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Vic had been around a long, long time, and he had plenty of attitude, especially when it ca people how exceptionally awesoot onhiave Vic a lick on hisSorowled, but he couldn’t keep the smile off his half of a face, and neither could I

Nyx let out another happy growl and licked hiru behind me, and his eye widened

"Geraldine?"

"Vic"

The sword’s gaze swiveled back to loomy expressions on your faces?"

I put Nyx on the floor so she could run around and plopped down onstory"

"Well, I think it’s one we’d both like to hear," Grand that happened, and everything the Protectorate said to you"

"The Protectorate?" Vic said "What are those bloody fools doing here?"

"Apparently, deciding whether I live or die," I mumbled

I told them what had happened at the coffee shop, the amphitheater, and the acadeh Vic’s eye was narrowed in thought His eye was a strange shade, not quite purple, but not quite gray either-ht, that beautiful shade that softened the sky just before nightfall Although there was nothing soft about the sword’s gaze right now The fury in his eye ht as a star

"Those bloody fools," Vic growled again "Sometimes, I don’t think the round fro tone "That’s enough of that kind of talk"

The sword glowered at her a little, but he kept right on gruh heto do?" I asked her "Do you really think they’ll find uilty? That they’ll actually put me in prisonexecute me?" I had to force myself to whisper the last feords

Grandma shook her head "I don’t know, puainst you in the first place If we knew that, I think we’d knoas really going on"

I got tofroot to be some plot by the Reapers But why? To etthe Reapers and being Nike’s Chaoddess chose your faic to She chose you to be her Cha the Protectorate can do about any of that Not one bloody thing"

I thought of the cold way Linus Quinn had looked at me I wasn’t so sure about that, but I didn’t tell the swordabout how he could convince Logan’s dad to drop the charges-while his point was pressed against Linus’s heart Vic was rather bloodthirsty that way One of his favorite things to do was talk about all the Reapers ere going to kill

Nornore Vic’s Reaper rants as best I could, but tonight I thought about the one Reaper I actually wanted to take down-Vivian Holler Once again, I flashed back to that night in the forest when Vivian had cliical bird, and had floith Loki riding behind her I wondered where Vivian was right now According to Metis, the Pantheon hadn’t heard soelse that frustrateda Chae , pulled back the curtain, and stared out one of the picture s My eyes scanned the lawn below, and it took ure He had his back against one of the trees and looked like just another dark shadow in the night If I hadn’t known he was there, I wouldn’t have noticed hiot up and peered out the ell "Is that one of the Protectorate guards?"

"Yeah, his name is Inari Sato"

She nodded "A Ninja I’ve heard of him He’s supposed to be one of the Pantheon’s best warriors and one of the leaders of the Protectorate"

"Yeah, hian’s dad apparently," I sniped and let the curtain fall back into place "There are others ill be guarding ei Sokolov and his son, Alexei He’s a third-year student froan acted like he knew him, and Daphne met him before at so, but she heard the fear and frustration in ently took my hand in hers As always, the warmth of her love washed over me as soon as her skin touchedit drown out everything else, all the bad things that had happened today, and all the bad ones that ht come to be tomorrow

"Don’t worry, pu ork out in the end You’ll see"

Her eyes were e only she could see She was having one of her psychic visions, and I felt this force stir in the air around her-so, and watchful I stayed where I was, still and quiet, and held her hand

"Things will be difficult for a while, but they’ll eventually get better," she htened around both of us for a , before it abruptly faded away altogether Grandma blinked, her eyes cleared, and she was herself oncefrohed and stooped down to pet the wolf pup She didn’t say anything about what she’d seen, and I didn’t ask It was difficult for Grandma to have reliable visions about fas for someone could influence what she saw So she rarely toldthat she didn’t want ht or ht not happen I understood that Grandma wanted me to take my own path in life, but sos that were on the horizon would have been nice

Grandma walked over to iant chocolate chip cookie "How about so some oatmeal raisin cookies for you when Metis called"

Grand so back to the acadeot you a sandwich," she added

She pointed to a white paper bag onabout the Pork Pit, one ofanything tonight, not even cookies

Still, I made myself smile at her "Maybe later"