Midnight Frost

“I’ll show her nothing—”
    I reached down and clamped my hand over the sword’s mouth to muffle the sound of his voice. Vic would totally make me pay for this later, but right now, I needed him to be quiet. It was one thing for the Reapers to know we were coming. It was another for the sword to start shouting threats and telling everyone exactly where we were.
    The girl’s eyes narrowed, and she looked past me. A second later, Daphne stepped up beside me. The Valkyrie crossed her arms over her chest and gave the other girl a cool once-over.
    “Problem, Gwen?”
    “No problem,” I said.
    “Good,” Daphne replied. “The train’s almost here. Ajax wants us to head on outside.”
    “Right behind you.”
    Daphne stared at the girl a moment longer before striding back over to Carson and the others. I followed her.
    Still, I couldn’t help glancing over my shoulder. The girl was still scowling at me. But for a moment, I almost thought I saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes, and her mouth seemed to turn down that much more. For some reason, the expression made me want to go back over to her and find out what she was so upset about.
    “Come on, Gwen!” Daphne called out.
    But my friends were waiting, so I put the girl out of my mind and followed them onto the platform.

Chapter 11
    Fifteen minutes later, the train pulled out of the station. The engine’s whistle pierced the early morning air, sounding as high and sharp as a Black roc’s screech. Or maybe it only seemed that way because I knew the Reapers would probably be waiting for us up at the academy and then at the Eir Ruins—if we even made it that far.
    Like the station, the train itself featured long, padded wooden benches with brass rails running alongside them. There were even a few tables bolted to the floor here and there throughout the car, so folks could face each other. I was sitting by myself. Oliver and Alexei were on the bench across from me, with Daphne and Carson sitting in front of me. Coach Ajax was in front of Oliver and Alexei, leaning his elbows on one of the tables, dwarfing the wood with his large frame and muscled body. The sunlight streaming in through the windows made his skin gleam like polished onyx.
    I had my messenger bag next to me on the bench, with Vic propped up so that he could look out the large picture windows. The sword eyed the passing scenery, when he wasn’t busy shooting me dirty looks for clamping my hand over his mouth earlier.
    The car we were in wasn’t all that crowded. A few other kids were sprawled over the benches in the front, while two adults—a man and a woman—were at a table behind them. Everyone was engrossed in their phones or the laptops they’d opened up the second the train had left the station. I eyed the other passengers, but no one seemed to be paying me or my friends any attention. In fact, none of the other folks in the car even glanced in our direction. Normally, I would have thought that was a good thing, but something about the complete lack of attention struck me as being strange. Or perhaps that was just my paranoia showing through again.
    To my surprise, the girl I’d seen inside the station was also in our car, although she made sure to sit in the back, five rows away from anyone else. She had her back to the window, and her legs stretched out on the bench in front of her. She noticed me looking at her again, scowled, and pointedly turned her head and stared out the window.
    “Who’s that?” Oliver asked, leaning across the aisle so he could talk to me. “She doesn’t seem like she’s a member of the Gwen Frost fan club.”
    I shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”
    Alexei touched his arm, and Oliver leaned back to see what he wanted.
    We rode in silence for about thirty minutes. The trip was pleasant enough. The train rocked from side to side in a soothing way, although every once in a while, the gears would grind together, making the car shudder and the windows rattle as the engine struggled up the mountain. According to Ajax, it was a ninety-minute ride up to Snowline Ridge, and the others soon took off their jackets, wadded them up to use as pillows, got comfortable, and drifted off to sleep.
    The day had barely started, and I was already tired, but try as I might, I couldn’t go to sleep, not without worrying that I might have another nightmare. So I stared out at the passing scenery instead.
    In some ways, the Rockies were a lot like the Appalachian