“Why did you ask to be Kylie’s sparring partner in gym class?”
Ian lost his grip on his ax, and the weapon clattered onto his desk. He winced at the bang and glanced at Babs, but the sword’s eye remained shut, and her breathing stayed steady. Babs was a sound sleeper. Sometimes I thought that she could snooze through a fire alarm.
“What?” Ian asked. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. Why did you ask to be her sparring partner? Kylie told me you had been talking to her in gym class. That’s why she thought you liked her.”
He grimaced, but he didn’t say anything.
“Well?” I asked for a third time, my voice sharper than before. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing—nothing is going on between Kylie and me.” His voice was low and strained, and he dropped his head instead of meeting my gaze. Ian Hunter might be a great warrior, but he was a terrible liar.
But why would he lie about this? According to Kylie, Ian had volunteered to be her sparring partner, and he had been asking her a lot of questions. Yeah, I would have thought he liked me too if he had done that to me. But Ian claimed he wasn’t interested in Kylie that way. So what did that leave?
Still thinking, I leaned my hip back against the briefing table. And suddenly, I remembered where we were and what we did as the Midgard.
“Wait a second. Are you spying on Kylie?”
Ian winced, and a guilty flush crept up his neck, confirming my suspicion. “Something like that.”
“But why would you do that—” I didn’t have to finish my question, because I knew the answer. “You think she’s a Reaper, don’t you?”
He didn’t say anything, but that guilty flush crept up a little higher on his neck and spread out into his cheeks.
I shook my head. “Kylie might be a total mean girl, but she is not a Reaper.”
“How do you know?”
I sighed. “Because she was friends with some of the kids Covington killed in the Library of Antiquities. You know, the murders he blamed on my parents? That’s why Kylie hates me so much. For a long time, she thought my parents had killed her friends.”
That was one reason I’d never really tried to defend myself against Kylie and her cruel taunts. Oh, my parents might not have killed her friends, but they had still killed other people, and part of me had felt like I deserved every hateful word Kylie and the other kids said about me.
I pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on Ian again. “So why are you spying on her? Did Takeda ask you to? Is it some Midgard mission that I don’t know about?”
He shifted on his feet, but he must have realized that I wasn’t going to stop asking questions, because he finally lifted his head and looked at me. “No, Takeda didn’t ask me to spy on Kylie.” He lifted his chin a little higher and squared his shoulders. “I decided to do it myself.”
Everything he said only made me more confused. “But why would you do that if it wasn’t part of a mission?”
“You,” Ian said in a soft voice. “I did it for you, Rory.”
I reared back against the table. I couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d grabbed his ax and stabbed me in the stomach with it. “Me? Why would you do that for me?”
“Because of Covington and everything he’s done to you. But mostly because of how he tried to turn you into a Reaper.”
“What does any of that have to do with Kylie?”
Ian shrugged. “She was friends with Lance Fuller, and it was obvious that she wanted to be his girlfriend. I thought Lance might have told her something about Covington’s plans for you. Or what Drake and the other Reapers are going to do with those stolen artifacts.”
“And did you find out anything?”
My voice dropped to a whisper, and cold dread flooded my body. Fighting off Covington’s magic was one of the hardest things I’d ever done, and part of me worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it again. That he would eventually turn me into a Reaper after all, no matter how hard I tried to resist him.
Ian shook his head. “No. Kylie doesn’t know anything. She thinks Lance transferred to another academy like everyone else does. She got pretty upset whenever I brought him up. Apparently, she’s been calling and texting him, but he hasn’t responded to her messages.”
Of course Lance hadn’t responded. He was dead. But instead of telling the other Mythos students the truth—that I had killed Lance to save Ian during the Fall Costume Ball—Takeda and the Protectorate had made it seem like he’d gone to another school instead.
I hadn’t thought much about the lie, and I certainly hadn’t considered the fact that Lance might have friends who were worried about him, especially since he wouldn’t answer their calls. But Ian had apparently thought about it, and he had used Kylie’s concern and hurt over Lance to pump her for information on the Reapers—information that she didn’t even have, since she wasn’t a member of the evil organization.
The more I thought about how Ian had used and manipulated Kylie, the angrier I got. Because it was something a real Reaper would do.
“I didn’t ask you to spy on Kylie,” I said in a sharp voice. “I never asked you to do anything like that. Especially not for me.”
He frowned. “But I did it to protect you. So I could try to figure out what Covington wants with you.”
“And I never asked you to do that either. I’m a Spartan. I don’t need your protection.”
“Yes, you do, Rory.”
My hands clenched into fists. “Excuse me?”
Ian winced, realizing that he had said the wrong thing. He opened his mouth to explain, but I cut him off.
“I am a warrior and a member of the Midgard just like you are,” I snapped. “I don’t need protecting any more than you do, Viking.”
His mouth set into a stubborn line. He still thought he was right, which made even more anger spike through my body.
