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"After we locate the aht to pick theton said "Then, ill rest until dawn and hike back down the mountain Rachel, do you want to say a feords about what everyone can expect on the trip?"

She nodded, got up from her chair, and stepped to the front of the rooerous," Rachel said "It’s about a two-hour hike froe up to the top of the mountain where the ruins are located Now, I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories Locals claiic and curious creatures I’ve never seen anything like that, but we still need to be careful The winter weather has eroded s are always a concern We’ve been lucky in that it hasn’t snowedshouldn’t be too difficult, but there is a stor in We need to be off the mountain before the snow starts"

"So the ruins don’t actually have any ic mumbo jumbo?" I asked "Are you sure?"

Rachel shook her head "Not in the way that you ic they have is whatever is in the soil and rocks that helps the flowers grow and blooic erous"

I stared at the wildflowers I didn’t know about that Yeah, they were just flowers, but I could al froy As I looked at the photo, the petals and leaves startedover them Slowly, all of the flowers turned in ht petals scrunching up into faces that were staring at ht, floral scent that was somehoeet, sharp, and crisp all at the sahts, sounds, and scents vanished My psychoain It was only a photo But ould I feel when I saw the ruins and flowers in person? I didn’t know, but I was going to find out

Covington hit another button, and the photo disappeared Ajax leaned over and hit the lights on the wall

"We will leave at noon toet up the mountain, ree, Rachel?"

She nodded

"I’ton hesitated "I’ood idea From what Ajax has told o, the slower the group will be Besides, ould you want to go anyway?"

She looked at the librarian like the answer should have been obvious "Because there are going to be Reapers there - Reapers that I can kill"

Eyes wide, Covington glanced at Rachel, who sighed

"Rory, you don’t know that Reapers are going to be there," Rachel said

"Of course they’ll be there," I said "We all know this is some sort of Reaper trap That’s why they used the poison in the first place - so we’d have to coet the ambrosia flowers to make the antidote It wouldn’t surprise rona were already at the ruins, waiting for us to show up so they can try to kill us"

The three adults exchanged glances, but they didn’t contradict me We all knew they couldn’t The Reapers had lured us here Now, all we could do was see what sort of trap they had set - and hope we could so about the things we needed to do, e should pack, and the route ould take up the et to the ruins Rachel and Rory didin Alexei also offered so up in Russia Daphne and Carson put their heads together and started whispering, while Oliver once again pulled out his phone and started texting on it

Restless, I got toaround the conference rooryphon carving on the wall I didn’t get the sa vibe from it as I did the ones outside the Library of Antiquities back ho at the carvingthe aton drifted over to uess you could say that What’s with all the gryphons?"

He frowned "What do youand all the others in the rooryphons everywhere on campus On the walls in here, beside the library steps, on top of the rock waterfall in the ate We don’t have nearly this es of them back home"

"Oh," he said "That’s because there are actually nests of gryphons here in theconstructed, the builders were quite inspired by the creatures Even to this day, you can see theh no one knows exactly where they her up on thispeaks"

"Do you have any contact with them?"

He shook his head "No For the h every once in a while, a student or professor out hiking will be attacked by one Rachel should have s to look out for on the erous, vicious, and coht of Nyx I wondered if Covington would think the saerous, vicious creature Maybe she was, but she was my friend too, my family, and I loved her just as much as I did Grandma Frost and the rest of my friends I felt the sah she was dead, murdered by Vivian, just like my moerous the gryphons are," Covington added "Rumor has it, Reapers coryphons to add to the ones already in their service, although I don’t see how the Reapers e to control them"

I kne Nike had told ryphons, Fenrir wolves, and Nemean prowlers a special poison to keep them under control Without the daily dose of the poison, the creatures would die, horribly and painfully, so they were forced to serve the Reapers, even if they ht not want to I wondered if the Reapers used some version of Serket sap for that too

"But Reapers or not, everyone knows that gryphons would just as soon bite your head off as look at you," Covington finished

He ryphons were the monsters, instead of the Reapers I didn’t think that was true, but I didn’t say anything else It wasn’t like I’d had a lot of experience with gryphons Maybe they were as dangerous as Covington had said Or maybe they were siical creatures Either way, I doubted that I’d run into any gryphons at the ruins If they were as sht they were, they’d take one look at us and the Reapers ere probably going to ambush us and fly the other way as fast as they could