“You!” Covington hissed. “You did this!”
I smiled in the face of his fury. “Guilty as charged.”
He shoved the box off the table. It clattered to the floor, and the red crystals flew everywhere, rolling like marbles over the stone. Most of them stopped between the Reapers and me. Perfect. I couldn’t have planned that better myself.
Covington stabbed his finger at me again. “You will tell me exactly what you did with the Narcissus Heart, and you will do it right now.”
“Or what?” I mocked him.
“Or Drake will gut you where you stand,” he growled.
I arched an eyebrow. “Really? But I thought you wanted me alive. After all, you can’t turn me into a Reaper if I’m dead.”
Covington’s eyes glittered with a dark, dangerous light. “I want the Narcissus Heart more. Besides, with your healing magic, it will take quite a lot to kill you. How much torture do you think you can stand, Rory? I’m suddenly eager to find out.”
His words chilled me to the bone. He would torture me—or, worse, my friends—until I told him what I had done with the Narcissus Heart. I had to get out of here before that happened.
“Bring her to me. Now. And don’t be gentle about it.”
Drake sneered. “With pleasure.”
He lifted his sword and stepped toward me, but I snapped up my hand and finally brandished my hidden artifact at the Reapers—a gold stick that was about as long as my forearm.
Drake stopped short and laughed. “And what are you going to do with that little stick? Not even a Spartan like you could kill me with that flimsy thing.”
I flipped the stick around so that I was holding it by the bottom and the creature crouched on the top was clearly visible. The figure was made of gold, like the rest of the artifact, and the shiny metal only made it look more vicious. The creature had the sleek, pantherlike body of a Nemean prowler, but the ram’s horns on its head and the scorpion’s stinger on the end of its long tail turned it into a truly terrifying monster.
I wasn’t holding a mere little stick—this was Typhon’s Scepter.
Drake’s eyes widened in surprise and recognition. A Reaper named Lance Fuller had originally stolen the scepter from the Library of Antiquities a couple of months ago, but it seemed Drake had forgotten that Team Midgard had recovered the artifact a few weeks ago.
“You’re right. I can’t kill you with this stick.” I grinned. “But I can certainly kill you with what’s inside it.”
Before Drake could move or react, I slashed the stick through the air in a sharp figure-eight motion.
Black smoke boiled out of the end of the scepter and solidified into a large creature. A strong, pantherlike body covered with midnight-black fur shot through with crimson strands. Razor-sharp claws that were the same burning red as its eyes. Hard, curled black ram’s horns with daggerlike points sprouting from its forehead. And a black scorpion’s stinger on the end of its long, lashing tail.
Drake had seen this kind of creature before, more than once, but his face still went white with shock.
The Typhon chimera licked its chops, revealing its sharp teeth and making a bit of black, noxious smoke boil out of its mouth.
“Kill him,” I ordered the chimera.
Chapter Twelve
The chimera immediately pounced at Drake.
For a moment, I thought the creature might actually take him down. My heart lifted. With Drake out of the way, maybe I could get to Covington before he used the Chloris Amulet again and save my friends after all.
But Drake was a skilled, experienced warrior, and he quickly spun to his right, out of the way of the creature’s strike. The chimera landed on the floor and whirled around toward the Viking, hissing with anger.
Drake raised his sword and backed away from the monster, as did Covington. While the Reapers were distracted, I grabbed my messenger bag and slung the strap up and over my head and then down across my chest so that I would have both hands free. Then I snatched Minerva’s Spear off the desk, so that I was holding it in one hand and Typhon’s Scepter in the other.
Covington noticed my quick motions and turned in my direction. “Two can play your little summoning game,” he snarled.
He plucked Fafnir’s Dagger from the scabbard on his belt and quickly wrote a giant F in the air. Black smoke dripped out of the dagger’s tip and congealed into a Fafnir dragon.
The chimera’s burning red eyes narrowed as it studied the dragon, which yawned in response, as if the other monster was no threat at all.
“Kill the chimera,” Covington ordered.
The dragon obeyed and used its incredible strength to leap across the briefing room. Its aim was true, and it landed right on top of the chimera and used its dense, heavy body to drive the other creature down to the floor. Before the chimera could recover, much less fight back, the dragon snapped out with its snout and sank its razor-sharp teeth deep into the other monster’s throat.
The chimera never had a chance. It didn’t even get to scream in pain before it vanished in a cloud of black smoke. I had never thought that I would feel sorry for a chimera, but I did now, after seeing how easily the dragon had dispatched it.
Covington gave me a thin smile, his eyes glittering in his face. “And now, Rory,” he said, “we’re going to talk about what you did with the Narcissus Heart.”
He clutched the dagger and slowly advanced on me, as did Drake with his sword and the dragon with its teeth. In addition to knowing when a fight was lost, I also knew when I was outnumbered. So I did the only thing I could.
I brandished the scepter and the spear in my hands as though I was going to attack the Reapers with them. That made Covington, Drake, and the dragon hesitate for one precious second.
Then I turned and ran out of the briefing room as fast as I could.
