Midnight Frost

the clouds and then back down into the yawning chasm in front of me. Slowly, the reality of the situation broke through my surprise.
    Now, only empty air lay between me, Logan, and the others—and the Spartan and I were trapped on the wrong side of the bridge.

Chapter 29
    I stared in disbelief at the canyon. We’d gotten the ambrosia flower, learned that Covington was a traitor, and had survived being attacked by Vivian, Agrona, the other Reapers, and their rocs. I’d thought we were finally free and clear.
    I really should have known better by now.
    “Gwen!” Rachel shouted, the wind whipping her words over to me. “You’ll have to take the other trail on the far side of the courtyard! It’s the only way you can get off the mountain now!”
    I remembered her talking about the trail before—the steep, winding trail that she hadn’t gone down in years and that had probably been made impassible by falling rocks. Terrific. But Rachel was right—it was the only option we had.
    “Where is it?” I shouted at her.
    “Look at the map in your backpack! Go to the south side of the courtyard!” she yelled back. “It starts there! You can’t miss it!”
    “Get as far down the trail as you can!” Ajax yelled, his voice booming across the open space. “We’ll come up and get you as soon as we can!”
    He didn’t say it would take hours—if not longer. My friends would be lucky if they made it back to the academy by lunch. By the time they geared up for a rescue mission, dark would be approaching, and it would be too late to come searching for us without putting everyone in danger—which meant that Logan and I were most likely spending the night on the mountain.
    Panic rose up in me, as cold and biting as the winter wind tearing through my hair, but I pushed it down. I couldn’t afford to panic. Not now. Instead, I plastered a smile on my face and waved at my friends.
    “See you at the bottom!” I yelled.
    They all stared at me, their faces pinched with worry. But there was nothing they could do—there was nothing any of us could do. So I forced myself to turn away from them.
    Instead, I looked at Logan. Fear and unease flickered in his blue eyes, and his face was twisted into a painful grimace. He held his hand against his side where the roc had injured him, as though the wound was bothering him more and more, although I couldn’t see how bad it really was, given the heavy black snowsuit he wore.
    “Please tell me you brought your supplies over to this side of the bridge.”
    He winced. “Sorry. I left all my gear behind when I came over to help you guys fight the Reapers.”
    That meant we only had what little food and water I had left in my backpack, along with my sleeping bag. But I didn’t know how warm it would keep us tonight with no tent to help keep out the cold.
    As if being separated from my friends and low on supplies wasn’t bad enough, a few fat, fluffy flakes of snow started to drift down from the sky. The storm was here—and Logan and I were going to be stuck in the middle of it.
    “We need to get moving,” I said.
    “I know.” He hesitated, then handed me the sword he’d grabbed from one of the dead Reapers. “I want you to take this—and use it on me, if you have to.”
    I reached out and took the sword. I hefted it in my hand a moment, then turned and threw it into the chasm. Logan sucked in a surprised breath, but he didn’t say anything. I faced him once more and slid Vic back into the scabbard on my waist.
    “I trust you, Spartan. You’re not going to hurt me. Not again.”
    No matter how many horrid nightmares I’d had. They weren’t real. Logan was— this Logan. He was real, and he was what mattered.
    “But what if I—”
    I held up my hand, cutting him off. “I don’t want to hear another word about it—not one more word . In case you haven’t noticed, it’s snowing. That means that big monster storm is almost here. We at least need to get down a little lower on the mountain and find some firewood and a place to camp for the night. Otherwise, we’ll freeze to death. I’m more worried about that than I am about Loki suddenly popping into your head and you going all Reaper on me again. We can . . . talk about things later. After we’re somewhere safe for the night. Okay?”
    Logan stared at me, but, in the end, neither of us had a choice, and we both knew it.
    Finally, he nodded, his face still grim. “Okay. Let’s move.”
     
    I found the trail