Midnight Frost

Yeah, maybe it hadn’t been the easiest thing in the world, hearing her chatter on about her date with Carson, especially since my one and only date with Logan had ended with me getting arrested by the Protectorate a few weeks ago. But she was just trying to be a good friend, and I wasn’t going to ruin her fun because I was tired, cranky, and worried about problems I couldn’t fix.
    “Are you sure?” Daphne asked, tossing her sweater aside and plopping down on the bed beside me. “Because we can totally do something else.”
    “I’m sure,” I replied in a firm voice. “Besides, we’ve only been through half your closet. We can’t stop now.”
    Daphne arched an eyebrow. “Your sarcasm is noted.”
    She reached down, grabbed a pillow off the bed, and threw it at me, but I laughed and easily ducked down out of the way.
    An alarm on my cell phone beeped, reminding me that I had fifteen minutes to get my butt in gear and get over to the library.
    “And fun time is officially over,” I said, making a face and getting up off the bed. “Gotta go slave away in the library. You know Nickamedes will be on my case if I’m so much as one minute late.”
    On the floor, Nyx let out a fierce growl and finally pounced on the stuffed toy, tearing into it with her baby teeth. Vic’s eye snapped open at the sound of the fabric ripping, and he stared at the wolf pup.
    “Way to go, fuzzball,” Vic said. “You’re getting much better at pouncing on things. I approve. Soon, you’ll be ready to take on some Reapers.”
    Nyx puffed up with pride and spent the next two minutes racing from one side of the room to the other, the Hello Kitty plushie hanging out of her mouth as she showed off her prize to me, Vic, and Daphne.
    “You know that was my favorite toy, right?” Daphne groused.
    “Well, just think,” I chirped. “Now you can buy a new one . . . that’s wearing even more pink.”
    Daphne gave me a shove, careful not to hurt me with her Valkyrie strength. I laughed and tossed a pillow back at her.
    Nyx plopped down on her butt, tilted her head back, and let out a triumphant, if slightly squeaky, howl. She’d totally killed Hello Kitty, and she knew it. And even Daphne had to smile at that.
     
    Daphne offered to walk with me over to the library, but I told her to stay put and finish going through her closet. She reluctantly agreed.
    Usually, Alexei would have been waiting outside Daphne’s dorm, Valhalla Hall, to walk with me wherever I was going, but he’d texted me to say he was busy with something and he’d meet me at the library. So I looped my gray messenger bag over my chest, clipped a purple leash to the collar Nyx was wearing, per Linus Quinn and the Protectorate’s rules, and headed out.
    It was even colder today than it had been yesterday, and the whistling winter wind cut through my thick layers of clothes like they weren’t even there. But campus was much livelier this afternoon, as kids went to their after-school clubs, sports, and activities, headed over to the dining hall to get some supper, or trudged toward the library to finally get started on that essay that was due, like, first thing in the morning.
    I walked along the cobblestone path winding up the hill and stepped onto the main quad, which featured the five buildings where students spent most of their time—English-history, math-science, the gym, the dining hall, and the Library of Antiquities.
    I tucked my chin down into my scarf and hurried over to the library. Despite the cold, I stopped a moment at the bottom of the main steps, where two gryphon statues sat.
    Eagle heads, wings, lions’ bodies, long tails, curved beaks, sharp talons. The gryphons seemed like they were about a breath away from breaking free of their stone shells and attacking anyone who so much as glanced at them funny. But it wasn’t just how fierce they looked that made them seem special to me. There was some sort of presence, some spark of life, deep inside the stone. I’d felt it before when I’d touched the statues, and I could sense it now. But instead of filling me with dread like it used to, the fact that the gryphons were watching over me gave me a sense of comfort and peace. As if maybe they really would spring to life and help if something terrible happened here.
    Another cold blast of wind swept across the quad, making me shiver, so I gave the gryphons a small salute, then left the statues behind, hurried up the steps, and headed into the