I didn’t know the Valkyrie—didn’t know her at all—but she seemed nice enough. Or at least willing to give me the benefit of the doubt when it came to my parents. It was one thing to trade insults with Ian while we were in the safety of the Bunker. But now that we were getting ready to leave the academy, anything could happen, and I wanted to know what kind of people were going to be watching my back.
“Can I ask you something?” I said. “About…Ian?”
Zoe kept staring at the gadgets. “You mean why he’s been so snarky to you?”
“Yeah. What’s his problem? He doesn’t even know me, and he already hates me.”
“Maybe that’s because you remind him of himself.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
Zoe glanced around the armory, as if making sure that we were still alone, then looked at me again. “Ian’s family, the Hunters, are a big deal in the Protectorate. Like almost as big a deal as the Quinns. His entire family, they’ve all been members of the Protectorate going back I don’t know how many generations, including his mom and dad. His parents…well, let’s just say they aren’t the best. All they do, all they really care about, is traveling all over the world on Protectorate missions. So it was pretty much just Ian and his older brother, Drake, growing up together.”
“So?” I asked. “What does that have to do with me?”
“So Ian absolutely adored Drake. Loved and looked up to his big brother more than anyone else. We’re talking some serious hero worship here, especially when Drake graduated with honors from the New York academy and went to work for the Protectorate.”
I sighed. “Let me guess. A group of Reapers killed Drake, and now Ian hates all Reapers as a result.”
“If only it were that simple.” Zoe glanced around again, making sure that we were still alone. “It turned out that Drake was secretly a Reaper—and that he had been a Reaper for years.”
My eyes widened. “No way.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So what happened?” I asked, totally caught up in her story.
“Well, since Drake was a rookie member of the Protectorate, he was assigned to guard some weapons, armor, and artifacts that were being stored at a warehouse near the New York academy. But after the battle in North Carolina, stuff started disappearing from the warehouse. Takeda got suspicious, since no one but Protectorate members are supposed to know where the warehouse is. I don’t know how, but he realized that Drake was the one leaking information to the Reapers, so he set a trap for him. Takeda told Drake about a shipment of artifacts coming to the warehouse, then sat back and waited for Drake and the other Reapers to try to steal the artifacts. Takeda wanted to catch and arrest all the Reapers at the same time, including Drake.” Zoe bit her lip, stopping her story.
“What happened?” I asked. “What went wrong?”
“Drake bought Ian along to the warehouse the night of the Protectorate raid. Ian didn’t realize that they were meeting a bunch of Reapers, but Drake finally told Ian that he was a Reaper and he wanted Ian to join them. As you can imagine, Ian didn’t take that well.”
No, that wasn’t the kind of thing you took well. That was something that shattered your heart in an instant and made you question everything you thought you knew about the people you loved.
Zoe shook her head. “Ian was absolutely devastated. But that’s not even the worst part.”
“What was that?”
“Drake told Ian to either join the Reapers or die,” she said. “Of course Ian refused, but Drake attacked him. Ian didn’t have a choice. He defended himself, and he stabbed Drake in the chest.”
I sucked in a horrified breath. So that was why Ian hated Reapers and everything to do with them—he had been forced to fight his own Reaper brother. I had thought that finding out about my parents was bad, but this was worse—so much worse. At least my parents had never tried to force me to join the Reapers. They had never attacked me, and they had never made me choose between my life and theirs.
“Ian left to get help for Drake, but one of the Reapers set off some sort of bomb,” Zoe continued in a sad voice. “The warehouse exploded. Ian got out, but Drake didn’t. He’s still buried somewhere in the rubble.”
“Poor Ian,” I whispered.
“Yeah. You can say that again.”
We fell silent, each of us lost in our own thoughts.
“Look,” Zoe said. “Ian is a really great guy. Ian, Mateo, and me—we’ve all been friends for years. Ian and I lived next door to each other in New York. When he wasn’t with Drake, Ian was hanging out at my house. He’s like the brother I never had, and he’s always watched out for me.”
