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White-hot fury exploded in my heart at everything the Reapers had done—stealing the artifacts, threatening me, and especially killing Gin Blanco. I didn’t care what weapons or magic they had or how much danger I was in. Brayden and Winifred were going to pay for their crimes, even if it was the last thing I ever did. So I tightened my grip on Vic and widened my stance, trying to find better balance and some more stability, given the train’s continued abrupt jerking motions.
“Please.” Brayden sneered at me. “There are two of us and one of you. Face it. Your time is up, Champion. Get ready to die.”
“Actually, you got the odds wrong—again,” a familiar voice drawled.
A shadow detached itself from the wall near the front of the car and stepped out into the light. I gasped, along with Brayden and Winifred.
Gin Blanco snapped off a mock salute to the Reapers, then looked over at me. “Hey, Gwen. Sorry I’m late.”
Chapter Seven
Gin
“How—how are you standing here right now? I shot you,” Winifred growled. “In the chest!”
“Oh, sugar,” I drawled. “It takes more than a bullet to the heart to keep me down for long.”
Her gaze dropped to my chest. “You have on a bulletproof vest?”
“Something like that,” I agreed.
I didn’t bother trying to explain my Stone elemental magic to her. I doubted she’d believe me, especially since no one else had believed anything I’d said so far today.
“How did you get back on the train?” Winifred demanded. “You weren’t on board when we left the old depot. I know you weren’t, because I checked.”
I shrugged. “I grabbed the ladder on the back of the caboose and climbed up to the roof. Fun fact: each car has an access hatch with a nice little window embedded in the ceiling, so it wasn’t too hard for me to move around and keep an eye on things. Once I saw your little group start heading in this direction, I figured you were going toward the baggage car, so I ran across the tops of the other cars and got ahead of you. Then I used another hatch to get down in here.”
I shook my head. “Even on a train, no one ever thinks to secure anything that’s above their heads and out of their line of sight. It’s sad, really. Such a rookie mistake.”
The two Reapers looked at each other like I was speaking gibberish, and a confused look filled Gwen’s face too. Maybe I was weird, talking about easy access points at a time like this, but they had always been some of my favorite things as the Spider. Over the years, I’d managed to sneak into dozens of places I shouldn’t just because someone hadn’t bothered to lock their second-story doors and windows. Or in this case, the access hatches embedded in all the train-car roofs.
“Are you a member of the Protectorate?” Winifred asked, her dark brown eyes narrowing in thought. “Some sort of secret shadow bodyguard for Nike’s Champion?”
An annoyed, exasperated sigh escaped my lips. Why wouldn’t these people just listen? I’d told them time and time again that I was an assassin, but they still didn’t believe me. It was like they were trying to force me to fit into their weird mythological worldview, or whatever it truly was.
“It doesn’t matter who she is,” Brayden snarled. “She’s still going to die, just like Gwen is.”
He stepped forward and brandished a weapon at me.
“Oh,” I purred, a wide grin spreading across my face. “I just adore knives. I have several of my own. Wanna see one?”
I flicked my wrist and palmed the knife hidden up my right sleeve. Brayden sucked in a surprised breath, as did his sister, and uncertainty flickered across both their faces, as if they were just now realizing that I was as big a threat as I claimed to be.
“Who are you?” Winifred demanded.
“Like I said before, I’m the Spider. And I don’t much like it when people threaten my friends.”
Winifred jerked her head at her brother. “You kill the Champion. I’ll handle the assassin.”
He nodded back at her, then turned toward Gwen, who lifted her bloody sword and firmed up her fighting stance. Given the Reaper woman lying on the floor in the back of the car, Gwen Frost could take care of herself. Good to know.
I left Gwen to deal with Brayden and focused all my attention on Winifred again. For a moment, I thought she might pull out the gun she’d shot me with earlier, but instead, she hefted her sword a little higher, then snarled and rushed toward me. Winifred used her dizzying speed to close the distance between us in the blink of an eye, and I barely had time to whip my knife up to defend myself.
Clang!
Her blade crashed into mine, and the force of the blow almost ripped my silverstone knife right out of my hand. Winifred was even stronger than the two Viking Reapers in the old depot. Even more troubling was the fact that her sword was glowing with a bright bronze light, as though the weapon contained some sort of magic that was giving Winifred supernatural strength, as well as enhancing her own already incredible speed.
Gwen and the Reapers had been talking a lot about artifacts, but I’d thought they were just referring to pottery, statues, and other pretty antique decorations. I was finally getting an inkling of what artifacts truly meant—and the enormous power such things possessed.
