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Chapter 1

Logan Quinn was trying to kil me

The Spartan relentlessly pursued le time I tried to duck around him and run away

Swipe-swipe-swipe

Logan swung his sword ata little closer to le ti-sleeved T-shirt as he smoothly ed up his lips, and his ice blue eyes practical y gloith the thril of battle

I did not gloith the thril of battle Cringe, yes Glow, no

Clang-clang-clang

I brought up an before he separated my head fro whenever his sword hit an stepped forward, the edge of his sword a whisper away fro my throat before I could do otten there to start with

And Logan didn't stop there He snapped his free wrist to one side and knocked ym My sword so point down in one of the thick ym floor

"Dead again, Gypsy girl," Logan said in a soft voice

"That makes twelve kil s in a ro"

I sighed "I know Believe me, I know And I'm not any happier about it than you are"

Logan nodded, dropped the sword from my throat, and stepped back Then he turned and looked over his shoulder at two other Spartan guys ere sprawled across the bleachers, alternately texting on their phones and watching us with bored disinterest

"Tian asked

Kenzie Tanaka hit a button on his phone "Forty-five seconds Up from thirty-five seconds the time before"

"Gwen's lasting a little longer at least," Oliver Hector chi to her aweso skil s"

My face flushed at his snide tone Okay, so -sleeved superhero shirt thisme a little luck, which I seriously needed when it caht But he didn't have to mock me about it, especial y not in front of the others

Oliver grinned and save him a dirty look

Kenzie looked at the other Spartan "I think it's cool that Gwen likes superheroes"

Oliver frowned He didn't like Kenzie sticking up forelse I didn't knohat Oliver's deal was, but he always seeht he was being charuys at Mythos Academy were like that

-they thought being total jerks was super-cool Whatever I had zero interest in the Spartan that way Oh, Oliver was cute enough with his sandy blond hair, forest green eyes, bronze skin, and lazy grin So was Kenzie, with that glossy black hair and those dark eyes Not to mention the obvious th that was so evident in their bodies The only problean Quinn

Logan was the one that I was interested in-even if he had already broken my heart back in the fal

Thinking about an soured rumpy mood, and I stalked across the mats toward my sword

The gyular one, with a ceiling that soared several hundred feet above ht banners , archery, swiled from the rafters, while wooden bleachers jutted out fro the basketbal court froht

But then there were the weapons

Racks and racks of theh, there was a ladder attached to one side to get to the weapons on the top roords, daggers, staffs, spears, bows, and quivers ful of curved, wicked-looking arrows Al of them razor sharp and ready to be picked up and used by the students,off their proith the sharp, pointed edges

The weapons were one of the ways in which Mythos Acade but normal

I reached forfro the sword out of thea narrowed, angry eye

"Another bloody defeat," Viceven more bite to his British accent "Gwen Frost, you couldn't kil a Reaper to save your bloody life" I narrowed e to shut up already before Logan and the others heard hi sword I didn't want to advertise a lot of things about myself Not at Mythos

For his part, Vic glared right back at me, his eye a curious color that was soray Vic wasn't alive, not exactly, but I'd coh sword-a long blade made out of silver metal But what made the sword seem, wel , human to me was the fact that the hilt was shaped like half of a man's face, co eye Al put together, it looked like a real person had somehow been encased there in the silver hilt It al added up to Vic, whatever or whoever he real y was

Wel , that and his bloodthirsty attitude Vic wanted to kil things-Reapers, specifical y Until we're both bathed in their blood and hungry for more! he'd crowed towith him

Please The only things I could kil with ease were bugs

And even then only the tiny ones The big ones crunched toothe sauys, was totally out of the question

"What are you going to do when a real Reaper attacks you?"

Vic demanded "Run away and hope he doesn't chase after you?"

Actual y, that sounded like an excel ent plan to an, Kenzie, or Oliver, since the guys were al Spartans, descended fros was as natural as breathing to them

It hat they'd been trained to do since birth, along with al the other kids at the academy

For the s or Roirls were Valkyries or Amazons But tons of other ancient warrior types attended the academy, everyone from Samurais and Ninjas, to Celts, to the Spartans in front of me