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He grinned at me. “Time to find the pot of gold at the end of the Protectorate rainbow.” His grin faded away, and a cold light filled his eyes. “Get up and head toward the front of the car. And don’t try anything stupid, or I’ll shove this dagger in your back and watch you bleed out.”
Once again, I didn’t have a choice, so I reached over and grabbed my messenger bag. I slung the strap onto my shoulder, making sure that Vic’s hilt was within easy reach of my right hand. Rosie stood up, stepped out into the aisle, and backed up. Brayden clamped his hand around my upper arm again, then hauled me to my feet.
I glanced around, but the other passengers were busy talking, admiring the scenery, and taking photos with their phones and cameras. Rosie gave me a cold look, her hand darting into her coat and curling around the hilt of the sword belted to her waist. Like Brayden, she wouldn’t hesitate to gut me if I didn’t do exactly as the Reapers commanded.
“Come along, baby,” Brayden crooned for the benefit of anyone listening. “Let’s go see what the view is like from another car.”
Baby? Ugh! I glared at the Reaper. My fingers curled into a tight fist, and I had to resist the urge to punch him in the face.
Brayden smirked at me, then dragged me along the aisle, heading toward the door at the front of the car. Once again, I had no choice but to go along with him, but as soon as I got the chance, I was going to grab Vic and take down Brayden, Rosie, and Winifred—for my friends, and especially for Gin.
With that dark vow beating in my heart, I plastered a smile on my face and let Brayden lead me to his doom.
Brayden forced me through one car after another. They were all filled with people, but no one paid any attention to us. A few times, we had to stop to let other folks move in front of or past us as they returned to their seats, but everyone smiled and nodded, and no one had any idea about how much danger they were in.
We left yet another car behind, and Winifred was waiting on the small platform outside. I glanced around, wondering if I could shove at least one of the Reapers off the train, but a waist-high metal railing lined the platform to prevent things like that from happening. Too bad.
“I just checked,” Winifred called out, raising her voice to be heard over the train’s continued chug-chug-chug. “The baggage car is empty. Follow me.”
She turned around, opened the door on the next car, and stepped through to the other side. Brayden tightened his grip on my arm and dragged me along behind him. Rosie followed us, then closed and locked the door behind her.
A wide aisle ran down the center of the baggage car, and metal shelves lined the walls, stretching from the floor up to the low ceiling. Several suitcases of various shapes, sizes, and colors were sitting on the shelves, and a couple of open cardboard boxes containing packs of cheese crackers, bags of trail mix, and cartons of soft drinks were squatting next to each other on the floor.
My gaze skipped past the suitcases and snacks and landed on the wooden crates nestled together on the shelves near the center of the car. Each crate featured a large symbol stenciled in black—two gryphons sitting side by side, just like the statues that perched on the steps outside the Library of Antiquities on the Mythos campus. My heart sank. I’d hoped the Reapers might at least have to search through the luggage for the artifacts, but the crates might as well have had Property of Mythos Academy painted on them in big, bold letters.
Brayden let out a loud whoop of excitement, then dropped my arm and hurried toward the crates like a Nemean prowler bounding straight toward a rabbit. Winifred also hurried forward, although Rosie remained behind me, her hand still on her sword, blocking the exit.
I reached out and took hold of one of the metal shelves, as though I was using it to steady myself against the train’s rocking motion. Rosie kept staring at me, still wary and suspicious. I sighed and dropped my head, as though I was utterly defeated, although I kept watching her out of the corner of my eye.
Rosie stared at me a few more seconds, then shifted her focus over to Winifred and Brayden. The second she was distracted, I discreetly brought up my right hand and curled it around Vic’s hilt. For once, the talking sword was silent, although he vibrated slightly against my fingers, telling me he was ready to strike whenever I was.
Winifred tried—and failed—to pry the lid off one of the crates. “Help me with this.”
“You got it,” Brayden replied.
He yanked his sword out from underneath his long black coat, then wedged the blade underneath the lid. It took him a few tries, but eventually, he tore the lid off with a long, harsh screech.
Winifred grabbed the wooden slab and set it aside, and then both she and Brayden leaned forward, staring down into the crate. A couple of weapons were nestled inside the shredded brown packing material, along with a few other objects.
“The Sword of Eris, the Scroll of Seshat, the Arrows of Osiris . . .” Brayden’s voice trailed off as he picked up first one item, then another, and set them all back down inside the crate. “Yep, these are some of the goodies we stole from the Crius Coliseum. And lucky for us, they’re the more powerful and valuable artifacts, along with Minerva’s Dagger, of course.”
Brayden grinned, yanked the dagger out of his coat pocket, and flashed it at Winifred, who grinned back at him. Apparently, getting her hands on valuable artifacts made her much more agreeable. Rosie grinned as well, although she still had her hand on her sword, just like I did.
Winifred’s grin widened. “Now that we’ve found the artifacts, all we have to do is stay in here until we reach Cypress Mountain. Then we’ll grab as many artifacts as we can carry and slip away from the train station. We’ll be long gone before the Protectorate even realizes what’s happened—”
The train lurched, as though the engine was suddenly having trouble dragging the rest of the cars along behind it. Winifred and Brayden both stumbled around, since they weren’t holding on to one of the shelves like I was. So did Rosie, who was still guarding me.
The second the Reaper staggered away from me, I yanked Vic free and let my messenger bag fall to the floor. Then I raised the sword high and whirled around. The train lurched again, and I let the momentum carry me all the way over to Rosie, who was now standing in the very back of the car, right in front of the door. Her eyes widened at my approach, and she dropped her gaze, trying to yank her own sword free from its scabbard.
Too late.
I swung Vic out in a vicious arc and slashed his blade across Rosie’s chest, making her scream and stagger backward. She slammed into the door, and her head hit the metal with a loud, sickening crack. Rosie’s scream abruptly cut off, and she slumped to the floor, blood rapidly pooling underneath her body.
“Yeah!” Vic said, his mouth moving underneath my palm. “Take that, Reaper scum!”
Rosie wasn’t getting up again, so I whirled around, facing the front of the car again. Brayden and Winifred had both regained their balance. Brayden was still holding Minerva’s Dagger, while Winifred was clutching the Sword of Eris, which had belonged to the Greek goddess of discord and strife. The sword greatly increased the strength of whoever wielded it.
The two Reaper siblings grinned at each other, then brandished their blades at me. I didn’t need to touch them or use my psychometry magic to realize they were looking forward to hurting me.
