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"How’s Nicka e, according to Kenzie Everything’s quiet there, so far"

I let out a breath Well, at least he hadn’t gotten any worse If everything went according to Ajax’s plan, we’d hike up to the ruins tomorrow Then, the day after that, we’d head back to Mythos, hopefully with the a to Kenzie He started to put the phone away, but it beeped again

"Who is it now?"

Oliver frowned, as if he didn’t like what the screen said this ti"

I wanted to ask if he’d heard froan, but I kept my mouth shut Before we’d left the infirmary, Metis had said that she had already called Linus Quinn and told him what had happened to Nickauards had swept the acaden of Vivian or any other Reapers Still, I couldn’t help worrying that Vivian and Agrona really did have Logan, despite all my friends’ assurances that he was safe with his dad

Oliver typed in another e and put away his phone Silence descended over the car once again, so I stared out theI didn’t knohere ere in relation to Denver, but ray clouds had begun to gather around so in from the west I didn’t see the future like Grand if it was a sign all the sas we had to worry about

We’d been riding for about thirty minutes, when Ajax steered the car off the hway Tenlot that fronted a train station A sign read Snowline Ridge Runner - Tourist trains departing daily The ireen mountain had been carved into the wood, coine

"What are we doing here?" I asked

"The roads up to the acade, and littered with switchbacks," Ajax said "There are dozens of spots along the way that would be the perfect place for an a ducks in any kind of vehicle Metis and I agreed it would be safer if we took the train Lots of Mythos folks use it to get down to Denver and then back up the ain We have a better chance of blending in with the crowd this way, especially since so a weapons tourna"

"That sounds like you and your buses, Gwen," Carson said in a cheery voice

"Yay for public transportation," I said

We got out of the car, grabbed our bags, and headed into the train station The inside was nicer than I expected, with lots of glea alongside the the seats into various sections The walls were ht, varnished wood as the benches, while the floor was an off-whitein it A series of ticket counters took up the back wall, but a wide strip of white marble ran above the s - one that featured dozens of carvings

Many of the figures were the same creatures I walked by on a daily basis at the acadeoyles, chiures depicted too - bears, wolves, buffalo, coyotes, rabbits, porcupines All ten feet tall and frighteningly lifelike, as though they were about to bust out of their stone shells and leap down into the s, I noticed all of the other things I’d iant battle-axes, stood on either side of the water fountains, while a series of paintings of so on the wall beside the doors that led out to the tracks Slassed-in recesses in the walls, all staring out at the passengers who s, the statues, the paintings, the suits of arely coone to Mythos, I hadn’t thought I belonged at the acade part of the s and statues told me I was in my element - so to speak

We had thirty minutes to wait until the train arrived The others pulled out their cell phones and started checking their es, but I wandered over and plucked a brochure out of a rack next to one of the ticket counters I got a vague flash of other people flipping through the pages, but that was all The sort of srabbed the sa it back into its slot on the rack

I scanned through the photos and realized that Snowline Ridge seemed very similar to Cypress Mountain Both suburbs housed a variety of expensive designer shops, coffeehouses, and bookstores The only difference was that Snowline Ridge also featured a high-end ski resort that catered to tourists There was no mention of the acade the infor e of ht at me But when I snapped my head in that direction, all I saas the usual ebb and flow of folksany attention to hed and slid the brochure back into the rack I started to head over to ainst the wall a few feet away She was about lossy black hair was pulled back into a sleek, short ponytail She wore black boots and designer jeans topped by a white turtleneck sweater and a forest-green leather jacket that reenlay on the floor at her feet

She wasn’t the only kid in the station In fact, I spotted several folks who had to be Mythos students, judging from their pricey clothes and expensive jewelry Not to iving off But the regular passengers didn’t notice the cracks and hisses around the blue sparks all over the newspaper the older guy sitting next to her was reading Daphne had told me once that unless you were a warrior, you just couldn’t see the sparks Apparently, so in our ancient warrior DNA let us spot the colorful flashes that regular mortals couldn’t So that hy Daphne and the other Valkyries didn’t worry about giving off ossiping with each other, andwho they were and why they were taking the train Everyone seeh with each other - except when it cairl I’d noticed earlier

The other kids looked at the girl, but nobody approached her and nobody said anything to her Nobody gave her so irl pretended that she couldn’t see the other kids deliberately avoiding her, but her jaas clenched, and her whole body was tense with anger - and pain

She reminded me of, well, me Back when I’d first coirl - the one standing all alone, watching the other kids aroundthat so her and turned her head in irl scowled at me, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked away

She had to be one of the Mythos students going up to Snowline Ridge - I just wondered if she was also a Reaper That ht explain why she seemed to be here by herself Maybe she’d been the only Reaper sent to the station and was busy watchingout with her own

Orby herself That didn’t irl, who kept right on scowling at rowled

I shrugged "Nothing Just killing tio kill it somewhere else Or I’ll make you wish you had"

I raised an eyebrow at her "Really?"

"Yeah Really"