Crimson Frost Read Free Page A

in the grate. The stones felt warm against my back through my clothes. Normally, the sensation would have been a pleasant one, but right now it told me that I had nowhere to go—and no hope of escape.
    I looked past the men at the other Mythos students, my eyes going from one face to another, hoping that at least one of them would come to my rescue—or just stand up and ask what was going on. But the other kids seemed just as stunned as I felt, and even Kenzie and Talia, whom I counted among my friends, remained frozen in their seats. Whoever the men were, the students seemed to know all about them—and they didn’t dare interfere with them and whatever they were going to do to me.
    Everyone except Helena, that is. The Amazon pulled her cell phone out of her purse, and I thought she might actually call for help. But instead, she held her phone up and snapped a few photos of me and the men. Then she bent down over the small screen, sending the pictures as fast as her fingers could text. The smirk on her pretty face told me that she was obviously enjoying this, whatever exactly this was.
    Desperate, I raised the napkin holder, wondering if I could somehow distract the men with it long enough to shove my way past them and run out of the shop. Somehow, I didn’t think that would work, especially since I kept getting glimpses of the swords strapped to their waists beneath the billowing folds of their robes.
    “What are you going to do with that?” the short man asked, his words colored by a Russian accent. “It’s not very practical, as far as weapons go. You should have brought your sword with you. I hear it’s a fine weapon.”
    Vic? He knew about Vic? How?
    “Come on, Sergei,” the leader said in an impatient tone. “Let’s get on with it.”
    “In a moment, Linus,” Sergei, the short man, replied. “There’s no use frightening and confusing the girl any more than you already have. We’re supposed to be civilized about these things, remember?”
    Sergei winked at me, his hazel eyes sly and almost merry in his tan face.
    “Well, I agree with Linus,” the third, thin man said. “We have a schedule to keep.”
    “Bah,” Sergei said, waving his hand. “We should be able to make our own schedules, don’t you think, Inari?”
    Inari shrugged his slender shoulders. “We go where we’re told, just like we always do.”
    “Sergei,” Linus said, a clear warning in his voice.
    He sighed. “Very well.”
    Sergei stepped forward and held out his hand, reaching for me. I tightened my grip on the napkin holder and edged away from him that much more, backing myself into the corner. I wasn’t going anywhere with these men without a fight—
    “Dad? What are you doing here?” a familiar voice called out.
    Logan let the bathroom door close behind him and moved over to stand next to Linus, the leader.
    “Sergei? Inari?” Logan asked, echoing the men’s names. “What’s going on?”
    The Spartan looked surprised to see the three men, but unlike the other people in the shop, he didn’t seem frightened by them. Then again, Logan wasn’t scared of anything. Not Nemean prowlers, not murderous Reapers, not even my magic and the fact that I’d killed another guy with it. Nothing ever rattled the Spartan, not even the sudden appearance of three mystery men wearing creepy robes.
    Logan obviously knew the men, knew exactly who they were, but that didn’t ease my mind. Not at all. If anything, it only added to my tension, especially since he’d called one of them Dad .
    And the men knew Logan too, enough to greet him. Sergei gave him a hearty slap on the back, while Inari respectfully nodded his head. Linus nodded his head as well, although his posture was still stiff, and his face remained cold. If anything, I could feel his dislike for me increase, as he looked back and forth between me and the Spartan.
    “Logan?” I asked. “Who are these men?”
    “Sergei Sokolov, Inari Sato, and my dad, Linus Quinn.”
    A