“But?”
She let out a breath. “But finding out the truth about Drake almost destroyed him. So when Linus Quinn and Takeda put together the Midgard, Ian was the first one to volunteer. Ian thinks that if he stops Sisyphus and these new Reapers, he can somehow make up for not seeing the truth about Drake.”
I shifted on my feet. Just like I wanted to make up for my parents’ evil actions. Ian Hunter and I were far more alike than I would have thought possible.
“Mateo and I just joined the team to keep Ian from doing something stupid, like getting himself killed.” Zoe sighed. “But Amanda was the one who died instead.”
Guilt and grief flashed in her hazel eyes, and blue sparks of magic fizzed in the air around her before slowly winking out one by one.
“Amanda’s death wasn’t your fault,” I said. “If it was anyone’s fault, then it was mine for not confronting the Reaper as soon as I spotted him in the library. But none of us realized that the Reaper was going to summon those chimeras. And you said yourself that Amanda went into the library without waiting for backup.”
“I know that, but I still feel guilty.” Her face twisted with regret. “Although it’s not like I could have helped Amanda against the chimeras.”
I felt guilty too, but I wondered at her words. “What do you mean? You’re a Valkyrie.”
Zoe let out a bitter laugh. “And Valkyries are supposed to be these great, amazing, superstrong fighters, right? Well, guess what? That particular magic skipped right over me.”
She waved her hand, causing more blue sparks to streak out of her fingertips. “I’m not any stronger than you are, Rory. In fact, I’m probably not as strong, given how short I am. I’m not a great fighter either. Not like you are. The only reason I’m here is to watch Ian’s and Mateo’s backs.”
She sighed and waggled her fingers again, watching the shower of sparks. Zoe glared at the flashing lights, then snapped her hand into a tight fist, snuffing them all out.
“Anyway, we need to get going. The others are probably waiting on us.”
She gave me a grim smile, then left the armory. But I stayed where I was, thinking about everything she’d said.
My hand crept to my charm bracelet, and I opened the heart locket, staring at the photo of me with my parents. That was the last happy moment I remembered having with them before they were killed. I wondered what Ian’s last happy moment with his brother had been.
Sympathy surged through me, softening my anger and annoyance at the Viking. Ian didn’t hate me because my parents had been Reapers—he hated himself for what he’d been forced to do to his brother. Because Drake had died and he had lived. I was a reminder of his own guilt, grief, and heartache.
Still, just because I felt sorry for the Viking didn’t mean I was going to let him take his emotions out on me. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and tonight I was going to show him that. I was going to show Ian and the others that I could be a part of the team and help them stop the Reapers—for good.
Chapter Twelve
I left the armory and went back to the briefing room, where the others were waiting. Takeda nodded at me, while Zoe and Mateo both gave me encouraging smiles. Ian ignored me, and I did the same to him.
“Let’s move,” Takeda said. “We need to get to the party before the Reapers show up.”
/> Takeda led us to the back of the Bunker to the door marked Stairs that I’d noticed on my tour earlier. But instead of opening the door and climbing up the stairs, he went over to a bookcase along the wall and pressed a button on the side of it. A green light flashed, scanning his thumb, and the wooden case creaked back, revealing a stone passageway.
“Another secret entrance? One that’s really a secret tunnel that leads to yet another secret entrance on the other end?” I brightened. “Awesome!”
Gwen had her comic books, but there was nothing I loved more than a good mystery. Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes. I devoured those kinds of books, along with all the movies and TV shows. And you couldn’t have a proper mystery without secret passageways, hidden compartments, and the like.
Mateo grinned, picking up on my excitement. “No spy lair is complete without one, right?”
I grinned back at him. “Right.”
We stepped into the tunnel, and the bookcase swung shut behind us. Lights clicked on in the stone ceiling, and then we started walking, walking, walking.