* * *
For a moment, the only sound was the slap-slap-slap-slap of my boots on the floor. But my enemies recovered all too quickly.
“Get her!” Covington yelled. “Now!”
Footsteps scraped behind me. Then a surprised shout cut through the air, followed by a sharp clang of metal and a loud oof!
I glanced over my shoulder. Drake had lunged after me, but his boots had slipped on the red crystal hearts that were still littering the floor, just as I’d known they would, and he had dropped his sword and fallen onto his knees. The dragon gave him a curious look, as if the monster was thinking about how Drake would taste compared with the chimera.
“After her!” Covington yelled again. “Both of you! Now!”
I looked forward and kept going, racing down the long hallway and sprinting past room after room. All the while, my gaze flicked left and right, but Drake had gotten back up to his feet, and his footsteps pounded on the floor behind me, so I didn’t dare dart into any of the rooms. Besides, none of them had anything that would help me. Bandages from the infirmary and books from the library certainly weren’t going to stop the Reapers, much less the dragon.
It didn’t take me long to reach the back of the Bunker. My steps slowed, and I thought about what to do and where to go next.
I could open the bookcase and sprint into the tunnels, but I wouldn’t have time to close the secret entrance behind me, and the Reapers and the dragon would follow me into the passageway. Besides, I couldn’t risk going into the tunnels, since that was where the Narcissus Heart was hidden. I didn’t know if or especially how the Chloris Amulet might react if it was near the other artifact, but I couldn’t take a chance that the amulet would somehow reveal the Heart’s location to Covington.
That left me with only one other option: the stairs.
I used my shoulder to push through the door marked Stairs, stepped inside, and whirled around. Either I hadn’t been running as fast as I’d thought or the dragon was just that much quicker than I was, but the monster was right behind me and closing fast. The dragon leaped up into the air and flapped its wings, zooming straight toward me.
�
��Rory!” Babs yelled from her scabbard on my belt. “Shut the door! Shut it now!”
My eyes widened, but I did as she commanded, put my shoulder down, and used it to shove the door shut.
THUNK!
And not a moment too soon. The dragon slammed into the door, rattling it in its frame. The creature’s hard, scaly snout caved in the metal and left a large dent in the middle of the door, like a cartoon character might. I backed away from it. The door was thick, solid metal, but the Fafnir dragon had already put one dent in it, and I doubted that the door would hold the creature for long—
THUNK!
THUNK!
Two more snout-shaped dents appeared in the door.
I didn’t know if the dragon could eventually punch through the metal or not, but I had to keep it and the Reapers from opening the door, at least for a few minutes until I had a head start on them. I glanced around the stairwell, looking for a doorstop or something else that I could wedge up against the frame, but then I realized that I was already holding the perfect thing.
Minerva’s Spear—the artifact that supposedly could never be broken.
I slid Typhon’s Scepter into my back pocket, then took hold of the spear with both hands. I wedged the end of the spear between two of the flagstones on the floor, then jammed the sharp point under one of the dents that the dragon had put in the door.
THUNK!
The door rattled again but not nearly as badly as before, and the spear held firm. Looked like the artifact really was unbreakable. But the Fafnir dragon was incredibly strong, and it might be able to eventually punch its way through the metal door or the surrounding stone wall. Either way, I wasn’t safe here, so I whirled around and sprinted up the stairs.
Up, up, up…
I climbed as fast as I could, taking the stairs two and even three at a time in some places. My legs burned, and my lungs ached from the enormous effort, but I kept going. I couldn’t afford to slow down, not even for a second.
“Rory!” Babs yelled from her scabbard again. “Where are you going? What’s your plan?”
“All I have…to do…is get…upstairs…” I panted. “And call Linus Quinn…and tell him what’s going on… He’ll help me…and the others…”
My voice trailed off, and I focused on climbing the stairs and gulping down air. I didn’t know how long I ran, probably not more than two minutes, although it seemed much longer than that. Finally, I reached the door at the top of the stairs, and I jabbed my thumb onto the silver button on the wall beside it.
“Come on…” I panted. “Come on…come on…”
A green light scanned my thumb, and a moment later, the door clicked open. I grabbed the handle, yanked it back, and stepped through to the other side.
This door opened onto the second floor of the Library of Antiquities, although the secret entrance was painted to look like it was part of the wall, and you wouldn’t even notice it unless you knew it was there. The door swung shut behind me, and a soft click sounded as it locked again, putting another barrier between me and the dragon.
I was on the opposite side of the balcony from the stairs that led down to the first floor, so I hurried in that direction. While I ran, I dug my hand into my messenger bag, hunting for my phone.
“Rory!” Babs hissed.
I ignored the sword and kept going, still digging through the jumble of items in my bag.
“Rory! Stop!” Babs hissed again.
I couldn’t listen to her and run and find my phone all at the same time, so I did as she asked. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Look,” she said. “Down at the first floor.”
I hurried over to the railing. Maybe it was instinct, since I had spent so much time here lately, but my running had led me over to Sigyn’s statue. I peered up at the goddess, who had a worried look on her face, then stared down at the first floor.
