Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep Read Free Book Online Page B

art, certainly, but not high-end, magically powerful artifacts and especially not weapons.”
    “Maybe this will help.” I used the edge of my hoodie sleeve to pull the white square of paper out of my jeans pocket. “The Reaper girl dropped this while we were fighting. I haven’t touched it yet so I don’t know what kind of vibes might be attached to it. After—after what happened today, I don’t know that I want to touch it.”
    Metis, Ajax, and Nickamedes looked at each other, then Metis stepped forward and took the paper from me. Carson got to his feet, and she spread it out on the desk where he’d been sitting. We all gathered around and stared at the paper.
    It had been folded several times and almost covered the entire desk by the time Metis finished spreading it out and smoothing down the edges. The paper featured a detailed map of—of something. I couldn’t tell what, exactly. Something with a dome, judging by the round shape in the top left corner of the map. Small Xs had been drawn all over the paper in what looked like random positions. There was no pattern to the marks that I could see. All put together, it looked like squiggly gibberish. What was so important about this that the Reaper girl had almost let me take her head off rather than leave it behind?
    Ajax let out a curse and turned away from the paper. Metis sighed and rubbed her head, as though it was suddenly aching. Nickamedes stayed where he was, though, still staring down at the paper, a thoughtful look on his face.
    “What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
    “It’s a map,” Nickamedes said.
    I rolled my eyes. Well, yeah, I could see that. But a map of what? Where? And why was it so important?
    As if hearing my snide thoughts, the librarian looked up at me. “It’s a map of the Library of Antiquities.”
    I frowned. “The library? Why would the Reaper girl have a map of the library?”
    Nickamedes kept staring at me, and the answer popped into my head.
    “The library,” I whispered. “The Reapers think the Helheim Dagger is hidden somewhere in the Library of Antiquities.”
    “Apparently so.”
    I looked at Nickamedes. “Well?”
    “Well what?”
    “Well, is it hidden somewhere in there?” I demanded. “Have you known where it was this whole time?”
    My voice got louder and sharper with every word. Logan walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, telling me to take it easy, but too many awful things had happened today for me to do that.
    Nickamedes stiffened, then straightened up to his full height and peered down his nose at me. “I assure you that the dagger is not in the library. I know every inch of the place, and I would have discovered it long ago.”
    “Really? Like you knew that Jasmine Ashton was hiding in a storage room on the fourth floor with the Bowl of Tears last semester?” I sniped. “If I remember right, you thought some anonymous Reaper bad guy had stolen the bowl and smuggled it out of the library. But things didn’t turn out that way, did they?”
    Nickamedes’s cheeks flushed an angry red, and he opened his mouth, ready to argue with me some more. Metis stepped in front of him, putting her hand on his chest.
    “Enough,” she said. “That’s enough, both of you. Bickering among ourselves isn’t going to solve anything. I’m sure Nickamedes is right and that the dagger isn’t hidden in the library. Otherwise, someone would have stumbled across it years ago.”
    “But that’s why the Reapers were here today, isn’t it?” Coach Ajax rumbled in his deep voice. “Because most of the weapons and artifacts on display were on loan from the library. For whatever reason, the Reapers think the dagger is hidden in the library. They must have thought that Nickamedes didn’t recognize it, that maybe it was labeled as something else and he packed it up and brought it to the coliseum to be displayed. At the very least, the Reapers knew they’d have an easier time breaking in here than they would