Midnight Frost

gear from where they had fallen. Five minutes later, we walked out of the ruins, leaving nothing behind but dead Reapers, dead rocs, and a courtyard full of crushed, broken, blood-covered flowers.

Chapter 28
    We headed toward the rope bridge at the edge of the ruins, weapons drawn, still keeping an eye out in case the Reapers had planned a second ambush. Despite the danger, I fell in step beside Logan at the back of the group.
    He was carrying a curved, bloody sword that he’d gotten from one of the dead Reapers. Seeing him with the weapon made me think about how he’d stabbed me with a similar blade at the Aoide Auditorium, but I shoved the memory away. Logan was here now, and I had so many things I wanted to ask him—and so many things I wanted to tell him too.
    “I think we can walk and talk at the same time,” I said. “Don’t you?”
    For a moment, I thought he might rush on past me, but he finally sighed and nodded. The two of us walked a few feet behind the others.
    “So,” I said. “You’re here.”
    “Yep. I’m here.”
    “You want to tell me about it?”
    Logan sighed again. “Metis called my dad the night that Nickamedes was poisoned and let us know what was going on. I couldn’t sit around and do nothing, especially when Oliver told me you were coming out here to look for a cure—and that it was most likely a Reaper trap. So I got on one of the Protectorate’s private planes and flew out here. I arrived a couple of hours before you guys did.”
    “And what did your dad think of that?”
    Logan shrugged. “He didn’t like it, but he let me come. Mainly because I told him that if he didn’t, I’d go to the nearest airport and buy a ticket to fly out here on my own.”
    “So what? You’ve been following us this whole time?”
    He nodded. “I was already at the train station when you guys showed up. I even had a seat in your car, but I got up and moved to another one before you could spot me. My dad arranged for me to room in one of the guest dorms at the academy and then for a car to take me up to the park entrance. There’s another trail that runs parallel to the ones you guys used, so it was easy for me to follow you. I camped on the other side of the bridge last night, in case the Reapers decided to attack from that direction. I was packing up my gear to leave when I heard the rocs. So I raced across the bridge to come help you guys.”
    I thought of all the times over the past few days when it seemed like someone was watching me. “So you were at the train station, and it was you I saw in the stacks in the library. And you were watching me through the trees as we hiked up here yesterday.”
    “Guilty as charged.”
    I reached over and punched him in the shoulder. “Well, you scared the crap out of me. I thought you were some Reaper spy. Why would you do that? Why not let everyone know that you were here? And that you wanted to help? Why not let me know?”
    Logan stared at me, a troubled, haunted look in his eyes. “Because I still don’t trust myself. Especially not when it comes to you, Gypsy girl.”
    Guilt filled his face, and he dropped his gaze from mine. I’d been so focused on my own nightmares, on my own anger, on my own pain, that I hadn’t stopped to think that Logan might have had the same kinds of feelings. That he might have spent the last few weeks reliving how Loki had infected his mind and forced him to attack me, just as I’d seen it dozens of times in my dreams.
    “Didn’t you get my letter?” I asked in a soft voice. “None of it was your fault. It was all Vivian and Agrona. There was nothing you could have done against them. And I flashed on the letter you sent me. I saw how hard you fought against Loki himself—how hard you fought to keep from hurting me.”
    Logan let out a bitter laugh. “But I did hurt you. Sure, I fought—I fought Loki with all my might, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to keep me from stabbing you. I almost killed you. And who’s to say I won’t do that again? Maybe next time, you won’t be able to use your touch magic to get through to me. Maybe next time, Daphne and Metis won’t be there to heal you. Maybe next time, you’ll just be dead .”
    His voice cracked on the last word. More than anything else, I wanted to hug him and tell him it was okay, that everything was going to be okay, but he’d just sidestep me again before I could get too close to him. Even now, when we were walking, Logan made sure he was