About fifty feet in, a tunnel branched off to our right. Then, fifty feet later, another tunnel branched off to our left. Given their placement, I was guessing that those tunnels led to the student dorms and some of the other outbuildings.
Eventually, we reached what looked like the heart of the underground labyrinth, with tunnels branching off in five different directions. Unless I was mistaken, these passageways led to the other buildings on the main quad. I eagerly peered down each of them, trying to figure out which one went where, but the other corridors remained dark. I would have to come back down here one day and explore all the secret entrances and exits for myself.
We kept going. We weren’t in the tunnel for more than a few minutes, but it seemed much longer than that before we reached another door at the far end. Takeda opened it with his thumbprint, and we stepped into a basement office crammed full of free weights, exercise balls, yoga mats, and other fitness equipment. Coach Takeda glimmered on a gold nameplate on the desk in the corner.
“No wonder you’re the new gym coach,” I said.
Takeda gave me a small smile and led us through his office, up some steps, and out a side door that opened up into the parking lot on the back side of the gym. A single van was sitting in the lot, with the words Pork Pit Catering on the side. Not very incognito as far as spy vehicles went, but I supposed it was a little less conspicuous than something that had Property of the Protectorate painted on it. Takeda slid into the driver’s seat, while Ian, Zoe, Mateo, and I climbed into the back.
This wasn’t any old van. A large desk was bolted to one wall, along with several monitors, laptops, and other computer equipment. A shelf clung to the opposite wall, crammed full of swords, staffs, hammers, pliers, walkie-talkies, and other odds and ends. Mateo plopped down in a chair in front of the desk. Zoe sat in the chair next to him, and Ian and I took seats across from each other in the very back of the van.
No one spoke on the ride over to Lance Fuller’s house, although Takeda tuned the radio to a classical station and started humming along with the music. Thirty minutes later, he steered the van into a ritzy subdivision and pulled over to the curb.
“We’re down the street from the Fuller mansion.” Takeda twisted around in his seat. “Mateo, you’re up.”
Mateo rubbed his hands together in anticipation, then grinned, leaned over one of the laptops, and got to work. “Come to Papa.”
Mateo had impressive speed, even for a Roman, and his fingers flew over the keyboard in a quick, staccato rhythm, as though he were playing an elaborate piano concerto. Less than a minute later, images popped up on the monitors, showing different views of the mansion. The party was already going strong, with dozens of kids talking, laughing, drinking, and dancing inside the mansion and around one of the heated outdoor pools.
Mateo kept typing, his gaze locked on the monitors. “I’m in the security system. I can see and track you guys through most of the mansion, although it looks like several rooms don’t have cameras covering them.”
Takeda nodded. “Zoe, time for comms.”
Zoe pulled the glass case out of her purse and passed out an earbud to everyone. We all wiggled the devices into our ears. Mateo hit some more buttons on his laptop, then leaned forward and spoke into a microphone on the desk.
“Wakey-wakey, guys.” His voice echoed in my ear, along with his gleeful snicker.
“Yeah, yeah, we’re awake,” Zoe muttered. “Why do you have to say the same stupid thing every single time we use comms?”
Mateo grinned at her. “Just to drive you crazy.”
She rolled her eyes, leaned over, and punched him in the arm, causing blue sparks to flicker around both of them. Mateo snickered again.
“Everyone good on weapons?” Takeda asked.
Zoe patted her blue bag. “Electrodagger in my purse.”
“I’ve got a dagger tucked into the side of my boot,” Ian said.
I tapped my finger on Babs’s hilt, since the sword was still belted to my waist. “I’m good too.”
Takeda nodded. He slid out of the driver’s seat, came around, and opened the back door, and Ian, Zoe, and I got out of the van.
