Midnight Frost

quiet today, and we hadn’t talked much, but I knew he’d been resting up for the battle that was sure to come. The sword realized the most dangerous part of the journey was still ahead—getting down the mountain and surviving whatever trap the Reapers were planning.
    “Don’t worry, Gwen,” Vic said. “You go to sleep. I’ll keep an eye out. No Reapers will creep up on you tonight. I promise.”
    “Okay, Vic,” I mumbled. “I’ll leave it to you.”
    I closed my eyes and let the blackness of sleep take me away.

Chapter 25
    The cold woke me.
    Sometime during the night, I’d wormed my way up out of my sleeping bag, and the chill in the air had crept down the back of my neck like a ticklish finger. I shivered and snuggled back down into my sleeping bag, until the warmth of my body, combined with the silky material, drove away the worst of the cold. It was early, and Daphne, Rory, and Rachel were all still asleep in the tent with me, but I could tell it was getting lighter outside. It must be close to dawn. With any luck, we’d be back at the academy by noon, then back in North Carolina sometime late this evening.
    I lay in my sleeping bag, but it wasn’t too long before the others started stirring. Thirty minutes later, we were all gathered around the fire, which had dwindled down to embers overnight. We were all still half-asleep, so nobody felt much like talking. Instead, everyone cracked open some bottled water and dug through their backpacks to find some breakfast. Once again, I tore into a packet of granola. The dried fruit, dark chocolate, oats, and nuts weren’t quite as flavorful as they had been yesterday, but they kept my stomach from grumbling too much.
    Once we were all more or less awake and fed, we made sure that the fire was completely cold, took down the tents, and packed up our things. Rachel adjusted her pack on her back, then stared up at the sky. The early morning sun had already disappeared, replaced by a heavy veil of dark gray clouds.
    “That storm’s finally blowing in,” she said. “We need to be off the mountain before the worst of the snow starts.”
    We nodded. None of us had any desire to be trapped up here. It was already cold and blustery enough. I couldn’t even imagine how much worse a foot or two of snow would make things. Despite the cold, I didn’t put my gloves on. I wanted to be able to pull Vic out of his scabbard without any problems in case of a Reaper attack.
    As we shouldered our packs and got ready to head out, I couldn’t help the feeling of unease that swept over me. It all seemed too . . . easy . Except for the attack on the train, the Reapers hadn’t made a move against us while we’d been at the ruins. I wondered why—and what they were really up to.
    We were about to leave the courtyard when I saw that mysterious shadow out of the corner of my eye.
    One second, I was thinking about how long it would take us to hike down the mountain and when and where the Reapers might attack. The next, I realized there was a figure hovering on the edge of my vision—one that seemed to be staring straight at me.
    I snapped my head to the left—but no one was there. All I saw were crumbled walls and overturned rocks, with the flowers spread out like a colorful blanket in the middle of the courtyard.
    “What’s the matter, Princess?” Rory asked, noticing me looking around.
    I shook my head. I wasn’t sure what to tell her. Sorry, I seem to be seeing things that aren’t really there didn’t exactly seem like the right thing to say—
    Caw-caw-caw.
    I froze, really, really hoping I was just imagining those sounds.
    Caw-caw-caw.
    But the high, eerie shrieks came again, echoing from one side of the courtyard to the other and back again, and I knew that I wasn’t hallucinating—and that we were in serious trouble.
    A second later, a shadow fell over me, blotting out what little sun there was, and a bird swooped down out of the sky. It was an enormous creature, easily twice as big as I was tall, with glossy black feathers shot through with streaks of red; long, curved black talons; and black eyes that contained a hot, burning spark of Reaper red.
    A Black roc—and it wasn’t alone.
    A girl was strapped in a leather harness that was attached to the creature’s broad back. A black robe fluttered around her body over her matching black snowsuit. Frizzy auburn hair, bright golden eyes, sneering smile. She looked exactly the same as she did in my nightmares.