At first glance, everything seemed normal. Librarians standing at the checkout counter, students perched at the study tables, other kids sitting on the chairs and couches around the fireplace. But then I realized that no one was moving, speaking, or checking their phones, and I spotted something metal glinting on the floor in the main aisle. I leaned over the railing and squinted at the object. It was one of the Reapers’ smoke-bomb canisters, cracked wide open.
“Oh, no,” I whispered.
My gaze darted around the first floor again. Now that I was looking for it, I could see the wisps of red smoke snaking along the floor and crawling up the walls. My heart sank, but I forced myself to glance first at one person’s face, then at another’s.
Everyone had the same blank expression, and their eyes were all the same eerie blood-red.
Covington and Drake must have unleashed some smoke bombs up here in the library before coming down to the Bunker. They hadn’t just poisoned my friends—they had poisoned every single person in here. Dozens and dozens of students, librarians, and academy staff members.
“Rory! Over there!” Babs said. “Beyond the fireplace!”
I stared in that direction and sucked in a breath. The librarians, students, and staff members weren’t the only ones in the library—so were the Reapers.
Half a dozen Reapers wearing long black cloaks and carrying swords stepped out of the shadowy stacks and moved through the library, going from one person to the next, staring at their blank faces and red eyes. The Reapers were making sure that everyone was fully infected with the venom.
I was so shocked that I just stood there, my mouth gaping and my mind churning, trying to process what was happening. I had expected Covington to come after the Midgard, but I hadn’t thought he would target everyone in the library too. Things were even worse than I had realized—
“Rory!” Babs hissed again, even more urgency in her voice than before. “Watch out!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a shadow sliding across the floor, coming closer and closer. My Spartan instincts took over, and I whirled to my right, spinning out of the way of the blade that had been zooming toward my back.
CLANG!
The blade slammed into Sigyn’s statue and bounced off, cracking the white marble and spewing chips of stone everywhere. I whirled around, already knowing what I would find and dreading it with all my heart.
Ian stood in front of me, his Viking battle ax clutched in his hands.
Chapter Thirteen
For a long, tense moment, Ian stared at me with his blood-red eyes. Then he smiled, raised his ax, and swung it at my head.
I gasped in shock, but my Spartan instincts kicked in and saved me, as they had done so many times before. I ducked to my left, out of the way of Ian’s vicious blow, and his ax smashed into Sigyn’s statue again instead of me. Another large crack appeared in the statue, and this time, a couple of chunks of white marble broke free and dropped to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces.
I yanked Babs out of her scabbard, even as I focused on Ian again, desperately trying to find some trace of him beneath the red narcissus venom that coated his eyes and streaked across his face.
“Ian!” I yelled. “Snap out of it! This isn’t you! You don’t want to hurt me!”
“Actually, he very much wants to hurt you,” a voice called out.
My gaze cut to the left. Covington and Drake stepped around the open bookcase and out onto the second-floor balcony. They must not have been able to get through the door to the stairs in the Bunker, so they had ridden the elevator up here with Ian.
Covington was still clutching the Chloris Amulet, while Drake was holding his sword. They slowly advanced on me. I backed up, keeping my sword between the three of us, along with Ian, who was lurking off to the side.
“At first, I was going to order Ian to wound you just enough that we could capture you,” Covington said. “But then I decided that you needed to be punished for keeping the Narcissus Heart from me. And what better way to do that than by making you battle the boy you obviously love so very much. To make you choose between hur
ting him or having him hurt you.”
“What did you do?” I whispered.
His lips twisted into a thin sneer. “I told Ian to kill you—or die trying.”
He waved his hand, and Ian let out a low, angry growl and charged forward. I couldn’t dodge out of the way this time, and I had no choice but to snap up my sword to defend myself. Our weapons crashed together, and Ian leaned forward, trying to use his taller frame and Viking strength to drive me down to the floor.
“Ian,” I whispered. “Please, please don’t do this.”
His lips drew back in a silent snarl, and he surged forward, trying to muscle his way through my defenses and drive his ax into my heart.
My chest squeezed tight, but I forced myself to ignore my heartache. This wasn’t Ian. No, this was some red-eyed stranger whom I didn’t know, and he was going to kill me unless I fought back. So I gritted my teeth and dug my boots into the floor. It took every bit of my strength, but I managed to shove him away.
Ian growled and charged at me again, but I spun out of the way and went low, sweeping out with my leg and using it to knock his feet out from under him. Ian landed on his back on the floor. I hoped that might be enough to stop him, but he shook off the hard fall and got right back up on his feet again.
More footsteps smacked on the balcony, and I whirled around to see Zoe, Mateo, Aunt Rachel, Takeda, and Professor Dalaja walking over to stand beside Covington. They must have ridden the elevator up here with Ian and the Reapers. All five of my friends were clutching weapons and staring at me with the same murderous expression as the Viking.
“Just in case Ian can’t get the job done, I also gave that same kill order to the rest of your friends,” Covington said.
My chest squeezed tight again, but I only had a few seconds to absorb this new horror before more footsteps scuffed behind me. I quickly backed up and turned to the side so that I could see this new threat while still keeping an eye on everyone else.
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