“Forget about me for a second. What about Kylie? Did you think it was fair to cozy up to her? What about her feelings? Did you ever think about those?” I couldn’t believe I was actually defending Kylie Midas after all the horrible things she had said about me, but she hadn’t deserved what Ian had done to her.
“She knows you don’t like her now, and after what she saw at the mansion today, she’ll probably realize that you were fishing for information on Lance. And once she puts the pieces together, if she already hasn’t, then she is going to be really hurt and angry. She’ll probably feel the same way I did when I found out that Lance was a Reaper and that he was only interested in me because Covington told him to recruit me.”
Ian winced again, and genuine regret filled his face. “I… I didn’t think about that.”
“It doesn’t seem like you thought about much of anything,” I snapped right back at him.
We stared at each other. More and more regret twisted Ian’s face, and I could tell that he was truly sorry, but that didn’t change what he’d done to Kylie. It didn’t lessen my own anger at him, and it certainly didn’t take away how hurt and betrayed I felt right now.
I was just as good a warrior as the Viking was, just as strong, smart, ruthless, and cunning. I didn’t need him to protect me. I didn’t want him to protect me. Not like this. No, I wanted—needed—him to treat me like an equal, the same way I treated him, because that was what true teammates, true friends, did.
Ian let out a breath. “I’m sorry for going behind your back, Rory. You’re right. I should have told you what I was doing, and I shouldn’t have used Kylie like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” I growled.
“I realize that now,” he said in a low voice. “And I really am sorry—for everything. I never meant to hurt you or Kylie.”
“Well, you did,” I growled again. “You hurt both of us.”
He opened his mouth, probably to apologize again, but the elevator pinged at the far end of the hallway, cutting him off.
The others were here, which meant that it was time to figure ou
t how the Reapers had stolen Serket’s Pen. That was what being a member of Team Midgard was all about: doing what was necessary for the greater good. And right now, it was necessary for me to set aside my hurt and anger and concentrate on tracking down the Reapers.
I sighed. “We need to get to work and focus on finding Covington and Drake before they hurt anyone with the artifact.”
I pulled out a chair and sat down at the briefing table. After a moment, Ian sat across from me. He realized that I was still angry, but he also knew that catching the Reapers was more important than what was going on with us.
Besides, finding and stopping Covington and Drake would go a long, long way toward making me feel better.
* * *
The murmur of footsteps and voices sounded, and Takeda, Zoe, and Mateo stepped into the room, along with Aunt Rachel, who was wearing her white chef’s coat, as if she had come straight over here from the dining hall. Takeda must have texted and told her we were back.
“Rory! There you are!” she said.
I got to my feet, and Aunt Rachel wrapped me up in a tight hug.
“Takeda told me what happened at the mansion. About that awful basilisk in the library. I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered in my ear.
I hugged her back. “Me too.”
Takeda, Zoe, and Mateo all took their seats at the table, and Aunt Rachel and I sat down as well. Mateo cracked open his laptop and started typing, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“You’re going to set that thing on fire, typing so fast,” Zoe teased.
His dark brown gaze cut to her for a moment, and a small grin curved his mouth. “Just doing my job. But don’t worry. I’ve got everything uploaded, and we can access it all…now.”
He hit a final button, and photos of the estate library appeared on the wall monitors. They all showed the same thing: the empty, smashed case where Serket’s Pen had been. A tense silence fell over the room.
Takeda sighed. “As much as I hate to admit it, we failed to protect the artifact. Even worse, we have no idea how the Reapers slipped into the library, stole the pen, and escaped without being seen. None of the Protectorate guards posted in the woods around the estate saw anything, and neither did any of the staff members inside the mansion.”
“Plus, I uploaded my new facial-recognition software into the mansion’s security system as soon as we got to the estate this morning,” Mateo added. “Even if none of the guards noticed them, my software still should have spotted Covington and Drake. At least, before someone hacked the system and the power went out. I’m starting to wonder if there’s a flaw in my program. And if that’s the case, then that means the academy is vulnerable as well.”
The Protectorate had a database of all known Reapers and other criminals, but Mateo had come up with a program to specifically identify Covington and Drake, and he had spent the last week plugging his new software into the academy’s security cameras. According to Mateo, if Covington or Drake ever came to the academy, if they ever set one single foot on campus, the security cameras would spot and recognize them. Then Mateo would get an alert on his phone and laptop that the Reapers were here, and we could all respond accordingly and capture them.
Mateo ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “I don’t know what happened. Either my program is flawed, or the Reapers somehow managed to avoid every single security camera inside the mansion, which is pretty much impossible, given how many of them there are.” Worry filled his voice, along with more than a little disappointment, and he slumped down in his chair.
Zoe stabbed her finger at him. “Your program is not flawed. You are Mateo Solis, and you are freaking brilliant when it comes to computers. You’ll figure out how the Reapers beat the cameras, and you’ll fix it so they never do it again.”
Blue sparks of magic shot out of her index finger, streaked across the table, and landed on Mateo, flickering like fireflies before slowly winking out. He flashed her a grateful smile. Zoe’s stern expression softened, and she smiled back at him.
