Midnight Frost

“Let the girl explain it all. It’s more her story to tell than mine anyway, especially since she has to live with the consequences of it every day.”
    I frowned. “Consequences of what—”
    Something rustled off to my left. I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was walking, and I’d drifted back into the stacks while I’d been talking to Grandma Frost. Now, I was about halfway down one of the aisles, with books all around me.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I could see someone watching me from the next shelf over.
    I couldn’t tell much about the figure. The stacks were actually shelves that had been carved out of the lumber logs, and the thickness of the wood cast deep shadows. The figure seemed to be tall, so I assumed it was a guy. He appeared to be wearing dark clothes, judging from the glimpses of his jeans and long coat that I got through the rows of books that separated us, but he was standing too far back in the shadows for me to get a good look at his face.
    I was going to change that, though. No doubt he was some spy sent here to follow me and my friends since the Reapers had failed to kill us on the train. Maybe if I could sneak up on him, I could question him and get some answers as to what the Reapers were up to and why—and where Vivian and Agrona were hiding. Logan might not be here, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from tracking them down—and making Vivian and Agrona pay for what they’d done to him.
    “Pumpkin?”
    “I have to go, Grandma,” I said. “I’ll call you again later tonight, okay?”
    “Just be careful. I love you, pumpkin.”
    “I love you too.”
    I hung up the phone. But instead of putting it away, I kept fiddling with it. I started pacing up and down the aisle, as though I were totally distracted and checking my text messages, even though I didn’t have any. With every pass I made, I crept a little closer to the end of the aisle—and so did the guy on the other side.
    He was keeping pace with me, and I was going to make him pay for it. When I was in range, I planned to grab Vic, charge around the end of the bookshelf, and put the sword up against the Reaper’s throat. Okay, okay, so it wasn’t much of a plan, but it was better than letting some Reaper creep spy on me and report back to Vivian and Agrona.
    I finally got close enough to the end of the aisle to put my plan into action. I hit a few more buttons on my phone, scrolling through screen after screen, before sliding it back into my jeans pocket. I took a step forward, like I was going back to the center of the library, but at the last second, I pivoted, grabbed Vic from his scabbard around my waist, raised the sword high, and darted around the end of the bookcase and over into the next aisle, ready to attack whomever was watching me . . .
    Empty—the aisle was completely, utterly empty.
    I looked right and left and in front and behind me, but no one was there. I even peered through the rows of books, looking into the stacks on either side, but those aisles were as empty as this one was.
    “Gwen?” Vic asked. He’d woken up when I’d abruptly yanked him out of his scabbard. “What are you doing? Are there Reapers to fight?”
    I let out the breath I’d been holding. The Reaper must have realized that I was onto him and had slipped away into the stacks. He could be anywhere by now—if he’d really even been there to start with.
    I thought I’d seen someone watching me, but now, I didn’t know. Because it had been a long day already, and I was still jumpy and on edge from the Reaper attack this morning. Maybe someone had been watching me—or maybe I was imagining things the way I so often did. Either way, there was nothing for me to do but go back to my friends.
    “Gwen?” Vic asked again. “Is something wrong?”
    “Nothing,” I told the sword. “It’s nothing. Just a false alarm. Go back to sleep.”
    Vic yawned again, and his eye snapped shut once more.
    I sighed. I didn’t know what was worse—the Reapers or my paranoia. With Vic still in my hand, I turned to head back to my friends—and slammed into someone creeping up behind me.

Chapter 16
    Still thinking about the mystery figure, I immediately went into attack mode and raised Vic high. The only problem was that hitting the figure had thrown me off balance, and I staggered back. My shoulder slammed into one of the bookcases, making me wince with pain—and drop Vic.
    The sword skittered across the floor. I threw