Midnight Frost

out of arm’s—and sword’s reach—of me.
    “You won’t attack me again,” I protested. “You’re free of Loki now. I saw that too. And I see it in your eyes now.”
    He gave me a grim smile. “Only because you used your psychometry on me. But you’re not always going to be around. What if he comes back? What if I go all Reaper again? What if I hurt someone else? I can’t take that chance—especially not with you.”
    His words broke my heart all over again, especially since I could see how much he was hurting. He could barely look at me, and even when he did, guilt twisted his features.
    “So what happens now?” I asked, forcing out the words through the hard knot of emotion in my throat. “After we get down the mountain? Will you come back to Mythos with us?”
    Logan shook his head. “I’ll return to the academy to make sure Nickamedes is okay—but I’m not staying. After that, I’ll go back to be with my dad.”
    “For how long?” I whispered.
    He shrugged again. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I’m sorry, Gwen. Really, I am.”
    Logan gave me a sad smile, then quickened his pace, leaving me alone at the back of the group. But I didn’t mind too much. At least this way, no one saw my face pinch tight with pain or heard the sob that escaped my throat. Logan might be here, but he was still as far away and lost to me as ever, and I didn’t know how to fix it—I didn’t know how to fix us .
    Now, I wondered if it was even possible—or if Logan and I were as crumbled and broken as the ruins around us.
     
    We reached the rope bridge a few minutes later. My heart was still aching, but I kept my emotions in check. As Ajax had said, we were still in danger, and turning into a weeping, wailing mess wouldn’t help.
    Ajax held up his hand, and we stopped. The coach looked this way and that, just like the rest of us did, but there was no sign of Vivian, Agrona, or any other Reapers. Ajax took a few steps out onto the bridge, testing it, but it seemed as sturdy as when we’d first come up here. It looked like the Reapers had expected to kill us in the courtyard and hadn’t bothered to sabotage the bridge.
    “All right,” Ajax said. “Let’s get this over with. And keep your eyes open. There could still be more Reapers waiting on the other side to ambush us.”
    Ajax and Oliver crossed the bridge first. I held my breath, but they made it over to the other side safely, and no Reapers came rushing out of the forest to attack them.
    Rory went next, prodding a dagger into Covington’s back to get him to shuffle along in front of her. She’d used some of the climbing rope we’d brought along to tie his hands together. The evil librarian hadn’t said a word as we’d been walking, although he kept giving us all murderous glares.
    Rachel hurried after her niece, and Daphne and Carson followed them. Alexei hesitated, but I waved him on ahead.
    “Logan and I will cross last,” I said.
    Alexei looked at me, then Logan. After a moment, he nodded and set off across the bridge. He made it to the other side without any problems.
    “You first, Gypsy girl,” Logan said.
    I started to step onto the bridge—
    Caw-caw-caw.
    I froze.
    Caw-caw-caw.
    The roc’s shrieks sounded once again, although for some reason, it seemed as if the cries were coming from the ground beneath my feet, rather than the clouds above. I moved away from the bridge, raised Vic, and turned this way and that, searching for the roc—and the Reapers that would be riding the creature.
    A second later, instead of dropping down from the sky, a Black roc soared up out of the chasm below. The creature smashed right through the middle of the bridge, snapping the boards and ropes in two like they were made of nothing more substantial than brittle matchsticks and thin thread. The splintered debris seemed to hover in midair for a moment before it silently floated down into the canyon far, far below.
    The Black roc swooped back down, with Vivian and Agrona on its back. I tightened my grip on Vic, expecting the creature to dive-bomb forward and attack me and Logan, but instead, the roc only hovered above the chasm.
    “Good luck getting off the mountain now, Gwen!” Vivian yelled.
    She slapped the reins against the creature’s back, and they zoomed off into the sky. A golden arrow followed them, shot by Daphne, but the wind sent it skittering sideways, and it sailed off into the ruins.
    Stunned, all I could do was stare up into