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Sergei let out a huff of air, but he didn’t say anything else Inari put a hand on his shoulder, silently signaling his friend to take it easy Agrona stood next to theh her beautiful features were pinched together in thought, and she kept toying with her necklace, rubbing the gold chain between her fingers

Linus swung his gaze back toto deflect suspicion from yourself, Miss Frost Steal away from Alexei and then raise the supposed alar Maybe the reason they didn’t raise any alarms was because you let theot aith the artifacts was because that was your plan all along"

"My plan?" I said, ry as his "My plan was just to stay alive and helpelse Despite what you think, I’ to stop theiven the evidence we’ve collected"

His words made my stomach torry, but I forced an stepped closer to ers touchedaway everything else I flashed hiered on our linked hands a ht Let’s round up the others and go over it all again You too, Logan I want to hear what you saell Co out around hiei, Alexei, and Metis followed hian looked at me, a question in his eyes

"It’s okay," I said "Go ahead"

Logan nodded and hurried after the others, leaving rona in front of the sold necklace another h her fingers

"I’m sorry about my husband," she said in a soft voice "He’s under a lot of pressure now that Loki is free Plus, he and Logan have adifficult relationship They always have"

She sain by just how very beautiful she was I wondered what she saw in a mental and cold to everyone around hirona added "I was resting when Linus got the call about the attack, but he dropped everything to coht up with him before he left"

I nodded Maybe Linus really did care about Logan, but I thought he had a strange way of showing it-or rather not showing it Or maybe I just didn’t like his he’d said about ave me another sad smile and went to join the others

I looked at the sain why the Reaper would take a keepsake box instead of so that could be used to hurt another person I crouched down a sticking out from under the bookshelf, and I realized it was the velvet stand that the box had been sitting on I reh the warrior had been wearing gloves at the time Still, maybe I could use my psychometry to see why the Reaper had wanted the box so badly I leaned forward and stretched outmoved off to my left My eyes darted that way, and I realized that Inari atching ht he’d left with the others but apparently not I hadn’t even heard him creep up behind me There were a couple of Ninja students at Mythos, so I knew that stealth was one of the skills they prided the able to slip behind enemy lines undetected and kill Reapers before they even knehat hit them Daphne had also told ic , nolike invisibility, but instead of actually fading into nothingness, Ninjas soround so that other people just sort of looked past the theht

I flashed back to the way the Reapers had h the stacks, especially the leader Despite being trained warriors, neither Oliver nor Alexei had noticed the Reapers creeping closer and closer to the a pretty intense argument at the time Still, I couldn’t help but notice that Inari had the same slender build as the leader had

I didn’t believe in coincidences-not any Reapers of Chaos attack the Library of Antiquities the day after the Protectorate showed up was just a little too convenient Vivian Holler had seeirl at Mythos, but she’d turned out to be Loki’s Champion So it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that one of the Protectorate uise

I dropped my hand to ive hiet a vibe off anything here Instead, I used a piece of wood to slide the velvet stand farther under the bookshelf I’d come back later and touch the stand and the shelves around it and see whatshow of dusting offthe others Inari kept watching h he was one of the statues looking down on me from the second-floor balcony After a few seconds, he fell into step behind me and followed me out into the main part of the library

Apparently, Linus had decided to question Logan first, because he was standing beside his son, with Agrona hovering nearby Froan’s face, I knew they were talking about ei, Nickamedes, Daphne, and Oliver She waved at Inari, and the Ninja moved over to join them I didn’t see Raven anywhere She must have left with the workers and bodies already

That left ht that he would just silently watchall day, but instead, he reached out and touchedht Oliver’s too If you hadn’t warned us when you did"

"It was nothing"

"It wasn’t nothing," he protested "My first assignment from the Protectorate, and I let myself bedistracted by Oliver when I was supposed to be watching you I failed the Protectorate, and I failed my father"

"Your dad seems okay with how you handled yourself," I said "Besides, everyone antic ones recently You know, getting tricked into finding the Helhei the entire world"

I winced I’d tried to ht, but even I could hear the darkness into joke about Especially not now

"Yes, but you juht," Alexei said "And you made sure that Oliver and I had the weapons we needed to defend ourselves"

"You would have done the same for me, for any warrior"

He shook his head "I don’t know about that My orders were to watch you-nothing else"

"Is that why you didn’t do anything in the dining hall this uys threw their sodas at me outside the library? Because Linus told you not to interfere?"

He nodded