Zoe definitely wasn’t jealous like she had been when Mateo had been talking to Daphne Cruz, but once again, I got a weird vibe off her. Like there was a lot more to her encouraging Mateo than just being a good friend. Interesting. Very interesting.
“Let’s look at the security footage and see if we can figure out how the Reapers avoided the cameras,” Takeda said.
Mateo stretched his arms out in front of him, before cracking his knuckles and shaking out his fingers. Then he leaned forward and started typing on his laptop again.
The photos of the empty artifact case vanished, replaced by the security footage. Mateo set it up so that each monitor showed a different angle from inside the mansion. He hit a final button, and the footage started playing on the screens.
We watched while the bus pulled into the parking lot, and the students got off and went inside, along with Professor Dalaja. From there, the professor moved from one room to the next, pointing out the artifacts while all the kids took notes, including Ian and me.
“Maybe the Reapers disguised themselves as part of the estate staff,” Aunt Rachel suggested.
“We already checked,” Takeda said. “Everyone at the estate has worked there for years, and they were all present and accounted for before and after the attack.”
“Maybe Covington and Drake used an artifact to hide from the cameras,” Zoe said.
“That is a possibility,” Takeda agreed.
The others started talking, throwing out one theory after another, but nothing seemed quite right, and we couldn’t figure out how the Reapers had done it. On the monitors, Professor Dalaja led the students into the dining hall, and everyone got in line for lunch. The cameras flickered, then went dark a second later.
“And that’s the end of the footage,” Mateo said.
Everyone was silent for several seconds.
Takeda reached up and massaged his temples, showing a rare bit of frustration. “Okay, let’s watch the footage again and see if we can come up with any more ideas.”
“Sure. Let me cue it up again,” Mateo said.
He started typing. Everyone else got up to take a break and stretch their legs, but I stayed in my seat and drummed my fingers on the table. This whole situation reminded me of a locked-room mystery from some detective novel. In those sorts of stories, something valuable was locked away in an impenetrable room, but the object always got stolen anyway, leaving the detective to figure out how the thief had committed the seemingly impossible crime.
The library hadn’t been locked, but Serket’s Pen had still been stolen despite the fact that the mansion had been surrounded by Protectorate guards. Locked-room mysteries were some of my favorites, but in this case, the situation was far more frustrating than fun. Still, in the stories, the detective always figured out the answer, and I was determined to do the same.
So I quit thinking about how the Reapers might have stolen the artifact. I pushed all of our theories, speculations, and wild guesses out of my mind, then leaned back in my seat and thought about what I did know, all the things that I was absolutely, positively certain about.
Someone had hacked into the mansion’s security system and cut the power. While the lights and cameras were out, someone had stolen Serket’s Pen and used the artifact to summon that basilisk to cover their tracks. Ian and I had rushed into the library, and I had killed the basilisk.
That was it. That was all there was. That was everything that had happened.
More frustration surged through me, and I kept drumming my fingers on the table. I reviewed the facts over and over again, but they stayed the same.
Hacker. Cameras and lights knocked out. Stolen artifact. Basilisk left behind.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. Or, rather, a different way of looking at the same set of facts.
Hacker. Cameras and lights knocked out. Stolen artifact. Basilisk left behind.
That was it. That was all there was because nothing else ha
d happened.
This whole time, we had assumed that Covington and Drake had stolen the artifact, but no one had actually seen them at the mansion. Mateo thought his computer program was flawed and had missed spotting them, while Zoe had suggested that the Reapers had used an artifact to hide from the security cameras.
But what if there was another, simpler explanation? What if the reason no one had seen Covington and Drake was that they had never even been there?
My mind spun around and around, but the more I thought about it, the more certain I was that I was right.
“The Reapers weren’t there,” I said.
Zoe glanced at me. “What did you say?”
“The Reapers weren’t there.” My voice was louder and stronger this time.
“The Reapers weren’t where?” Ian asked.
I got up from the table and started pacing back and forth. “Mateo says that his program and the security cameras never spotted Covington and Drake.”
Mateo sighed. “So what? There must be something wrong with my program.”
“So what if Zoe is right, and your program isn’t flawed? What if it worked exactly the way it was supposed to?”
He frowned. “But how could that be?”
“Because the Reapers weren’t there.” I stabbed my finger at the footage frozen on the wall monitors. “That’s why the Protectorate guards never saw them, and that’s why they never showed up on the cameras. Covington and Drake were never at the estate.”
We all fell silent. My friends looked from the monitors to me and back again, and I could almost see the wheels turning in their minds as they realized what Covington and Drake not being at the mansion meant.
Aunt Rachel figured it out first. “But if Covington and Drake weren’t there, then that would mean…”
“That someone else stole the artifact,” I said, finishing her thought. “Someone else stole Serket’s Pen.”
Chapter Thirteen
Shock filled my friends’ faces, and silence descended over the briefing room again as they absorbed my words.
“Are you sure?” Takeda asked.
Spartan Promise: A Mythos Academy Novel (Mythos Academy spinoff series Book 2) Page 12