“Be careful,” Takeda said, looking at each of us in turn. “A couple of Protectorate guards who have been following Lance around campus are stationed outside the mansion, and a full team of guards will be here soon in case we need backup, but we don’t know how many Reapers might show up tonight or might already be inside the mansion. Remember, they could be regular kids, just like you guys. So get in, find the chimera scepter, and get out. Good luck.”
We all nodded back to him. Takeda climbed inside the van with Mateo and shut the door behind them. That left me standing in the street with Ian and Zoe. We all looked at each other.
“Let’s get this over with,” Ian said.
For once, I didn’t argue with him. Together, the three of us stepped onto the sidewalk and headed toward the Fuller mansion.
* * *
Lance’s party was definitely the place to be tonight. Luxury cars and SUVs lined both sides of the street in front of the mansion, and every single light in the house seemed to be on. It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet, the party’s official start time, but the Mythos kids had kicked things off early, given the loud, thumping music that reverberated up and down the street.
We left the sidewalk and hiked up the cobblestone driveway to the mansion. The front door was standing wide open, so we stepped inside.
People were already packed inside the large living room that took up the front of the mansion, talking, laughing, and dancing. Kids stood two and three deep in front of a glass table along the wall, passing soda and beer bottles back and forth and pouring the fizzing and foaming liquids into their plastic cups. Still more kids trailed along behind a couple of guys who were rolling an enormous beer keg along the floor, heading toward the kitchen so they could tap it. Some folks had even started smoking, and the harsh stench of cigarettes made me want to sneeze.
“Come on,” Ian said over the din. “Let’s find Lance.”
Zoe and I nodded, and together the three of us moved deeper into the mansion.
It was a massive house, three stories tall, with room after spacious room. At least, the rooms would have been spacious if so many people weren’t crammed inside. Mateo had been right. It looked like Lance had invited every single kid at Mythos to his party, and they were all determined to kick off the school year with a loud, drunken bang.
Zoe grinned and started shimmying to the music, but Ian winced, looking as pained, uncomfortable, and out of place as I felt. Something else we had in common. He caught me staring at him and shrugged. I shrugged back. I had never understood why people thought that the louder you turned up your music, the better time you would have. I actually liked to listen to music, not have it burst my eardrums.
“Where do we start?” I asked, almost having to yell at Ian to g
et him to hear me, even though I was standing right beside him.
“In the kitchen!” he yelled back. “That’s where Mateo says Lance is.”
I hadn’t heard Mateo say anything through my earbud, but that wasn’t surprising, given how insanely loud it was in here. I gave Ian a thumbs-up, telling him I understood, and pointed toward the kitchen. The three of us fell into step behind the kids following the beer keg. It was slow going, but we finally made it into the kitchen. It was actually a little less crowded in here, since the room had a set of double doors that opened onto a stone patio. Outside, kids shrieked and splashed in one of the heated swimming pools.
Ian, Zoe, and I moved over to the corner of the room, out of the way of the crowd gathering around the beer keg.
“Now what?” Zoe said.
Ian glanced around. “Now we find Lance—”
“Rory! Hey, Rory! Over here!” Someone shouted my name over the music.
I turned around. From the opposite side of the kitchen, Lance waved at me.
Ian leaned down. “You keep him distracted. Zoe and I will start searching for the chimera scepter. As soon as we find it, we’ll let you know, and then the three of us will get out of here.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Ian nodded at me, for once completely serious and without a trace of his usual hostility. I nodded back. He and Zoe disappeared into the crowd, and I plastered a smile on my face and started threading my way over to Lance.
“Hey! Great party!” I called out when I reached him.
Lance grinned. “Thanks!” He pointed at the guys tapping the beer keg in the kitchen sink. “You want some?”
I shook my head. “Nah. I don’t drink.”
I never drank. Alcohol dulled the senses, something that could be fatal for warriors. Especially in a place like this, where I didn’t know who was a friend—and who might secretly be a Reaper.
Lance put down his plastic cup and pointed to a set of stairs at the far end of the kitchen. “You want to go somewhere a little quieter and talk?”