeda. “Any sign of Serket’s Pen? Or Covington and Drake?”

  He shook his head. “No. Guards are combing the mansion and the grounds, but so far, there’s been no sign of the Reapers. It’s like Covington and Drake just vanished into thin air.”

  Not surprising, but disappointment still surged through me. “But how could they do that? Surely there would be some sign of them on the security footage.”

  Takeda shook his head again. “I don’t know how they managed to avoid the cameras, but so far, we haven’t spotted them on any of the footage.”

  A Protectorate guard came up to Takeda and drew him aside.

  “Forget about the Reapers for a second,” Zoe said. “What are we going to do about her?”

  She jerked her head at Kylie, who was sitting in one of the few chairs that hadn’t been destroyed during the basilisk battle.

  “Team Midgard is all about anonymity and pretending we’re ordinary students, the same as everyone else,” Zoe said. “Kylie is one of the most popular girls at school. If she tells her friends about this, it will be all over the academy in minutes. Then everyone will know that the Reapers stole an artifact.”

  She was right. The whole point of the Midgard was to keep this new Reaper threat quiet, so that Mythos students could finally relax and get on with their lives. If anyone realized that the Reapers were plotting another attack, then fear, panic, and worry would spread like wildfire across the Colorado academy, as well as the other campuses.

  “I’ll go talk to her,” Ian offered. “Maybe I can convince her to keep quiet.”

  “No,” I said. “Let me do it.”

  He gave me a surprised look. Yeah, I was surprised too. I wasn’t sure why I wanted to talk to Kylie. After all, she had stormed into the library and accused me of being a Reaper. She probably wouldn’t believe a word I said, despite the fact that I had saved her life. Still, I had to try.

  I didn’t want to be friends with Kylie, but I didn’t want to be her enemy anymore either. Truth be told, I was tired of her angry glares and snarky comments about my parents. Maybe this was a chance for us to stop fighting and at least start being civil to each other. So I drew in a breath, squared my shoulders, and walked over to her.

  Kylie’s sweater sleeve had been ripped open, and a couple of long, ugly gashes sliced down her right arm from where the basilisk’s talons had raked across her skin. She was clutching a tissue in her left hand and using it to wipe off the blood that kept welling up out of the gashes, but her motions were slow and awkward, and she winced with pain.

  “Here. Let me help you.”

  I gently took hold of her wrist and held her arm up where I could better see the gashes. They were much deeper than I’d realized, the kind of wounds that would send stinging waves of pain rippling through your body the second you moved your arm in any direction. Sympathy filled me, along with another surge of my cool, soothing power, almost as if the magic in my body wanted to somehow reach out and heal her injury—

  “Ugh!” Kylie hissed, jerking away. “Get your cold hand off me. What did you do? Dip it in ice water?”

  My fingers clenched into a fist, but I forced myself to drop my hand and remain calm. “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

  Her hazel gaze flicked past me, and she stared at the Protectorate gua
rds picking up debris, righting chairs and tables, and taking photos of the artifact case where Serket’s Pen had been. One guard was trying to sweep up the pile of feathers that the basilisk had left behind, although they kept sticking to his broom.

  “I’m fine,” Kylie said, her voice a bit softer. “All things considered.”

  She fell silent, still staring out over the library. A shiver rippled through her body, and I could tell that she was thinking about how close the basilisk had come to tearing her to shreds.

  I cleared my throat. “Listen, about what happened—”

  She snorted. “Is this the part where you tell me to keep my mouth shut or else you’ll have your Protectorate friends put me in jail?”

  “Of course not. I would never do that, and neither would they.” I paused. “But it would be better if you would keep this to yourself. The basilisk is gone. Everyone is already freaked out enough by the lights going out. There’s no need to tell them that Reapers were actually here and that they used an artifact to summon a monster.”

  “More Reapers?” Kylie sighed. “Of course there are more Reapers. There are always more Reapers.”

  Once again, her gaze flicked past me, but this time she focused on Ian, who was talking to Zoe. At the table, Mateo kept pounding away on his laptop.

  “I really thought that Ian liked me.” Her eyes dimmed, and sadness filled her voice. “He volunteered to be my sparring partner in gym last week, and he asked me all these questions. He seemed so interested in me.”

  I frowned. Ian had said that nothing was going on with him and Kylie, so why would he want to be her gym partner? And why had he been asking her questions?

  She shook her head and let out a bitter laugh. “But he doesn’t care about me at all. I saw the way he looked at you on the quad this morning and how he rushed over to check on you after you killed the basilisk. He is totally into you. First, Lance Fuller, and now, Ian Hunter.” She shook her head again. “What it is that guys find so irresistible about Rory Forseti?”

  I winced. I could hear the pain in her voice, but I couldn’t tell her about Lance being a Reaper and trying to recruit me to become one too. Those were Team Midgard secrets that no one else needed to know. Besides, the information would probably just make her hate me even more than she already did.