Midnight Frost

wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. It just—it just could not be .
    Rory looked at me, a mixture of anger and pity in her eyes, and I knew it was true. Every awful word that Duke had said was true. Her parents had been Reapers—and so had my dad.
    How long had he been a Reaper? Had he killed people? Had my mom known? Had Grandma Frost known? All of these questions slammed into my mind one after another, the force of them making me wobble on my feet.
    “What’s the matter?” Duke taunted. “Don’t like hearing the truth about your horrible family?”
    He stepped toward me, but Rory moved in front of me, blocking him. She lifted her chin and glared at him. Duke sneered at her, and his hand curled into a fist again, as though he was thinking about hitting her.
    Another chair scraped back from the table, and Alexei moved in front of both of us.
    “That’s enough,” he said in a chillingly quiet voice. “Walk away.”
    “Yeah, dude,” Oliver said, moving to stand beside Alexei. “Get lost. Now.”
    Daphne and Carson got to their feet, as well, and Duke realized he was outnumbered. Still, he glared at Rory like he’d love nothing more than to wade through my friends to get to her—and me too.
    “Whatever,” he finally muttered. “She’s not worth it anyway. None of the Forsetis are.”
    He stalked over to his friends, and they all sat down at their table and put their heads together. From the laughter, curses, and jeers, I knew they were talking about us—about my dad .
    Suddenly, the dining hall seemed hot, small, and stuffy. I couldn’t breathe, and what air I did manage to draw in came right back out in a series of choked gasps. I reached down, fumbled for my messenger bag, and straightened up.
    “Gwen?” Daphne asked, her black eyes full of concern.
    I shook my head. “I just—I need to be alone for a few minutes. Okay?”
    Alexei started to come with me, whether I wanted him to or not, but Oliver put a hand on his arm.
    “It’s okay,” Oliver said. “Let her go.”
    I hurried out of the dining hall without another word.

    I wound up in the Library of Antiquities, just like I usually did back home whenever something was on my mind. Some new torture the Reapers had put me through, some horrible new secret I’d learned, some new way my heart had been broken once more.
    I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going, so I was halfway down the main aisle before I spotted Ajax and Covington standing behind the checkout counter, talking. I didn’t want them to see me and wave me over, so I slipped into the stacks and headed up to the second level to Nike’s statue. I threw my messenger bag down and curled up in a ball on the floor at her feet.
    Vic was sticking out of the top of the bag, and he opened his purplish eye and regarded me with a serious, pitying expression.
    “I take it you heard all that in the dining hall?” I asked.
    “I did. I’m sorry, Gwen.”
    “Did you know? About my dad?”
    Vic winced, telling me what I already suspected. He’d known this whole time that my dad had been a Reaper, and he’d never said a word to me—not one word . I wondered what else he knew that I didn’t, how many other secrets he’d been keeping to himself.
    He opened his mouth. “But it’s not as bad as you think—”
    “Shut up, Vic,” I muttered. “I don’t want to hear it right now.”
    Vic stared at me a moment longer, then slowly closed his eye.
    I didn’t bother raising my head and speaking to Nike. She wouldn’t answer me. Not now, not here. Besides, I didn’t want to talk about things. Not yet. Just when I thought I knew all there was to know about my family, something else like this popped up. I wondered how many more secrets I could take before I started screaming and never stopped—
    A shoe scuffed on the floor behind me.
    My head snapped around, and I stretched my hand out toward Vic, ready to draw the sword and defend myself against the Reaper that was no doubt sneaking up on me.
    Even as I reached for the sword, I cursed myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Gwen! Ajax had told us to stick together, but I’d rushed off in a snit like a complete idiot, just like I always did, and some Reaper had seen this as an opportunity to try to kill me, probably the mysterious figure I’d noticed in the stacks earlier . . .
    I blinked and stopped my hasty scramble, my arm stretched out in midair—because the balcony was empty. My gaze zoomed left and right, and up and