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Logan, Daphne, and Carson all started talking at once, yelling at nored the off their protests

For awas silent

Then, Linus shook his head and turned to Nicka him to school here that you could keep him out of trouble But apparently, that hasn’t happened"

Nickaan’s uncle on his mom’s side of the family In fact, Nickaan with his black hair and blue eyes

Linus kept staring at hi Logan better than you have"

Anger blazed in the librarian’s eyes, his hands clenched into fists, and he took astep forward, like he wanted to punch Linus I knew the feeling

"Don’t you dare bring Larenta into this," Nickamedes snapped "I still don’t understand what h" Metis stepped forward and put her hand on Nickah Fro to solve anything"

"No, it won’t," Linus agreed "Glad to see you still have that level head on your shoulders, Aurora"

Metis gri his faint couess, she didn’t like Linus any more than Nickamedes did I wondered hat had happened between all of the to do withan enor with the Reapers, and she certainly did not free Loki on purpose"

"Yes, it’s the on purpose part that troubles me the et to the bottom of"

He started to walk over to me, but Metis planted herself in front of hi that you were co to campus Then, you tell me that you’re here to arrest and put one of our students on trial for conspiring with the Reapers," she said, her hands on her hips "You don’t tell me who the student is, but leavewith everyone else"

"So?" he asked "All of those things are within ht as head of the Protectorate You know that, Aurora As for why I didn’t tell you who the student was, it’s come to my attention that you’ve become quitefond of Miss Frost I didn’t want you to do soive her a chance to escape justice"

Metis went coid, and it took her a moment to unclench her jaw "So I want answers," she snapped "Who ainst Gwen? Why? What proof do they have?"

"You’ll find all that out soon enough," Linus said "Now, if you don’t irl so that she doesn’t cause us any more trouble in theto keep arguing, but after a ether and stepped aside There was nothing she could do or say that would get hie his mind I knew it as well as she did

Linus headed over to the table, followed by the others Only Raven re Every once in a while, she would glance in our direction, apparently wondering if the draazine

Linus sat in the chair across froed themselves behind him, while Metis, Nickaht on lasses from a pocket on his shirt He put theray robe This time, he drew out a piece of white parchment, which he unrolled and spread out on the table between us

"Gwendolyn Cassandra Frost," he said, reading froainst the Pantheon, including, but not li with other Reapers of Chaos to kill your fellow students at the Crius Coliseu froer, and er to release Loki froes?"

For a moment, I simply couldn’t speak It was like I’d been sucker punched in the stomach by a Valkyrie, and all the air had been driven out of ain, but no words ca syllable I hadn’t done any of those terrible things-not a single one of them

Sure, I’d been at the coliseun else that had followed had been the doing of Vivian Holler, another second-year Mythos student The Gypsy as Loki’s Chairl who’d ht now, since she’d escaped with Loki the night she’d freed hi Soed to convince the Protectorate that I was to bla she’d done, all the lies she’d told, all the people she’d hurt, all the kids she’d killed I knew Vivian was a good actress, but this was above and beyond even for her Bravo, Viv Another masterful performance

I started to tell Linus all about Vivian, but Metis beat es are utter nonsense," she said "Gwen is not a Reaper The three of us know it, along with Raven, and you would too, if you’d spent any time with her If you’d even bothered to ask us, before you decided to stage that ridiculous display in the a up Metis At her desk, Raven waved her hand, see her azine

"And the Protectorate will decide for itself what the girl is and isn’t, and what she has and hasn’t done," Linus said in his cold, calm voice, the one that infuriated me more and more with every word he spoke "Obviously, the three of you cannot be objective where she’s concerned And neither can h I could al like a storly

"I didn’t do anything wrong," I said, finally finding my voice