Page 29 (1/2)

Logan looked at me After a moment, his face softened into a smile once ht then Let’s get you up We still have a long way to go"

I ering even worse than before But there was nothing I could do about that - there was nothing I could do about any of this but keep going forward

So I puthiether, we stu, half-carry Logan another mile down the trail before he passed out Oneas best he could The next, he was facedown in the snow

"Logan? Logan!"

I turned him over and shook his shoulder, but he didn’t respond I bent down and put ainst my skin, and his chest rose and fell with a steady rhyth, still alive

But for how long? It was even colder now than it had been before, and the as howling like a pack of Fenrir wolves Plus, I still hadn’t seen anyplace where we could take shelter froainst all the stupid rocks and trees around us I would have, if I thought that my knuckles wouldn’t crack and bleed and that the tears wouldn’t have frozen on my face and added to my misery

"Nohat are you going to do?" a voice interrupted hts "Because the Spartan is prettyin his scabbard arounddown the otten about the sword, but he was peering at Logan, his purple eye bright against the white wash of snow

I knehat Logan would say if he were still awake - that I should leave hiet off the mountain now, and that I should savehim out here in the cold He’d freeze to death - or bleed out fro, and I needed to figure out soain "You need toto save hih all of the iteive et us down the mountain

Matches, extra clothes, a couple of coranola, a bottle of water Iht noas just about to zip the bag back up when I noticed soile at the very bottom of it - Ran’s net

Desperate, I pulled out the net and held it up Thin strands of gray seaoven together and tied off with a series of tiny, brittle knots It looked even smaller and more pitiful than I re when I thought about what the ID card insaid about the net - and what it claiht to have belonged to Ran, the Norse goddess of storear Despite its fragile appearance, the net is quite strong and can hold iven its relatively sht to have the unusual property of hter than its actual weight

I looked at the net, then at Logan - and I finally got the idea I needed so badly

I closed ain Then, I wrapped the net around Logan At first, I didn’t think there was going to be enough seaweed to cover him, but every time I reached down, there was more and more of the net to use Finally, I looped the last bit of it around his shoulders I propped hi position, wrapped one arm around his waist, and put my shoulder under his Then, I drew in a breath and lifted hihed no more than a couple of dumbbells

"Come on, Spartan," I said "Back on your feet"

"Okay" Logan ain "Okay, I’m up"

Slowly, I started down the trail once , half-hanging offoff his body, but he was hter than before I could at least hobble down themuch, much slower than before Still, every step I took was one that got us closer to the bottooddess was even listening to or interested in an down the trail It ht have been an hour Ti There was just cold and snow and wind and trees More than once, my boots slipped in the snow, and I aled to stop myself before my feet went out fro us in the snow for the fifth ti on the trail ahead ofoff my side like soh the flakes What was that shape up ahead? For a ht be a Reaper, someone who’d been stationed on the back side of the mountain to finish us off if we made it this far down the trail, but the shape didn’t see That was all I could really tell about it Maybe a boulder had fallen across the path, like Rachel had said Well, wouldn’t that just be terrific

I sighed, tightened ed forward once more Maybe it would just be a tree or rock that I could find soet over or around

I’d almost reached the shape - whatever it was - when a sharp, fierce screech cut through the swirl of snow

I froze again I’d lowereddown at the trail, so I had a perfect view of the lion’s paw right in front of , sharp, curved claws that glittered like ebony against the white snow

I sed and slowly raisedover e creature

Lion’s body, eagle head, bronze fur, wings, and eyes The creature looked even larger than the Black roc that Vivian and Agrona had floay on, probably a ain, before linted like ebony, despite the snow

Finally, I raised ht, war snow I stared into the orbs, but I didn’t see any trace of Reaper red in the creature’s eyes So this was a wild gryphon then, and not one the Reapers had caught and forced to serve thes better or worse Because a wild gryphon could kill an as easily as a Reaper-controlled one could Claere still claws, after all

"Crikey," Vic said fro fellow, isn’t he?"